VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Joniv]

FYI - After tons of trial and error, I finally determined that my recording/latency issues were a software problem. I got the trial version of Sound Forge 8 and the monitoring works perfectly and the recording quality is better overall.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[Art]

You guys, it doesn't matter what software you use to record, the facts are these:

Windows has two mixers, RECORD and PLAY. They're customized for your sound card. You might have one input, or a dozen.

If you have your LINE IN (or whatever source brings your mic audio in for recording) turned up on the PLAY mixer, you got problems. Everything you say in the mic is sent to the speakers. You'll have feedback, and if you got digital along the way, you'll have weird flanging and delay effects.

There's no meaningful levels you can check for mic recording via this input, except for headphone volume, if you're monitoring the speaker signal.

But you can't leave it that way for recording, or it'll just screw it up.

Meanwhile in the RECORD mixer, you have your line in (or whatever) selected, level adjusted, and everything else off. You may have to occasionally go in there and switch that, like to record from a phone card, or the internal MIDI player, but normally, you'll always have it on line in or the USB input.

THEN you can go play with your software and see what it will do. For instance, Cool Edit and Audition let you click on the meters to monitor your record level before you start recording.

But there's no reason why you shouldn't just go ahead and record, to check your record levels. It's not costing you film or tape costs.

Point is, mic channel path to the speakers should be never be enabled.

To monitor with headphones while you record, plug them into the mixer.

[Frank F]

Art,

You are correct to a degree. IF you are using a simple card such as SoundBlaster or an "on the motherboard sound card" - your comments are on track.

However, if you use a different card such as one by Echo, MOTU, M-Audio, etc. or an outboard card whether USB or Firewire - things change - and the previous analogy is incorrect.

At this juncture, the Windows Mixer may either be rendered non-usable for either playback or record or both. In such cases a mixer designed to operate for the specific sound device/sound card is created and enabled and different and sometimes unique settings must be developed. These settings may be for each track, a specific DAW, or even for the entire computer... it will depend upon so-o-o many things there is not enough space to list them all.

Each audio program will have a different audio engine, and each audio engine will have a different "color" than another... i.e.: Quicktime, RealAudio, Sound Forge, Vegas, ProTools, Audition, WMP, etc. will 'sound' different than each other program. Coincidentaly, each 'sound card/device' will likely have different characteristics than another sound card/device due to the use of different Analog Conversion chips and/or processing values. I don't think a SoundBlaster Audigy sounds the same as a MOTU 828 MKII nor do I think the MOTU sounds the same as a Hammerfall or the SoundBlaster - do you?

Technically each of the above 'sound recording devices' or audio software or DAW's - do the same thing. But they do it differently - and that is what makes the world go round.

Toodles

FF

[NoelG]