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Sound card?

1408 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  nroberts
I have a standard stereo sound in my computer. I have a small proble with it.....it seem that it only is set for mono. The reason why I say this is that when recording I can only get it to record on the left side and play back is in stereo!!?? Is there a setting on the computer I have to check to see if it's in stereo? I'm running Windows XP with cakeWalk Sonar 4 . Any help would be great!!

Thanks

Bulletman
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Bulletman said:
I have a standard stereo sound in my computer. I have a small proble with it.....it seem that it only is set for mono. The reason why I say this is that when recording I can only get it to record on the left side and play back is in stereo!!?? Is there a setting on the computer I have to check to see if it's in stereo? I'm running Windows XP with cakeWalk Sonar 4 . Any help would be great!!
Are you plugging into the mic-in or the line-in part of the soundcard? What soundcard? A more thurough understanding of your signal path would make it easier to give useful help. Describe all connections from the guitar to the computer in as detailed a manner as you can.

Also, you should be able to pan the track or split it into two and make a stereo image out of a single mono track. That is how I work since I have a broken path and only have the one line. Traditionally guitar is recorded in mono anyway. Sometimes you might try for room ambiance in stereo but usually you close mic with a single dynamic cardioid...a mono signal.
Sound card

Sorry about that!

Ok,,,,I have a line going from my mixer that has left and right RCA jacks and the other end is a 1/8" stereo jack going into the line in on the computer. When playing the guitar through the mixer I get a stereo signal ..( left right) but when I'm recording it to the computer it only shows a mono signal at the meters?? When I choose only the right side on the sofware NO signal at all ,...Left side no problem,... all the signal I need.
So that is my problem:crazy: I just don't get a stereo signal in the software!! Pisses me off big time...so I have to record everything in mono. No big deal I guess but it would be nice to get a stereo signal to the software. (Cakewalk Sonar 3)
Anyway to check the sound card for stereo input?? I'm lost on this one!!

Bulletman.....
Sound card

Hey bullet man. If you absolutely cannot stand having mono, you should try Adobe Audition. It's very basic, and you can just copy the the left side of the song and paste it to the right side to get stereo. I had this same problem on mine and the reason for it i think is because of your patch cable. If only one patch cable is plugged in to your pedal to the computer, you will only get one channel. I used to use my old distortion pedal and one end of the patch cable was plugged into my Line In spot, while the other was into my pedal. I'm now using a Yamaha Magicstomp that has 2 channels for output (right, left). I have this patch cable that is splits into 2, so i plug it into right and left, and the other side into my computer and it works fine. But with adobe audition it's really simple to past the wave you recorded into the right side. If you can't stand mono, give adobe audition a try, it cost money but you can download it from kazaa or limewire with the serial number :)

-bLiTz
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Bulletman said:
So that is my problem:crazy: I just don't get a stereo signal in the software!!
That can't be true. Are you going to the line-in on your computer or the mic in? Mic in is always mono, line-in should be stereo.

If you can do left, but not right, then the problem isn't stereo, it is something else. It could be that the right side is not comming in at all. Do you know for a fact that sound is comming out of both the right and left sides of your mixer? The outputs you plug the computer in from, not your headphone out. My mixer works fine on headphone out but has a blown main line and only works on one side there....subs work ok, but mains only one.

Is there a short in the wire you are using?

If you plug something else into the line-in on your computer does it have stereo out? If you just unmute the line-in and listen to it is it in stereo?

I can easily see a situation where you can only use either left or right, but either works, but if one does not work at all then the problem probably isn't that your software doesn't do stereo. I think you need to look elsewhere before blaming the program. I could be wrong...
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Maybe the channel you're using in your 'software' is a mono channel!?!
Seq said:
Maybe the channel you're using in your 'software' is a mono channel!?!
He should be able to set it to either left or right still.
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