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wolfdogg
Posts: 87
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 Posted - Tue Nov 19, 2002 1:23 pm
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How does one go about doing this? When I record into Cool Edit Pro, I can't hear myself.. why is this? When I go to lay down a vocal track, I would like to hear the full mix, including my vocals.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
jk
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If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink. |
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Tue Nov 19, 2002 3:27 pm
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You need a microphone and a preamp to do this - you can't just plug a mic straight into a Mia... it's a line input only card.
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wolfdogg
Posts: 87
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Posted - Tue Nov 19, 2002 4:35 pm
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I have that. Specifically, I'm going from my mic into a Joe Meek VC1 preamp, and then into the Mia. I'm getting no problem with recording and getting a good strong signal. To expand further...
When I use my mic and go into my Roland 1680, I can hook up a set of headphones and hear myself vocally in the headphones... as part of the mix that I'm recording. However.. when I sing into Cool Edit, I don't hear my vocals coming back through my headphones...while I'm recording. They record fine, and I can see them recording via the display in Cool Edit. When I play them back, they sound fine, as well.
As far as that goes... I don't hear anything in the mix that I'm recording..but usually, this isn't a problem. With my keyboard and such, I just have another line out going into my monitors.
Make sense?
jk
_________________
If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink. |
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wolfdogg
Posts: 87
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Posted - Wed Nov 20, 2002 5:24 am
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ok.. figured it out! whew!
I didn't have the 'Solo' option on my Mia Echo mixer panel enabled for Analog->Analog. I had it on for Out 1/2->Analog and I thought this was what I needed.. but I was mistaken!
Truth be known.. I guess I don't understand all the options on this Mia Mixer.. but.. it's working.. and the card records unbelievably well... so I won't complain!
I do still have a question for you, Steve...or anyone else with a Mia Echo. How do you guys go about getting a stereo mix in your headphones with 2 analog out and only 1 headphone jack? I picked up a Y cable at the store that converts 2 to 1, but this didn't do it. I still only hear the music in 1 side of the headphones. When I change my device order to my creative card and play through my surround sound, all is in stereo, so I know I'm recording correct. I also tried sending the two Mia outs to my 1680 and then hooking headphones up to it. This works...only then, Cool Edit doesn't record. Any ideas?
Thanks,
jk
_________________
If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink. |
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harmo
Posts: 101
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Posted - Wed Nov 20, 2002 9:17 am
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see Steve's response to a similar problem i'm exploring...
'soundcard/(possibly monitor) conundrum'
I agree, the mia is beautiful but a bit confusing to configure properly.
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Wed Nov 20, 2002 11:49 am
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I think that the Mia is easy to configure - certainly as an analog card!
Input/Output. It has two pairs of inputs, analog and S/PDIF. Ignoring the S/PDIF, the analog is easy. There is no record level control, so whatever you record goes straight to CEP. The output from CEP goes to whatever virtual out you have selected, and thence to the output. So far, easy, yes?
Monitoring.On the lower LHS of the mixer, you have two controls. If you select 's' for the analog-analog one, then you will hear whatever is being inputted at any time in the output, regardless of what the analog output control settings are (this might be the confusing bit). The analog output control on the right only controls the virtual mixer output, and the 's' button function is slightly misleading here, because it does not solo the virtual mixer output - the monitor, if selected, will always be there.
Things become a little more convoluted if you use the digital options, but once you have discovered how the two interact, it will soon make sense. Incidentally, if you use an external analog to S/PDIF converter, the card runs excellently as a 4-simultaneous-input card. You would only need two Mias and two converters to create a very smooth sounding 8-input system. Tempting!
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AirQuality
Location: Denmark
Posts: 17
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Posted - Thu Nov 21, 2002 12:12 am
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| SteveG wrote: |
...
Monitoring. On the lower LHS of the mixer, you have two controls. If you select 's' for the analog-analog one, then you will hear whatever is being inputted at any time in the output, regardless of what the analog output control settings are (this might be the confusing bit). The analog output control on the right only controls the virtual mixer output, and the 's' button function is slightly misleading here, because it does not solo the virtual mixer output - the monitor, if selected, will always be there. |
SteveG, which mixer are you talking about? Is this the Mia Console? My Mia Console (6.05 WDM) does not have any 's' buttons. Or are you talking about CEP or Windows mixer?
