Jun 18, 2002 03:48 pm What are you using to record? Do you use a clicktrack or metronome? Do your tracks sound as they did when you recorded them or does it sound like one or more tracks are being stretched?
Playing in time
Posted on Jun 18, 2002 01:55 pm
Johnny Hero
Member Since: Apr 26, 2002
So I've decided to try the digital thing... well now nothing I play on guitar is in time with what I play on drums... I've been moving stuff back and forth for hours and it still won't sync up. I never had this problem with analog... could I be doing something wrong or have I just lost my sense of time?
[ Back to Top ]
Jun 18, 2002 03:48 pm What are you using to record? Do you use a clicktrack or metronome? Do your tracks sound as they did when you recorded them or does it sound like one or more tracks are being stretched?
Jun 18, 2002 04:13 pm Nevermind... I was being stupid. If the guitar is late moving it forward isn't going to help... I swear sometimes I'm half retarted.
Jun 18, 2002 07:27 pm what sound card and application are you using, it could be a 'latency' issue from your gear.
Since you are new to the digital thang, I will clue youin, 'latency' is the ammount of time a sound enters your PC to the time it comes out the speakers. Most applications make up for this, but some don't...
Jun 19, 2002 12:17 am And you people wonderd why I didn't like digital...
I'm using Multiquence, and I'm not sure of the soundcard... whatever comes stock on a Dell Dimension 4300...
Jun 19, 2002 08:07 am Quote:
And you people wonderd why I didn't like digital...
Not really, I didn't loose much sleep over that it. I would guess your card is some low-perf SoundBlaster, which really isn't meant for studio recording...but I am not sure, your device manager in your PC should tellyou what kind.
Jun 19, 2002 10:55 am Yeah I know... it was just a joke.
I think my card is called SoundMAX??
Jun 20, 2002 10:28 pm Part of the reason you may be having trouble is the latency thing. Can you describe exactly the path you are using to get sound into the computer. There is a possability that the windows sound app. is sending your guitar through the card and delaying it B4 it record's the sound. So when you play with the drum track it sound's OK untill you play it back and it is then, out of sync.
but describe the full path going in and we will go from there.
Jun 21, 2002 01:16 am Ok... before I describe my path I want to point out that sometimes everything lines up perfectly, and other times it's late. I tried to see if there was a patern, but from what I can see it's completely random.
Ok, the complete path:
Guitar > Amp > Mic > Mixer > Soundcard
and for my headphones:
Soundcard > Stereo Reciver > Headphones
Jun 21, 2002 01:38 am I doubt that i can help with the latency problem that you are having, but I just wanted to say that while there may be a few hitches to getting a digital environment running, that after you get it worked out you'll wonder how you ever worked without it. Also, the sound card that comes with Dells, it is the "soundmax" sucks. The only thing that I use mine for is to lay a metrenome track, don't ask me but for some reason that metrenome in SONAR uses that soundcard. Once you get it working and you want to either fix a mistake, add an effect, or layer intruments, you are going to love how easy it is. Just to let you know that there IS a light at the end of the tunnel.
Jun 21, 2002 07:13 am Ah, the infamous SoundMax, well, there is a alot of your problem righ there, the SoundMax, along with most cards you buy at big box stores like Best Buy and Circuit City are made for gaming, they cannot do heavy full-duplex work. Some of them claim to be full duplex simply because they have the ability to send and recieve one signal each way.
When you are multitracking you are many times sending and recieving several signals each direction. This, my friend, is where the high-performance cards really show their stuff, and why many people like myself have spent as much on their sound card as the whole rest of their computer put together. These higher performance cards can record and playback many tracks at the same time, sometimes routing the signals out to different places and keep track of it all.
Doing this type of audio work is the kind of thing that will make most any integrated audio chip cry for mercy.
I hate to harsh your buzz because I think it is very cool that you are at least giving digital a chance, that shows that you have a very open mind and are willing to try anything, and that's cool.
Jun 21, 2002 05:42 pm I think it's pretty cool... at this point I still prefer analog though. If I had the bucks for a good soundcard I might like it a little better... but that's what happens when AAFES does it's bi-yearly lay-offs.
Jun 21, 2002 10:12 pm Ok, well if it work's sometime's and not ohter's. Then we must blame the card. It is possible the software is doing it, but not likely. When you cna muster the buck's for a little better card. Or better yet, if you find someone who has a little better setup. Make some track's on your analog, go to your buddy's and dump them into the digital world, (hopefully, he will have a 4 intput card or better) and crank it up. It took 3 year's for someone to convince me to switch, and even when I bought my first computer. I still hung onto the analog gear, and locked it all together via sync boxes. I now own only one analog tape machine for 2 track mix down's. I will never return to the cumbersome world of analog again.
Well, OK maybe through the use of DSP and some outboard processor's, but that is it.
|
Related Forum Topics: |
If you would like to participate in the forum discussions, feel free to register for your free membership.