Problem with tracks going out of Sync. . .

[WhiteBandit]

I have a problem that hopefully people can help me remedy. I use Fruity Loops to create drum tracks for some songs and then I play guitar and my cousin will play bass to those. When recording, we use a Tascam 4 track analog recorder and mic my guitar, his amp, the computer speakers (this track is used mainly as a "place holder," that way we can go back and mute it when mixing guitar/bass tracks down onto the computer and get a fairly exact spot to start mixing from), and even vocals if we're daring

Once I have a copy of us playing along on the tape, I go back and record guitar and bass tracks individually onto the computer through my Sound Blaster Live's line-in jack.

The problem comes when I go to mix down my tracks (in any program: Goldwave, Cool Edit Pro, Cakewalk). Anything I recorded with the Line-in jack slowly goes out of sync with the drums created by Fruity Loop over the course of the whole song.

So while I mix the guitar over the drums, the first 45 seconds or so of the song sounds fine. Then you start noticing that the guitar (and bass once you mix that) slowly start to get more and more off track.

We're trying to record to the drums that Fruity Loops created (since it does a fairly decent job and they sound nice and clean). If we take the drum track we recorded on the tape and record that BACK to the computer and try to mix this track and the Fruity Loops track, the recorded drum track also goes out of sync, so it's not that we just suck at keeping time

Is there anyway to remedy this situation? Perhaps my soundcard is the problem?

We're running Windows 2000 SP2, 384 megs SDRAM, Pentium III 600 Mhz with a Sound Blaster Live.

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

If I understand you correctly, the problem is occuring because you're not syncing the 4-tracker recorder to the computer.... which is absolutely essential if you want everything to stay in sync for the duration of the tune....

The mechanical motor of the 4-track is not consistent and will drift when compared to the timing of the computer, so the way to sync them is to allow the computer to play back to the 4-track's playback.

This is done by tring one of the cassette tracks with a SMPTE stripe, and using a sync box (JL Cooper or whatever is compatible with your setup) to let your computer run in time with your 4-track.......