Need help on recrding from my four track into my computer!

B

bornmad

New member
Hey guys.

I have a question about recording from a four track onto your computer, and I hope you can help me.

I will try to give as much information as I can, so I apologize if it sounds as if I'm rambling.

I record directly into a Tascam Porta 02. It has no extensive mixing controls, just your basic four track recorder with pan controls and so on.

My computer is a 233 MHZ pentium with 48 megabytes of RAM.

I have a little over 2 gigs of hardisk space on my computer.

I am running Windows 95, and I record my tracks through the Spindoctor recording program.

Here is the problem I am having: I lay down a track on my four track and then I connect my four track to my computer.

Intiitally I was connecting my four track through the microphone jack on my computer and it would play through my speakers wonderfully. I would then press play on my four track and record through my microphone jack a track I had already recorded.

Then when I would go to play back the recorded track it would sound very muted with a lot of background noise in it, almost as if there were interference from the computer of some sort.

I tried adjusting all the levels on my computer's volume controls, but nothing seem to help too greatly.

I then attempted to plug my four track into my speaker outlet, and record it through there, which of course did not allow me to hear what was being recorded. Yet nothing occurred on playback. I could barely hear the feint whispers of what I recorded in the background.

Again with my four track plugged into my speaker outlet I then tried to adjust the different levels on my computers volume control box, and nothing helped its sound.

I have been told that with my sound card I should be able to do this successfully, and have even known others who do it successfully with a regualr soundcard.

I'm not sure if I am not getting the volume levels right on my computer or if I am simply unaware of somehting that needs to be tweaked.

Here are the options in my volume contorls:

For recording they are: 1. Recording control 2. Line in 3. Microphone 4. CD Audio 5. AuxB 6. Synthesizer 7. Wave

They are the same for my playback settings as well with the exception of "PC Balance."

Which ones should I be checking and adjusting in recording and in playback? I assume this is my problem, and that I am not getting the levels just right.

Otherwise I don't know what I am doing wrong. The track level on my Tascam is fine, and the only other thing I can assume is that I am not tweaking something just right.

Can anyone help me with this. I assume it is a very basic problem that I am having.

Thanks for your time.
 
4-track blues

Hey,

I also do that type of recording with my 4-track. What you have to do is, if you have stereo outs on your 4-track (RCA most likely)or monitor out start here. What I bought was an RCA cable, then bought a stereo adaptor that mates with a standard RCA cord. The adaptor is basically one I bought at Radio Shack. It has 2 female RCA plugs at one end and a 1/8 " stereo(2 rings on the plug post)plug on the other. Go out of your Stereo out, then, Plug the male RCA into the female ends on the adaptor, then plug the 1/8" plug into your "LINE IN" on the soundcard. You don't want to go into the "Mic in" or any other input, LINE IN! If you are still having audible problems, it may be the buffer settings in your PC. Go to mutimedia in your control panel and dbl-click you soundcard. There are pre-set compression setting in there that might need to be changed. If all else fails go on the net and do a search for soundcard buffer settings, etc...I know that you are going to want much more RAM. 48megs isn't gonna cut it. I would spend the 100 bucks and buy another 128 megs, that will make a world of difference. It is real easy to install as long as it is the right kind of RAM. Your PC will auto-detect the new RAM and off you go. What I like to do is, record each track into the four track, then transfer it into my PC one at a time. This allows a four track to be used way beyond "4-tracks". If your recording software and the power of your PC can push 8-tracks at one time without a clitch, you are in business. If you are still having problems, e-mail me @ scott@ramus.com, I'm sure we can get that thing to work...

Peace, SLP
 
I think SLP got it about 100% right. The only thing I might disagree with is that if you are just mixing down to your sound card - just recording once into a stereo track and then you are done - then your PC is probably OK for that. Your PC is too weak to be working with more than 2 tracks of audio at once, but it doesn't sound like that is what you are trying to do.

Unless you are very cash-poor I would not bother with upgrading your RAM. Your Pentium uses SIMM memory which has been replaced by DIMMs, and that is all you will find at most places now. I would recommend instead that you buy a new computer ATX case, new motherboard, a fast Celeron or Duron processor, and 128 megs of RAM. All that together should cost only about $300 or less and you can carry over the other parts of your Pentium computer. Then you can do some serious audio playing....
 
Hey guys, thanks so much for your help. I think that is what I am going to do is simply buy a new basic computer with highende components, and go from thee. It seems the wisest bet.

Anyway thanks to the both of you for your suggestions.
 
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