one speaker sounds louder than the other

[delah]

im having a problem with my computer recordings where one speaker/channel sounds markedly louder than the other. my set up goes:
condenser mic, into an audio buddy, into an emu 0404. the program i use is cubasis vst 4.0 (came with the emu)
after i play back a recording the level of one speaker is much lower than the other one. this does not happen with regular mp3 files or cds...i checked it over and over again, so my connection the my stereo should be fine. i obviously made sure that i had the track panned properly. i think it's my connection from the audio buddy to the soundcard. im just using a guitar cable to go from the audio buddy to one of the inputs into the card. i get the same result whether i plug into the left or the right input of the card. im not going to go crazy if it is the guitar cable causing the problem, ill be happy to get a new cable, but what exactly do i get? the audiobuddy output says balanced/unbalanced and the emu i believe (although i may need to recheck) is unbalanced. any help would be so great....i need to get past these annoyances so i can started recording...if this keeps up ill be back to my old tascam cassette, and that might make me cry...

 

[Rstiltskin]

im having a problem with my computer recordings where one speaker/channel sounds markedly louder than the other. my set up goes:
condenser mic, into an audio buddy, into an emu 0404. the program i use is cubasis vst 4.0 (came with the emu)
after i play back a recording the level of one speaker is much lower than the other one. this does not happen with regular mp3 files or cds...i checked it over and over again, so my connection the my stereo should be fine. i obviously made sure that i had the track panned properly. i think it's my connection from the audio buddy to the soundcard. im just using a guitar cable to go from the audio buddy to one of the inputs into the card. i get the same result whether i plug into the left or the right input of the card. im not going to go crazy if it is the guitar cable causing the problem, ill be happy to get a new cable, but what exactly do i get? the audiobuddy output says balanced/unbalanced and the emu i believe (although i may need to recheck) is unbalanced. any help would be so great....i need to get past these annoyances so i can started recording...if this keeps up ill be back to my old tascam cassette, and that might make me cry...

don't know if this will help or not. you are using one mike? if so how do you have it panned? I think right down the middle will split the signal evenly on a stereo track. A lot of the software daws have fake faders on the screen like a software mixer. sometimes they effect input, some output, some both. do you see anything like that? where does you output from the speakers come from, the sound card? if so, window software may have some effect on it.

the cubase website may have a toubleshooting checklist or maybe in the docs you got with it. they may be on the cd the drivers were on. the emu website may have one too.

I feel for you, it is not as simple as the ads make it out. I have never used that hardware software combo before so I am really not much help, but in general make sure you have the latest dirver for your card and any updates for the software and sp2 if you are running xp.

good luck

 

[guitarboi89]

i think its probably the lead..

im pretty sure that any guitar lead will be mono... so if your plugging a mono cable into a stereo plug and telling cubase to record in stereo, it might not love it. If you have a different cable around try that, or ask a mate to borrow one before oing out and spending money (not that a cables a huge expense) its just annoying to be equipment that you didnt need

 

[delah]

yeah, thats kind of what im thinking about the guitar cable, but im plugging that cable into only either the right input or the left...so does that mean it still needs to be stereo? i thinking, or actually, im definetly confusing myself but i do think you're right about the cable being mono. so...what kind of cable do i buy? id be very much worth it since i cant record now with one speaker sounding fine and the other one sounding like crap. i guess just a mic cable with two stereo plugs. does this make sense to you all?

 

[Tifstorey]

Yes, you are currently recording in mono. So you will need to buy a splitter to split the cable into 2 mono jacks, which you can then plug into left and right.

Or.... You can simply record the guitar track and simply double the track onto another channel once you have it in Cubase. Use the nice 'copy and paste' invention and bring it up. try and pan one slightly to the left and one slightly to the right and this will give it a nice even stereo sound.

Good luck.

Peace

 

[Tifstorey]

This would work - http://www.nusystems.co.uk/product/Stereo.Jack.to.Mono.Jack..5m.AL147

 

[delah]

thanks for help on my cable issue and thanks for the link so i can actually see it too.
now if i use a cable like that i will only be able to record one instrument/mic at a time. in order to record two or more i need to have some sort of mixer, which i feel would be too much for what i need, although it might be nice to record at least to things ot once, which the i can do with the audio buddy, but then ill have the same problem with the stereo panning...unless i try that copy and paste trick you said. does this make sense?

also, if a splitter is what i need wouldn't that mean that i would get zero signal in one channel or the other? why is most of the sound in one channel (say the right one) and then a little in the other? this part confuses me. anyone know why?

 

[Tifstorey]

also, if a splitter is what i need wouldn't that mean that i would get zero signal in one channel or the other?

A splitter basically does what it says, it will split the signal into 2 equal signals which will run into the left and right channels to create your stereo track.

why is most of the sound in one channel (say the right one) and then a little in the other? this part confuses me. anyone know why?

It all depends how the track is panned. If you recorded it with the pan slightly to the right, then it will play more on the right channel than the left... Is that what you mean?

 

[delah]

thats not quite what i mean...im recording with the left and right panned to the center, but it sounds as if i have it panned slightly to one or the other. i understand now why the splitter will make the left and right equal, but why were they off in the first place? it would make sense if say, the left was silent but the signal was fine in the right channel since im only plugging into the right.......but i am getting some weak signal in the left.. im just trying to understand why this stuff is happening for future troubleshooting.
any theories or input would super. (and i know its more than possible that im not explaining things properly. but i am a newbie afterall....
thanks