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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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 Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 4:52 am
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guys,
I was so excited to get my portable studio a run, my dell cpx H laptop. I had my mixer and everything i needed, so i started to record... it worked! I went into multitrack and started to record... AND IT RECORDED AT 8-bit!! Well, it didnt SAY it was 8-bit but it definately had horrible artifacts. when i tested out the cool edit pro session that mixed together perfectly, with no artifacts. Only when i record in multitrack mode... Can someone please help me out? Maybe theres some settings? It has an ess maestro. It SUPPOSEDLY has full duplex... maybe the catch is that it sounds horrible as you record full duplex...  Do you think i should buy an extigy or something? my desktop computer uses a sblive and it works fine for what i record... can someone give me insight? thanks so much guys
RoNC
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ozpeter
Location: Australia
Posts: 3200
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:10 am
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Have you properly set things up in Options > Device Properties? - avoiding anything to do with 'Wavemapper', and setting your soundcard's inputs and outputs appropriately, with 'Use in EV' ticked?
You won't get particularly good results with the built in soundcard but first of all let's try to get the best out of it as it is - then consider an upgrade.
- Ozpeter
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VoodooRadio
Location: USA
Posts: 3971
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:13 am
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Hey RonC,
My only experience with an ESS (Allegro) card in a Compaq Presario laptop was (to put it bluntly) horrid. It would not surprise me at all if the Maestro is the major (possibly the lone) culprit here. As for buying an Extigy... buying a Creative product is like jumping from the pot into the fire. Have a look at the Echo Layla (laptop version) or at the Edirol units to start.
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I said Good Day!
Voodoo
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Graeme
Member
Location: Spain
Posts: 4663
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:14 am
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| rpc9943 wrote: |
| It has an ess maestro. |
Oh dear - this forum is littered with users who have had poor quality from one of these chips. It really just isn't up to the job of making quality recordings - which is a common enough problem when using laptops for this purpose.
Basically, your only real solution is to go and buy a decent external audio module.
| rpc9943 wrote: |
| Do you think i should buy an extigy or something? my desktop computer uses a sblive and it works fine for what i record... |
You won't find too many users here with a lot of time for any of the Creative Labs products - but it would certainly be an improvement over what you currently have. I think you could probably do better still though. Check the archives for threads about using laptops for recording.
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VoodooRadio
Location: USA
Posts: 3971
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:45 am
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Snap!!! :P
There you go...
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I said Good Day!
Voodoo
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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 1:21 pm
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ok then please tell me guys what do you suggest? im trying to get this laptop only to record raw recordings in which then i will bring back to my desktop at home to produce (effects, etc)...
so tell me a few cheap external sound cards that i can attach via usb or whatever else it uses? i'd appreciate it.
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bayou1340
Location: USA
Posts: 2
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 1:44 pm
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Have you considered the Lynx audio cards. I have been considering a Big loaded Dell notebook. I have a LynxOne card in my Pentium4 machine in my production room and get great audio out of it. My production board feeds lo level audio thru a Distribution Amp to the Card,and the balanced output of the lynx card goes directly to an input of the Dynamax board.
The Teck support guys at Lynx suggested:
The LynxTWO card comes in three configurations, the differences being the analog I/O and the price.
LynxTWO-A - 4 In, 4 Out, $1095
LynxTWO-B - 2 In, 6 Out $995
LynxTWO-C - 6 In, 2 Out $1195
The L22 has the same 192 kHz technology with a 2 In, 2 Out format for $749.
These can be plugged into a slot on an IBM ThinkPad...and that is one of the ways I am thinking of going.
Anyone else using the Lynx audio cards? Our corporate office station sent me this Pentium machine with their older LynxOne card...it sure is way ahead in quality over the soundblaster card in the PC we did have!
