I am seeking help, please help me!

[Jedi.In.Training]

Hi People,

I am not only new to Audacity, but new to the recording world as a whole.

I have about as much knowledge on the subject as a shoelace. Despite my hours of trying to figure things out (using the Audacity manual, this blog, etc.), I have not accomplished my goal

My goal: Efficiently record ANY kind of audio file (wva, mp3, etc.) using Windows Media Player (I have Windows 7) while singing into an emcee microphone.

I am using Audacity 2.0.3. and I am using the following equipment:

A basic/standard mixer (Alesis Multimix 4)
A USB interface system (Because my laptop does not have a line-1 input)
RCA cords of all kinds (double to single, double to double, the whole 9)
My headphones

The way I have things set up is as follows:

The usb mixer is connected to my laptop, headphones, microphone AND the usb interface (through rca cords). The usb interface is then connected to my laptop. Everything works fine, but I just can't get things to sound right. There's hissing, the audio file sucks for some reason, it's just a bloody mess, and I can't seem to get the right recipe on my sound device panel.

I just want to record my voice (on the mic) while playing the audio file (overdub) and have Audacity record all that while I hear EVERYTHING in my headphones.

Please help! Thanks, you guys are awesome!

Gabriel

[kozikowski]

Just know that you are doing one of the most error prone processes. Windows recording, simultaneous mix and sync playback and live microphone production. All at once.

In no particular order:

Since you're on Win7, Windows is probably actively fighting you. It hates singing. Turn off Windows Enhanced services and any other "enhancements" like Theater Sound you can find in the Windows Control Panels.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... hancements

Next most important step is the USB Device.

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/pix/ ... Lenovo.jpg

We recommend that specific USB device, the UCA-202 because it allows theatrically perfect overdubbing by mixing your live microphone with the existing tracks. As a rule, you can't do overdubbing by listening to either the mixer or the computer.

Efficiently record ANY kind of audio file (wva, mp3, etc.) using Windows Media Player

I'm going with no. Audacity has to tightly manage the timing between your playback tracks and your voice. It can only do that if Audacity is playing the music.

You can get away with "straight" recording, that is, playing Windows Media and recording the composite of your voice and the original track without overdubbing, but you can only do that once. If you need to overdub a second track over the first composite, you're dead. That only works if Audacity is managing all the audio.

Let us know where you get stuck next.

Koz

[Jedi.In.Training]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audi ... ing-system

This is the device I bought.
I don't know if that means I screwed myself over, buy either way, I am going to follow your guidelines, and I will let you know what happens.
Thanks a ton!

[kozikowski]

You should try it anyway. The only reason I specified that USB unit was it worked very well and I have one and have access to many others. The first line in that wiki: "Known, good, working."

And again, if you never make it past one level of overdubbing, you don't need overdubbing at all.

Koz

[Jedi.In.Training]

Hi there,

This post is a little old, so I'm not sure if it's been backed up by newer posts or something, but anyway, yeah... Thank you for your responses, I was busy with stuff, but I figured out a while ago what my problem was.
I am now playing a track using audacity, which seems to get converted every time I open a new file, which Is fine, I can now record, use the mic, and save my tracks. The usb interface gets along fine with the usb mixer and my computer.
All in all, I am much closer to being problem-free, but my issue now involves the sound quality (for playback). The mic sounds fine, and that's good, but the instrumental has that familiar, dreadful sort of background screeching. I still hear the song, but it sounds like a robot is taking a violent dump in the background.
I will make a new post just in case this one has been forgotten - go to http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 98#p213898 .