When recording, why do I only hear left side??

S

silly_rabbit

New member
Greetings,
I am a home-recording neophyte and was wondering if some of you more experienced folks would share your hard earned knowledge.
I am using Cakewalk Guitar Studio 2 with a POD version 2.0; the line outputs of the POD are y-cabled into the "line-in" of my SoundBlaster LIVE MP3 soundcard. So that I don't drive the roomie and neighbors berserk, I plug in my headphones to my computer speakers to play and record. The issue/problem is that only the left side of the headphones (or speakers when I don't plug in the headphones) can be heard when I play and record. The good thing is that the recording (after track is disarmed) comes out sounding ok through both speakers. Yet I would like to hear with both sides of headphones while I am *recording*. My speakers are connected to the "Line-Out" of my soundcard and I have already tried placing the headphones in Line-Out as well with the same results as the speakers- only hearing the left side (again, while recording).

FYI I have 128MB of RAM, 10Gig of hardrive space and a Pentium III, I don't think it is my setup; perhaps it is the POD?
Any suggestions??
 
It might be a dumb question, but are the headphones OK? Do both channels work in playback (through either the line or speaker outs) on the headphones?

- gaffa
 
The next obvious qustion -- is the POD Y-cabled into a stereo 1/8" plug? If it's divided into three sections (so-called TRS for tip-ring-sleeve) by two insulating rings, then it's right (look at a stereo headphone plug). If it's divided into only sections by one insulating ring, then it's a mono cable, and you will be getting only half the signal into the SB's line in jack.

Good luck!
 
gaffa, thanks for replying; in my silly world, dumb or stupid questions are a mathematical improbability :^)

My headphones and speakers sound fine in playback; they were also tested with the diagnostic that came with the Soundblaster soundcard.

AlChuck, my original adapter was MONO; I went to Radio Shack and picked up an adapter that accepts "1/4" stereo plug to fit a "1/8" stereo jack (it has two insulating rings like my headphones like you mentioned). Unfortunately, this did not rectify the problem.

To be more specific with my setup, I used a regular guitar cable that goes into the input of my POD. The left and right outputs are Y-cabled into another regular guitar cable with a shorter length which is then connected to the 1/4 to 1/8 adapter. Is there something I am missing??

Again, thank you both for replying
 
I think so. Your Y-cable goes to a "another regular guitar cable with a shorter length which is then connected to the 1/4 to 1/8 adapter?" A regular guitar cable is mono. So you got two signals summed to mono and plugged into a stereo jack on the adapter via a mono plug. Hence only one side comes through to the cable.
 
AlChuck,
what you said makes sense. I went to Radio Shack again and this time picked up a Y-adapter with "1/8" dual MONO into "1/8" STEREO. What I did was take two short guitar cables (both MONO I assume, as you mentioned) and placed the ends into the left and right outputs of the POD and the other ends each went into 1/4 to 1/8 mono adapters; these adapters were then inserted into the 1/8 mono to 1/8 stereo Y-adapter. The Y-adapter was inserted into the LINE-IN of the soundcard.

Unfortunately, this didn't rectify the problem.

Your advice is still appreciated, though
 
You know, it may be completely coincidental, but I found that I have the same exact problem. I'm using the TASCAM 414 mkII Portastudio, and during recording and playback, I can only hear the left side out of the headphones. I'm fairly certain that I'm using the machine correctly - I followed the directions exactly, and even tried a different pair of headphones, but to no avail. During mixdown the sound came out in stereo perfectly (through my stereo speakers) and the complete tape is in stereo. Mabye it's just what happens with lower end equipment???
 
Whew, silly_rabbit,

Why not just get a single cable with 1/8" stereo plug to two mono 1/4" plugs? The way you've got it hooked up, there are so many connections made, with a little bit of signal loss at each adapter connection... not to mention the difficulty of trying to determine whether one of the cables or adapters is bad... plus I'm sure it would be cheaper than all the individual pieces...

At any rate, if the connections are all good, what you describe sounds OK, so I guess there's something else going on.

How do you have the track's source configured in Cakewalk? And where are you piping it to?

-AlChuck
 
AlChuck,
The cable that you described was my first choice; unfortunately I went three electronic stores before I had to settle for the adapter that I have mentioned and hooked it up with equipment(i.e., the the short guitar cables and mono adapters) that I already had.

