recording on laptop

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jimistone

jimistone

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I screwed up my korg d1600....trying to work on it when I didn't know what in the hell i was doing. So, I decided the best thing to do would be to record using my laptop.
My question is this: What is the most economical package/equipment to be able to record at least 4 tracks at the same time using my laptop?

I already have the mics, pres, and a mixing board...what else do I need?
 
if you have mics, and pres, you need an audio-interface that takes the audio signal and sends it to your computer, for four simultaneous tracks your more than likely talking about getting a firewire interface...
 
same question....

I have a laptop, and one mic... I only need 2 tracks at a time, and what type of mixing board and the other stuff would I need???
I'm really stupid when it comes to this! :confused:
 
Presonus Firebox.
I had one for a couple of years and it worked great. Very solid.
 
EdWonbass said:
Presonus Firebox.
I had one for a couple of years and it worked great. Very solid.
Click to expand...
I went to guitar center to check it out. They asked if my laptop was set up with firewire.
Fuck...I dunno, how can I tell if it is?

They had a lexicon (sp?) quantum that would record 4 tracks at the same time...it works with USB and was $100 less that the presonus firebox.

They said a USB unit has a slight bit of latentcy and the firewire boxes have none. Should I be concerned with that?
 
If your laptop has a port labeled IEEE 1394 then you have Firewire. If not you can buy a PCMCIA Firewire card for your laptop.

I don't know much about usb as an interface so someone other than me should share their experiences with usb.
 
4 simultaneous tracks might be a struggle for USB although if there's a USB unit out there that does 4 simultaneous tracks I guess it must be possible.

I'm sure you're much less likely to have headahces with firewire though, pics of the firewire logo and what a firewire port looks like here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire
 
Kevin DeSchwazi said:
4 simultaneous tracks might be a struggle for USB although if there's a USB unit out there that does 4 simultaneous tracks I guess it must be possible.

I'm sure you're much less likely to have headahces with firewire though, pics of the firewire logo and what a firewire port looks like here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire
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Thanks for the link Kevin, I will check it out.

If I don't have firewire I will probably give the lexicon USB port unit a try. It's only $199 and comes with cubase le.
 
Don't go with a USB interface. They are a lot slower than firewire and you may notice latency issues. Do a search on google to see what firewire ports are and what they look like (most importantly) Also don't get a PCMCIA firewire card. That will be firewire but since it is going through the PCMCIA port, it will slow you down again. If you don't have a firewire port use a PCMCIA recording card. Do a serach for those. The laptop though is a great idea.

I use my laptop for web development and audio recording. Right now I use a Presonus firepod and have 10 channels recording simultaneously. I had to upgrade the drivers before it started working correctly. The drivers shipped with the unit are version 1.2. The ones I am using now are 2.4. Big difference. I get a perfect recording/playback everytime.

Anyhow you might also consider getting an external hard drive to record on. Windows for example has something called virtual memory. This basically works the same way as RAM but is stored on the hard drive and therefore is a lot slower. The thing is that while you are recording, if windows needs to do something, it will for a split second STOP recording and take care of its own business. A split second drop out in a recording is totally unacceptable.

This however could be debatable on how the setting of how the computers processor handles distribution or resources between programs and services, but I don't take chances. Besides a 250GB USB external HD is $100. If your computer has USB 2.0 this is perfect. If you're not even sporting that, consider getting a new laptop. You can get a pretty solid one nowadays for like $800.

I hope some of this helps...
 
I read a Mix mag online review of the one im looking at. Lexicon Omega is the correct name.
The reviewer lowered the sample rate on the playback(said it still sounded very good) and had no latency issues recording 4 tracks at the same time.
The dude I'm talking to at guitar center said he records with one and basically told me the same thing.

I realize that firewire is faster...but...the Omega is $199 and you get the lexicon reverb, cuebase LE, and another piece of software I can't recall.

