iconic Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 I've had a search but couldn't find what I wanted, or I'm not asking the right questions!?! OK, real newbie at this recording malarky, I downloaded that Audacity programe 2.0.2, took me an hour just to open the file ....so I'm playing along to a drop of Chic and I'm playing my bass thru the mic input of the PC using Windows, using the Audacity 'software playthru' so I can hear myself hitting all those bum notes....couldn't hear a thing before without that box unmarked! But, I've got a half second of delay between playing the bass and what comes already out of the speakers, that is my Chic tune. If I simply record without software playthru its in time but I can't hear my bass.... ... and another thing, the only way I can get something out my bass is to play it into my VOX Amplug and use the headphone output to go to my PC 'mic in'....I thought most mikes were passive, see, I know nothing! ...plug and play, my a*$e! ......I'm soo very sure it's either something very simple (me most likely!) or it's been asked 1,000,001 times before... any help most welcome kind BC'ers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahpook Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 (edited) the daley you're hearing is called the latency. the software playthru is a software monitor - your computer processes the sound and then plays it back. this can take some time, depending on your fast your machine is. that delay is the audio latency. the easiest way to get round that is to use hardware monitoring, which is what you're achieving with the vox unit, i think i take it chic's being played from your pc ? Edited November 16, 2012 by ahpook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bilbo Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 These problems are common in those early efforts to set up a home recording facility. What I found was that my soundcard was not built to deal with the kind of use I had in mind when I bought the computer so, on the advice of a friend (a great ppianist called Carl Hudson, now playing keys with Professor Green), I got a usb audio interface (in my case, Audio Capture UA 20) and that seemed to sort the problem out. My knowledge of this stuff is too rudimentary for me to give a definitive answer but your audio interface/ASIO may need configuring (it is usually under a drop down bar and is called 'devices' or something and needs to be set to the appropriate setting. I am sorry I am being vague but this is all based on my own limited experience of the issue. I don't know Audacity either PS this knobbing about for hours is par for the course in the early days anyway as you are making sense of a load of stuff that has ints own perverse logic. You'll get there in the end but you will get days when the PC looks sure to be going out the window.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iconic Posted November 21, 2012 Author Share Posted November 21, 2012 Cheers guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acebassmusic Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 [quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1353152540' post='1872103'] PS this knobbing about for hours is par for the course in the early days anyway as you are making sense of a load of stuff that has ints own perverse logic. You'll get there in the end but you will get days when the PC looks sure to be going out the window.... [/quote] Phew....not just me then Over the years I seem to have spent hours (even days!) trying to configure and get sound coming out of different software packages and sound cards. I'm quite computer savvy and an engineer so I'm quite comfortable with technical thingys'. What seems to be logical in the real world doesnt seem to apply here...lol. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 (edited) Yer pays yer money etc etc Audacity is first and foremost an Open Source effort at a very simplistic wave editing program. It doesnt function very well as a multitrack recording program IME and IMO, and it certainly isnt designed for close to real time monitoring. I've spent too long mucking about trying to get a cheap solution that works. The value of that time is greater than the value of the new soundcard I just got so that I no longer have to worry about this stuff anymore. Any USB soundcard with hardware direct monitoring will enable you to do what yo need to do really. Audacity will just about keep up too if you're lucky (sorry but I have never had a great experience with Audacity, and I'm very pro open software - it just is mroe hasstle than its worth IME on all systems I've tried to get it to work on) On top of this, Windows' audio system is not remotely capable of real time monitoring (on a very fast current machine you will be awesomely lucky to get a latency of less than 30ms which is like having your amp 10m away),and so shouldnt be used at all. You need ASIO drivers installed, and even then all ASIO drivers are far from equal, and USB chips are far from equal too. The very very best USB interfaces in terms of drivers and latency are made by RME, you will be spending proper money on this kit, but its utterly brilliant in use IME. I get 2.5ms of latency with my RME interface and I havent tried to make anything more optimised at all yet.... Edited November 21, 2012 by 51m0n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charic Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 Pffft that's not too bad, you wait until you encounter midi latency now THAT's annoying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigjas Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 First off, I am no expert, I've just started playing with recording music. I didn't want to invest too much money in to it to start with, so I downloaded Audacity. I didn't want to spend money on software when I didn't know what I was buying. I have got a Behringer 2442fx mixer which comes with a 'U-Control USB UCA200 2in/2out Audio Interface'. This has solved most of the latency issues because it has the Monitor out. You can pick these up for about £20 or spend a little more for the newer version [url="http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA202.aspx"]http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA202.aspx[/url] I am sure you can get much better quality by spending more, and I'm sure others on here will know a great deal more on this subject. I am just starting to get to grips with Audacity and find its a great tool for my level of knowledge and budget. Maybe in the future I will move on to a better DAW? Jas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 That Behringer device will give you the bare minimum of what you need. Fine fo rwhat you are currently doing since it has a direct monitoring solution Audacity will drastically limit what you can do, and tie you to a very specific, and not very helpful workflow since it can't process audio as it plays it. This, more than any of the other really poor things about audacity effectively renders it useless for any kind of multitrack mixing at all. I'd suggest a look into Reaper, its the best bang for the buck of the current range of DAWs that I have found... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Bajo Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 If you google Audacity and latency theres is a way of eliminating it, I've never tried it though. I gave up in the end, I'm saving for a portable recorder such as Boss BR800. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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