PowerTracks and Audiophile 2496

[HeyHeyMyMy]

Hello,
Hooked up my new gear today but am experiencing a problem. This is my chain: SM57 -> DMP3 -> Audiophile 2496. My problem is that I'm only recording on to the right side of the track in PowerTracks. Here's what I'm guessing it is: going from the DMP3 to the 2496 I'm using the cable that the store sold me which has L & R 1/4" on one end and L & R RCA's on the other end... now, in the back of the DMP3 there is only one 1/4" out per side. So, did they sell me the wrong cable? Should there only be one out on the pre-amp end? I don't know, as you can see I'm new to the DAW world. Anyway, any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks all.

 

[manning1]

this is an easy one. your making a simple mistake.
asuming you have all cables hooked up right.
its a normal newbie mistake.
you notice in TY column in powertracks . this means track type.
your recording mono (ie from your dmp3) but you probably have the TY set to stereo. set it to MONO. if you notice when powertracks boots up against each track (read THE HELP FILE !!) there is what looks to be a midi plug.
if your recording midi just leave as is. if recording MONO (which you are)
click the icon and ONE WAVEFORM icon appears. you can keep on clicking it for various recording options. for example if you want stereo recording you click the icon till you see a TWO WAVEFORM ICON . which is obvious.
in summary click the midi plug icon till it changes to ONE WAVEFORM
(MONO) NOT TWO.
also some other tips. when you start a new song create a new folder. eg..mynewsongA
and save its *.seq template to it immediately.
you need to decide before righting songs a common template to use. for example i typically set the ty on 20 tracks for mono audio recording. then
another 6 say for stereo recording and the rest i leave the ty as is ie:
for midi tracks if i need them. then i store this template as say mytemplate.seq. then when i start a new song i bring in mytemplate.seq
and i save it to the new song folder.
the help that comes with powertracks is very extensive.
with lots of newbie tips.
peace.

 

[HeyHeyMyMy]

Oh, there we go! Thanks very much Manning.

 

[manning1]

glad you got it. pretty simple eh ?
also try this tip...when doing lots of editing on a track
notice up in the menus an option "consolidate audio regions".
hilite the track and use this option. (read the help file about it).
also note the duplicate track option. this is very usefull for "thickening" a track eg; vocals. duplicate a vocal track then in the front of the duplicate insert 2 or 3 milliseconds of silence. this will shift the duplicate track slightly.
experiment with inserting different numbers of milliseconds and youll see you can interesting "effect" occurring and thickening.
these are just a couple of a hundreds of tips i use .
if you want more - just ask. note: to put an effect around part of a track - open up the audio edit window and drag the mouse over the part, then go to the effects list, set params and process.
reall really explore the editing. its more deep than first apparent and there are lots of tricks. one being - note how you can do quick drum tracks using the drum pattern maker.(see the help).
peace.

 

[HeyHeyMyMy]

Having a lot of fun with the progam already.
A quick question... how do I go about hearing what I'm playing while I'm playing it? I can hear the tracks I've already recorded of course, but can't hear the current track I am playing. Also, how do I set it up so that I can just hear the signal w/o recording so as to adjust the levels of the pre-amp and compressor I just hooked up? Thanks very much!

 

[manning1]

tell me what source instrument your trying to record so i can suggest how you hear better. while recording.
this will help me make suggestions.
going into a session soon - then sleepybyes - gotta get some shuteye. so will talk tomorrow.
but quickly.. a tip on getting the right level in powertracks for a recorded
track. firstly - before hitting the record button in powertracks (from now on i'll call it what us users all call it - ptpa) bring up ptpa levl meters.
aim for -3db to -6db on the input signal.
do a test recording and look at waveform in audio edit window. youll notice
the waveform area is bounded by an upper (and lower) horizontal line.
you want the peaks of the track below the level of the upper horiz line for example. also check ptpa meters. record at about -3db to -6db on the track.
NOT RIGHT AT 0db. when mixing down you want the mix to be at -3db to allow a margin for a future mastering gngr to master your song.
btw - your just scratching the surface of this great package.
lots of neat stuff for you to discover yet !!
hows the signal chain sounding of your recorded tracks ?
i bet its clean and nice. note - some folks are using powertracks with lynx convertors. amazing convertors. pristine. but the audiophile is darn good for the price.
talk to you tomorrow.

 

[HeyHeyMyMy]

Just recording vox and acoustic guitar for now. I will definitely aim for the input level you suggested from now on, thanks.

The signal chain sounds just great, I couldn't be happier... especially after recording on my noisy old tape until for the past two years.

Thanks again Manning.

 

[manning1]

ok HHey. MONITORING....ive got a lot of msges to answer, and wifey and i are going out soon. will get into more detail later.
the problem with stereo sound cards - well not actually a problem...
is ideally one needs an extra thru channel on the soundcard one can turn up
for monitoring. the problem is hearing acoustic guitar. because its a pretty low level instr to start with. now heres a way for you to try and hope it works.
find a used line mixer and send output of dmp3 into a line input.
plug phones into line mixer. now take the "foldback" from the input of the
channel your plugging the dmp3 output into and send it to the sound card for recording the track. also take output of sound card into 2 seperate channels of the line mixer. VERY IMPORTANT. pan the two channels all left and right. this will allow you to turn up the monitor level of the acoustic using the line mixer channel volume viz a vis the soundcard.
other wise you need a more exapensive sound card solution with direct thru monitoring.
i'll get into this further later. gotta run.
its all in the way you set up monitoring procedure.

 

[HeyHeyMyMy]

No way, really? I could hear myself while running my old little PortaStudio into an SB Live card but can't with this solution? That is ridiculous, come on Manning, don't hold out on me (haha), there's got to be a little magic button I push in PowerTracks that will let me hear the signal coming in! If I really can't hear the line-in signal with the Audiophile 2496 card then I'm going to take it back and get something you CAN hear it with. This just doesn't seem right at all.

 

[manning1]

hh. its all a function of the sound card. and what the soundcard will let you do. the live is a different animal. not good convertors like the audiophile.

check your audiophile control panel. its tabbed pages i believe,
there is a setting in it from my reading of the specs that send the input signal back out.which it sounds like you want. have you checked the audiophile control panel ?? otherwise i would go on the pg user forum and also contact maudio tech support to step you through how you set up
for "pass through monitoring" which ive a feeling is what you want. there is a monitor feature in the audiophile if i remember. prolly you have not set it up.

 

[HeyHeyMyMy]

Will do. Thank you sir.

 

[flourish]

I have the Audiophile 2496 as well and I recently learned that in the second tab ("Patchbay Router") the default selection is "WaveOut 1/2". If you change it to "H/W In 1/2" you can have direct monitoring. I'm pretty sure at least... seems to work for me...

If you are unsure how to get to the tab screen I am talking of, right click the M-Audio icon in your tray and go to "Open Delta Control Panel".

 

[flourish]

By the way, by doing what I suggested, you would get "pass through" monitoring, not "active monitoring". I'm looking for a latency free solution without clipping, but can't seem to accomplish it with my 4 yr old computer.

 

[HeyHeyMyMy]

Thanks for the advice, but this post is almost 5 months old now. Got it all straightened out a while ago.