Recording Several Tracks at once... FirePod and Magix
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Posted on Jul 06, 2007 08:16 pm
shadowknight_x
Member Since: Jan 15, 2006
Hi,
I just brought a PreSonus FirePod online, mostly for recording the drummer.. Before this I've used a little Behringer mixer with four mic pre's to record the drums, but this process is very troublesome, because i have to constantly mess with controls to get a good sound, make sure everythings at the proper volume, etc. BEFORE i actually record the real thing, because I could only record it to one track on my Magix Audio Studio. (I have RCA cables running from the tape out of the mixer to the back of my Creative Audigy 2 ZS external card)
I just wanted to make sure that I could record seperate tracks using the Firepod with the included Cubase LE that comes with it. I mean record onto one track for the kick, one for the snare, two for the overheads, etc. and THEN go back in and fine tune all the pannings and levels and EQs and stuff in the program?
I also wanted to see if anyone knows if I'd be able to record all those seperate tracks at once onto my Magix Audio Studio 11? I love this program, it's got everything I need and I pretty much know the basics of this program, but I've never recorded onto more than just one track. I've always done one and then overdubbed everything, but I'd really like to be able to use the Firepod with Magix so i won't have to learn to use Cubase. :P but I've never found any option to enable recording on more than one track.. maybe because I don't yet have the hardware to do it with?
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Tim NUh, at least one more time . . .Member
Since: Feb 07, 2007
Jul 07, 2007 12:27 am Shadowknight, I have the same DAW (Magix 11) that you do, though I use an E-mu 0404 to get stuff in
to the computer (first through a Behringer 1202).
As far as recording four or more tracks with 11, you can do it, if the "record in" drop-down shows the amount of ins you need (say ASIO 1+2, ASIO 3+4, etc.) If the firepod's hardware can send out, say, 4 tracks, then the 11
can record them separately. Actually, you say you record mono tracks, though with even your
old set-up you should have been able to record
two mono tracks at once--the stereo signal, panned
hard left and right and into the 11. In other
words, the left channel to track one, and the right to track two. Set the drop-down menu to
mono (not mono mix), choose a track (say ASIO 1)
add another track, do the drop-down thing again,
chose another track (say ASIO 2), and then arm both tracks to record (the red 'R').
If you create a third track and try to record three at the same time (or four or five, or eight)
with a stereo card, you'll be out of luck.
The main question here is, how many discrete
channels of audio will the Presonus send in? A
stereo pair, 4, 8? I guess I should have asked you this first. I have a feeling you can only send in a stereo pair, which means you'll have to continue to mix drums down to a stereo track (or
two separate mono tracks, as mentioned above.
I think I'm one of the few here who use Magix 11,
but I'm quite familiar with it, so good luck and write back. ( I really like it too.)
Jul 08, 2007 09:00 pm Whoa dude, thanks a million! You have Noooo idea how much that helps lol
This whole time I've been recording the tracks in stereo, so thanks for helping me find that.. yeah, the FirePod has 8 inputs, so this should turn out great. Assuming of course, that it's compatible with Magix... :P It arrives tomorrow, so I guess I'll find out then, huh?
What's the difference between recording it a track in mono and stereo? does that just mean that if i have something panned in stereo while recording, it'll just get mixed down to the center on mono?
Tim NUh, at least one more time . . .Member
Since: Feb 07, 2007
Jul 09, 2007 09:21 pm Yes. If you record, say, a song that is
in stereo to stereo, it sounds exactly like
you would normally hear it. If Magix is set to record in mono (mix), then the two channels will
be mixed and you will hear a mono playback signal.
I'm assuming you are somewhat familiar with ASIO.
The new Magix splits the ASIO channel (ASIO is
always sent in pairs, 1+2, 3+4, etc.) in mono
mode into discrete entities--1, 2, 3, etc. Put
a little more simply, if you send in just a stereo
signal, L+R, Magix assigns L to ASIO 1+2 (or 5+6,
or whatever pairs are available), and R to
3+4. Got that? Now if you send in say a mono
signal (Like you will often be doing with the
PreSonus), and you have Magix set to "Mono(mix),"
that mono channel will get ASIO 1+2 (for example).
If you select "mono," that mono channel you are
sending in will get ASIO 1 (or 2, or 3, or 10, or whatever is available).
Since the PreSonus can send in 8 mono signals, the
Magix 11 will allow you to chose 8 ASIO paths,
or 4 ASIO pairs. (I'm not sure the Presonus can
send in 8, but I'm pretty sure it can.)
So: Eight in get recorded as eight separate
tracks, if you so desire.
Apr 16, 2010 04:48 pm Hello,
since I am facing a similar problem, I would like to bring this thread back from the grave.
Namely, I am having trouble getting the Gearbox (I use Line 6 Toneport 2X) dual tone function work properly on Music Maker 2007. The function itself works well, but when I try to record on Magix, I only get the first track. A crude workaround for the problem has been that I choose ASIO (as opposed to Direct Sound) under parameters and use a seperate instance of Magix for either of the tracks (that means, I open up Magix twice, choose ASIO 1+2 for one and ASIO 3+4 for the other) and merge them to a single file afterwards... so I know this is not due to hardware limitations.
But I'm still having trouble understanding from Tim, how I could make Magix work properly :)
Tim NUh, at least one more time . . .Member
Since: Feb 07, 2007
Apr 18, 2010 01:00 pm You should be able to see ASIO inputs 1+2 and 3+4 in an instance of Music Maker--though it is possible that Music Maker doesn't have the ability to do this. I've never used Music Maker--I do know that it isn't quite the same as Music Studio, which is what I used. (I use Samplitude now, though Music Studio, for the money, is really quite good, and I know that it works fine for what you describe above.)
This is what happens in Music Studio when I use Toneport UX2's dual-tone function (I have one, and use it in addition to the 0404): I enable the Toneport in Magix (because by default the 0404 shows up as my soundcard), and then right-click on one of the track-panels to open up the record dialog. Select "Mono-mix" from the options (a set of radio buttons), and hit the little drop-down arrow to reveal the ASIO pairs: you should see two pairs--"1+2" and "3+4". Select one, and then go to another track and do the above; this time you will select the other available pair, and you're ready to go.
I think your problem may be Music Maker: it might not have this functionality. If you can't see two ASIO pairs in the record drop-down, you can't do what you want to do. Be sure to enable "mono-mix". If you don't, then (at least in Music Studio) you won't see two ASIO pairs, you'll only see one (1+2). Let me know if this works. I think Music Maker and Music Studio are about the same price--it's just that Music Maker is more for importing samples and stuff like that, whereas MS is the lite version of Magix' flagship Samplitude.
Apr 24, 2010 04:33 pm Hey Tim,
sorry for the late response - it has been a busy week, but here's what I found:
I short, you're right - the software just doesn't have the function built in. I suspected as much before (from a few other discussions), but the abundance different Magix versions adds quite some confusion to the mix. From what I could gather, it throws an error if I try to get both ASIO 1+2 & 3+4 to work. So the workaround I described above only works if one of the inputs is DirectSound (not that it matters much, this might also be because of Toneport end). As for the 'Mono-mix', it doesn't seem to exist as such (there is a 'record mono' button under advanced properties but that doesn't have the effect you described).
At any rate, thanks for your help, particularly on the relation between various Magix products.
