Introduction and a question.

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JeremyCarnes13

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Hi, I'm Jeremy Carnes, and I'm an EKU student who is a complete virgin regarding home recording.

I've played bass (a Worwick Thumb) for many years, and recently decided that I wanted to record my own album, for fun and to share with friends. I really had no idea where to begin, and all of the programs I looked at were quite expensive, far too much for a college student to afford.

I logged on to Guitar Center and ended up buying a quater inch jack to USB interface called a Stealth Plug CS. It came with a program called Amplitube 3, but no instruction. I also bought a Blue Snowball USB microphone, it plugs into a USB port.

The problem I'm running into, which stems from my larger problem of not really understanding how to use the software I have, is that my Amplitube program doesn't recognize my or at least accept input from my mic unless i switch to DirectX, at which point it starts screaming at me. If I turn up the buffer level, I get an echo and a whine in the background that rises and falls like a wave. It woulda ctually be a really cool efffct if I could control it, but I can't control it. Plus, my program doesn't seem to want to record any input from my mic, and there's a delay that can take up to two seconds.

Basically, what I'm trying to figure out is, what am I doing wrong? I'm not terribly knowledgeable about technology. Also, I downloaded Kristal and it plays a really choppy version of anything I record, like the wav file was physically mangled or something.

I'm a poor college kid, so I'm running all of this on a Dell Inspiron from 2010, running Vista. I won't be able to afford another computer or O/S for at least six months, so please tell me what no cost suggestions are workable given my current restriction.

I know these are all dumb question, but I'm so lost, and this program didn't come with an instruction manual. Please help!
 
I found this in a quick google search...

"Is the Snowball compatible with Windows 7 and Vista?

Snowballs manufactured after July, 2007 (with serial numbers higher than 76-065000) are 7 and Vista compatible. Snowballs with serial numbers lower than this are not Vista compatible."

maybe this has some bearing?
 
I found this in a quick google search...

"Is the Snowball compatible with Windows 7 and Vista?

Snowballs manufactured after July, 2007 (with serial numbers higher than 76-065000) are 7 and Vista compatible. Snowballs with serial numbers lower than this are not Vista compatible."

maybe this has some bearing?

Well, I bought it last week, and the serial number is newer than that. Thank you for the help.

I can get sound through the thing, if I use it in other programs.
 
hmmm....then I have no idea. :o

I can't help ya with all that new fangled compooter stuff cuz I don't use one.
Next thing ya know, they're gonna get rid of cassette tapes.

:D
 
hmmm....then I have no idea. :o

I can't help ya with all that new fangled compooter stuff cuz I don't use one.
Next thing ya know, they're gonna get rid of cassette tapes.

:D

It's mostly an issue with the Amplitube 3 program I'm having. I went on to the website to try and figure out how it works, but I'm pretty lost.

I wish they would have sent an instruction manual with it.
 
Do you have headphones plugged into your computer or are using speakers? The scream you hear is probably feedback if you're using speakers. If you're getting an echoey sound with the mic, it's probably what is called latency (the delay in hearing what the computer is recording, passed back into the playback device.
Although amplitude has a 4-channel built-in recorder, you'd do better to use Audacity, and better still to download Reaper (it'll cost you a mere $60 to register it, but it's free to try out).
Before you buy anything else, do yourself a favor and read all the sticky-ed threads at the top of this section of the forum.
 
Do you have headphones plugged into your computer or are using speakers? The scream you hear is probably feedback if you're using speakers. If you're getting an echoey sound with the mic, it's probably what is called latency (the delay in hearing what the computer is recording, passed back into the playback device.
Although amplitude has a 4-channel built-in recorder, you'd do better to use Audacity, and better still to download Reaper (it'll cost you a mere $60 to register it, but it's free to try out).
Before you buy anything else, do yourself a favor and read all the sticky-ed threads at the top of this section of the forum.

Thank you
 
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