Just getting started: Point me in the right direction

[Sammy Sands]

Hi all,

Just loaded up Cubase SX on Windows 2000. Just have a few questions:

1. What do you recommend for getting instruments into Cubase? Do you use a surface controller (if so, which one), a mixing board, or do you go straight into the sound card?

2. What do you do about latency? Is there a control for this? I've noticed that when simply hitting the space bar to play or stop the timeline there is a second delay before executing - is this normal? Shouldn't it stop immediately when hitting the spacebar? I have a pretty decent computer (w/ 512 MBs of RAM) so I'm not sure if this is the cause.

Thanks for the nudge in the right direction.

 

[Alejo]

In principle, you need a pre-amp to plug certain devices, such as mics, guitars, bass or anything that is going to give an analogical signal to the sound card and your software. The signal provided by them is so weak that must be amplified. Mixers act like preamps and facilitate a lot of tasks when recording. Obviously you can get preamps for every instrument separately, but makes everything much more expensive. If you decide to buy a Mixer (they can be really really cheap), make sure you buy it with a 48Volts Phantom Power (required for specific mics you may want to plug on it).
The devices that you can plug in directly to the sound card are those related to digital inputs, like MIDI. In order to monitor the MIDI sounds I also recommend you to do it through a Mixer. Again, you need it.

But first of all check what your sound card can do. May be you need to upgrade it.

Regarding to the Latency problem, I tell you that you are probably on the best-documented forum in this planet about this problem. Just type the word on the seach engine and get amazed.

Regards,

Alejo.