To address the Cakewalk issue, if I am to understand your question, my "Source" (When I double click "Source" in the Track View) is read "Left SB Live! Wave In [B000]". FYI the only other options I have in the "Source" is "Right SB Live! Wave In [B000]" , "MIDI Omni", and the MIDI channels 1 to 16.

If what mean by "piping it to" is the "Port", the only option (from the "Port") is "SB Live! Wave Out [B000]"; else I don't know what you mean by "piping it to".

Thanks,
SR
 
...I went three electronic stores before I had to settle for the adapter...
Click to expand...
You didn't try a music store? Or online? Hosa has a large line of adapter cables like this and many music stores -- at least those that sell digital audio recording equipment-- typically carry at least some of them.

...my "Source" (When I double click "Source" in the Track View) is read "Left SB Live! Wave In [B000]". FYI the only other options I have in the "Source" is "Right SB Live! Wave In [B000]" , "MIDI Omni", and the MIDI channels 1 to 16.
Click to expand...

Well, that explains it your problem. The Left SB Live! Wave In only records from the left side of the stereo input. The Right Wave In only records from the right side. You should also have the choice Stereo SB Live! Wave In, which will record a stereo WAV file to the track. Are you sure that's not an option? Not being there might mean a driver installation/configuration problem.

If what mean by "piping it to" is the "Port", the only option (from the "Port") is "SB Live! Wave Out [B000]"; else I don't know what you mean by "piping it to".
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I meant. The terminology used is a bit out of balance. They label the incoming audio port as "Source" but the outgoing audio port as "Port." Definitely confusing. And I didn't help by using the term "piping," which is aa plumbing analogy, sensible only if you're already thinking about it using the same analalogy... Sorry.
 
Thanks for the replies,
AlChuck, addressing your feedback,
1. I looked on the net and found Hosa as well- I was looking for a quick solution instead of waiting for a week to order a cable. Thanks again for the suggestion.

2. In addressing your response "You should also have the choice Stereo SB Live! Wave In, which will record a stereo WAV file to the track. Are you sure that's not an option?", I neglected to mention that the only other option to select was "none". Perhaps this used to be the "stereo" option that you have mentioned, and something "happened".

3. Your other comment was .."Not being there might mean a driver installation/configuration problem." I am definitely inclined to agree.. Is there an option to fix this besides uninstalling and re-installing the drivers, etc for the soundcard?? Has ANYONE faced this problem/issue before??

Thanks for all replies,
SR
 
SR,

The "none" choice is a standard member of the list.

For more info maybe try your question on a Sound Blaster newsgroup... here's one website that's a good place to start looking:

http://listen.to/sblive

Let us know what you discover.
 
You should certainly have a choice of "stereo wave in" in addition to the right and left. You probably want to check into that.

In the meantime, here's a workaround you might try. Arm two tracks for recording and set the source of the first to left wave in and the other to right wave in. This should capture the stereo, although it will be spread over two tracks.

You could then (if you want to or need to) use the Mixdown Audio - Bounce to Track to mix them to a single track. Then go back and delete the orignals.
 
From suggestions from other sources and message boards they tended to agree on one of the first possibilities suggested earlier in this post.

As mentioned in an earlier post my connection from LIne6 POD 2.0 left and right outputs were mono'ed by 2 18-inch guitar cables into a dual mono to '1/8' stereo adapter into soundcard.. I have used the mono adapters and cables before seperately with no problem, so I didn't think there was much of an issue and hence I didn't think the cable hook up was the problem.

What I did was to finally call several stores in the my metropolitan area and finally found a store that carried the Y cable that AlChuck (in another post on "Y-Cables") and Line6 recommended:
the "HOSA" CMP-153 dual cable (dual 1/4 mono into 1/8 stereo)and IT WORKED! I'm glad it did, because the next obvious step would have been to purchase a whole new soundcard (by process of elimination due to the possibility of a malfunctioning line-in input)

Another piece of information to share when recording with Cakewalk Software: For Cakewalk Guitar Studio/TRacks if you want to record a stereo guitar track you have to use two tracks. However, Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 has an option to record a stereo wave track.

Thanks very much to all that have responded and contributed suggestions to get me back on track,

-SR
 
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