Overall Help Please

[Jayne4@aol.com]

I am new to the board and have been reading thru the post because I have been doing a lot of research trying to help my son get his studio set up and fix his recording problems.

We built my son a 16 x 24 studio in the back yard and purchased the equipment he needs to record. The following is what he is using currently but seems to be having a few problems which we can't seem to figure out. We aren't sure if the problem is in the recorder, the editing program or the computer (we do realize that we need to purchase a new sound card from what I have been reading). So if anyone can help us out we would appreciate it:

Equipment:

Yamaha AW16G CD/HD Multitrack Recorder
Peavey PVM DMS-5 Drum Mic System
Edirol MA-20 digital stereo micro monitors
MXL 992 large-diaphragm condenser microphone
2 Nady CM 90 small-diaphragm condenser microphones
AKG K100 headphones
Dell 2400 Deminsion, 256 mb ram, SB Live Sound Card, 40 GB hard drive.
Cool Edit Pro 2.0

We know that the sound card in his computer is not a multi track sound card and we realize we need to replace that (any suggestions on a good one at a good price) but we aren't sure if we need to add more ram and if we should use a different editing program rather than Cool Edit. I read thru the threads on programs and it was rather confusing and I still was unable to determine what was the best to use.

The problems he is having is that some of the people he is recording have to have the guitar and vocal track first for the drummer to have playback to record with. He records the guitar and vocal and then when playing back to the drummer while the drummer is recording he gets "drops" or "skips" in the playback which messes the drummer up. He doesn't know what is causing this or how to fix it.

The other problem he is having is that when he records to the Yamaha and then tries to transfer to the computer for editing (the Yamaha does editing but he prefers to edit on the computer) he can't find an easy way to transfer the seperate tracks to the computer so they are in sync. For example, last night he was able to move the guitar track from the Yamaha to the computer and then moved the vocal to the computer but they were way out of sync and it was really a pain to try to sync them up.

Any help, suggestions or recommendations are welcome because this thing is driving me crazy because he is driving me crazy complaining about it all the time!!

Thanks,
Frazzled Mom/Tammie

 

[AGCurry]

You built/bought all this stuff for your son? And now you're trying to solve problems for him? I had to build my first guitar because my parents wouldn't buy one for me! Does the word "spoil" come to mind? <grin and wink>

With a stereo (two-track) card like the Soundblaster, he will be able to transfer only two tracks at a time and sync them up the hard way. And, unless Creative Labs has changed its ways, the SB Live sound card is not true full duplex - meaning you can't monitor well while recording. It sounds like a true audio-recording sound card is in the works for Junior.

 

[wheelema]

Hey Mom,

Damn. While this is not the most extravagent example I have heard of indulging the kids (that award goes to the parents who built their son his own professional observatory complete with $200K+ telescope), it is certainly very nice of you.

...the sound card in his computer is not a multi track sound card...

Okay, so you have eight channels in and an optical out. You need a multi-track soundcard with optical in. Consider the Emu 1212m.

You only have 256MB of RAM in a Dell Dimension 2400 (2.4GHz P4). Your computer is adequate, but you should kick up the ram to 512MB.

...while the drummer is recording he gets "drops" or "skips" in the playback which messes the drummer up...

You are not clear if the playback is coming off of the Yamaha or out of the PC. If off of the Yamaha, well, better contact Yamaha. Might be a hardware issue. If off of Cool Edit Pro, it may be a soundcard issue, or not. You need to narrow this down a bit. If it is a PC issue I would buy the soundcard and see if the issue continues.

...he can't find an easy way to transfer the seperate tracks to the computer so they are in sync...

I would post this question in a Cool Edit Pro forum.
and, lastly,

...this thing is driving me crazy because he is driving me crazy complaining about it all the time!!

Send him to a J.C. that offers sound recording. Tell him that you have taken it as far as you can, that the rest is up to him, to hit the books and stopping kevetching at you.

 

[manning1]

jayne - how many tracks does he want to transfer at one time to PC ?
if its 8 for example he will need a professional soundcard with 8 inputs.
also let me comment. cool operating with windows XP (is that what you have ?) needs preferably 512 ram. 256 is low.
i should also mention ..with the right set up he could do all recording and mixing , and produce a cd on the computer. this is what i do.
many people have it set up like this....
mics feeding a mixer ...feeding a multi input sound card, and recording for example 8 seperate tracks on the computer. then 8 more in sync with the first eight etc.
some modern computers will let you playback and mix 80 tracks or more.
if this is a route you would like to explore further just ask, and i'll detail how to go about it.. peace.

 

[minofifa]

i would suggest another 80 gig hard drive as that 40 gig one is gonna fill up fast. many people think it is a good idea to save the audio data to a different drive than the OS

 

[Jayne4@aol.com]

Yes, my son is spoiled! He is my only son and give me no trouble keeps a 3.5 grade average and has a scholorship to college so I guess I feel he deserves a few things he really wants and besides I really support him in his pursuit of his music.

Anyway, I printed off the comments you guys sent and the first thing he said was that he really wanted to do away with the Yamaha all together because it is too difficult to work with and then of course stated he wanted a larger hard drive, more ram and the new sound card. Well looks like I will be selling the Yamaha to get the new things and see if that works out his problems. If not then he may be on his own because this stuff is all greek to me!

I appreciate everyones input and may holler again when he gets ready to get the computer set up for recording without the Yamaha.

Thanks again for everything and you are all so full of knowledge that I am sure I will be back with more questions!

Tammie