help a brutha out

  • Thread starter Thread starter fat_fleet
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fat_fleet

fat_fleet

Swollen Member
i'm a general newb to computer-based workstations.
i've been playing around with reaper the past week (still just the evaluation license). mostly i've been copying WAVs over from things i did on my standalone and playing with the plug-ins and mix functions.
this morning i tried to record some electric guitar using my Zoom H4n as a USB interface. it sounded really horrible. it was all staticky and switching drivers didn't seem to help (ASIO drivers apparently not available?)
i tried to export my recorded sample as an MP3 so i could post it and maybe get some diagnostic help from the folks on this forum who get such professional-sounding results with this software. i was prompted to download lame_enc.dll (external encoder) and copy the file to "the same directory as REAPER.exe" and restart Reaper to make MP3 encoding possible. i did an explore search for REAPER.exe but no such file exists on my computer. all i have is the Reaper folder in Program Files, containing a file called Reaper, but no REAPER.exe (i checked all the subfolders and tried pasting the lame encoder in the regular reaper directory, no dice).
could this be because i haven't paid for the license yet?
can anyone tell me how to install this encoder?
or why the guitar sounds so crackly through the Zoom?
or if i can expect the same problems from a regular firewire interface (i've been considering buying one)?

i'm running windows 7 64-bit home premium on a dell studio 1555 laptop w/ a t6600 processor and using the 64-bit Reaper.
things like this are why i've resisted computer-recording for so long.
 
ok. browsing past threads in this section and it looks like i'm having the same encoder problem that MrSounds was having and it's likely i just need to download the 64-bit version of the encoder.
when i do this, i will hopefully be able to link to a sound sample so maybe someone can help with my distortion issue...

guess i should check dem reaper forums too, eh?
 
The link doesn't work. Soundclick says no song.

Anyway, there are a couple different stages where things could be going wrong that would be worth looking into.

Are there any Zoom drivers that you need to install? If you're using windows (or mac, presumably, but I don't know macs well), it should have automatically installed something when you first plugged in the Zoom. However, you could still go to Zoom's website and see if there are more recent drivers or if there are ones more compatible with your system. (i.e. it may have installed a 32-bit driver automatically despite you having a 64-bit system.)

Does your USB port work correctly? Real-time audio needs to transfer a lot more data a lot more quickly than a flash drive. You'll need your usb drive working at top effeiciency, and you'll probably want to verify that it's USB 2 and not 1.
On a related note, are you using any USB extension cables or anything? I tried that once, and it gave results similar to what you're describing. Just plug the Zoom in as directly as possible.

Hope that helps!
 
That link just forwarded me to SOundclick's front page.

I wonder if some of your privacy settings are wrong on SC?

Do you have any other real-time devices that you could test out your USB port with? Maybe another interface you could borrow or something similar?
 
eh.
you know, i pretty much jumped the gun on this asking-for-help thing, as i'm still messing around with drivers and stuff (just downloaded asio4all at the suggestion of someone on the cockos forums and haven't retried the Zoom yet)...
i think my problem could just be caused by too many things (my own incompetence for example).
i'm sure my best bet would be to just get a "real" interface (maybe firewire?)
 
the reaper chat is good for this sort of thing too before you get too frustrated. Don't start throwing money at things until you diagnose the problem.

Justin has some Zoom units and loves them, so I'm sure there's a way to get you up and running
 
at this point i'm pretty sure it's because Zoom doesn't have a 64-bit driver yet.
soon to come, though, from what i understand.
 
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