Plea from a dispairing novice!

  • Thread starter Thread starter erre
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erre

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Hello there

I am at my wits end and to be honest, close to taking a large financial hit and selling all my gear. In a last and very desperate attempt to resolve my query I am hoping that you might please help!

I have spent literally weeks worth of time over the past two years trolling the internet and searching help pages to no avail. Okay, I realise that I must the very thick so, if it helps, let me prey upon your instincts of pity if nothing else!

I have a bunch of gear that I want to use to record both sound files and midi in a home studio multi-track situation for my own amusement. I want to be able to make multi-track recordings with vocals. My equipment list is as follows:

• Yamaha S90 ES (with three extra expansion boards)
• Yamaha MW12 CX Mixer
• Roland JV1010 Sound Module
• Alesis SR16 Drum Machine
• Cubase Elements 12 CX (running on a well specified Windows 7 PC)
• Rode NT1A and Sure SM58 Microphones
• Yamaha WX5 Wind Controller
• Yamaha VL70m Sound Module
• Yamaha HS80M x 2 Monitors
• Yamaha HS10W Sub Woofer
• Motu 828MkII USB 2.0 Sound Card

Please (and in the most simple way as I am totally naive and don’t understand jargon such as busses and channels etc), can you tell me how to set everything up so it works? I am at a total loss.

I have loaded the MOTU driver in Cubase and selected it over the default “ASIO” one. I need your very clear advice on what to connect to what in both sound terms and in USB terms and in MIDI terms please.

Please don’t direct me to websites of manufacturers help files. I’ve looked at and read them all but I need simple language that reflects my exact setup. SORRY! I know that this is indulgent of me to ask but I really am tearing my hair out and considering selling all this hardly used gear. I’ve spent a fortune and have no money left (thanks divorce lawyer for nowt).

I live in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands so I’m not close to any stores ro suchlike for more personal help! Thanks for your considerations :)

Sincere thanks
 
Wow, you bought all that kit and you can't record with any of it?!?! Perhaps starting smaller/simpler would have been the way.

I don't know what most of it is, but to record vocals, you want to plug your NT1A or SM58 into an XLR input on your Motu sound card (looks like there are two on the front on the left), create and arm a track in Cubase and hit record. The trim knob next to the XLR input should increase/decrease the gain on the preamp so you can get a decent recording level (you should be able to see the level on the input channel of the mixer in Cubase).
 
I'd use asio drivers but thats just me
pick a mono track in cubase set the channels input to the motu output (the 1 with the mic cable going in)
Arm the track to record (Cick on the button with a circle within a circle) this then turns red on mine at least
Click on the monitor button(Little button that looks a bit like a loud speaker) this then turns green
connect the output of the motu to your mixer and headphones into the mixer. (his Mixer is now your monitor) for listening to the signal being recorded.
I dont know your equipment but this is how i'd probably start.
hope this helps
others may have other solutions. I'm sure you will get a ton of help. And if i where you i'd do my jargon homework so you can follow future threads and replies
google is your friend.
Welcome to the forum erre
 
Jonny has a point though about starting simple
and if your really stuck pay a local home studio guy to tutor you for a few hours and help you set it up after all you made a substantial investment in equipment it might be worth it.
 
erre said:
Please (and in the most simple way as I am totally naive and don’t understand jargon such as busses and channels etc), can you tell me how to set everything up so it works? I am at a total loss.
Click to expand...

I appreciate what you're saying, but it's a little insulting.
Read a glossary of terms somewhere. We did.
Audio recording is no longer a black art. 13 year olds do it and all the information is plastered all over the internet.

I don't mean to be rude, but you won't get this up and running by connecting doohickeys to whatsits.

Anyways, yeah.

For simple one microphone recording, connect the following.

Microphone - XLR to XLR cable - input 1 of the motu 828 (left hand side on the front)

and

Motu 828 main outputs (on the back) - TRS to TRS cable - monitor speakers, assuming they are powered.

Connect the motu to the PC via usb cable.

Now, if the mic is a condenser mic, turn on phantom power for the input in question. That's a silver toggle switch on my 828mk2 firewire.
If it's a dynamic, don't worry about it.


Open your software and make sure the motu is selected as your audio interface.
Doing this is different in every software suite, but it's usually in a setup menu or similar.

Now, create a new track, set the input to 'motu channel 1, or mic/instrument 1'........whatever the software calls it.
You should now be receiving input from the mic. Adjust the gain knob on the front of the MOTU for channel 1.
That'll make the mic come through louder.

Arm the track to record, then hit record and play in the global transport.

If you fall down at any point, just come back and tell us exactly where you're stuck.
 
I'm doing a separate post for midi because it's a separate thing.



Your keyboard is the S90 E, right?

It has line outputs and midi outputs.

**The line outputs carry the sound the keyboard makes**
**the midi output carries a data version of your performance to another instrument**

You can connect the line outputs to the motu to record the keyboards own sounds,
or
you can send the midi output from the keyboard to your vl70m module and record the sound that it makes.



It seems to be a clone of my roland mu50, or vice versa.
To use your keyboard as a trigger for the sound module, do the following.


