1nf1d3l Posted January 22, 2005 Report Share Posted January 22, 2005 i have a laptop, and i try to record onto it, but when i do, it always "flanges" like theres a flanger in front of the input.. but there isnt.. is it just the sound card im using? or is there something i could do to stop it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted January 22, 2005 Report Share Posted January 22, 2005 It definitely shouldn't do that. Are you certain you don't have some environment or FX turned on on the sound card. Also, what sound card is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1nf1d3l Posted January 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2005 its the stock sound card on this comp. it sounds like a flange.. i think its the volume wavering though.. its really wierd... and i dont think theres any effects built into the comp.. i dont know though.. i wouldnt know where to check Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyG Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 have you got it connected to the line in or the mic in? there is a difference between the two and if i remember right, the line in is better because its designed for line level inputs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1nf1d3l Posted January 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 ive been using the mic in, ill try the line in though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dugz Ink Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 It's impossible to narrow it down without the following information: What laptop? (make, chip type, RAM, hard drive) What are you recording? (mic, guitar, direct, amp) What software are you using? (Sonar, Tracktion, Windows Sound Recorder) What audio format? (MP3, WMA, WAV) What data settings? (sample rate, bit depth) Any of those things can be a factor, because of the way they work... or don't work. Without the details, all we can do is guess... and hope that we pick the right thing. D~s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1nf1d3l Posted January 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 What laptop? (make, chip type, RAM, hard drive) - toshiba satalite. pentium 4. 480 mhz ram, 40 gig hd What are you recording? (mic, guitar, direct, amp)-guitar What software are you using? (Sonar, Tracktion, Windows Sound Recorder)-dobe audition What audio format? (MP3, WMA, WAV)-wav, i believe What data settings? (sample rate, bit depth)-im not sure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dugz Ink Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 The Satellite comes with a Celeron processor. That's fine for "home computers", but they are usually too slow for recording audio. Even a 2.8gHz Celeron will choke when it tries to process that much "live" data. The fact that you're using the on-board audio (probably AC97) means that the processor is doing almost all of the work. The one thing that cannot be fixed is the hard drive; it's slow, and that will impede live recording. However, it should handle a single mono track. (If you're recording a guitar that doesn't have any effects, there is no reason to record it to a stereo file.) Also, if you're just plugging your guitar into the on-board sound, then you're using a crappy pre-amp. That won't cause the problem that you're describing, but it will add to it. At the very least, you should get an inexpensive DI box, like the Behringer DI100. If you are serious about recording on your laptop, and you have the money, I would strongly recommend buying an external audio interface that connects to the computer through a Firewire port. I would recommend at least upgrading to the M-Audio Solo, or maybe even the M-Audio 410; they'll handle the analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, instead of making the computer do it all. (I belive that both can be used without a direct box or a preamp.) Your system may handle one of the USB2 interfaces, but I've heard so many bad stories from people who paid good money for USB audio interfaces that I cannot recommend them. They are less expensive than Firewire interfaces, so if you go that route, make sure that you can return the interface if it doesn't work well with your computer. Audition is a great program; that's probably not your problem. However, check the settings. When you click on the record button, Audition should ask you what sampling rate you want to use. If you select 22kHz or less, then your guitar is going to sound bad; you really need 44.1 or better to record electric guitars, and I strongly recommend 96kHz for acoustic guitars. (really low sampling rates will cause the audio to sound strange... you might even describe it as sounding out of phase.) Audition "records" the waveform as a temp file, but you can save it in any format. WAV is the biggest, but also the best quality. MP3 is the most common for internet files, because they are small and stream fairly fast... but you give up some audio quality. WMA is actually better quality and streams better than MP3, and the WMA files are only slightly larger than MP3s. (WMA will play on any Windows Media Player.) In summation... You need a decent audio interface for recording. If your audio interface doesn't work like a DI, then buy one. Record your guitar at 44.1, or better, in mono. Let us know if that does/doesn't help. D~s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1nf1d3l Posted January 23, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 ok... that'll take some money, but ill do that when i have it. thanks man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syxxstring Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 taking dugz post into account, Ive had a lot of luck using an older pc to record audio using Cakewalks Guitar Tracks. Its very limited but actually decent PC software, the first version, what you want should be pretty affordable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dugz Ink Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 Guitar Tracks is a decent product, and it can run on fairly slow machines, but I don't think that's going to fix the problem. He has Audition, which is very stable software. I can't count the number of times that I've answered posts (on other forums) where the person said "Audition runs great, but [Cakewalk product or Steinberg product] is giving me trouble." That's why I didn't recoemmend any other software. I think he needs to start with basic hardware (DI box) and work his way up, improving what he can when he can. I could be wrong. I've been wrong before... but those occasions usually involved women. D~s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1nf1d3l Posted January 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 but those occasions usually involved women. D~s ← jejejejejejejejejeje... kinda... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 I'm with Dugz on this one. FWIW, on a laptop there isn't usually a "line in" for the onboard sound, so he's probably FORCED to use the "mic in". Which is fine, because a passive guitar's signal isn't strong enough to use the "line in" without a preamp of some sort anyhow. While you're scraping together the money to follow Dugz' suggestions, you can install a free ASIO driver called "ASIO4ALL" (Google for it); however, I don't know offhand if Audition even USES ASIO, so it might be worth checking into before you bother with it. ASIO drivers won't help even a little bit if your software doesn't use them. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.