Monitoring while recording...Help please!

[Nico2112]

I'm trying to record directly into cool edit, instead of tracking on my tascam and then transfering the finished wav tracks to cool edit.
I'm testing using my pc's stock soundcard.
I plug in the mic.
Assign the rec and out to my soundcard.
Adjust the recording level.
Record in multitrack view.

The problem I'm getting is the following:

I get signal for the things I'm singing, the waveform shows when I'm singing, BUT I can't hear myself.
Then if I assign track 2, I can hear what I did in the previous track, but still can't hear what I'm recording in track 2.

What am I doing wrong here?

Please get me off the hook.
Any input will be much appreciated.
Cheers!

 

[superspit]

I'm trying to record directly into cool edit, instead of tracking on my tascam and then transfering the finished wav tracks to cool edit.
I'm testing using my pc's stock soundcard.
I plug in the mic.
Assign the rec and out to my soundcard.
Adjust the recording level.
Record in multitrack view.

The problem I'm getting is the following:

I get signal for the things I'm singing, the waveform shows when I'm singing, BUT I can't hear myself.
Then if I assign track 2, I can hear what I did in the previous track, but still can't hear what I'm recording in track 2.

What am I doing wrong here?

Please get me off the hook.
Any input will be much appreciated.
Cheers!

Hi Nico,
if you had two dedicated sound cards (a good quality one for recording, and any standard card for monitoring), and 'assigned' them within CoolEdit's track's accordingly, you will conquer this common problem!! That's the simplest 'hardware' solution, which i have been using for 10 years!!

 

[Nico2112]

Thanks Superspit for your quick response.

So basically what I have to do is to buy another cheap soundcard, and assign the track output to this new one, and plug my monitors to it, and I'll be able to hear what I'm recording?
If so, how will you hear the pre existing tracks playback while recording a new one, if the monitors are pluged into the recording card and not the playback?

Pardon my ignorance, been a tascam portastudio multitracker for a long time now and find this new PC experience a tad difficult

Thanks again for your input!
Cheers!

 

[superspit]

Thanks Superspit for your quick response.

So basically what I have to do is to buy another cheap soundcard, and assign the track output to this new one, and plug my monitors to it, and I'll be able to hear what I'm recording?
If so, how will you hear the pre existing tracks playback while recording a new one, if the monitors are pluged into the recording card and not the playback?

Pardon my ignorance, been a tascam portastudio multitracker for a long time now and find this new PC experience a tad difficult

Thanks again for your input!
Cheers!

I know where you're coming from...it's all cool. We're here to help you.
The answer is very simple....
In multi-track view you can assign which sound cards do what (Playback device, Record Device), in a 'per-track' style.
So, on that basis, you'd have everything you've already recorded assigned to your playback card only, and what you are about to record going only to your record card. This is where it can get tricky,....mixing the amount of overall sound in you headphones/monitor. This is where an external (cheap) mini mixer can come in handy. ie Mix the playback of the card with the recording signal of the other card.....some people find this unneccessary, as long as they can hear the play back.....and that's fine!

Does that all make sense?

PS....your portastudio could be used as a monitoring device too!!!

There are lots of other option, I'm sure others will let you know soon!!
Kindest regards,
Superspit.

 

[superspit]

thankyou for the nice PM.....please let us know how you get on.....it may benefit others in the future!!
Regards,
Superspit.

 

[danny.guitar]

Maybe I'm not understanding correctly, but...

There should be no reason you can't hear yourself while recording a track.

It's good to have a pair of headphones while tracking, because if you played it back through your monitors while recording, they would get recorded to.

You should check your volume settings in the Windows Volume Control Mixer (at the bottom right corner of the screen).

Make sure Line In isn't muted (Or Mic In, if that's the port you're using).

You should now be able to hear what you're playing/singing while you're recording.

 

[superspit]

Maybe I'm not understanding correctly, but...

There should be no reason you can't hear yourself while recording a track.

