recording question

Hi, I have just got my analog inputs hooked up to my sound card [Emagic Audiowerk8] I have a rca cable going from the output of a vox guitar pedal to analog inputs on sound card. On a audio track in sonar I have set the input to Stereo Audiowerk In (analog) I play my guitar and it picks up the signal and also records it but it is only on the left channel. Is something set wrong somewhere? rcas on the wrong inputs maybe? I also have very bad static in the signal, I dont know if this is from the rca or the digital output to my fostex 8trk which I am monitoring from. Other from it seems to be working. I have also tryed applying some effects to the track like ampsim and that works but only when something has been recorded. Is there a way to hear what the effects sound like when the track is armed? I cant get the tuner to work either? Whats the best way to record a bass guitar into sonar? Through my vox pedal the same as my guitar? I tryed but it doesnt sound bassy enough. Thanks!!

Hi, Thanks for your reply. I think your right about it being a mono input. How do most people go about recording stereo guitar tracks? As for cloning a track, I tried cloning a mono track and panning it but any thing that I pan to the right there is no signal? Im not sure where on the console i should be panning aswell. But when panning to the right side there is definitly no signal.

Hi, thanks for your reply robo, but like i said when trying to pan the recorded track witch only plays on the left side to the right there is no sound or signal showing on the monitor. I pan hard right on the cloned track and the signal drops out. I think it is beacuse there has been nothing recorded on the right channel.
I have chosen the analog stereo input but I also have the choice of either seperate left or right channel inputs. Hope you understand what I mean by there is no recorded audio on the right channel to be panned to. How am I going to get a stereo recording!! or at least on both left and right channels? Thanks.

Dear Mr. Ttack, I no what you are talking about, when you record into the track (a stereo track) you only get sound on one side of the track (Left) this is because the cord you are using is a mono cord and it is only making contact with the left channel on the sound card. It physically can not record to both tracks. My Point is this, do not use a stereo track, choose a Mono track, (Left channel) and get a track with a good solid mono signal, (example a guitar) then later after you have all the tracks recorded, then pan that particular track (and all others) to the position in the stereo field that you want them in, and you will have a nice stereo mix on the song.

Next on the popping and crackling, this is caused by the Processor of the computer lagging as it attends to other issue that the computer has to deal with, even a very powerful system can break down if it has a lot to do. I do not know if you ever play games on the computer, but if so this illustration will help.

Have you ever played a game on the computer that you have also played on a game console? If so then you noticed that the computer sometimes stops or slows down to process the data, while the game console does not, the reason is that the console has nothing else to do but play the game, while the computer may be using antivirus, pop up stoppers, firewalls, updating system data etc. so it has to take a breath and change directions for a nansecond. Well if you are processing audio wave file that is all it takes to create a teenie tiny break in the process and a pop or crackle forms.

That is why it is so important to customize and optimize your system for audio work, the down side to that is that it will not do other things as well as it used to, a trade off in the audio works.

This is why also that having dedicated componants helps alot, my system is not a beast, but the sound card, and video card and the hard drive setup is specific to recording, while it still does surf the net, and do e-mails, even write a letter to my clients, it does audio very well, but i will admit it took me three different system builds to get it right.

ORIGINAL: wakattack

Hi, I dont think you quite understood what i meant. If you record only to the left channel(which is all i can do anyway) that means there is no audio recorded on the right channel right? So that means that there is no audio to pan to the right!! I dont know where I am meant to pan from but I have been from the audio track. What do you mean by stereo field? This is an example of what i mean, when you've recorded something into the track window there is three lines, in my case the audio data only shows on the first line because it has only been recorded on the left channel. There is no audio to be panned to right! I need something to be recorded on the right channel to be panned to the right dont I?

He understood perfectly. You don't understand what he is telling you.

Please take everybody's advice - RECORD USING ONLY THE LEFT CHANNEL - I don't mean to yell, but you need to adjust how you're recording. After you have recorded each part/instrument of your song, you can pan tracks left and right to where you want them in the stereo field. When you record in mono, using only the left channel, the sound will be recorded in the center. You can move it left or right using the pan control.

What is the stereo field? Well, listen to your favorite CD through a set of head phones. Do you hear certain instruments coming from the right phone, some from the left? Do you hear some instruments that seem to come from in front of you, some from behind. Do the vocals sound like they're coming from the middle? That's the stereo field. You can create the left/right adjustments using the pan control. You create the front/back using volume, reverb, and delay.

If you want a stereo signal of the same track, record the instrument in mono (left channel only), clone the track, then pan the original to the left and the clone to the right.

Hope that clears it up.

as for the popping and crackling reply, my computer is not proccesing any other programs when playing audio. I can have just windows media player open and nothing else at all and still the popping.

Select the I/O tab at the bottom of the Tracks pane. On the track that you want to record to (the one you have armed) what does it say in the "Input" box on the left part of the screen? If it says "[your soundcard name here] stereo default," change it to say "[your sound card name] left."

If you select the left channel, you will not get a stereo recording - you will get a mono recording that will be in the center by default. You can move the mono recording in the stereo field with the pan control.

I would not add effects before recording unless it was say, a guitar effct like overdirve, or something like that. reverbs, choruses and EQs and stuff are better added laterthat way if you do not like the effect you can change it and still have a dry track to work with.

Great list Jeff, that is perfect, those are the offenders, but usually the biggest bad guy is the poorly setup system.

MC has a tuner? wow can i have a tuner fish samich?

It is Music Creator, a budget version of cakewalk, This is it's forum, sonar is down the hall, Not that you are not welcome here you certainly are, but some of what is said will not apply to sonar, as it has many features that MC does not have.

Yeah I do the same thing Greg, that is the beauty of a nice basic setup like we both use.