I want to record me “singing” (and I use that term loosely) using my PC. I want to do two tracks at a time. Track 1 would be a Vocal track going in though a Sound Blaster Live, the other track would be a .WAV (music written and played by a friend so there is no copyright concerns here) and would like to use the on bord sound car for that. The reason I don’t want to just record the vocals and then drop it on top of the recorded .WAV is I won’t be able to perfectly sync them and I won’t be able to adjust the sound levels independentaly to make it sound good. What software do I need to do this?
Mod’s if you feel this is better in Cafe Society please move it
My favorite is Cool Edit Pro, available from www.syntrillium.com. There are a couple of versions at different prices and they have demo versions you can try. Oh, you don’t need two soundcards. The software will let you use multiple tracks (a lot more than two) and it will mix them in realtime as it plays.
If you want a good budget option, go to the Shareware Music Machine (www.hitsquad.com/smm) and look for multi-track recording software for your operating system. There’s a good chance you can find freeware that will do what you need.
Have you heard of Pro Tools? It’s the professional-level multi-track recording software that serious studios use. You can get a free version (legal - from the developer) for Win98 or WinME here. The downside is that it may have a learning curve involved. Also, it doesn’t work well on Win NT, 2000, or XP. But it will do things like EQ, compression and delay. And it’s Pro Tools! For free! Holy Cow!
Bad News First: It probably won’t work right off, because Creative cards tend to not work right if they aren’t the only device on IRQ5. And they usually won’t work right if they aren’t on IRQ5, so the on-board sound will have to be put on another IRQ, and then it may not work. Unless it’s already not on IRQ5, but 5 is the default for sound.
“Normal” multitracking software (what you need) does support recording off multiple soundcards as long as there are no underlying system conflicts, but you will have to end all other unneeded processes on your PC. Will any free software record off multiple sources?-I dunno…
Better News: You can use other drivers that will probably allow more flexibility with your SBL, but you lose some of the specific Creative programs and functionality. Search around for “kX drivers”, these have more system tolerance built-in than the regular Creative drivers do–for instance, you can run two SBL cards on one computer if one is using the KX drivers.
Best news: if you only wanted to do monophonic recording, you can record 2 mono tracks at the same time with just the SBL card alone. The mic input is mono anyway, but the line-in is stereo --(it records two mono tracks at once)–you just need a line amp to use it. What I do is hook stereo mics to a minidisc recorder, and hook the minidisk recorder’s headphone output to the soundcard’s line-in. The volume control on the minidisc recorder controls the line level. You can use any similar device that allows monitoring during recording–I just “record” with the mnidisc while also recording with the PC, and it works. Sounds fine.
Alternate News: I use mini mics intended for portable minidisc recording but they’re good quality, so they do well. If you have “real” stage mics you want to use, the most direct way is to get a Midiman Audio Buddy which is a small interface box that accepts two XLR or 1/4" inputs and that outputs them to a line-level stereo signal, you then run to the soundcard’s line-in. ~$80, multiple sources. --Or you can just connect any amp that will accept what you want to record to the PC, by the whatever’s headphone-out jack to computer-line-in jack. This isn’t exactly the way the pros do it, but it works and will still will sound way better than a typical cassette tape recording.
If you record this way to the line-in, you will have to separate tracks on the left and right channels of one track but separating and centering them in any decent multitrack software isn’t difficult. (-I find mono vocals tend to sound flat, but that’s just me apparently) I use Cakewalk Home Studio (~$90) for multitracking and Soundprobe 2 (~$50) for wav editing. Other programs do have cool features but these two can do everything you’ll really need.
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Aaaaannnnd, since I’m getting into my opinions anyway, I’ll add that I have found that the biggest factor in doing good home recording is the room you record in: you want the lowest background noise possible, and the lowest amount of echoing possible. When people have said a recording we’ve done sounds “lousy”, usually they mean the amount of background noise and echoing. ~~~ A cheapo computer soundcard is entirely capable of getting good recordings, *if]/i] the circumstances are right.
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The built in sound card is on IRQ 11 and the SB Live is also on IRQ 11 according to XP but the SB Live is working fine, so I’m expecting there to be no issue. I want to do stereo recording so using the mic on the left channel and the wav on the right won’t work. And even if it did then I’d be doing a Digial -> Analog -> Digital conversion which I would like to avoid.
My Mic is an Audio Technica ATW-T28 cordless that works on the UHF band. I just have to find the powersupply for the receiving unit. It does have a 1/4" phoneo jack as the output so I was going to use 1/4" phoneo jack to the small one that the sound card has. Because it is wireless I can sing in a different room and not have to worry about picking up the sounds of the fan. I was thinking of singing in the bathroom because that room seems to have the best acoustics (all the tile in it)
1/4" mics are usually low-Z, if it sounds really poor then you’ll need a matching box like the Audio Buddy.
And since the instrument is already recorded, you don’t need anything else; I thought you wanted the other person to play along at the same time.
Recording multitracks one at a time is easy: this is because the software allows you to monitor all the previous tracks. So first you get a pair of enclosure headphones, and then put the .wav into track #1 of the software. If you set the monitoring up correctly, you can record on track #2, and you’ll hear what you are recording onto track #2 (through the headphones you have on), but you will also hear what’s already laid down on track #1 and any previous tracks. Your voice will be all that’s recorded onto track #2, and you’ll be able to adjust each independently because they’re in separate tracks. The reason you have to wear headphones is to prevent the instrumental track from being partly recorded onto the vocal track. If the instrumental track starts unevenly you can lay down a basic drum track to keep time with, and then delete it after you have the vocals track recorded right.
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I don’t know of any, try the usual shareware & freeware download sites. Cakewalk used to have a $30 version that was a trialware, it only allowed 4 mono or 2 stereo tracks, (it was called Express Gold I think…). Dunno what’s out there now.
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