It's good to have a pair of headphones while tracking, because if you played it back through your monitors while recording, they would get recorded to.

You should check your volume settings in the Windows Volume Control Mixer (at the bottom right corner of the screen).

Make sure Line In isn't muted (Or Mic In, if that's the port you're using).

You should now be able to hear what you're playing/singing while you're recording.

Hi DG,
I guess this has been more of a "'how to set-up CEP for monitoring/multitracking" ........type post.
He'll work it out from there.
Regards,
Spit.

 

[Adam P]

I'm fairly certain that CEP has no way to monitor what you're tracking. You'd have to use your soundcard/interface's routing software for this.

 

[superspit]

I'm fairly certain that CEP has no way to monitor what you're tracking. You'd have to use your soundcard/interface's routing software for this.

CORRECT!!!!....hence my advice to Nico.

 

[danny.guitar]

I'm fairly certain that CEP has no way to monitor what you're tracking. You'd have to use your soundcard/interface's routing software for this.

Hence my response to use the soundcard's mixer.

I just saw that he was under the impression he needs 2 soundcards to record/hear what he's recording at the same time.

I didn't want him to have to buy another card for no reason... :/

 

[Adam P]

CORRECT!!!!....hence my advice to Nico.

Ohhh yeah...I read your post and thought it was the OP for some reason. Anyways, yeah what they said and I echoed!

 

[superspit]

Ohhh yeah...I read your post and thought it was the OP for some reason. Anyways, yeah what they said and I echoed!

sorry....didn't understand your last post.?

 

[superspit]

Hence my response to use the soundcard's mixer.

I just saw that he was under the impression he needs 2 soundcards to record/hear what he's recording at the same time.

I didn't want him to have to buy another card for no reason... :/

yeah....cool.
i could never use cep with just the one card, then again, i use an external mixer to record/pb everything on seperate channels.
Maybe you could explain to nic the 'duplex' system on soundcards...i just don't have the skill/time right now.
Thanx....
superspit.

 

[danny.guitar]

Yea I forgot to mention you'll need a full duplex card, one that can record/monitor at the same time. I believe most modern soundcards are like this. My old, crappy, onboard soundcard was like this, and also the SoundBlaster cards are this way too.

All you have to do is open the Windows Volume mixer by double-clicking the small icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.

I attached a screenshot of what it looks like on my computer. It may look different on yours if you're not using Windows XP.

Once you have this open, unmute Line In, or whatever source you are recording from.

 

[sikter]

I am totally agreed with danny.guitar. It is not necessarily with two sound cards for monitoring while recording in CEP.
This issue is coming up over and over and there are always posts from people who use only one card.
It’ is not wrong to use two cards, that’s not what I am saying but it is wrong to convince beginners about insecurity of two cards.

Danny.guitar has mentioned mixer. That’s place where you just need to tell your system which input y11ou are going to use for recording and on other one (Playing control mixer) what you want to hear while recording.
Some people don’t want to their vocal in the headphones while recording it.
I prefer to actually hear my guitar while I’m recording it DI.

Summary:
On recording mixer you chose what input you are using.
On playing mixer you chose what you actually want to hear.


Best regards
sikter

 

[sikter]

yeah I did not see danny's last post. Anyway that's what I ment.

 

[superspit]

I am totally agreed with danny.guitar. It is not necessarily with two sound cards for monitoring while recording in CEP.
This issue is coming up over and over and there are always posts from people who use only one card.
It’ is not wrong to use two cards, that’s not what I am saying but it is wrong to convince beginners about insecurity of two cards.

Danny.guitar has mentioned mixer. That’s place where you just need to tell your system which input y11ou are going to use for recording and on other one (Playing control mixer) what you want to hear while recording.
Some people don’t want to their vocal in the headphones while recording it.
I prefer to actually hear my guitar while I’m recording it DI.

Summary:
On recording mixer you chose what input you are using.
On playing mixer you chose what you actually want to hear.


