Cubase/soundcard inputs

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Neil Ogilvie

Still Learning.......
Im new to home recording and have just found this forum. Well done on a great website. Its really helped so far.
Anyway, I have a problem......
I've got a 1.8 Athlon (not that I think it makes much difference, but I thought I'd say just in case) with a Sound Blaster Audigy 5.1 soundcard with live drive running Cubasis, although I will be soon updating to Cubase.
So far I've been able to record pretty well using the live drive to input microphones and guitars. However, it has come the time to record drums. I tried inputting into the front mic input, the rear mic input, the line-in and the phono's on the front as two seperate channels. All I seem to be able to get is two microphones coming out as one track. What I need to do is be able to get about five seperate tracks recorded all at once. Is this possible?
If it isn't I've thought about using my PA (Peavey XR684) as a mixer and sending the signal out to the computer as a stereo signal. However, this would mean I could only mix the drums seperately before, not after I've recorded them. Not much good really. Any ideas anyone?
Short of that all I can think of is recording using only one microphone........
Are there any better programs I can be using that will allow me to record several tracks simultaneously?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Your problem isn't from the software, it's the hardware that is limiting you. Your best bet short of getting a new soundcard is using the mixer and sending out the stereo signal.

If you want to upgrade your soundcard, the Delta 1010 is a great choice. When you upgrade the software, you want to look at getting SX instead of Cubase also.
 
The Delta 1010 is kinda pricey.....
I've not had a chance to look around the website, but it seems people don't like Soundblaster Audigy's, yeah? Doesn't look like Cubase is too popular either......
I've spoke to some other people from a pro studio since posting the message and they have said that I just need to configure the software properly. You say it's the software. Whats right?
Cheers for the reply though.
 
I wasn't going to respond since I havn't used your hardware, nor have I used Cubasis (I use Cubase VST32 and just getting into SX), but since you havn't had much response I thought I'd toss this up.

THis may be what your friends at the recording studio were talking about. I imagine somewhere in Cubasis there should be a "VST imputs" section, either under "windows" or "options". This should display how many inputs your soundcard can accept and which ones are turned on. Make sure that you have them all turned on or Cubase (and I would imagine Cubasis) won't recieve any imput from them. Can the phono's on your soundcard set up to be regular inputs?

If you can only have two inputs then the stereo in would be your best solution which does kinda suck because I have tried that on a 4 track and no matter how sweet we had the drums sounding there was always something we needed to tweek with them after we added the other instruments, but were unable to because they were locked into the track.

Lastly, Cubase is popular, you just have to talk to the right people. :) And it is looking like SX is going to blow all other systems away and actually rival the power of PT. It is only a few months old and it is strong...when they fine tune this and add on options it is going to be scary :eek:

Hope the advice can help you.
 
Neil Ogilvie said:

I've not had a chance to look around the website, but it seems people don't like Soundblaster Audigy's, yeah? Doesn't look like Cubase is too popular either......
Click to expand...

If you don't mind recording one track at a time and you have some decent pre's for your mics and you can live with recording in 16 bit then Audigy's ok. It's just that alot of peeps need and want more out of their soundcards(multiple track recording, better pre's and 24 bit recording).
Cubase is only not popular to the guys and gals that don't have it, however I believe SX is the way to go now.

Neil Ogilvie said:

I've spoke to some other people from a pro studio since posting the message and they have said that I just need to configure the software properly. You say it's the software. Whats right?
Cheers for the reply though.
Click to expand...

I say it's the hardware(not the software) that is limiting you to recording one track at a time. The people from the pro studio had to have misunderstood something because with soundblaster audigy, you can only record one track at the same time regardless of which software you use. You can feed numerous channels through a mixer and with panning come up with 2 tracks after you separate the stereo feeds through a sound editor later on.

One additional comment I'd like to make is about the Delta 1010. You should divide the cost by 10 to get a per input cost and then compare that to the single imput cost of the Audigy. Just my 2 cents worth
 
Cheers Morning Star. I'll probably be getting a Delta 1010 sometime in the future now. Thanks very much for the advice.
 
If I use the onboard sound on my motherboard (which isn't great) aswell as the Audigy, will this allow me to record 2 stereo signals (4 mono)?
 
Neil Ogilvie said:
If I use the onboard sound on my motherboard (which isn't great) aswell as the Audigy, will this allow me to record 2 stereo signals (4 mono)?
Click to expand...

To use dual soundcards you need to write the software that will allow you to do that. There are a couple software packages available for DJ's that allow dual soundcards for mixing but I haven't seen one that uses the onboard sound and a soundcard, only separate soundcards. Because of the hardware conflicts and driver issues I don't think what you are asking for is available but it's probably possible. You might want to check with Creative Labs and your motherboard manufacturer to see if it's feasible.
 
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