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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 2:31 pm
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ok guys... im not asking for thousand dollar pieces of equipment. im just starting out. all i want is a 16bit full duplex setup so that i can record a single channel from my mackie mixer and at the same time hear the tracks that are already in the computer, and have it not have horrible distortion. as i said, if i record in EDIT MODE, it sounds perfectly fine. if i record in MULTITRACK MODE, the sound comes in distorted. Im wondering is it my soundcard and if so is there a very very very very ($100~) substitute? I just want the same thing to happen in multitrack as what is happening in edit. is this an issue i should take up to CEP customer service?
ronC
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jonrose
Location: USA
Posts: 2901
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:13 pm
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Sorry Ron, but you're painting yourself into a corner, I'm afraid.
You've chosen a very tough row to hoe! Laptops are notorious for expense, and interfacing audio with them is fraught with pitfalls - with the exception of only a couple people on the forum who use them all the time for backup recordings and whatnot, they've been the source of a lot of problems.
Quality Laptop interfaces aren't cheap. And I can't say I've ever seen any (quality) USB type interfaces at the hundred dollar (US) mark, either. Roland makes some stuff that's slightly higher in price that seems to work okay and has had some endorsement from the M.D.... you'll have to look around, though.
Stay cognizant of the fact that USB is a potential audio bottleneck, so don't expect to do a lot of I/O with one, no matter what a manufacturer might say about the capabilities of their multichannel units.
When it comes to laptops, the highest quality solutions are usually the ones that interface through the PCMCIA slot. In descending order of cost, there are currently three - RME Hammerfall, Layla, and a couple models from Digigram. Others (like the Lynx mentioned above) require you have PCI connection capability. I'm not familiar with the IBM's, but for the moment I'll take bayou1340's word for it that it has one - perhaps as part of a docking station.
Don't be discouraged. It may be that you'll just have to put up a bit more money for the moment and get a stereo (2-in/2-out) USB unit. I wouldn't go for any more channels than that on USB, as mentioned above.
These are just my educated opinions, of course, so take them for whatever they're worth to you. If I were in your shoes, I'd be saving my sheckles for a Digigram PCMCIA interface. ;)
Good luck!
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Graeme
Member
Location: Spain
Posts: 4663
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:35 pm
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| bayou1340 wrote: |
| Anyone else using the Lynx audio cards? |
I've been using a LynxOne for years - it's a very good card indeed, as I have said here in the past.
| bayou1340 wrote: |
| These can be plugged into a slot on an IBM ThinkPad...and that is one of the ways I am thinking of going. |
What slot? I've got two Thinkpads here (admittedly, not the latest models) and I see no way of interfacing a PCI card with either of them.
In fact, I bought a WaMi box (uses the PCMCIA slot) to use with one of these portables - and it seems to work pretty well - although, I don't actually use it for recording.
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VoodooRadio
Location: USA
Posts: 3971
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 4:11 pm
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www.edirol.com
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Voodoo
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jonrose
Location: USA
Posts: 2901
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Posted - Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:34 pm
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Okay, Voodoo... if ya wanna get specific and all....
Heh!
It's all still "Roland" to me.
Best... -Jon
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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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Posted - Sat Jul 12, 2003 7:47 am
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so you guys are saying theres no laptop equivalent to a full duplex ONE IN ONE OUT soundcard that can do minimal cool edit pro, thats maybe USB or whatnot for like $100 or something. thats very disappointing....
doogs
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Graeme
Member
Location: Spain
Posts: 4663
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Posted - Sat Jul 12, 2003 10:22 am
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| rpc9943 wrote: |
| so you guys are saying theres no laptop equivalent to a full duplex ONE IN ONE OUT soundcard that can do minimal cool edit pro, thats maybe USB or whatnot for like $100 or something. thats very disappointing.... |
With that sort of budget, a decent quality level would be hard to hit for a desk machine, nevermind a laptop.
Sorry, it's just one of the penalties of working with laptops - everything costs you more.
Look on the bright side. Ten years ago, you couldn't have done this sort of thing at any price!
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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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Posted - Sun Jul 13, 2003 7:17 am
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ok my question is though, if i buy the extigy, and plug in USB to my laptop, how will it have a "bottleneck" problem if i set that to record and the local sound card to play? i know people dont support this stuff but will it do what i want, which is have an input and still be able to hear what im playing.
