Mixing to Laptop/Software to capture...

[suling]

Hello there, a great place for info this site, very informative, back again. I have a laptop, small, not a lot of power, cheap soundcard I'd guess, so not so easy to change as in a PC. Anyway I record traditional acoustic instruments, keyboards, field recordings(from MiniDisc) all onto my 4Track recorder. I then use an Alesis MidiVerb for EFX processing. I recently got a burner to make CD's of my music and it was suggested to me recently to just mixdown to my computer(instead of 4Track mixdown to cassette-to computer from cassette-burn to CD-R). So I am having trouble mixing down from 4Track to computer. I have some free software I use, the Acid 2.0 software is not so great at recording from outside computer(MiniDisc samples sound noisy). Then one called Goldwave(records short samples quite clear, full, longer samples/songs have a bunch of clicks and pops in them, so not so good). Don't know if it's the software, system noise, soundcard, what????. Mixing 4Track to stereo cassette actually sounded much better, surprisingly(something everyone says wouldn't.). So I want to know of any software out there is good at this, collecting sounds through the "Line-In", something I can try, free, read a lot of horror stories on sites of people buying software and finding out it doesn't work or is trash, know of anything out there? Send me a notation.

 

[suling]

Hello, can anyone give me some advice on this? It's very important as it's a driving force of stress(could sounds be attributed to other software running in background also-read on a forum here that a guy said to used Ctrl/Alt/Delete to close everything except Explorer???)?? Help?

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Hey suling,

Its kinda late for me at the moment so I can't give you a full answer, but my guess is that there *is* some background stuff going on with your computer. Windows is full of all kinds of "features" that make computing sooo much easier and digital audio soooo much harder.

Check out this link: Go to section 6- Optimizing.

http://www.tascam.com/support/faq/pc_optimize/index.php

See if any of that stuff is feasible and helps. Also, what are the specs of your computer? Speed? Memory? Harddrive space and speed? Brand and model of computer?

I record with a laptop, too, so I understand some of the challenges involved.

Take care,
Chris

 

[TexRoadkill]

why dont you check out the replies on your other thread with the same question.

 

[suling]

Thanks Chris, I will check out that linkwhen I get time. The computer, about 4 years ago so very, very limited by today's standards, can't do what most people can, tiny, wish I could afford more power, speed, and ROOM!!! 400Mhz, 3.8GB Hard Drive, 64MB RAM, an IBM 390E ThinkPad, see what I mean, small stuff, frustrating. But I got into making music with the other equipment only, no computer, that's why I still use it(now combined with computer), what I got used to. Any other help, info, just chat topics are fine, thank you for the response.

And for TekRoadkill, I will check out the replies to my other threads with the same question, thanks for the aim, didn't know if you were being sarcastic or not(haven't because I was getting no replies), if I am great, you must have put one there maybe.