problem with recording/playback simultaneously

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hankel
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Hankel

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I am really new at computer recording and am confused about all the jargon. Please bear with my basic question, but here goes: I just want to be able to use a program my son gave me to do some computer recording. I have absolutely no use for it if I can't record and playback at the same time as I want to lay down track after track with my Taylor acoustic/electric guitar, and sometimes a bass. The problem is that when I go to record on the second track I get a horrible, distorted sound on the playback of the first track. I am using Cakewalk Guitar Track Pro, which is a 32 track program. I contacted Cakewalk and they gave me some tips, which I tried to the best of my ability, but I am wondering if a better soundcard would do the trick. My computer has a 300 megahertz processer with a 20 gig hard drive. My soundcard is Soundblaste Vibra II, which I think is at least part of the problem. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.
 
Does the first track play back OK if you're not recording a second track?

How are you capturing the guitar? Are you mic'ing it, or running it direct? Where are plugging into on your sound card? Line in? Mic in? Are you using a mixer? Pre-amp? POD or DI?

Give us some more info and we'll try and work through the problem.
 
Being able to simultaneously stream audio data off the drive for playback and audio data onto the drive as you record a new track is called full-duplex operation. I believe all modern sound cards, even cheap ones, can do this.

I have never heard of a SoundBlaster Vibra II, but the models before the Live, the AWE series, were the first Soundblasters to "support" full-duplex operation -- but not really. They way Creative "supported" it was to reduce the bit depth of the audio data it was playing back so that it could keep up with itself. Therefore, previously-recorded tracks sounded like hell when you overdubbed subsequent tracks. Note that it did not mean that what was recorded would sound like crap, just that if you tried to listen to it while you overdubbed it would allow you keep your place but not sound too great.

I suspect that perhaps this Vibra card that you mention is from that vintage of soundcard development. There's really nothing you can do about it besides just turning off the full-duplex support completely, which makes it useless for overdubs.
 
dachay2tnr:
Actually, both the first and second tracks sound just fine AFTER I turn off the record buttons, and just go to playback. It is just when I have already recorded on the first track, go back and record on the second track and at the same time listen to the first track as I am recording on the second track that I hear the horrible distorted sound. I am recording directly into the line-in jack from my acoustic/electric guitar.
 
Actually, both the first and second tracks sound just fine AFTER I turn off the record buttons, and just go to playback. It is just when I have already recorded...
Click to expand...

Yep, that's definitely exactly how it would behave if it's designed like the AWE cards. There's nothing you can do about it but live with it or get a more modern card.
 
AlChuck's got it right. I had the same issues with an older Soundblaster. I switched to a better card (one of the early Event GINA cards) and that problem (along with several other sound quality issues) was solved. This was on an old 233 MHz pentium, so the speed of your PC shouldn't be an issue until you try to pile on too many tracks or get sick of having to go out and do your laundry while you wait for the machine to finish rendering an edit ;)

Maybe an ECHO Mia would be a good next step?

OB
 
Sounds like AlChuck has it. The card is probably not truly full duplex. Given the fact you've got a 300 MHz CPU, I'm guessing the vintage is 3+ years old - so if the Vibra is the sound card that came with the computer this is a good probability. Most of the newer stuff is full duplex.



(BTW, who would name their sound card "Vibra"? Sounds like a trademark for a sex toy. :) )
 
Thanks, guys. Now the obvious question - about how much am I going to have spend to get a card that will do the job. I don't want to overspend, but I'm not a cheapo, either. Do I just make sure the card says "full duplexing" on the box, or what? Most of the computer sales people I've talked to about track recording don't have the foggiest.
 
I'm not sure you could even find a card that isn't true full-duplex anymore...

What card to get depends on what you want to do. If you want an onboard MIDI synth, baseline would be a reasonably good quality consumer card like the Voyetra/Turtle Beach Montego or the Creative SoundBlaster Audigy. About $75 for a new one.

If you are just going to record audio and any MIDI instruments you have are external, or you want to use software synths, something like the M-Audio Audiophile or the Echo Mia are good places to start, at around $150.
 
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