Keyboard plugs into module via midi cable.
The midi data triggers sound.
The sound comes out of the line outputs, which are routed into line inputs on the back of your motu.
 
You can record the keyboards audio by pluggin the left and right audio outputs into 2 of the Motu's TRS inputs (you'll need the correct cables and adapters). If you want to use the keyboard to enter MIDI data into a Cubase project, plug the MIDI Out from the keyboard into the MIDI In of the Motu. Follow basic instructions to arm a track(s) in Cubase (for MIDI recording) you have to select the MIDI device - and if you want Cubase to play the MIDI file on the keyboard, you'll need another MIDI cable from the Motu MIDI out to the keyboard MIDI In.
Forget all the bells & whistles that the keyboard can do for you with Cubase, at this point just try to learn the basics.

Plug the monitors into the Moto monitor outputs. Put the subwoofer, the mixer, the sound modules, the drum machine and the Wind controller in the closet until you can do the basics with mic, keyboard, Motu and Cakewalk.
 
This may help (and a lot of older manuals will actually have pictures like this too) and this is one way to get started, others may have other and better suggestions:

I'm assuming you're using the jack outs on the mixer and not the USB, and using the MOTU for Analog to Digital (A/D) conversion. I'm guessing the MOTU has better converters so use it and not the A/D on the Yamaha. So you'll disregard the USB on the Yamaha.

Scan each owners manual so you understand the inputs and outputs, mostly this is for the mixer and the motu, the instruments and mic should be pretty straight fwd.

Start with recording, and then move on to midi, and start out simple, get used to that and then move on. I actually used the "Basic 8 track setup" diagram in an owner's manual as a starting point myself.

Draw out each piece of gear, and then draw a connection between them. Think of it as a chain of signals, so instruments go in to the mixer, the mixers out puts (and it looks like there are only two) into e.g. channels 1-4 on the MOTU. (Again, I'm guessing here, looking at the marketing for both of these)

That's the gozinta. You only have two outs on the Yamaha, but start with that to get familiar with it's workings. Just about every board, from your basic JVC 6x2 that I once used, to big huge things that cost more than my house, are pretty much the same conceptually.

You have 8 in and out on the MOTU, so when you're comfortable with the Yamaha, you could start using the channel inserts as a "direct out" to connect to the MOTU.

You microphone will go in to the XLR on the Yamaha, your instruments to the line ins. To start, use two channesl out on the MOTU to the returns on the Yamaha. That means you'll have to mix in the computer for now, or just record two tracks and play them back again to get a feel for how it all works. You could also download Audacity, which is real basic, you just record with it, not a lot of features, but that's e.g. what I use to digitzied old cassettes...
 
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Also, I always recommend "The Musicians Guide to Home Recording." It was written in 1985 BC (Before Computers) but if you think of the MOTU as an 8 track tape deck, the concepts are the same, and the signal routing is the same. You can do things like mix and add effects in the computer, but the concepts for a starting point are a good place to start.
 
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You only have one midi in and out. So you are going to have to midi chain your devices using IN to outs /outs to in configuration or use the midi thru (which is recomended) selecting seperate midi channels for each device

imho with the set up you have. I would get a motu midi timepiece AV or at least the micro lite (check out the products-midi at their website). I had trouble recording several midi things at one time.. till I got the midi timepiece, took care of the problems.

there are a ton of tutorials on youtube about this stuff.

are their any other output options on the yamaha mixer? tdif? spidf? light pipe? the motu can take any of these inputs for 8 channels pereach connection.. ie 1 light pipe = 8 channels/ 1 tdif =8 channels /

I used to run my mics into the yamaha O2R then Tdif the 24 channels into the motu 2408's for 24 simultaneous tracks into Digital Performer or logic.
 
At another recording site that I belong to, we'd have said "Read Tweak's guide."

If that doesn't work out for you, I'll buy some of that gear from you. ;)
 
Steenamaroo said:
I don't mean to be rude, but you won't get this up and running by connecting doohickeys to whatsits.

.
Click to expand...
lol ....... and then you type a tutorial explaining how to connect every doohickey to the appropriate whatsit!

Steenamaroo is the most patient teacher of newbs on the web!

I mean that in a complimentary way my man.
I would have said something like, "Wow ..... actual weeks of effort? Gee ...... who'd have thought it would take any time at all to learn what people spend decades learning?
 
Hi again
Wow! ..is my first response to such willing, courteous (mostly) and genuinely helpful input.

Yes, it is a nice bunch of gear and actually I have a huge amount more plus over 30 acoustic instruments. I am very much more musician than technical guru! I described the list I did because if I can get every element of that list working fine I will have learnt enough to incorporate teh rest of my gear. It was therefore a case of keeping it (fairly) simple so that I got multitrack working with midi and with sound lines as well as the extra complications/simplifications of the Yamaha SE90ES usb connect and the MX12 CX mixer capabilities.

Many of these posts have directed me helpfully and i will spend a chunck of time this weekend taking much of the wise advice given. A sincere thanks to (almost) all.
Give me some time to work through all this and I'll report back!
Cheers all and thanks again
 
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