davlan

Recently added Celemony Melodyne to my plugin list. It's a pitch/time correction and manipulation software. I get a lot of people whose vocals are . . .well . . .a little off sometimes. This plugin simply works and sounds incredibly natural. Great for adding harmonies too.

I use a combination Norton Ghost for a monthly drive image backup of the system drive, and an external USB drive for the audio drive. Working on 2 computers is also handy as I have all the sample data in 2 independant places. I don't do this often enough though.

Try here for a comprehensive list: http://www.musicxp.net/tuning_tips.php Love the new forum. Keep up the good work! Best Dave

Oh and can anyone tell me where my "flames"came from?

One quick point about latency. I have my sound card set to 6ms. In terms of playing soft synths or even audio monitoring or playing along live etc this tends not to be a problem. Most new sound cards have similar capabilities. Now while the system is capable of going a bit quicker I find that the more you decrease latency on a system that the increases in CPU drain rise exponentially. If you run at a lower latency the system tends to run a bit smoother. Also the latency figure is a measurement of how long it takes audio to leave the software environment and hit the sound card and it's outputs or vice versa. However if you have a complex system where you are playing your guitar into the computer and have it routed back through an external FX processor it has to cross over the sound card driver bridge 4 times! That bunps uo my latency to 24ms! So to cap latency only becomes a problem on a very complicated setup and it might be best to simplify the latency chain. But these restrictions may not apply while mixing where there is a 20ms delay but everything is synched time accurate. My oh my D

I think that studio computer setups are a very personal thing and obviously everyones priorities are different. But may offer some of my own predjudices! Bong, you said you want a simple system. I absolutely agree. the more layers of interface you have the more time you have to think about them as opposed to creating music. I too run a creamware system but tend to have this hardwired in a particular configuration that allows me to almost entirely work within cubase. The Creamware system is flexible but also takes a while to wrap your head around. I wouldn't bother with a 3 DSP card. I use a 15 DSP card and I can overload even that fairly easily. Also you are limited to the effects and synths on the DSP system as the cards do not run standard VST or other plugins. I'm not sure why you want o record into Sound Forge then into Cubase (familiarity with SF?). Why not record directly into CUbase. It will sound as good and simplify your work flow. With regard to monitoring latency: If you monitor cubase audio outputs onto you mixing desk along with direct sound from external hardware there will be a small delay from software/computer - say 10-20 ms. Not ideal. If you route your hardware audio first through cubase, either on individual channels or as mixed stereo pair, and then output to speakers, cubase will compensate for any delays across the board and therefore all tracks should be output time accurate. If you have enough ins and outs. you can wire your whole studio to the computer , much like a pro tools system, whereby all your external FX can be made to behave like plugins (again latency compensated). Once setup it's easy peasy to operate and you can "save" your entire studio as many times as you like in as many combinations. A creamware system can be flexible within itself but as said before cannot support standard plugins. You'll probably find that the routing allowed within Cubase is completely sufficient for compex routing. All you need is lots of ins and outs. But this approach requires a level of trust and experience with computer audio systems. If something goes wrong with a hardware setup it is fairly easy to troubleshoot the system i.e. probably a faulty cable. In the world of software drivers, bugs, and system incompatibilities , troubleshooting can be more nerve jangling. My belly rumble D

Hi Bong. First off I can heartily recommend SX3. SL probably has most of the new benefits as well but I haven't seen this. SX3 is more stable and has the following new features. Split project window - As you scroll down the project window the top split remains on screen. Useful for video or markers. Audio stretches in real time to tempo change. External gear can now be patched in so they act identically to plugins. Eases workflow considerably. Pattern sequencing now possible. As for sound cards it really depends on your budget. The more ins and outs on the card enable you to patch your hardware into cubase. I am currently working in 24 bit 48kHz. If you are doung a lot of digital processing in 16 bit errors will creep into the recording. Staying in 24 bit till the last possible process lessens this considerably. But the higher resolution you use the more bandwith and disk space will be used up so you will get lesser performance. Recording in Cubase is piss easy. The Edirol USB2 box has really good sound apparantly. The new EMU stuff is also said to be top stuff, with a brilliant sampler built in. d

John , I'm not word perfect on the math and the physics so here is a quote from the manufacturer: What Does It Do? The Xitel Ground Loop Isolator is designed to eliminate the annoying hum that speakers give out due to imbalances in your electrical wiring. It works by breaking the earth between your computer or audio components and stereo so there’s no path for current from an electrical imbalance to flow. This prevents your speakers from humming! It’s a simple and effective way of eliminating ground loop issues without having to resort to an electrician. Also here is the URL examining the problem (look under soundcard problems 11&12): http://sound-on-sound2.infopop.net/2/OpenT...572&f=514099644 Dave

Solved. I have been doing a bit of research on the net and discovered that this is a fairly common problem especially with laptops. The noise is interference from the motherboard onto the audio caused by a ground loop. Technically I should send the computer back but as this will be a major hassle I have been able to resolve the issue perfectly by getting a ground loop isolater. I believe a DI box with an earth llift will acheive the same thing.

