SB LIVE, Audiophile 2496, Sibelius, SC-8850....

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hubyduby

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For christmas, I got my long-awaited Roland Sound Canvas-8850. I have a CD-RW and the Sound Forge XP thanx to my SBLIVE bundle. How close am I to my dream home studio for recording my works from the SC-8850 (and any cool soundfonts)?

You see, I need my SC-8850 to play thru my computer so I can record it. The SB Live does not accomodate the RCA outputs from the Sound Canvas. So, I figured that I'd buy the M Audio Audiophile 2496 and connect SC8850 RCA outputs to the Audiophile's RCA inputs and have the Audiophile's S/PDIF output connect to the S/PDIF input of the SBLive's SPDIF card. The S/PDIF output from the SBLive would connect to my speakers, of course. I'll use Sound Forge to do some clean recordings and then make CDs on my CD-RW. Oh yea... I'll finally Drop my crappy Encore Sequencer and buy the Sibelius music sequencer.

So what do you think? Is this a feasible setup? I just hope my understanding of home recording is accurate here. That's why I'm asking you guys.

Thanx alot.
Hubyduby
 
No monitors...What exactly is a monitor anyway? I'll have just simple direct s/pdif connections from the SBLive's Digital I/O card to the speaker and, assuming I get the audiophile, an S/PDIF connection from the audiophile's S/PDIF Out to the SBLive's S/PDIF Input. I figure this would be a good setup to make MIDI pieces using any Soundfonts I use or makeup along with the sounds from the Sound Canvas.
 
Why in tarnation would you want to run your signal from the audiophile to the SB? It's already being recorded on your HD! If your speakers accept a digital signal why send it to the SB first? Go straight out of the Audiophile. My only suggestion would be to get some really nice RCA cables to connect the Canvas to the Audiophile. No Hosa here. And use a real S/PDIF cable, not just any audio cable with RCA ends.
If you don't have digital monitors the S/PDIF to the speaker deal won't work! In that case run the RCA line outs from the audiophile to an amp and then to your speakers.
One more thing-- the SC8850 has its own MIDI interface built in, so you're wasting money buying a card with another one.
Albeit you're not wasting very much since that card is pretty cheap in any case. It just might lead to more confusion. DAL makes a card like this without MIDI capability that's mighty clean.
 
What's with this monitor thing? I have Cambridge Soundworks speakers also from Creative labs. Perhaps the monitors have been internalized in either the speakers or the SBLive sound card itself? I ask because the speaker deal IS working. I simply connected my S/PDIF cable from the Digital I/O card to the S/PDIF port at the back of the subwoofer. Thanx for the info guys. I really appreciate the feedback.
 
Oops, Doc, You're right about the Audiophile allowing me to record my Sound canvas to the Hard disk. I guess the problem now is how I hook up my speakers (monitors). How would I hook up two soundcards to play through one set of speakers... especially if the speakers have only One S/PDIF? That's pretty much why I was trying to patch the audiophile's digital signal through the soundblaster's S/PDIF input.

As always, thank you guys for the quick lessons in Home recording.
 
Hey: we both learned something here!
Cambridge Soundworks speakers ARE digital monitors. \
BUT, to answer your last question:
Again- no need to. Once the file is written to your HD, playback will occur through any active source that's selected. I have two soundcards installed but only because I need a SB compatible card to run internet voice chats.
 
Cool... ok, assuming I hook up the Sound canvas to the audiophile and then fire up the Sound forge to record my work created on Sibelius (ooh, I'm getting goose bumps just imagining this stuff) and assuming that I found this great voice sample that I want to use as a soundfont, all i have to do is record each part to my hard drive separately. Ok this part I get up until I get to the part where I want to hear my soundfonts before recording. Well, I could hook up a pair of headphones to the SBLive itself to hear the sounds (!) Dag, prolly means I have to disconnect my CD rom's digital connection to the sound card and make an analog connection again. Then record the SBlive soundfonts to Sound Forge. I won't hear anything from the speakers while recording. BUT when I'm done and playback the recording on my computer, I'd hear both the sound canvas AND the Soundfont, right?! This would ALL be avoided if the Sound canvas had S/PDIF connections coming out of it instead of this analog RCA crap.

Hmm... perhaps I should look into an Analog to Digital converter (man, what the heck am I talking about? Do they make these things?)I think I'd need something to change the Left and Right analog signal coming out of the RCA ports on the back of the Sound canvas into a Digital signal and then I could send the Sound canvas signal into the SBLive's S/PDIF Input. How's that?
 
Ow my head hurts

Man, i opened a whole new can of worms talking about converters. The ones from Lucid and Db technologies will make a 24 bit signal and sound forge only records up to 16 bit signals. There's another post here from a guy griping about Sonic Foundry's Lack of 24 bit recording software. Plus this stuff gets expensive. The sound canvas was bad enough! I'm sure there are some low cost 16 bit AD converters I could look into if I want to go this route, right?
 
Hubyduby,
Sibelius is Notation Software, not a sequencer.
Sure, it can act like a sequencer of sorts, and
it is the coolest notation software on the planet,
but if you are going to get into sequencing,
that might not be the ticket.

I have Encore and Sibelius; Sibelius isnt much
better as a Sequencer, but it is killer as
notation Software. When I do a difficult piece,
I start it on Encore (I know it better than
Sibelius) then import it to Cakewalk, where
I can do the editing, Tempo Changes, all that
fun stuff.

Congrats on your Christmas Roland, I got a Roland
JV1010 for christmas, so I guess both of us
are happy.
BTW, how close are you to the dream home studio??
Far, Far Away. The Dream Home Studio always needs
one more toy, it will never be complete. That's
why it is a "Dream" studio. Good Luck, David
 
yeah... good idea

Good idea guys... i should just chill. I'm stressing over so much stuff and I STILL havent done a darn thing yet! I'll take this one step at a time. Since it seems i can't go wrong with the audiophile, I'm gonna make that my first step. Thanx david about the info on the Sibelius. I'm still quite enamored by it. I've been using Encore for a Looong time and I'm very frustrated with my difficulty in getting the latest upgrade. So, I figured it was time to move on. Sibelius looks like the next logical step. Thanx again.
 
hubyduby,
http://www.gvox.com is the new encore site. They mentioned
that they might come out with a new version.
They are lying, bigtime. Aint gonna happen.

Sibelius is Badass for notation, the best program
out there, and it is easy compared to finale,
so if you do notation, pick that sucker up,
and it will serve as a decent sequencer until
you sink your teeth into somethin else. David
 
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