I'd like to get this straight, because I too have apparently missed something significant regarding monitoring with my Mia.
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:08 am
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Er, the VxD mixer, not the WDM one, and yes, the Mia console. I've only ever run the WDM one up once on the audio machine, and had to remove it because of a significant problem using it under WinME (it should work, and it does, up to a point, but when 24/48 recording returns a S/N ratio of 39dB or whatever, and 24/96 goes berserk, it goes out as fast as it came!)
But from what I recall, the mixing options are identical, with one exception. Since the 'mute/solo' buttons are mutually exclusive (and it's got to be one or the other), then there are (quite logically) only mute buttons on the WDM control panel. And in fact, this is more logical than the VxD one.
But the monitoring options are identical. How can I be so sure? Because just for you, I temporarily slung the Mia in the office Win2000 machine with the WDM driver and checked. So yes, those two sliders at the LHS will, when not muted, send the input straight to the output, and that's all they do.
It's too late to ask me for any more gory details about the WDM drivers, because I have now completely removed all trace of them. But what was it that you missed? I'm intrigued.
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AirQuality
Location: Denmark
Posts: 17
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Posted - Thu Nov 21, 2002 5:14 am
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| SteveG wrote: |
| ...But what was it that you missed? I'm intrigued. |
Thanks for checking it out, Steve. It seems that the Mia Console, and Echo's manual, are none too intuitive the first time amateur users. Now, after rereading the manual several times, and searching for "mia monitor" on this forum, and digesting yours and other relevant posts, I think I understand what the Mia console is doing.
I, like apparently a few others, thought the sliders in the Console were controlling the input levels. But no, they control the output levels. There is no input level control on the Mia (except the +4/-10 buttons).
To clarify my understanding (which I have to pass on to my 11-year old son and his boy-band friends), I'll rephrase and expand on the instructions you gave above, for the Mia WMD-driver Console. The situation is: recording multiple, successive live tracks in Cool Edit Pro, using Behringer 8-channel mixer connected to Mia card, with PC running Windows XP.
(DRAFT 1) Instructions to setup the Mia card, Mia WDM Console and Cool Edit Pro for live takes while monitoring both Cool Edit Pro outputs and the live inputs
(ie so the musician/vocalist can hear themselves as well as the previous tracks)
Hardware setup:
- set mixer and amp levels to minimum, or turn them off, before changing connections;
- connect cable from mixer main stereo output (balanced) to the Analog In 1 and 2 jacks on the Mia card;
- connect cable from the physical Analog Out 1/2 jacks on the Mia card to the headphone amplifier;
In Cool Edit Pro (multitrack mode):
- In Options, set input device and output device to Mia 1/2;
- Add Mia 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 to the output device list;
- Set individual track outputs to Mia 1/2 (or 3/4, 5/6 or 7/ ;
In the Mia WDM Console (ver 6.05):
- in the Settings, Advanced dialog, set all the inputs and outputs being used by Cool Edit Pro to PureWave;
- click the analog 1-2 output selector button in the upper right; the label "Analog Out 1/2" will appear under the output faders at the lower right;
- set the Analog Out 1/2 sliders at the lower right all the way up (to 0 db) to ensure full range output;
- make sure the two "M" mute buttons are up (not pushed in) above the sliders for Analog In 1 and 2 at the left side of the console;
- mute (push "M" buttons in) on any virtual output channels not being used;
- set all the Analog Input 1/2 and virtual output sliders initially to max level (0 db);
Level check:
- select and play the existing tracks to be monitored in Cool Edit;
- set headphone volume on the headphone amp (not on the Mia Console);
- have musician play/sing;
- set output levels on the mixer to give near-full-scale levels in the Mia Console Analog Input 1/2 indicators, without clipping;
- check record indicator levels in Cool Edit, and adjust mixer output if necessary to get near-full-scale without clipping;
- adjust the sliders in Mia Console to give the musician the desired mix of monitoring levels;
Record!
I am not in front of the audio PC at the moment, so I will have to test this out later. Do you see any booboos in the above instructions?
As I think about it, running the Mia Analog outputs back into the Behringer Aux Returns or 2-track inputs gives some other possibilities for using/controlling the Cool Edit outputs.
