Echo off = No sound Echo on = White Noise

Hi everyone. Im new here and to cakewalk. This is probably a very n00bish question to ask and may have come up before.

I'm basically just trying to get some sound out of my electric guitar on the audio bar. If echo is off I hear nothing from my speakers. But if I push echo on, it keeps reverberating until it reaches white noise.

Either way, I can't hear my guitar.

I'm using a laptop with RealTek sound card.

I've tried an analog 1/4 to 1/8 input through my mic jack and a USB input through my USB 1/4 jack connection. The results are the same either way.

Any thoughts? It would be greatly appreciated. I'm getting flustered.

The problem is probably your soundcard. Realtec is far from ideal for recording music.
Tell us what your equipment spec is (computer RAM - operating systems etc) and someone will be along soon to sort you out.
Its really frustrating when starting out as there'squite a steep learnig curve, however it is well worth it to get up and running.

The issue is this. The basic sound card does not have the capability to monitor the sound without mixing the existing tracks with the currently being recorded track. So the Echo button helps you to hear the track so you can monitor while recording. The downside is you get an echo due to the latency introduced. What you need to do is to add a mixer or an audio interface into the equation and then monitor from there, and not use the echo button.

Another thing that might help is to download a driver called ASIO4All it will give faster processing time and let you lower latency.

Realtec is not a good card to use for MC4... my Dell has a realtec and it plays the MP3's just fine.... but NOWAY would I try to use it for MC4.... I use Saffire.

Absolute Perfection.

You guys are gonna think this is real hilarious. I forgot to turn the volume up in the audio bar!

DOH! LOL!

It's working quite nicely now. Thank you.

Now how's that for my first noob post, eh?

Ok this makes a lot of sense and i finally understand what the guy on the video was saying. I had my Audio Input set to Stereo Mix. This is a no no, since I must set it to one mono analog input. I can hear it fine now and its not feeding back into itself, but I have to set it on Mic and not Stereo.

On a system like your suing a built in card, a simple upgrade is to get a small behringer 802 xenyx mixer it will take 50% of the fight out of the process. Around $60 new. Or as Guitarhacker like to point out a full on recording interface like his saffire is around $350 and will take another 40% out of the issue. Nothing is 100% due to our own lame messes. LOL.

And since you described your computer as an old piece of junk, 900 MHz, and a Celeron, you're above the minimums, but below the recommended.
If this Magnum Opus of yours has been waiting years to get out, save everything you create to disk, and start saving up for a newer, faster computer and audio interface designed for recording. You wouldn't want your first 13 compositions to disapper into the haze when the hard drive croaks.

Well, you certainly have all of the right attitudes needed, you realize the learning curve is there and intend on defeating it, you anticipate a time frame of months instead of demanding results in minutes, and you intend on learning it the right way, and doing it yourself...outstanding.
Please stop by any time you have a question, and never assume it is a neewbie, dumb question, because every one of us here have gone through the steps you are taking at one time, and we all understand your situation. I have only one problem with your attitude and disposittion. You said " But I have no interest in being famous or a 'star' ". That is not your choice. Once your "ambient soundscapish album" is extracted from your head, and then played for others, and published on soundclick or myspace or any of the other places it will eventually show up, your fame and stardom will be immeadiate and meteoric in its advance on the web-waves. Of course, you will at that time forget about all of us low lifes who helped you out way back when, but we are accustomed to that abuse.
Oh, I forgot to say, welcome to the forum
Later
Albert

a full on recording interface like his saffire is around $350

man did I get a deal....!!! or took.... I paid $290 +/- and now the same saffire sells for $250 +/-

But it's worth $350 for sure....