Audacity Forum

Ahoy,

I have a couple questions.
First: The "synthesizers" I have are all VST plugins, running through a host (in this case MiniHost). Are most computer synths standalone or plugins?

Secondly: In laymans terms (which is what I am, so it's the only terms you're getting), could I have a computer synthesizer, hit "record" in Audacity, and then play the synth either by clicking the piano buttons on the synth, or by using QWERTY to play it?

At first my research told me that Audacity did not support that, but then I saw this on a thread (on this very forum):
"What you should do is run a cable from your Synth's Line Out to your computer's Line In, and set Audacity to record from the Line In. That will capture the audio coming from the synth."

He was referring to a real-life synthesizer, but surely there must be a way to make this work with a virtual synth?

And a third bonus lightning round question (it's optional): If any of this would work, could anyone recommend a good, free (or with a good trial) virtual synthesizer that would do what I want?

Here's the scenario by the way: I use a drum machine to make a neat drum song. I plunk the exported file into audacity. Then I hit record, and play some synth stuff over it, thereby creating a song!

Thank you all.

Yes, well. One thing at a time. You can throw sound cables around like a cowboy, or you can configure your Windows machine to record its own speakers.

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recor ... e_computer
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... trol_Panel

Since that uses up all of your computer's sound pathways, that's the end of the story for production. Anything you play from Audacity as a co-ord or sync track will be re-recorded again and again and again.

Koz

Thanks for the links.

I've enabled "Stereo Mix" as the recording device. It isn't working. I've tried doing it through Audacity and then through Control Panel. When I click record, I get "Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate."

Any idea what the problem is? My soundcard is apparently "SoundMAX HD Audio", so I'm assuming that RealTek problem wouldn't be it (noted in one of the links.)

Gibush wrote:I've enabled "Stereo Mix" as the recording device. It isn't working. I've tried doing it through Audacity and then through Control Panel. When I click record, I get "Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate."

Any idea what the problem is? My soundcard is apparently "SoundMAX HD Audio", so I'm assuming that RealTek problem wouldn't be it (noted in one of the links.)

Have you been through the extra steps 4, 6 (though I somewhat doubt that one), 7 and 8 at http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... es#vistacp ?

SoundMax might still have its own control panel in the Windows Control Panel.

Although stereo mix may be useful, you can't do what you said you wanted to do (record from a synth while playing the drum track in Audacity). You'll record the drum track as well. Does line-in work?



Gale

A couple of things - If you decide to use a cable from line-out to line-in you'll also need a Y-adapter (splitter) so you can also keep your speakers (or headphones) connected to hear what you're doing. And if you're using a laptop, you might only have mic-in which might overload (distort) with line-level signals.

NOTE - I'm not a musician or a MIDI expert...

Are most computer synths standalone or plugins?

Plug-ins. Typically with this approach to music production, you don't record the actual audio. You'd use a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to directly program MIDI data, or you'd capture MIDI data from a MIDI-enabled musical keyboard. MIDI data is like sheet music for compters. It contains the notes & timing information. So, you can easily move the MIDI notes around, or change the notes, or change the instruments. (This is how most movie & TV music is now made... You can generate the sounds of a full orchestra with your computer!)

The most affordable DAW is REAPER ($60 USD for home & small business use). A DAW can also handle audio data or mix-and-match recorded audio & MIDI. But, a DAW is a lot more complex than an audio editor like Audacity. You'd have to be willing to put-in some learning time.

If you use a plug-in you can possibly use Virtual Audio Cable to take the output of minihost and turn it into a virtual input that Audacity can record from. Has anyone done that? Or does minihost support for ASIO stop that working?

But if you are going to get REAPER, can that record your synth while you play the drum WAV somewhere else? I am even less a MIDI expert as you see.



Gale

Gibush wrote:Are most computer synths standalone or plugins?

Some are standalone, some require a host program, some can be run as a standalone or in a host program.
VSTi (VST instruments) require a host program.

Gibush wrote:could I have a computer synthesizer, hit "record" in Audacity, and then play the synth either by clicking the piano buttons on the synth, or by using QWERTY to play it?

There's (at least) two questions there.

Some software synths can be played via the computer keyboard or virtual piano keys built into the effect, whereas others require triggering from outside via MIDI messages. In the latter case the MIDI data may come from an external MIDI device (such as a keyboard), or from MIDI messages generated from within the computer (for example from a virtual keyboard or a sequencer). Details for how to use the synth should be included with the synth documentation.

If your computer is able to record from Stereo mix, and you are able to play the synth through your sound card, then Audacity should be able to record what the synth is playing.

The part in all of this that concerns Audacity is "Recording Sounds Playing on your computer".
Doing this is probably easier with a program that supports ASIO and VSTi (Audacity does not support either), but if you can get recording Stereo Mix to work in Audacity then it should be possible to record VSTi's that are playing in a host program.

If you want free software, then Linux could be the way to go. Do you have a spare computer to run this all on (other than the computer that you use for email and other every day tasks)? There are some excellent free synths available for Linux (such as ZynAddSubFX) and excellent sound font players (such as Qsynth) and an awesome sampler called "Linux Sampler" that can be fully integrated into a recording system using Ardour as the DAW and using Audacity as a sample editor.

But then we go back to the start - you have installed some VSTi's - have you got them working yet? If not, then that's the first thing to address before considering how to record them.

Gale: Those steps are for Windows Vista and 7. I have XP, and tried all those steps.
I've selected line-in in Windows, but I still get that error in Audacity. Also thanks for the tip about Virtual Audio Cable, I'll try it out. Minihost does have ASIO, so I don't know.

DVDdoug: Ah, maybe I am missing something. Do I actually need physical cables for this to work?

steve: My computer does list "Stereo Mix" as an option, but I can't get it to do anything. The hosts output lists SoundMax, so assuming that is my soundcard, then I guess it's playing through that. And yeah, I just can't get Stereo Mix to do anything in Audacity. I must be missing a step. It's listed, though.
I don't have an extra computer for Linux, no. And yes, the VSTi's (I think it just says VST, are they all with the i on the end) are working in Minihost. I've been diddling around, making some sounds.

Gibush wrote: I just can't get Stereo Mix to do anything in Audacity.

I think that's the bit we need to concentrate on first.

So as not to complicate the issue with ASIO and VST, lets see if we can get Audacity to record anything from the Stereo Mix input.

Gale Andrews wrote:SoundMax might still have its own control panel in the Windows Control Panel.

All the SoundMax sound cards that I've seen have a control panel of some sort.
Have a good search to see if you can find it. If there definitely isn't one, then you may need to reinstall the sound card - it's possible that the basic drivers have been installed without the control panel. If you have a branded computer and the sound card is the original sound card for the machine, you should be able to find the sound card software on the computer manufacturers web site.

Well, I don't have the control panel in my tray, though I also don't have the normal volume control (I've tried getting it back to no avail). I think my system might be a bit screwy.

Anyway I did a search for SoundMAX and found a folder under Program Files/Analog Devices/SoundMAX. There were a couple exe's, like "DevSetup" but neither did anything. The readme mentioned needing a QFE or something from Microsoft to install drivers.

Any idea where I could find the control panel?

PS: Virtual Audio Cable does let me record into Audacity, however there are two catches. 1) It costs $30 and if you don't pay, a lady says "trial" over all your audio every five seconds. Really? $30 for that? It seems like a simple program. 2) There's a delay when I make a sound.