Contacted Dell about this . they reckoned the problem is likely to originate in the AC power supply adapter and said if I could test it with another adapter they would then send out a replacement. Any ideas where I can get hold of a power adapter?

This is tricky one and depends upon your approach. My guess is that the master fader should be kept at 0db and the mix should be made relative to this remembering you are trying to mix the peak level (loudest part of the track(s) as high as possible without clipping. Many then start recording individual tracks at about -5db, these combining to increase the overall level. Would be interested to hear other views!

So let me get this right. The noise is travelling through the mains from computer to amp? Where do I get a mains filter? Cheers Dave

Having a bit of a prob. I am using a PCMIA Indigo sound card with my Dell laptop. With headphones plugged in this is an almost silent sound card. No back ground noise! However the problem arises when I am plugged into the mains as opposed to battery use. With headphones plugged in everything is fine. However if I attach the output to a mixer or amp I get this dreadful digital background noise. It comes across as being whenever the computer does something, access hard drive, change something on screen, there is an digital audio equivalent sent down the audio cable to the amp. Any ideas? Dave

I appreciated it too Johny Boy. Am feeling overwhelmed with technical info. I'm half way through reading Mastering Audio: The Science and the Art by Bob Katz. I never realised how much I don't know about sound. It can all get so hideously complicated! Best

Hey John, Should I fake my orgasms?

Thanks Nige but no infection was detected!

Been working with digital video recently and I was having problems with video and audio data staying in sync. Both were stuttering rather annoyingly. I decided to try defragmenting the audio drive. I had to leave the machine over night, but in the moring the problem had disappeared. I am tempted to do this on a regular basis. Does anyone know if this is harmful to the machine?

Aaaaaaaaaaagh! Have read the last two threads with interest and went to the URL suggested. Downloaded a prog called Spy Sweeper. After running it informed that I had over 40 instances of spyware. After removing all the pop ups stopped. On another note I was recently infected with the Sasser virus. Got the download from Microsoft and purchased Norton anti virus. The thing is the computer will not log onto any Symantec page so I can neither register or update the program. Any ideas?

Apologies Marc; I addressed this to Steve instead of you. Also I was under the impression that updates could only be uploaded directly to the OS and not saved to disk first. Let me know if there is a way to this folks! Ta

Hi Steve. This is what I know - The licence on a copy of XP is for use on one computer only. On previous versions this didn't stop you installing the OS on as many machines as desired. However on XP there is an OS activation system. The computer takes the serial no. and a system ID based on components within the computer. This is sent to Microsoft who then send back an activation code. Without this code the OS won't boot after several weeks. This system will prevent you from activation on more than one system. However I'm sure there are several workarounds which could find with only minimal research on the net.

Yeah I'm fine John. Just really bust with stuff at the moment. Been writing music rather than writing about music recently. Will be in touch soon!

Gottit! You go to - File - Export - Audio Mixdown . . . and then in the box tick Import to audio Track Easy when you know . . .

John It might be possible to have both versions in different directories! D

Mathew I have been intending to write an article about my experience, but have been delayed by numerous things. It will complete it soon though. Maybe you would like to do the same? You could detail your entire machine. Maybe there might be an easy solution. I had a problem on my laptop recently where odd things were happening including sluggish CPU response. Turned out I was infected by the W32. sasser virus. One download from Microsoft later and the situ was resolved. Best

Wooo Hooo Creamware have just released the next upgrade for the Scope and Pulsar cards. I had to download over 200 Mbytes of data which, over my emaciated band connection took three days. The new system is essentially identical to he last but much more stable. I was getting to the stage that the platform was crashing so regulary that I was ceasing to use it. For such an expensive soundcard this was ridiculous. However I have been testing it for a few days now and it has been 100% rock solid. Terrific I'm beginning to feel happy. Meybe I'll try a smile later on! Best