Please advise: will Audiophile 2496 work for this?

  • Thread starter Thread starter charlie69
  • Start date Start date
C

charlie69

New member
I’m thinking of upgrading my sound card to the Audiophile 2496. I’ve read that it has midi interface but not synthesizer (I hope I have the terms right). So here’s my question: What I want to do is use CWHS 9 to convert an existing MIDI file to wave file by opening it in one track and then recording it as audio on another track. Will the 2496 allow me to do this? Right now Im having no problem doing it with the cheap sound card (Crystal WDM Audio) that came on my pc, but it doesn't give me good results through a mic. I just dont know if the 2496 is missing something that my current sound card has or even if this has nothing to do with the sound card.
 
Quick answer

Don't go through a mic to do this, route the sound out of the sound card, into a mixer, and back out.

In SONAR (and CWPA9) you can go bounce your midi track directly to an audio track without having to go through a mixer. Don't know about CWHS9, but my guess is that it can't bounce to audio.

Although the 2496 is a great card, you don't need to buy one just to get midi tracks to audio, but you may have to buy either a mixer or SONAR.
 
Re: Quick answer

Reqs said:
In SONAR (and CWPA9) you can go bounce your midi track directly to an audio track without having to go through a mixer. Don't know about CWHS9, but my guess is that it can't bounce to audio.

Although the 2496 is a great card, you don't need to buy one just to get midi tracks to audio, but you may have to buy either a mixer or SONAR.
Click to expand...
Allow me to correct you: It's not the sequenser that has the ability to mix MIDI down to audio, but the soundcard. Most soundcards that have onboard MIDIsounds or support soundfonts, let you record the MIDIsound that is currently played back. I don't think that the Audiophile will be of any use, if you don't roote the MIDI-sounds back into the Audiophile, as Reqs said. But you don't have to go through a mixer, just connect the two soundcards together via line in and line out.

Unless you're using the VSC DXi or LiveSynth DXi, then mixing MIDI down to audio it will work in both Sonar and HS.
 
Just to make this a little more confusing:

You have to use the line out/line in method for sound fonts unless you're using LiveSynth. In the old days I ran the line out of my SBLive into a mixer and back into the line in on the SBLive. I didn't use 2 sound cards, and the mixer was necessary to bring the level up.

>Unless you're using the VSC DXi or LiveSynth DXi, then mixing >MIDI down to audio it will work in both Sonar and HS.

Nope, you've got it backwards. SONAR allows you to bounce DXi's to audio using the midi track as input to the DXi. If you're using LiveSynth or any other DXi you can get your soundfonts into audio simply by bouncing to audio track. If you are using the native soundfont support on a Creative Labs card you have to use the above method to turn midi into audio, even with CWPA9 or SONAR.

But sound fonts aren't an issue for Charlie69, as his card doesn't support them. Again, Charlie, I can recommend the 2496, but not if you are doing strictly outboard MIDI stuff. If you want low latency internal DXi softsynths, the WDM drivers for the 2496 can't be beat, and it's much better for audio than your existing card.
 
SONAR allows you to bounce DXi's to audio using the midi track as input to the DXi. If you're using LiveSynth or any other DXi you can get your soundfonts into audio simply by bouncing to audio track
Click to expand...
Sorry for my bad language, but that was what I meant. ;)

AnyWHO! As Charlie69 is using HomeStudio 9, then the DXi's is out of the question....
 
Right

And I was going to mention that, but I thought that I had already given too much information as it was!

-Reqs
 
I suspect that recording the MIDI tracks from the Crystal soundcard to its own audio stream without any cables would give better than passing it through the cheap converters back into the analog world and redigitizing them on the Audiophile. Even if the difference is only marginal, it sure as hell is a lot simpler.
 
Alchuck,

Is this a function of the card then? Then you're saying that this Crystal card can do that without support from the CWHS?
 
No, it can't do anything worthwhile without software. But you don't need another sound card to record the Crystal's MIDI synth output to its audio input stream, or you shouldn't...
 
No, you don't need another card, but I remember from my SBLive days that you couldn't pass the SBLive synth or soundfont output directly to the audio inputs (you could do this with softsynths though). You had to go out and come back in. Don't know about his Crystal card synth though.

I get the feeling we've lost Charlie69 anyway...
 
Simply not true about the SB Live, I do it all the time.
 
Nope, I’m still here; just got my Behringer 602 yesterday, and I’m trying to figure out what all these dang holes and knobs are for. :P
Here’s what Im gonna do: I need the midi files as accompaniment for ocarina solos. This is for a cd so I have to convert the midis to audio to burn them. After I have the midi mixed down to wave file and insert it to track 1 in CWHS 9, then I record the ocarina on track 2 with mic. That’s all there is to it, and that’s all I want to do right now. All the midi stuff is done internally without mic. I’ve already done all this for 34 songs, but then I could hear a hiss and sizzle in the background when I burned them to cd. That’s when I went to the net for help, found homerecording.com, and discovered that I need a mic preamp and a better sound card. Anyway, I want to keep this real simple, but I don’t want any noise in the background. Now that you mention it, I believe all this midi stuff I’ve been using is part of the CWHS software and not the sound card. But then I only know enough to be dangerous. Thanks for all your help; now please keep it coming. I need simple solutions yesterday. :)

Charlie
 
Oh?!

Alchuck,

I didn't know this. How do you do it? My little bro will be interested, as I made him buy a mixer just for this purpose... oops.
 
Well, mixers always come in handy...

It's pretty simple. First, you need to go to the Windows mixer control, select Properties from the Options menu, select the Recording radio button in the "Adjust volume for" section of the dialog box... and in the list at the bottom of the dialog box make sure MIDI is checked. Click OK, and select the MIDI control (note that this will disable whatever else might have been checked; it can't record two tracks of stereo from the Line In and the stereo output of the MIDI synth at the same time).

Leave the window open while you launch SONAR/Cakewalk/Home Studio because you might need to adjust the level of the synth to get good record levels in the audio tracks.

In SONAR, arm one or more audio tracks for recording, and select the correct input device -- the SB Live WAV 1/2 stereo or either the left or right side of same. Mute everything but the MIDI tracks that you want to record. (Oh, and make sure the metronome is off in record mode!) Then start recording! (Try a few seconds and check the levels you're getting first; adjust to taste).

WHen you're done, either mute or archive the MIDI tracks so they don't play at the same time as the rendered audio tracks do or you'll hear some comb filtering/phasing effects that make it sound like it's too low in volume and the sound has lost detail.
 
Ah, I see. That makes sense, sorta embarrassed I never figured it out. Will send this to my bro, thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top