ORIGINAL: lateralus1
please forgive me if im in the wrong area, or if this has already been asked but im desperate and am looking everywhere for help. I have a Yamaha DTxtremeII drum kit and have been trying to directly record to my laptop, i cannot figure out how to do it ive tryed multiple programs and other forums but havnt had any luck yet. Is it possible to record my kit via USB?? I am just looking for a way to hear myself play, other than recording using the "record" feature on my mp3 player which gives me terrible quality, i again appologize if this post isnt in the right place, if anyone could help i would GREATLY appreciate it, my laptop recognizes when my drumkit is plugged in with the usb cord, i simply cant figure out how to record it to my computer , i again thank anyone who could help me and those who had the patience to read this.
Hi there...
You need to take the audio output of your synth, and plug it into your laptop's audio input somehow, but there will be problems, no doubt.
Laptops generally have a so-called 1/8" mini-jack input for a small microphone and synths usually have 2 x 1/4" line-level outputs for L and R channels, so people go to radio shack and buy what at first appears to be the appropriate cables--2 x 6' mono cables with 1/4" jacks, a 1/4" Y connector and a 1/4" to 1/8" stereo adapter cable. But when they get back home and have it all hooked up, the sound quality is unsatisfactory.
Noise is induced in the line because of a mismatch in the electrical characteristics of both ports. Some very industrious users will then learn about products know as a "DI box" that handles the differences in electrical characteristics, and after purchasing a couple of DI boxes, they'll get rid of the noise in the line, only to discover their laptop has A/D converters of minimal quality.
Some will go to the next step and buy a pro sound "card" for their laptop, and ideally, these are the best choice for anyone doing this kind of work. But there's a deeper problem with using laptops in general for digital audio, and it has to do with how the low-level operating system has been configured by the laptop manufacturer.
The sad truth is that some laptops never will be able to record audio without inducing random noise.
With tweaking, some have configured their laptop to work at levels acceptable for them. It all depends on the laptop and the user.
If you wish to explore this further, check out the sound cards available for laptops on any of the large online music stores. You can also search for DI boxes (DI stands for "Direct In"), and you might google "line level mpedance matching" for further info on some of the other points mentioned above.