The FSOL Message Board

I dont think anyone on this forum will laugh at you or shake their heads.Your only asking questions similar to which we have all asked when we are trying to learn something new.I personally search for tutorials online if I need to find something out.As for the adding effects onto a single note - I tend to use automation in Ableton, and automate the sends to my effect or sometimes just leave the effecton the track and automate the wet / dry levels. For really long fades Ive used sidechhained reverb effects - im sure theres an ableton tutorial on youtube.Ive only used freezing on tracks in the past when my pc was struggling.Since I upgraded my pc I havent really needed to do it.Hope this helped a bit mate.

I was actually overwhelmed by the number of questions rather than laughing at them !

great stuff......i managed to climb a lot of hurdles over the weekend and i'm picking up some steam

lol i write such weird tunes.
i'm afraid it never ends up appealing to most. just the warped way i think about music i guess.
i think my tendency is just to be really progressive and have things changing constantly....sometimes to the point where i just lose cohesion. i would think that to most my tunes sound all over the place. in my mind everything is continuous and flows ok but idk.

trying to pin a genre or description to this tune is tough. my initial word would just be "dance" i guess.
it's like a blues/rock riff with some funk and psychedelia injected.
with a 4/4 dance beat lol

just can't wait to share it and hear how it's perceived
i only need to please myself so I'm positive that much will happen.
still very curious as to how other ears and minds take it all in though.


did some great stuff with tape delay effect this weekend which tells me that i'm well on my way to making some thick reggae dub when the time comes.

really exciting stuff for me!
now i just pray that my PC won't explode

OK so I have this soundcard:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta1010LT.html

and also one of these:
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/Q502USB.aspx

What is the ideal method for me to record mic or guitar?

I'm struggling to grasp all this info about signal types etc. and the more i read about this the more my head just goes in circles

to the degree that even though my axiom 61 is hooked up via USB and seems to work fine i'm wondering if i should more appropriately have it hooked up via the midi connection to my soundcard?


weird thing is that i read about all of these inputs my soundcard has....but it seems that nobody ever recommeds plugging ANYthing directly into it? like there is always some type of interface?


i'm totally lost

I'm completely un-techie, but for a mic you'll just want to plug an XLR cable into yr XLR sockets on the soundcard, I'd imagine. That's how I used to do it when I did computery stuff and it always came up with a pretty decent sound (my soundcard was actually an external interface rather than a card with sockets, but the effect is the same). As you don't have an outboard mixer or anything I can't really see what else you can do.

thanks Ross....hopefully others can chime in with their own experiences as well


the microphone direct i read stuff like the signal isn't "hot" enough idk

i don't have an external mixer except that this behringer kind of might serve that purpose?
perhaps it's a "preamp" too?

then i read stuff about putting too much of a "hot" juicy signal into my soundcard and essentially frying it


idk wtf



to add to the mix: i also have a fender amp with a preamp out and line out
those may help
or not
oof

I would guess the easiest and most effective way is to find the microphone input on your soundcard, and connect the line-out signal from your source to it.

Probably shouldn't use pre-amp out, that's meant for using with a power amp, because it's volume controlled.

I had similar issues too when trying to record something into my DAW from an external source. Once I wanted to make a live experimental track recording 4 different channels simultaneously (later it became Selena as featured on Garden Of Static Decay), so it was pretty frustrating not knowing how to do it using my soundcard's 4 line inputs. There were 2 parts to be solved: the audio interface connections and activating them on DAW (Cubase). I ended up reading the chapter "recording" of my audio interface manual (Lexicon Omega), and doing it step by step as it was written down, I managed to make the recordings.

Have you tried spotting the recording procedure on your manual seedy? Your XENYX Behringer looks really nice and looks like it has everything u need to record, the input jacks and mixing pots, I would try using this one for sure. What software do you use to record?

Razor -
what would be my "source" though? the mic itself? or this behringer thing?

dubmasta - i'm using cakewalk sonar producer 8.5
the behringer was just handed to me one day as a used item. i don't have the manual but i guess i should seek it out and see what i can see.

ultimately i just look at all of these soundcard inputs and wonder what they are good for....what their true use is.

from both of your responses it seems you are telling me "do not plug your mic or guitar DIRECTLY into the soundcard"


oof i've gone as far as to email m-audio who makes this card so hopefully i'll hear something from them!

...?
Thought everyone was saying do plug it in?

Nothing will go wrong if you plug a mic or guitar into the mic or line inputs (respectively) on your Soundcard. That's what they're for.

Im not a techie guy at all, I mostly make music driven by instinct and emotions, and some very basic mixing rules, where I totally suck of course, Im not very good at it. The reason I suggested you to use Behringer was because it has pots that allow you to control the input signal either from mic, guitar, synth or any other instrument. Since M-audio doesnt have any control pots I suppose you do the same thing with software provided to you with this soundcard.

seedy wrote:from both of your responses it seems you are telling me "do not plug your mic or guitar DIRECTLY into the soundcard"

I dont think thats right, these line-ins are exactly for this reason, you can connect them with anything that has a line out or audio signal, even a headphone out. I just wonder how u control the signal gain from the line-ins, so you definitely do it with software that came with the soundcard. Either behringer or maudio, its the same thing with slightly different approach so you can use either, read the manual, if u dont have it download one from the net, I think its the best way to do it.

I guess it depends on whether the ports support phantom power - The only way to test is buy plugging the mic or guitar in and seeing if the signal is too quiet or not.

sounds like a plan

you figure at the very least plugging a mic or guitar direct would never end up "too hot"
if we expect anything it should be too quiet

will look up manuals tonight

god i'm moving like a million miles an hour with this stuff....between the actual composition and trying to get everything set up and understood....all at the same time!
and not to mention the uh....REST of life is sure busy as heck too


super super exciting though
i really wish life was different
and that i had a lot more time to devote to something i find this enjoyable

ah life

In all honesty, and I know this might sound like a cop-out answer, but the best way is just to experiment yourself. Plug things in. If they sound shit, try another way. If you get stuck, then seek answers. If you follow the rulebook, you end up making music that sounds like the rulebook - and you don't want to do that.

ok maybe i'm getting somewhere?

http://www.behringer.com/assets/Q502USB ... QSG_WW.pdf
mine is on the top left of page 7


it's showing that i should have one of these
http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/DI100.aspx
in between my guitar and this mixer

then again these instructions have no idea what type of soundcard i have lol