Doing some complicated home recording

[dallasfan12]

Hi there, I'm new to recording in every way, but not new to music. I am a drummer/guitarist and I am in a band. recently someone asked me to produce and play on some songs for them and I said i would try.

Now, to start I'm on a stock Gateway M-1634U laptop, I'm using a Yamaha MG166CX-usb Board to record and I WAS using Sonar Home Studio 7 to record. For some odd reason, I keep experiencing dropouts when recording with Sonar, now while I know it is not the place for those questions, if anyone knows why, help would be appreciated. However, I would like to record each track in audacity and then possibly transfer them ober to sonar for mixing/mastering. If anyone has any thoughts or tips on how to go about doing this, it would be GREATLY appreciated. Keep in mind I'm doing drums, 2 guitar parts, vocals and bass. Also, what order should i record these in.

Please keep in mind, I am very very new and don't know a lot of recording terminology.

Thanks, Dallasfan12!

EDIT--- if this is in the wrong section, i will move it! sorry

[kozikowski]

I'm on a stock Gateway M-1634U laptop

No. Probably not. You're on an underpowered Notebook computer. That's probably where your gaps and holes in the other software are coming from and Audacity isn't going to do anything to solve that.

If this works at all, the computer has to be in top form with plenty of empty disk space (which in your case is very slow 5400 RPM) and thoroughly defragmented and error checked. "Plenty" in translation is 20% free or better.

Nothing at all extra can be running -- shut down all internet connections and do not let the machine do any auto updates or Virus Checks. Turn Off the virus software (the machine will be off-line so it doesn't matter).

Then try to do a capture.

Live capture, particularly if you're trying to record multi-track is a sensitive affair. It doesn't make any difference how long it takes to recalculate an Excel spreadsheet or blur a Photoshop picture, but Live Capture doesn't wait. If the software can't find a place to park this one musical note fast enough right now, it's gone. The next note is right on top of it.

Koz

[kozikowski]

If you do load Audacity, don't use this one. Audacity 1.2 is no longer supported.


Audacity 1.2 is very old and no longer supported,
patched, corrected, or updated. Audacity 1.2 can
be unstable on newer computers.

Download and install the latest Audacity 1.3 from here...

http://audacityteam.org/download/

You can install both audacity 1.2 and Audacity 1.3 on
the same computer, but only use one at a time.

Audacity 1.2 will not open projects made on Audacity 1.3.

If you use MP3 or some of the more modern audio
compression formats, get Lame and FFMpeg software
from the same web site. Do not use older software
or software from other web sites, even though they
may have the same names.

[dallasfan12]

I'm on a stock Gateway M-1634U laptop

No. Probably not. You're on an underpowered Notebook computer. That's probably where your gaps and holes in the other software are coming from and Audacity isn't going to do anything to solve that.

If this works at all, the computer has to be in top form with plenty of empty disk space (which in your case is very slow 5400 RPM) and thoroughly defragmented and error checked. "Plenty" in translation is 20% free or better.

Nothing at all extra can be running -- shut down all internet connections and do not let the machine do any auto updates or Virus Checks. Turn Off the virus software (the machine will be off-line so it doesn't matter).

Then try to do a capture.

Live capture, particularly if you're trying to record multi-track is a sensitive affair. It doesn't make any difference how long it takes to recalculate an Excel spreadsheet or blur a Photoshop picture, but Live Capture doesn't wait. If the software can't find a place to park this one musical note fast enough right now, it's gone. The next note is right on top of it.

Koz

Soo that's a no go on my laptop even WITH shut down programs? What do I need to get to upgrade? Processor? Sound card? Ram?

[steve]

Soo that's a no go on my laptop even WITH shut down programs?

I would have thought that recording without the drop-outs should be possible on that machine, but you may need to do a bit of work to get it running efficiently (optimised).

The first thing to watch out for is programs running in the background. If Windows Update decides to start checking for new updates while you are recording then it's likely to completely mess up the recording. There are also other programs that will check for updates without warning ("security" programs are notorious for doing this) and can be difficult to spot, so have a look in the Task manager to see exactly what is running.

There's a load of other tips and suggestions here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Troub ... ings#Skips

Note also that USB audio devices are processor dependent - if the computer processor comes under a heavy load then data from the USB port will be delayed (causing skips). In the worst case the USB connection may be lost altogether, which is disastrous for Audacity.

[dallasfan12]

Okay, but if I were to upgrade my computer, what should I do to it?


By the way, thanks to everyone so far!

[kozikowski]

By the way, thanks to everyone so far!

We haven't been abusive enough? Wait, there's more!

f I were to upgrade my computer, what should I do to it?

Trade it in? The only option I see in the instructions is to install 4GB of memory. Is your machine full -- does it have all its memory? That can make a big difference to speed.

It's not that you can't force this machine to work, but if its your only computer, you're going to have to turn off and suppress a lot of software to make sure it doesn't get in the way during your capture and edit session.

When was the last time you defragmented your hard drive? The answer is a date.

Koz

[steve]

Trade it in? The only option I see in the instructions is to install 4GB of memory. Is your machine full -- does it have all its memory? That can make a big difference to speed.

It's not that you can't force this machine to work, but if its your only computer, you're going to have to turn off and suppress a lot of software to make sure it doesn't get in the way during your capture and edit session.

When was the last time you defragmented your hard drive? The answer is a date.

By way of contrast, I'm using a 2 year old laptop which cost about $350 new - 2 GHz dual processor Acer Aspire, 2 GB Ram. I've never defragmented the hard drive. It can handle projects with more than 30 stereo tracks running simultaneously and still record glitch free.
The difference - 1) It's not a notepad computer. Notepad computers are considerably less powerful than laptop computers of similar processor speed. 2) It's not running Windows 7, it's running Ubuntu 10.10.

[dallasfan12]

Well its been a month or so since I last defragged. I'll do that. And I have 4 gigs of ram, I forgot to mention. I'll kill everything and defrag it and I should be fine. Now to the import/export thing. Can I go back and forth between audacity and cakewalk easily? What format should I go with?

And no this isn't abusive, I love the information and help. You guys could post 20 times each if you want. I'm taking it all in!! Haha

[steve]

Can I go back and forth between audacity and cakewalk easily? What format should I go with?

WAV format.

Cakewalk will definitely support "44100 Hz 16-bit (Microsoft) PCM" in mono or stereo.