Uneducated No0b can't figure it out

[Aerovette]

What I have...
Audacity 2.0.5
Mackie 16 channel mixer
Audio-Technica ATR2USB 3.5mm to USB adapter
HP Pavillion laptop with Windows 8.1

What I'm currently doing...
Simply starting Audacity, selecting a karaoke track from YouTube, selecting record.
The music and mic are mixed at the Mackie and both are being recorded using the laptop as the recorder and PA amp and speakers are used as full mix monitors.

What I am trying to do...
Record the vocals separate from the music track so I can edit, adjust, modify, the vocal track and leave the music untouched. I am hoping to harmonize with myself by adding a second and possibly third vocal track as well.

The problem...
I have NO IDEA what the heck I am doing !!! I have watched the youtube videos for audacity and I have read the posts about what to do and I'm freakin' LOST.

Someone help me and please teach me like I'm 5 years old. I'm not even sure I posted this in the right place.

[kozikowski]

I have NO IDEA what the heck I am doing !!!

I can't think of a good stupid joke here, so just don't worry about it.

I have the 10,000 foot (3000M) overview of what you want. Did you already have a lot of this stuff from your band and you thought to use it all between gigs? Good idea. It will drive you crazy for a while, but it should be entertaining when you get it to work.

I can shoot down two ideas right away. It's almost a certainty you have the wrong analog/digital converter. Your converter is expecting you to plug a computer microphone into the pink connector. The connection is mono and supplies battery to the microphone. It's not the stereo connection from your mixer you thought it was. I use the Behringer UCA-202, I have two, and I like them very much. I certified them for Perfect Overdubbing when I wrote the original overdubbing tutorial.



That's my mixer on the right there.

The other problem is using the powerful music system for live mixing. Probably not. If you use a microphone anywhere in the system, you have to listen to your live mix with headphones (note the earbuds in the pix. I know nobody would mix on earbuds, but that's where you plug in the headphones.). If you try to live mix with a microphone and speakers, you will get the old tracks and the rhythm bed mixed into your new live tracks.

Live voices need the headphones, no question. Most of the time drums, too.

I'm not even sure I posted this in the right place.

Since you have Win8, this is a safe choice.

There is a formal overdubbing tutorial.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/tu ... rdubs.html

The one sticky problem everybody runs into is listening to themselves in real time. It's a super good chance you can't listen to the computer when you overdub. "How come I hear my voice coming back with an echo?"

That's what plugging your headphones into the UCA202 solves. It's also a tiny mixer and solves the delay and echo problems.

Koz

[kozikowski]

The UCA202 is not the only way to solve this, but you are so far along with existing equipment, I think that's the cheapest solution that will work. You can buy stereo sound mixers that will do this and there are other analog/digital converters which will work.

There's even at least one digital microphone that will do this.



Koz

[Aerovette]

Ok, I just purchased the UCA-202. I'll give it a shot. I may be back for more info. Thanks for the reply.
Yes, you pretty much nailed it. I'm actually between bands and wanting to stay sharp and also create some samples that I can email or post so I can kind of "pre-audition" without wasting anyone's time.

[kozikowski]

I may be back for more info.

Any time.

That tutorial does a pretty good job of stepping you through the process. One of the steps is to make a simple, uncomplicated, non-overdubbed recording. Like, set up, press record and sing three notes. Done. If there's anything at all wrong with that simple recording, you're doomed.

There's a very high likelihood that a simple recording would have failed with your current equipment.

The rest of the overdubbing process is built on the assumption that you can do a straight recording. There is another poster who never got that step to work and we're going round and round to figure out what happened.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Audacity has a very good on-line instruction manual.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/

Note under tutorials, it has "Your First Recording."

Koz

[Aerovette]

Perhaps the tutorials are clear for those that have a some prior understanding, but not so clear to me. I don't know what my version of Windows does or does not allow to be done. I don't know what sound card or hardware is in my laptop. I mean, heck, I thought the Audio Technica thing would work because it was on a youtube video. I don't know what "The mix is half-and-half and you can't change it, so it may take some experimenting to get the headphone mix just right as you perform" really means I suppose until I start using it. It seems contradictory the mix is 50/50 and can't be changed, but experimenting will help get the mix right. Is it adjustable or not adjustable? I imagine it would be like me explaining something I know to someone that does not. I would see it clearly, they may not. I am not criticizing. It is my inability to "get it" and probably not that the instructions are bad. I greatly appreciate the help so far and when the UCA202 gets here, I'll see how it goes.

[kozikowski]

Is it adjustable or not adjustable?

The UCA202 mixes your live voice with whatever is playing on Audacity to make the headphone signal. That's what the little Monitor switch does. The UCA202 has no knobs to adjust except the headphone volume. However, you can adjust the individual track playback in Audacity and control the live mix that way.

Remembering that when the grownups do this, they send a rough-cut mix to everybody's headphones so the artists can get an idea of the song and their place in it. Nobody considers that the final mix. You won't see a final until weeks of sweetening, filtering, effects and track management created in a quiet room with powerful coffee.

Yes, there are totally devices which do have the ability to live change the headphone balance. That digital microphone can do that. But they're all much more money, and only slightly more convenient.

Koz

[Aerovette]

Grownups?

At 52 I am pretty sure I qualify.

Thanks for the help and the explanations.

[kozikowski]

Metaphorical grownup.

What was that New Yorker cartoon? On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

Koz