04-20-2006, 07:24 AM
|
#1
|
|
The Sequencer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: England
Posts: 838
|
Upgrade Help Plz
Hi guys, im after alittle advise on some upgrades for my computer, with music making in mind.
Atm, my computer can't layer up tracks, if i record my guitar while playing to a backing as a seperate track (so i can record songs in parts and mix them over the BT etc) the recorded track plays back stretched over the original BT (it starts in sync and drifts by a few BPM roughly).
Is it my processor causing this (Athlon XP1600, not state of the art i know) or my sound card (Soundblaster Live 24bit, entry level card) or both?
So basically i want to be able to record and playback multiple tracks in a program like Audacity, i'd like to stick to Soundblaster sound cards, but any advise very welcome.
Thx
__________________
Flying In A Purple Rainbow
----------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
04-20-2006, 07:42 AM
|
#2
|
|
excess to requirements
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portsmouth, England
Posts: 7,378
|
the soundcard issue us a wierd one. I never had too many problems with my sb live but it did sound a little crappy in hindsight. Timing wise I have noticed some problems with alignment during collabs if the other guy/guys use a SB card.
http://www.dv247.com/invt/2062/ - M-Audio AUDIOPHILE 2496 £54.99 (inc vat) - this is a good card and very reasonably priced. It is a true pro audio card in that it does not have a midi wavetable onboard like pc sound cards. I only mention this because you have "Sequencer" as you user title.
If you want to upgrade your processor - this will make a bit of difference too. but make sure your mobo can handle the new processor. if not investigate getting a bundle deal (something like http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...mbb-nf6430&P=1 ) or even a barebones system like http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...bb-p730bub&P=1 - this is actually what I have.
it gets costly though 
__________________
"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2006, 07:54 AM
|
#3
|
|
Starving Artist
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 24
|
Good morning, Avalon
You might have a sample rate issue....
In a nutshell, if you take two audio files in different formats and/or sampling rates, the editor you are working is going to have to convert one (or both) files to a a different sampling rate to match what it is doing internally. This automatically creates a slight change in the playback time.
Add into that factor the problem if your backing track is an MP3. MP3's are "stretchy." If you don't beleieve me, try this test:
- Rip a WAV of your favorite song,
- Encode it as an MP3
- Open the MP3 in an audio editor and save it as a WAV,
- Open that WAV and re-encode it as an MP3 again,
- Open that MP3 and try to synch it to the original... Starts off good, then will slowly get off synch.
Find out what sample rate you are recording your guitar as. (You are saving it as a WAV file, right?) Try either setting your software to record your guitar tracks at the same sample rate (if you are collaborating) as the backing track, or convert your backing track to the rate you prefer on your software.
I had this problem trying to synch 48kHz and 44.1kHz tracks here. We decided to on using 48Hz, and transfer project files as WAV files compressed with RAR...
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2006, 08:16 AM
|
#4
|
|
The Sequencer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: England
Posts: 838
|
Thx for the replys guys
My motherboard is fairly new, and supports all the XP range of Athlons, but not the XP 64's, so i'll look into that.
And thx for the the info in the soundcard, i'll have a good look at that too
Now on the sampling, i record at Mp3 stereo, constant bitrate, 128kbps, and tbh the file format being the problem hadn't even crossed my mind.
Might be an idea to do some tests as Wav's then, thx for your advise m8
__________________
Flying In A Purple Rainbow
----------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2006, 08:21 AM
|
#5
|
|
Starving Artist
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 24
|
Post back and let us know what you found!
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2006, 08:57 AM
|
#6
|
|
The Sequencer
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: England
Posts: 838
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by LonnieW
Post back and let us know what you found!
|
Will do m8, going to put it through the paces tommorow morning
__________________
Flying In A Purple Rainbow
----------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
04-20-2006, 09:21 AM
|
#7
|
|
excess to requirements
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portsmouth, England
Posts: 7,378
|
Lonnie makes a good point. I have mentioned this in the past to people but forgot today I was going to write a bit about it and then found this on wiki
Quote:
|
The Sound Blaster Live! featured higher audio quality than previous Sound Blasters, as it processed the sound digitally at every stage. It had an internal fixed sample rate of 48 kHz, meaning that any recording done at lower sample rates (such as 44.1 kHz or 32 kHz) was first upsampled to 48 kHz and then downsampled. In
|
This is probably where timing issues could start. make sure you do everything at 48kHz and you should be fine, "SHOULD" be fine 
__________________
"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hybrid Mode
