please someone help me?

  • Thread starter Thread starter miggy
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miggy

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not really a message board person but desperately seeking help? i bought a cheap mic pre-amp and the signal is suitably boosted. however, when recording, the monitor sounds distorted (almost as if i'm hearing two signals one fractionally after the other) I'm using cubase vst, through an EMU- patchmix soundcard. the thing that freaks me is that when i play back the recorded file it sounds lovely?? problem being that i cant give a good vocal performance when i sound like a dalek! i'm very new to this as you can tell, and dont have a clue what an asio even is?? please, someone clever, if you've any idea what piece(s) of vital information i'm missing? i'd really appreciate a hand!
yours hopefully
a new poster.
 
Sounds like somehow you've managed to monitor both direct and through Cubase at once, which would explain why you get the phased sound...

As to how you managed to pull that off is beyond me :D
 
the distrortion could be clipping, the input might be too loud. the fractional difference...well like noisewreck said, sounds like youre monitoring direct and hearing the latency of monitoring through the program.
 
thanks for that people, but i've no idea how to change the way i'm monitoring?? strange thing is it doesn't occur when recording guitar or keyboards. maybe god is telling me i've a crap voice?? good job i don't believe eh? anyone got the slightest idea who may be able to help me? there must be some boffin somewhere who's able to explain where i'm going wrong!!
 
still confused

thanks for that people, but i've no idea how to change the way i'm monitoring?? strange thing is it doesn't occur when recording guitar or keyboards. maybe god is telling me i've a crap voice?? good job i don't believe eh? anyone got the slightest idea who may be able to help me? there must be some boffin somewhere who's able to explain where i'm going wrong!!
 
I'm going to take a wild guess and say that the problem is your mic picking up sound from your monitors when you are singing. Instead of listening to yourself through the monitors when singing, try using headphones.
 
Don't know about the distortion but, the thing is, you can't monitor through Cubase because you are gonna have latency, you have to monitor through you E-MU soundcard. What you are hearing is your soundcard monitoring in real time, and Cubase's monitoring delayed by latency.

Go to (i don't remember which tab) Audio/system, and a window will pop up, look for the option in monitoring that says "global disable" and select that.
That should get rid of the echo-like repetition.
 
The one chap said you may be picking up the moitor sounds in the mic whichs sounds right, or in cubase on the audio track you have the different buttons like s for solo, m mute ect and there is also a picture of a speaker side view, i think in yellow. make sure that this button isnt actave as this is the monitoring button in cubase.
Maybe. Good luck.

Easy
 
thanks again everyone. i appear to have caused some confusion though. theres only one problem but i described it in two different ways. its definately not feedback as headphones are the same. i'm sure it's the monitoring problem some of you have hit on- trouble is i've not got the option mentioned by spotlight kid, or the sideways speaker symbol mentioned by the last poster.
think i need a newer version of cubase- (its vst 5) i read somewhere that only later versions support direct monitoring (whatever that means)!! I'm not really in a position to be spending any money right now though, and i feel sure that even v5 should allow clear monitoring. i just need to somehow get it working with my soundcard correctly. there appear to be more options in that (EMU patchmix) for configuring inputs, outputs, asio's (??) etc, but no specific help in either manual. (although there could be and i just dont understand it! )anyway, you,re a really nice bunch, and i'm really grateful for the help. i do feel i'm very slowly fumbling my way towards an explanation, and maybe a solution. Anyone got any idea how i'd go about finding some help without forking out any cash? (web links for emu inoperative- maybe out of business!)
i've been reading some of the other threads, good luck in all your weird, wonderful and exciting projects.
thanks again all
 
I have Cubase VST 32 and the option for disabling direct monitoring is there, in the audio system panel.
 
which e-mu card are you using? your monitoring problem sounds like a latency issue. latency can cause all kinds of funny sounding artifacts when monitoring. try raising your latency (buffers) and see if the distortion goes away.

if you feel the need to upgrade your software for very little money, i suggest you check out Reaper (www.cockos.com). Reaper is shareware with absolutely nothing disabled and uses the honor system when it comes time to pay. you use/evaluate it and pay $40 for personal use after you decide that it works for you.
 
the card is an E-MU 0404 patchmix. i tried muting the input, and am now hearing a noticable latency delay. i think this is the signal coming through cubase and to the asio out strip in patchmix. i'd like to mute that, but then can't hear the music to sing along to?? am i getting any closer, or just going round in circles? big thanks again for all your helpful suggestions.
 
p.s i'd love to change my latenct buffers.......if only i knew what they were or where to find them!!
 
$.02

a lot of interfaces have quick tab to get to the device settings if the E-MU doesnt you'll have to look for it under system devices... what you need is to turn off monitoring through the device... right now what your hearing is the source and then the playback if you will from the interface... should be in the device driver type section not in cubase
 
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