Alot of bang for the buck there....I'm leaning that way I think.
 
just realize that GC guys are trying to sell you something and magazine guys are getting paid from manufacturers (in advertising dollars) to say good things about their products.
 
Hard2Hear said:
just realize that GC guys are trying to sell you something and magazine guys are getting paid from manufacturers (in advertising dollars) to say good things about their products.
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I realize that. I went ahead and got a lexicon omega box and installed the software on my computer.

For $199 I just didn't see how I could go wrong if the damn thing works at all.
It's pretty impressive to be able to turn a laptop into a studio for that price IMO. I paid close to 2 grand for that D1600 (they are around $600 now :( )so $200 ain't bad.

Now all I have to do is find some time to record and figure this cubase crap out. ;)

Thanks for the advise.
 
This is getting off on a whole different tangent, and some may disagree, but you may wish to consider a different recording program. I worked at GC for quite some time and noticed that people new to computer recording found Cubase LE very difficult to record with. I have experience with most major manufacture's DAW's and I find Cubase LE very counter intuitive. I would suggest Tracktion 2 or 3 by Mackie for something that's very easy to get into and make your first recordings using a computer enjoyable. And it has all of the features of the big names that you can grow into, at a cheaper price than any other companies full featured DAW's. Just a suggestion if you're banging your head using Cubase.
 
Also, the Lexicon unit is a great unit. I use it for live use with NI's Komplete bundle. If latency is occuring it is usually your computer specs, and how well it works with the audio driver, not whether you are using USB or Firewire. Definately FW is a must for recording over a few tracks at a time. But if you're just doing a couple tracks simultaneously firewire will not serve any advantage. Especially considering the stability of the Lexicon's drivers. If you do occur too much latency also download the ASIO4ALL generic ASIO driver as it can sometimes work better than the factory driver. Good luck.
 
earthboundrec said:
This is getting off on a whole different tangent, and some may disagree, but you may wish to consider a different recording program. I worked at GC for quite some time and noticed that people new to computer recording found Cubase LE very difficult to record with. I have experience with most major manufacture's DAW's and I find Cubase LE very counter intuitive. I would suggest Tracktion 2 or 3 by Mackie for something that's very easy to get into and make your first recordings using a computer enjoyable. And it has all of the features of the big names that you can grow into, at a cheaper price than any other companies full featured DAW's. Just a suggestion if you're banging your head using Cubase.
Click to expand...

Cubase LE is difficult huh?

For me:
easy = difficult
difficult = impossible
:D

It took me a year to get a good handle on the d1600...but when I got it, I REALLY got it and made some decent recordings.
 
earthboundrec said:
Also, the Lexicon unit is a great unit. I use it for live use with NI's Komplete bundle. If latency is occuring it is usually your computer specs, and how well it works with the audio driver, not whether you are using USB or Firewire. Definately FW is a must for recording over a few tracks at a time. But if you're just doing a couple tracks simultaneously firewire will not serve any advantage. Especially considering the stability of the Lexicon's drivers. If you do occur too much latency also download the ASIO4ALL generic ASIO driver as it can sometimes work better than the factory driver. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Something I haven't seen....maybe you can help.
How can I send an existing song, that's already on my computer hard drive or on CD, to the omega and/or cubase?
In other words if a singer brings backing tracks on CD how do I get it on 2 tracks in cubase?
 
There should be an "import" function under "file". I know its in regular Cubase, not sure about LE.
 
jimistone said:
The dude I'm talking to at guitar center said he records with one and basically told me the same thing.
Click to expand...

Psh, if a guy at guitar center is using a 150 dollar interface, I'd have serious concerns on why he's working the recording deptarment...

As mentioned before, he's prob just trying to sell you on whatever. The guy at my guitar center actually owns a studio and works at gc for fun
 
Yeah, as Hard2Hear said, just rip the tracks from the cd, in Cubase there should be an "import from CD option" under File.
 
You need to consider an external hard drive for your laptop. The 5400 Rpm disc drive in your laptop will have to work hard to handle recording.
 
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