At the moment I don't have any use for the Digital Ins and Outs on the Mia card, but I could see using the Digital outs as separate monitoring channels. For that I would need an amp, or headphone amp, with SPDIF inputs. Do you have any suggestions along those lines, Steve?
This forum has some useful threads for Mia users. I also found some Mia threads at SOS forums (http://sound-on-sound2.infopop.net/). Do you know of other forums that deal with Mia? (I'm going to need a 4 channel monitoring/headphone amp pretty soon...with SPDIF input if it's not too expensive)
wolfdogg, sorry to hijack your thread...but I hope this is useful for you, too.
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harmo
Posts: 101
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Posted - Thu Nov 21, 2002 6:05 am
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This has been very helpful for me too, as a recent Mia-er and CEPer. Your set-up above is very similar to mine except I'm only recording 2 channel stereo.
One question: why use the WDM as opposed to the VxD?
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Thu Nov 21, 2002 6:30 am
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| Quote: |
| One question: why use the WDM as opposed to the VxD? |
You have no choice with Win2000 or XP - that's all you can use.
| Quote: |
I am not in front of the audio PC at the moment, so I will have to test this out later. Do you see any booboos in the above instructions?
As I think about it, running the Mia Analog outputs back into the Behringer Aux Returns or 2-track inputs gives some other possibilities for using/controlling the Cool Edit outputs.
At the moment I don't have any use for the Digital Ins and Outs on the Mia card, but I could see using the Digital outs as separate monitoring channels. For that I would need an amp, or headphone amp, with SPDIF inputs. Do you have any suggestions along those lines, Steve? |
On the face of it, this looks fine. The cheapest way I know of getting the S/PDIF output to headphones is to use a cheap desktop MD recorder with no disc in it! On Sonys, if you just push the 'rec' button with no disk in, you get a display that says AD-DA with an analog input, and it even switches quite correctly to D-A if you use S/PDIF. And it will provide plenty of analog output!
And, as a bonus, you can also use the whole arrangement the other way around if you want, which will give you an extra pair of inputs on the Mia. There are buggeration factors, though, and they're threefold: The MD then becomes the system clock, the output isn't exactly 24/96, and on my deck, the output is optical only, which means that I have to convert it back to coaxial (I'm thinking of adding a coaxial output to the deck!). But if you want 4 inputs for anything, this is a whole lot better than buying another card! For instance, this system performs heaps better than any cassette multitracker...
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VoodooRadio
Location: USA
Posts: 3971
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Posted - Thu Nov 21, 2002 7:34 am
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"buggeration factors"..... which of course come into play with assessing any piece of "kit"! 
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I said Good Day!
Voodoo
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wolfdogg
Posts: 87
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Posted - Thu Nov 21, 2002 4:30 pm
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thanks to everyone! i now understand my Mia much better. I was making it harder than needed be...
jk
_________________
If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink. |
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AirQuality
Location: Denmark
Posts: 17
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potzer
Location: USA
Posts: 2
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Posted - Thu Aug 07, 2003 1:59 am
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Have an echo mia soundcard and mic with a quarter inch mono jack.
Trying to decide what preamp to get (or maybe a mixer?)Looking at these:
-ART Tube MP Microphone Preamp (Model 127
-Midiman Audio Buddy
They're both around $80-100 range
-Behringer MX602A 6 Channel Mixing Console (mic preamps included!)
for around $60
Any thoughts?
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SteveG
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 6695
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Posted - Thu Aug 07, 2003 6:26 am
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Yeah, don't buy the Behringer. Buy a Spirit Folio Notepad (okay, it costs a bit more but it's worth the extra) or possibly Mackie's new baby mixer (which I haven't yet checked out).
I have a friend who's bought the Midiman, but he hasn't reported back yet. But I don't recall any serious complaints from anybody here, though, or about the ART - well, certainly not for the money you pay.
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potzer
Location: USA
Posts: 2
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Posted - Tue Aug 12, 2003 3:35 am
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Took Steve's advice and bought the Spirit Folio Notepad; also won
an Octava MK-219 mic from ebay. Have a midi interface (midiman midisport 1x1)
from my digital piano to my PC usb port (PC has the Mia Echo Soundcard). Using Sony MDR-7506 headphones amd getting set up for some composing and recording.
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recording vocals with the mia echo