Recording Problem,,,,,help=!?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dark_iscariot
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Alright, but Im using Internet tape deck , and you have 8tracks,each one you choose your input, so you can choose left on nr1 and then right on nr2 then it will be in stereo if you record both of theese at the same time, but with what are you supposed to plug in if you cant use either mic or guitar cable to record in stereo,,,,im lost?
 
samich17, why convert a mono track to stereo? You'll double the datasize?

dark_iscariot, I still don't get what your confusion is. A mono signal is a mono signal. Stereo is a pair of mono signals where they have been mixed in such a way as to fool the ear into hearing space and separation, so the muxic sounds more realistic. The way mono tracks comes out of both speakers is called panning. You route the output of the track to the L/R stereo pair and you pan the track dead center. It's simple.
 
So your recording the left(mono) track only....
When you playback, are you only hearing the left?
If you pan to the center on the track, what happens?
 
Well yes I can only record from the left and I can pan it into the center but the sound is just not that good as when it is recorded from both sides.
Alchemy, what you are saying is that it is impossible to record from the left and right Linein at the same time, in stereo?
But in mono it works?
 
Get yourself a mixer, like most musicians do, then you can record stereo. You can find one used pretty cheap. Just a small 8 track will do. Hell, you can get an 8 track new for 200 bucks.
 
Um alright,,,But I havent got the money, well thanks anyway
 
I think what you need is a little mixing board that will output stereo to your soundcard. Your problem is stemming from changing a mono signal into stereo. Whatever way you do it you have to split the signal and no matter what, your going to need a mixer eventually so thats the way to go. If you can't and it will help yur sound quality then get a signal splitter at radio shack and then reverse that to a stereo plug for your soundcard.
 
A signal splitter? My guitar cable is mono, how would it work to use this splitter to record in stereo?
 
A signal splitter will split your mono signal(one wire) into 2 mono signals( 2 wires) that will be exactly the same. You can then use those 2 signals to run into a Y connector that has a stereo plug end(2 rings). This won't give you true stereo. It will send your mono signal to both sides and then both your speakers will play your mono input. You could add effects to each mono signal separately. You can duplicate the mono signal the same way using software. Like everyone is telling you, this won't give you stereo but you said on your system that panning is causing a deterioration in your signal which doing the above should correct.
You also said "I can only record from the left and I can pan it into the center but the sound is just not that good as when it is recorded from both sides." How would you know how it sounds when it is recorded on both sides if you haven't been able to do it?
 
I recorded two guitars, and panned the second only to the right, that was what i meant, huge sound difference.
Could explain how to record in true stereo, if all mic and guitar cables are mono? Isnt it just the mixing which makes the whole song "in stereo"?
 
Read back aways, AlChuck has already explained that for you.
 
Yeah right, i read that but I mean, why is there a possibility to record, in stereo from the linein, what can be recorded in "real stereo" or whatever that is...?
 
why is there a possibility to record, in stereo from the linein, what can be recorded in "real stereo" or whatever that is...?

Because you couldn't use a mono input to record to your PC from a cassette deck, or a CD-player. Because no one would buy one if it could only recoodr a single mono audio track at a time. Because outputs from synths and drum machines are usually in stereo -- the stereo mixing has already occured on the device.

Let me say a little more about stereo. Stereo is simply an attempt to capture -- and reproduce -- something like what happens when you (with your two ears) hear sounds occuring in space. The differences between what enters your left ear and what enters your right ear is what allows your brain to spatialize and tell what direction the sound is coming from. Stereo recording attempts to capture sound in a similar way, so that the differences between what's coming out of the speakers causes the apparent localization of sounds in the space between and in front of the speakers.

Sounds can be recorded in many ways. Let's say there are two basic approaches --

  • capturing the accurate clear sound of each element separately and using craft and skill and art to control and simulate the spaciousness. The spatialization is achieved in the mixing phase by panning and by using stereo effects like reverb,delay, etc. that give some simulation of the multiple small echoes that typically occur in a real environment. Or,
  • making a painstaking effort to capture the exact sound that is occuring in a particular space by micing in stereo.

The disadvantage with the latter is that it is an advanced art and takes a lot more skill and experience to do correctly. Also, good -sounding acoustic spaces are required, spaces isolated from outside interference (the noise of passing planes and trucks, etc.). The musicians must all play their parts all at the same time, and the relative balance between them must all be the way you want, because once it's recorded to two tracks, it's all mixed up already. In this approach, you have to doo all the work up front, and you have to live with what youi record, or do it over -- all of it -- until you get it right.

The advantage, then, with the former approach becomes obvious with a little thought. If you can get everything recorded separately, clearly and independnet of the surroundings, and can then simulate surroundings effectively, all things are possible. The parts can be mush more easily controlled, and less rigor is necessary to pull off the actual recording. Also, the creative potential for experimenting with effects in unnatural ways opens up a whole new artistic playground

Practically, you don't have a great sounding room to work with. Your best bet is to get clean, clear, uncolored mono tracks of your parts. The singer can make fifty, a hundred takes of the vocal without all the musicans needing to play the song fifty or a hundred times. Once all the tracks are captured, you play with the panning and with effects to try to simulate a sense of space.

A standard approach might be to have the kick drum and bass guitar panned dead center (meaning each speaker gets the same amount of this sound, which gives the effect that it's located right in the center between the speakers on playback. Then Guitar A might be panned somewhere to the left, and Guitar B to the right, and the lead and background vocalists similarly, to spread out the sound a bit. Reverb, delay, and other time-based effects are very commonly used to take some of the signals and scatter them around in ways similar to what happens in a good-sounding acoustical space, and to add a simulation of nearness and farness from the listeners.

The final result of all this -- no matter which approach is taken -- is a stereo mix, that has different signals going to a pair of speakers, such that this effect of sounding real can occur. This is where the craft and art of the recording engineer all come together, and it all depends on the craft and art used during the tracking of all the parts.

(Whew... did I say I was going to talk a "little" about it? Guess I got carried away. I hope this helps clarify some of the ideas a little...)
 
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