Trouble Shooting Was useless, I still cant record!!!

Hi Casper,

Firstly, slow down and DON"T PANIC!

Secondly, 'audio' is sound, MIDI is digital information which is used to drive software synths, drum sequencers. hardware synths etc.

So, the red lights on the little keyboard have nothing to do with recording vocals, guitars, or audio sound from a keyboard.

Start again and tell us what you are trying to record, what with, and how...for example, plugging a mic into the mic input of your soundcard will not give you any usable sound, you need phantom power or another means of bringing the up mic input level - like a pre-amp or mixer.

If it's guitar you're recording, the best input is usually the 'line-in' on your soundcard - what soundcard do you have BTW? And give us some system specs while your at it.

Unfortunately it's not enough to tell us that 'you've done everything you can think of' - that could be everything or nothing

Don't worry. help is here!

It depends on the kind of mic you have. The cheapo ones I use don't need phantom power(dynamic mics). Higher end (the good stuff, like condenser mics) ones generally do need phantom power from an amp or preamp. I know from experience with my Yamaha keyboard that an instrument should be plugged into the line in jack, not the mic jack.

This might be useless to you, because I have no idea what stuff is other than...yeah thats the harddrive, yup, thats the monitor, ok thats the key board. But this is what I can tell you. I just bought this computer at Staples about 5 months ago. It is the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. a1512x...whatever that means. I dont know what sound card it is.
This is what I am doing, I'm plugging my guitar straight into the mic input, via an adapter for shrinking the 1/4 inch guitar chord into the 1/8 inch plug in thingy. I've tried both the front and the rear inputs on my computer. I open cakewalk MC3...creat new project, normal, ok. Audio 1...I go to the input bar and change it to, Stereo Realtek HD Digital Input (it's the only option they give me) I hit the record button (to arm in) then I hit the other record button to actually record...I strum my guitar turn the volume up and down to see if that works...and still nothing.
I know my COMPUTER is recieving the sound because if I go to the microsoft sound recorder I can record my guitar and everything is fine. It's gotta be something in MC. I tried to find a "line-in" input but all I see that might resemble that is dot with to lines around it...kinda looks like a speaker, and it has an arrow pointing to it...anyways I tried that (front and rear) and still I got nothing.
I click on the speaker icon on the bottum right of the screen (by the time of day) and make sure the mic input is on and the volume is up and what not. Everything is all good...as I said, microsoft sound recorder works. So what am I missing? There has to be something in Music Creator that I need to do. Are you sure the lights on the keyboard icon arent suppose to light up or blink? I swear they did on my old computer.
I would really like to record music, this is frustrating me. Thank you for your replies.

Casper

Right on Robomusic. It worked. I am able to record. You say NOT to use the mic input, but the line in? I'm not sure if I have line in. Nothing that says exsactly that anyways. Just the dot with the lines around it that kinda looks like a speaker or radar lookin thing...((*)) kinda like that but the "*" is a dot. And there is a small arrow pointing at it. Is THAT line in? I plugged into it and it works too now.

ANyways, now I just have to figure out the volumes and things so that my guitar can be turned all the way up with out the bars going into the red. I remember the last music creator I never even tried to figure that out, and when I recorded I always just left my guitar on the volume 2. It worked but it was still kind of a pain in the ass. I remember reading about it in the help menus.

Anyways thanks a bunch for your help. You da Man! And if any of you get curious you can check out my "band" at...

www.myspace.com/hidingfromwaldo

I just started that site yesterday, and the 3 songs on it suck balls, I recorded them with the first MC. I didnt put much effort into them. Hopefully my new ones (which I shall now be recording with MC3) will be alot better and more rockin, and maybe I'll learn how to sing.

Anywho, thanks again.

Casper