Multitrack recording with audacity help

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hi
This is how my home recording setup is
Laptop : Dell Inspirion with inbuilt soundcard
OS : Windows XP
Audacity
Keyboard : Yamaha I425

  1. While I play on my keyboard I get the best of the sound, but when I record I dont get the best of the quality, I am recording through a cable which goes from my keyboard headphone Out to my laptop mic in as Line in.
  2. Also when I record multitrack , I find the latency in recording, is there any way to reduce this.

Will a good USB interface be of helpful here. Please suggest.

Thanks,
Vish

2

Even a cheap USB sound card would help. I use a Behringer UCA 202 (about $30).

“Line” or “Aux” out from a keyboard is preferable, but if you don’t have either of those use the headphone out.
“Mic” input on the laptop is unlikely to give good recording.
“Line” or “Instrument” input on a USB sound card is likely to be much better (The UCA 202 has stereo line inputs as a pair of RCA connectors).

For very “zero latency” monitoring during multi-track recording, plug your headphones into the headphone socket of the USB sound card. Turn off “Software Playthrough” in the Transport menu in Audacity. (“Overdub” should be on).