Several Questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter darkecho
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darkecho

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Ok, so my buddies and I (Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, Drums, Vox) like to cover old video game music (mostly megaman and streetfighter lol) among other stuff, and we have been using my onboard sounds' line in input for my desktop... and obviously it doesnt sound that great... I have a few questions:

1. Is 96hz ok? or should i really look for more? (192k)
2. I use adobe audition, and acid 4.0. it would be great to be able to record everyone at the same time, but also, i would like to keep everyone on seperate tracks for effects and editing.. this doesnt seem easily possible... would it be possible to assign different inputs on my audio card to different tracks in the software and arm all tracks to record and then record everyone playing simultaneously?
3. I assume mics need a preamp to boost their signal because the powere supplied to a normal computer mic is insufficient? is it ok if I hook up a guitar to an amplifier with an output and run that into my interface/computer? or will the signal fry my card being amplified? I dont like using software distortion as the amp we use sounds great..
4. when we have used the amp inline the computer never recorded it right, it always sounded strange... is most likely because of the obboard soundcard? will an interface fix this? because another one of my friends uses a mac with the imic and garageband and his guitar always sounds good. and he doesnt use an amp inline... im looking at a pci soundcard btw, not usb/fire..
5. what is the difference between unbalanced and balanced inputs?
6. I will need an input for the guitar,bass, and vox.. the keyboard can do either 1/4 or SPDIF then im not sure about micing the drums yet... that sounds like its going to be an issue. how would i resolve this? would there be a way to get like 4 mics on the drums and have them all combined into one cable that goes to the computer? or would that not work?

i think thats all i can think of at the moment... i play the keyboard and it always sounds fine no matter how we record it but i would like to get a little bit nicer equip for recording simultaneously.. unload your suggestions please!!
 
What is your budget? What kind of audio card do you have? I usually record in 24bit/48khz. yes you will mostly likely need preamps to achieve a sound you're satisfied with especially on vocals. You need to mic the guitar cab if you don't like software, your'e friend is probably using the amp simulation in garageband. Search the forum for the various recording terms. hope that helps
 
thanks! I have been researching a lot and have learned what i wantd to know about a few things such as simultaneous recording.. i am now looking at 3 different sound cards.. i actually have a thread on it in here THANks again! :)
 
1. Is 96hz ok? or should i really look for more? (192k)
Actually 88.1 dithers down better or if you have some decent converters 44.1 which is what all CDs are burned at, will be sufficient.

2. I use adobe audition, and acid 4.0. it would be great to be able to record everyone at the same time, but also, i would like to keep everyone on seperate tracks for effects and editing.. this doesnt seem easily possible... would it be possible to assign different inputs on my audio card to different tracks in the software and arm all tracks to record and then record everyone playing simultaneously?

When you record all at once you need to either record the whole thing in stereo taking a feed off a mixing board or, if you have money to rent or buy, you can use a converter box which needs a set of converters for each track you are recording. These are not cheap however and renting is your friend.

Another cheap solution is to find any effects boxes like pods etc, that may have a SPIDIF port and you can then have a third input source for tracking other than the left and right jacks on most low end soundcards. Even the SoundBlaster has a SPIDIF port which gives you a third channel. You can put the guitars into a pod and record directly along with maybe bass and vocal. Poor man’s 3 channel tracking.

3. I assume mics need a preamp to boost their signal because the powere supplied to a normal computer mic is insufficient? is it ok if I hook up a guitar to an amplifier with an output and run that into my interface/computer? or will the signal fry my card being amplified? I dont like using software distortion as the amp we use sounds great..

Get a cheap mixer with as many preamps lines as you will need. Make sure each channel has direct out for more versatility. The amp idea may not work if the line level signal is not matched to your soundcard.

4. when we have used the amp inline the computer never recorded it right, it always sounded strange... is most likely because of the obboard soundcard? will an interface fix this? because another one of my friends uses a mac with the imic and garageband and his guitar always sounds good. and he doesnt use an amp inline... im looking at a pci soundcard btw, not usb/fire..

Could be an impedance mismatch. What soundcard do you have?

5. what is the difference between unbalanced and balanced inputs?

Balanced signals can run longer lengths of wire distance before they degrade. Unbalanced are usually fine under 6 foot cable lengths. Most pro studios run balanced however.

6. I will need an input for the guitar,bass, and vox.. the keyboard can do either 1/4 or SPDIF then im not sure about micing the drums yet... that sounds like its going to be an issue. how would i resolve this? would there be a way to get like 4 mics on the drums and have them all combined into one cable that goes to the computer? or would that not work?

You need a mixer, cheapest easiest way.
 
sweet thanks! I have onboard sound AC97...mobo = Abit max3

I am looking at some sound cards, i might be able to borrow a mixer from a buddy. I think i am going to mic the guitar and bass Amps with dynamic mics, ill probably just plug the keyboard directly in since its all digital and there doesnt seem to be a point in micing it if it sounds fine purely electronic. the drums will need at leas 4 mics probably 2 dynamic for snare and kick adn then 2 condensed for cymbals and that will be the main use for the mixer.. ill combine those signals and then a condensed mic for the vox... do all of the mics need to be on preamp inputs?

i am thinking about the delta66 because its got 5 inputs that i could use pretty easily without having to combine any other instruments together. what im curious about is, the sound cards all seem to have different bit rates and frequencies... the delta66 is 24/96 there is an Emu1212 thats like 24/192 and the audiophile is like 64/192... whats the bitrate change between these cards? and whats the frequency change? I want good quality but i dont want to go all out if it doesnt really affect the sound positively.
 
Don't worry about the frequency ranges on these cards. Few people are actually recording at 192. It takes a lot of hard drive space and you have to dither down to 44.1 in the end to burn it to CD. This means you are throwing out a large amount of the bits you capture at 192. The Audiophile card has a midrange bump that drove me nuts trying to figure out why my mixes did not translate well to various speakers. I was happy the day I sold it on ebay. I would avoid that one.

5 channels on the the Delta 64 will get you started but the Delta 1010 can be had for under $300 used and this gives you a lot more inputs if you can afford it.

I have not EMU experience but I have heard good things.
 
ok so im assuming that as long as it has 24 bit and 96 then ill be fine... ill be keeping lots of this music on my computer to listen to anyways, i would like to have the slightly higher freq. for future when it becomes more widely used..

i looked at the 1010 but it doesnt seem to have any quarter inch plugs! I need those for basically every instrument!
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--MDOD1010LT+

am i looking at the wrong one?
 
hmm that looks really nice... i cant seem to find anything under 399 haha. ill keep looking. thanks for the help! are there any other cheaper but still good cards with 6 quarter inputs or anything? thanks agian!
 
ok i got an idea...

just need a question answered to make sure this would work...

ok so the 1010 LT (the one i posted before without the rack) has lots of RCA inputs.. but its pretty cheap at 199~ and since i dont really need to have a rack thing, i was thinking maybe i could just get an RCA to Phono snake adapter and change all of the RCA over to quarter inch jacks.. would that work? ok now my othe question,

the RCAs look like they pair up red/white... does that mean that they are mono by themselves? for instance, if i got an RCA to Phono adapter, and plugged it onto one of the rca inputs... and then my guitar into that... would my guitar record stereo? or would it just come out one speaker? I guess what i want to know is, how many seperate female quarter inch inputs can i make out of the given RCAs...

im mainly looking at converting the RCA breakoutcable..
 
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