USB Audio Interface
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Posted on Jun 20, 2009 01:59 pm
acoustic rain
Member Since: Nov 02, 2004
I would like to record some drum tracks out of my laptop onto my DAW. I think I need a USB Audio Interface; something like an M-Audio MobilePre USB. In other words a decent set of outputs vs my 1/8-inch headphone jack on my laptop. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Kirk
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Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jun 20, 2009 09:15 pm If the drum tracks are already in audio form, such as a wav file or the like then you could just drag them onto a USB memory stick and then drop them into the DAW that way if the DAW accepts USB connection and can see the drive.
Otherwise, yes the little M-Audio unit will work fine. And yes much better then the mini jack headphone out.
I think that is really the cheapest reliable alternative. While there are cheaper alternatives I would stay away from them to avoid the headache of trying to make drivers work and so on. M-Audio has stable and easy to set up driver installs and are pretty reliable and sound good.
Jun 21, 2009 03:02 pm Thanks Noize. My Fostex VF-160 does not have a card reader on it, so that's out. I was thinking similarly (but a bit out of the way and slightly impractical) that I would burn the wave file to a cd-r and upload it like that. Discs area rather cheap these days, but still it seems a bit over the top burning just a few megs to a disc that takes over 700! I'm probably gonna go with an m-audio setup. Amazon has great prices right now. Admittedly, before I break down and actually make the purchase, I probably will burn one drum track to disc in order to get right onto my next song. Thanks again man.
Jun 21, 2009 03:50 pm Oh and I almost forgot to ask; this would be awful if I got a unit and it wasn't what I thought. As I've stated, I'd like to use a USB Audio Interface (right now we're down to the Lexicon Alpha and the PreSonus AudioBox USB 2x2). I weeded out the 16-bit options and any that don't have Vista 32-bit SP2 drivers. The question is, will any recorded sound on my laptop be directed to my recorder? I understand there are 1/4" outputs on these units and it seems reasonable that the sound would be transferred this way. I know this sounds amateurish, but I''ve not used anything like this so I want to make sure. Thanks! Kirk
Jun 21, 2009 08:52 pm Hey Acoustic Rain...does your Fostex VF-160 have a built-in CD drive? Mine does, and that's the way I export tracks into my DAW. It's pretty slick. Mine is a CD-RW (re-Writeable) so I don't really go through that many disks because I can re-use them. I don't have to worry if it's one track or sixteen tracks.
And, you can go the other way too. You can load .wav files into your VF-160 as well.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're trying to do...
Jim
Jun 22, 2009 01:31 pm Jim, I had wondered about that possiblilty. Use rewritables. I'll check my DAW documentation and consider that as well. If the Lexicon Alpha shouldn't be quality enough or work out for some reason, it's an option. Thanks for the heads up! Kirk
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jun 22, 2009 03:07 pm One warning I will shoot out here. Stay away from the Lexicon interfaces. If you do a search on here for them you will see they are a huge PITA to even get working if at all. They have huge driver conflict issues as well as many hardware issues especially with Vista but with XP as well.
I would go either with the Presonus or the M-Audio units.
M-Audio I know for certain will work without a problem, on that Presonus unit I have not heard much about it yet.
Jun 22, 2009 05:45 pm Noize . . . since I have already ordered the Lexicon Alpha, I will go through the trouble of installing and trying it out. $79 to try this unit is ok with me. If necessary, I'll return it and pick one of the others. Due to my limited needs, I feel the investment at least worthy for checking out. Thanks for your advice! Kirk
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jun 22, 2009 06:27 pm Well, there have been some that got it to work, so hopefully you will be one of those that have no trouble with it.
There were a couple solution's to simple problems here that worked, but others with bigger conflict issues could not get it to work at all.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya though indeed.
Jun 22, 2009 07:22 pm Appreciate it. I have to tell you, I have a lot of patience and usually some pretty good luck when it comes to these things. But I won't go getting cocky about it.
Jul 04, 2009 08:31 pm OK . . .after working with the Alpha for about a week now (has it been that long?) . . . I can route my drums out of Acid into my VF-160. A cool feature is that if you choose "Stereo" in the monitor assign section, I can route the left and right channels seperately. This was helpful in the song I am recording as there is an area or two with no drums and it can be difficult to sync up my playing and land back on beat when the drums return. So, the left channel carried my beat out to one channel of the Hard Disk recorder and the other was the drum part I created (with toms & cymbals, etc...). Anyhoo, it's doing what I want. I haven't installed Cubase LE because I use Sonar and I don't need another learning curve when I am comfortable where I am with software. The guitar and vocals are down, now just the bass. I'm not sure about lead or keys of any kind at this point, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. In the meantime, thanks again for your support and assistance everyone!
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jul 04, 2009 11:51 pm No problem. Are you going to post a the song when you get it recorded fully?
Jul 05, 2009 02:41 pm yes . . . any and all! As a matter of fact, I have one that I just finished before I even considered the unit. I'll see to getting that one up first. Kirk
Jul 05, 2009 05:28 pm A question before I (can) upload any music . . .
how do I upload music?
Oh . . . and how can I get that area at the top of my forum screen to go away? It is the area where it says: My Account, Edit Your Profile, etc... It covers some stuff up there and is annoying. Thanks, Kirk
Jul 05, 2009 05:45 pm I am guessing you are running IE8, enable "compatibility mode" and it'll work.
Jul 05, 2009 05:51 pm OK . . .thanks! Ummmm, compatability mode? Sorry. If you mean comp. mode for IE8 (right click on the IE icon and choose compat. tab . . . then which mode am I choosing? If you mean some other compat. mode, please advise. Thanks dB.
Okey Rokey! Got it. Never used that option before. But I persevered. Ummmmm . .. how do I upload a song?
Jul 05, 2009 06:58 pm I uploaded a song. "Hey You". www.homerecordingconnecti.../heyyouwave.mp3 . . . no drums as I only used a basic beat to record this song. It is my re-introduction into home recording. Recorded on my VF-160. Waves exported to cd and imported into Sonar to add small amount of track effects and panning. "Mastered" in T-Racks 24. 2 vox trax, 1 6-string, 1 12-string and a bass. Final? Not sure. But it's down for now and I'm working the bass part of the next song as we speak. This one will have drums. Looking forward to finishing it as I have a half dozen on the burner waiting. Then onto some new stuff. AR
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jul 05, 2009 10:29 pm I will be giving this one a listen tomorrow. Got a bit of work to finish as I've been slacking for the last couple of hours.