RonC
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Dakota
Location: Spain
Posts: 74
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Posted - Sun Jul 13, 2003 7:59 am
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I've got a Dell Inspiron 5000 650/128/40. It also has the ESS Maestro card, and when I first used Multitrack mode, I had the 8 bit problem too. My solution, after many forum searches was to set up the Options > Device Properties > Multitrack settings to Default Load Rec/Play and Start Rec/Play. I'm going from memory right now as I am away from my Audio Computer, so my terms may be wrong.
What I found out later is that the ESS Maestro is full duplex, but it's 16bit in/ 8 bit out, or 8bit in/16 bit out. The side that opens-starts first get's the 16bit. so when you open-start the record first, record gets 16bit and playback gets 8bit (higher bits get converted to 8bit as they reach the soundcard).
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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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Posted - Sun Jul 13, 2003 9:06 am
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oh man you have no idea how happy this makes me. So i can make it play back at 8-bit -- thats fine, i just need to get raw recording down. can you please explain it again? is there a better more reliable way to ensure i can record 16bit? playback is just for reference and isnt a big deal, i just NEED it down as 16bit recorded. please tell me
RonC
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jonrose
Location: USA
Posts: 2901
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Posted - Sun Jul 13, 2003 4:04 pm
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Er....
Ron, there's nothing more to explain! heh! :D
If you were to actually go look where Dakota told you to, and then reset your start order to whatever works for your situation, you might have some success with this...
;)
Best... -Jon
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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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Posted - Mon Jul 14, 2003 4:35 am
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ummm im using cool edit pro 2.1 and there arent any Multitrack options in device settings... so i have no idea what youre talking about. thats my prob ;)
RonC
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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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Posted - Mon Jul 14, 2003 4:36 am
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whoops ok i think he meant go into settings>multitrack etc etc
whoops
ROnC
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Dakota
Location: Spain
Posts: 74
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Posted - Mon Jul 14, 2003 7:41 am
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Right! You should be able to tell by the sound quality if you've done it right. Good luck!
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GothicV
Location: Canada
Posts: 28
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Posted - Mon Jul 14, 2003 10:44 am
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another option noone has mentioned is leaving your existing soundcard where it is, and getting that one you were thinking about... just config the new one as recorder and the old one as playback. Should work fine.
Also, you were saying that you were new at this, and there was lots of distortion. At the expense of making you sound like a noob, did you check your recording levels? I know 8-bit audio is scratchy, but this could also be the cul;prit. Good luck.
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Dakota
Location: Spain
Posts: 74
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Posted - Tue Jul 15, 2003 2:30 am
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I tried to use my Ederol UA-1A with my ESS Maestro- couln't figure it out. When I use one, the other is locked out. I don't really have a need for more than a 2 chan input, so I didn't dwell on it long. But if anyone has any tips, they would be greatly appreciated. It would be fun to try some 4 channel recording!
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Graeme
Member
Location: Spain
Posts: 4663
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Posted - Tue Jul 15, 2003 4:14 am
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Four channel recording, using two cards which are not clocked together, can turn into a bit of a nightmare. You have been warned!
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Dakota
Location: Spain
Posts: 74
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Posted - Thu Jul 17, 2003 12:07 am
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Thanks for the warning, Graeme. Point taken..
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rpc9943
Location: USA
Posts: 72
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Posted - Tue Jul 22, 2003 6:31 pm
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HAHA!!! IT WORKS! DAKOTA THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Now i have a portable cool edit pro station! HAHA anyone with the same laptop or card just listen to dakota's tips!
No idea why but it records 16bit and plays 16bit. SIMULTANEOUSLY!
thank you so much dakota i _ALMOST_ want to send you money im so happy ;)
ROnC
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Dakota
Location: Spain
Posts: 74
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Posted - Fri Jul 25, 2003 2:45 am
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Glad I could help! Have fun recording!
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dell laptop not doing what i wanted it to