Best regards
sikter

Hi Sikter and Danny G...(and DG, I hope Nic really appreciates the neat work you put into your last post,..we should be proud to be part of this forum with people like you around, and ofcourse Sikter and....etc.)
But, like I also 'suggested', there are always options.
In my own experience, and having seen a few newbies rise and fall too quickly after 2 or 3 session attempts with CEP, i found that the interface of CEP really does lend itself to utilising more than one card.....it's actually easier to run it as a more efficient recording system, regardles of card type, capability and quality, for example.
I'd always suggest and will continue to suggest that 2 cards will be better than one, especially within the CEP environment, both for multiple-input recording and individually-controllable/assignable outs......then again, there will always be very valid options, like yours!!
All the best to you guys, and I hope Nic (and POD! ) appreciates our advice!!

I know that you guys will find my response just as valid and reasonable, at the very least.

Kindest Regards,
Superspit.

 

[Nico2112]

Thanks to all of you guys that took the time to respond and share your pearls of wisdom

DG, I guess my card is not a full duplex card , since my playback line in mixer fader was already unmuted.
The card my pc has is a C-Media AC97 WDM Audio device.

Since there's more than one way to "skin" a cat , now I'm debating myself into what to do:
1) buy a full duplex card or
2) buy another cheap soundcard

In any of both cases, a new card is needed.
Do you have a suggestion of what card to get?

I'm not going to lie to you guys, I'm going to keep on using my Tascam DP01 for most of my tracking (Drums, guitars and bass) due to it's portability. I wanted to have the option to track vocals directly into CEP.
Right now I use CEP to edit, add effects, EQ and master (still figuring out how to compress tracks, but that's a topic for another thread), and I still feel I could do soooo much more with it.

I'm really surprised (in a very positive way) of all the feedback I've received so far.
I really appreciate it!
Cheers!

 

[sikter]

Do you really need to hear your voice while recording it?
Anyway, what card do you need is depending of many factors.
If you need it just for vocal than you need a card with max 2 inputs. (One is enough actually)
You need a condensator mic, tube preamp and headphones.
How much are you going to spend? How serious is your work?

There is a card EMU-1212M with really nice AD/DA converters and costs only 200 Euros.
There are several other cards in that price level which are good too.
M-audio Audiophile, Edirol, Line6.
Some of them are PCI cards. Some are wire fire some USB.

I had EMU1820 for a while but every single instrument on my signature link was recorded and mixed on cheap SB Live card.
It doesn’t sound good but I learned a lot by making it and had a really lot of fun.I can always retrack everything using better gear but it was not necessarily to buy gear first and then start to write and record music.
I’m still learning and do experiments. I’ll move on to a better gear soon but as I said to everyone that’s not really important for beginners like us.
I know one guy who spent a million for gear and software hoping it will help him achieve good results in a short time.
Now after 2 years he did not record one single song. His software is outdated and he did not even learn how to use basic buttons on it.

You have to ask yourself about your ambitions.
Have to go now. See you later
sikter

 

[Nico2112]

I guess I'm used to hear what I'm recording . I know it's possible to do it without monitoring.

About my seriousness, well, I do it just for my peace of mind. Nevertheless, I take my recordings very seriously. I don't have a quality standard I have to comply, just my thirst to record as best as possible with my actual gear. I'm my own fiercest reviewer.
As a preamp I can use either my Tascam DP01 or my 414.
I'm a complete noob when it comes to CEP, but I've been multitracking for 10 years .

After doing a little more reading, it's barely impossible to obtain great results using cheap gear. The best sound cards are pretty expensive. I'm getting very good results tracking vocals on my DP01 and then enhancing my wav file on CEP. I use a Shure SM57 with a pop screen.

I did some testing without monitoring, and the results were decent, I just had to cover one of my ears to use my hearing as a natural monitor
I'll do it without an extra card when needed.

I've learned a lot from your posts, and I really appreciate it .
Thanks to all of you guys.

Cheers!