Warning: dopey question from a new boy

I just laid down my first track the other day, but I am having a weird problem; I wonder if you geniuses can help.
I recorded the first track with me singing and playing guitar to the beat of the song, then followed with three tracks - a midi, rhythm and lead. On the two acoustic tracks I can hear the first track in the background.

What button do I need to press to stop this happening?

Thanks in anticipation.

Hywel

PS I tried a search but I didn’t know what to look for?!

What soundcard do you use ?

How is your monitoring setup ?

Routing maybe ?

If you have a Soundblaster, do you not maybe have the ‘record what you hear’ selected as the recording source in the system mixer ?

Please give some more info about your setup and then sit back and watch the people over here sort your problems out …


:D

Regards

Wihan

(Oh, and btw - Welcome to the forum !)

Thanks, Wihan.

Oh dear, what is monitoring and routing…? (feels thick.) The mike I am using is a Sur SM58…and there are cables everywhere…

The question I can answer: I’ve got an Audigy 4 soundcard, on a P4, Dell Dimension 3000 with a 3.0 GHz processor and 1 GB RAM.

That ‘record what you hear’ thing sound relevant, though. A friend said it should be set to selected - perhaps he’s wrong!? Should it be set to (eg) Line 1? Makes sense thinking about it…

Hywel

If you look at the top of ntrack under view, you can view your soundcards (or windows versions) record and playback mixers. I’m just asuming you have a basic soundcard using your computers line in.
On the record mixer make sure that you have selected line in or mic in and not also wav. Or something like that, that should clear it up. Of course for playback you pic and choose as you need them too.

A friend said it should be set to selected - perhaps he's wrong!? Should it be set to (eg) Line 1? Makes sense thinking about it..

Might be that.

If you want to record anything you can hear on your PC speakers, this is the way to go, but if you're overdubbing (multitracking) you want to set it to only line in (whatever line your mic, mixer is connected to).

Otherwise it will feed the 'mix' of what is recorded back into the new track.

HtH !

W

Thanks chaps. I will go home tonight and re-record the voice track on Line 1.

I will then cringe at the sound of my appalling voice…

Hywel

hahahaha

At least you’ve got confidence …

:p

Welcome Hywel. I’m sure the advice you’ve received is correct, many of us had the same problem, myself included. And there are no dopey questions, only dopey answers, which are rare around here!

It’s worth checking the n-Track manual, which I found very helpful when first setting up. And for more general advice about recording, rather than specific n problems, try audiominds.com.

Happy tracking, cheers
TusterBuster

What a great welcome and thanks for your help…

…may I ask a supplementary?

Using Line 1 now works fine - the problem now comes when I am mixing down. The wav file produced of the two midi tracks (on the new mixdown) are now slightly out of sinc with the rest of the audio tracks. Now what have I done?

Hywel

Ooooh - that’s a different kettle of fish…

I’ve had that problem 'till the dawn of time …

What I’ve done (and still do) is to always leave a second or two in the beginning of the recording so that I can line things up afterwards.
Esp. midi sync. Zoom in close and then move the ‘convertedfrommidiwave’ left or right 'till it’s right.

Wish I could give you better advice (actually give advice on fixing the problem and not treating the symptom), but apart from ‘Use wave output for timer’ I don’t have anything else to contribute, as I could never get that problem to go away, and am now living with it…

:(

Glad to hear your other problem got sorted.

Wihan

BTW - Hywel is an intersesting screen name - makes me think of a Bernard Cornwell book…

Quote (Wihan Stemmet @ April 27 2005,04:12)
Ooooh - that's a different kettle of fish...

I've had that problem 'till the dawn of time ...

What I've done (and still do) is to always leave a second or two in the beginning of the recording so that I can line things up afterwards.
Esp. midi sync. Zoom in close and then move the 'convertedfrommidiwave' left or right 'till it's right.

Wish I could give you better advice (actually give advice on fixing the problem and not treating the symptom), but apart from 'Use wave output for timer' I don't have anything else to contribute, as I could never get that problem to go away, and am now living with it...

:(

Glad to hear your other problem got sorted.

Wihan

BTW - Hywel is an intersesting screen name - makes me think of a Bernard Cornwell book...

So you chop a chunk out of the track? I tried to do that but couldn't figure it out - how do you do that?

It also sounds like you convert the tracks from midi to wav rather than use the Mixdown button that I've been using. Is this a better way of producing a wav/mp3 of the song?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks again for all your help!

BTW Hywel is my real name - it's Welsh - pronounced Howel.

Hi there !

First of all - is the midi files out by a ‘set’ amount ?
What I mean is, does it start off late and then stay late during the whole time, or does it vary through the song ?

If that’s the case you can play with ‘nudging’ the midi file till it sounds right. Lots of effort.

The other way is to do a mixdown, with the midi file solo’d.
(This is what i do) This will then give you a wave file instead of the midi file that you can then import into the project and treat like normal audio, and sync that up with the others, and hear what it sounds like before you do the final mixdown.
(you need to mute the midi track after you’ve imported the wave file.

HtH.

Welsh ? Nice. That’s a country I still want to see.
It actually makes sense then - the books I’ve read was about the story of King Arthur (Bernard Cornwell’s trilogy).
Arthur’s best friend’s sword was called Hywelbane. So that’s why I wondered. Not far off then - roots probally the same …

Again, Wihan thanks very much for your help - it’s much appreciated.

Yes, the wav file that’s produced in the mixdown seems to be all a set amount ‘late’ - all the way through the song. So nudging it left or splicing seems to be a good option - I have got the weekend to try and figure out how this is done! (Apart from watching Leatherhead FC and a dinner party!)

I will put the song online when it’s done…

Hywel

No problem !

Moving and nudging works easier on wave files, so I would suggest you go down that road to convert it to wave 1st. Then you can also apply the same kind of (aoudio) effects to that to make it sound more ‘part of’ the rest of the song…

As I said before, at one point you (and me actually as well) need to get to the cause and stop treating the symptoms, but an easy workaround is sometimes all we need to get instant joy …

Good luck !
(And have a great weekend - we have a long one, 1st of may is workers’ day, and in South Africa we have a Monday off if the public holiday falls on a Sunday)…


Wihan

Thanks again.

Perhaps Flavio knows the answer to our little problem… ???

Have a great weekend!

Hywel