My first post - a few beginners problems!

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oban_bloke

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Hey all! This is my first EVER post on this site - and it certainly won't be my last!

After recently purchasing a laptop and some music production software (Cubase) I've come across a few small issues that I can't figure out myself:

Problem 1: When I try to record a stereo track I only get one side of the stereo recording. This means I need to use a couple of mono tracks in order to pan and get the sound I'm looking for. This happens whether I'm using line or mic, wich are the two inputs on my 'M-Audio Fast Track'! It's probably something silly - but irritating none-the-less...

Problem 2 - Whenever I start a project (because of the problem above) I record 2x mono audio tracks to act as a stereo guitar and 2x mono audio tracks to act as a stereo vocal. That's all fine and dandy! The problem occurs when I record a 5th audio track and start adding inserts like reverb, EQ, compression etc...! For some reason the part I've just recorded starts to stutter during playback!

NOTE - it is ONLY the audio track that has just been recorded that stutters, and it ONLY seems to be when I start adding inserts etc..! The original audio tracks for the guitar and vocals are all playing back fine along with any midi. I've tried everything but I can't get my head round it!

Any help would be much appreciated!!

THANKS
 
oban_bloke said:
Problem 1: When I try to record a stereo track I only get one side of the stereo recording. This means I need to use a couple of mono tracks in order to pan and get the sound I'm looking for. This happens whether I'm using line or mic, wich are the two inputs on my 'M-Audio Fast Track'! It's probably something silly - but irritating none-the-less...
Click to expand...

Use mono tracks for mono sources. The mono track will be played in the center of the stereo field, allowing you to pan it how you like from R to L.

oban_bloke said:
B]Problem 2[/B] - Whenever I start a project (because of the problem above) I record 2x mono audio tracks to act as a stereo guitar and 2x mono audio tracks to act as a stereo vocal. That's all fine and dandy! The problem occurs when I record a 5th audio track and start adding inserts like reverb, EQ, compression etc...! For some reason the part I've just recorded starts to stutter during playback!
Click to expand...

Once again, unless your using a stereo microphone, or a stereo setup mic placement that requires 2 mics (highly doubt it) use mono tracks for mono sources. Your guitar is a mono source unless you have a stereo rig, and your voice is ALWAYS a mono source. Stereo tracks are pretty much only good for keyboards, even overheads should be recorded to mono tracks and panned to their respected placements.

As far as the stutter issue, this has nothing to do with the track count and instead has to do with how much you are demanding your CPU process at once with the effects. Effects use CPU power... SO what you have to do is raise your buffer setting. There is a little tutorial on it as a sticky above OR you can consult your manual for this.

oban_bloke said:
NOTE - it is ONLY the audio track that has just been recorded that stutters, and it ONLY seems to be when I start adding inserts etc..! The original audio tracks for the guitar and vocals are all playing back fine along with any midi. I've tried everything but I can't get my head round it!

Any help would be much appreciated!!

THANKS
Click to expand...

Yep just raise the buffer setting for your hardware and all should be well again. Remember to lower it again when you need to play software instruments in real time (if you ever do).
 
I think that's it sorted now!

I downloaded the ASIO4all driver and used that instead of the driver that came with my laptop! In the ASIO4all settings there's a slider that makes it really easy to adjust the buffer/latency settings...and it seems to have done the trick!

Thanks for that!

With regards to my other problem - when using Cubase in college, I remember we used to just plug the guitar into the computer and I could record a stereo track from this one signal going in. I thought this was the 'done' thing and I used to record everything this way. I assume that this was possible due to the capabilities of that particular sound card (there was a 1/4" jack input on the PC tower). Oh well - I now know better!!

Cheers very much for your help!! Much appreciated!!!
 
TetraFish said:
The Fast Track has it's own ASIO driver which should be a lot better than ASIO4ALL.
Click to expand...

Cheers for that! However, when I try to change to the M-audio driver in the 'Device Setup' an error message comes up saying "The ASIO sample rate is not supported by one of the audio interfaces. Please check your sync settings in the Control Panel."

I can't find what it's asking me to change - can you help?

Cheers
 
Does it let you continue when you get that message? What OS do you have, I have the FTP but I'm using it with a mac. I can find the settings, or at least it tells me what the settings are. Look to see what you can find.
 
Yes - it lets me continue, but it reverts back to the driver that I was using before I tried to change it. I've got the 'Windows 7 Home Premium' operating system. I'm pretty sure I've found all the settings that are related to the Fast-track and sample rates etc, but I can't change any of these settings. And I'm just using the original Fast-track (not the PRO)...
 
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