[0beron]

Can someone explain 'monitoring' to me in the context of a Creativer XFi card? I'm trying to record audio from the line in jack (which seems to double as a Mic input too..) into an application such as audacity or Ableton, on a machine running Vista.

With Audacity (which I presume uses the DirectX/MME route to record) I get unacceptable latency. If I record a click track, and then a second one over the top, the clicks don't match when I play the result back, and the difference isn't even consistent - they move around such that no constant offset in time can fix it.

Using Ableton I can go the ASIO route, but I have a different problem - the contents of audio track one, and even the ableton metronome get recorded onto any subsequent tracks that I record - ie Ableton's output is looping back to the input somewhere.

So, when I plug in an audio source, and have no apps running at all, I can hear the line-input over the speakers. The level is controlled by the "Line-In/Mic" faders in Creative's fancy control panel (in the XFi's Audio Creation Mode). There is a 'monitor' area, where I can set recording levels, an 'enable' tickbox and a VU meter. The only thing the tickbox does is control whether the meter is active, it doesn't actually control whether the line is routed to the speakers.

While running Ableton, this monitoring effect persists, and leads to the effect described above - ie the metronome gets recorded into the track, and any effects applied to the audio get the original input source layered on top again (presumably by Windows itself?)

Can anyone help me get to a sensible configuration in which I can do multi track recording without all the current tracks ending up on the new ones?

 

[Broosta]

Don't know but Creative Sound Blaster cards are notoriously rubbish for music production, fine for music or games but you need a proper card like Emu(yes also Creative) or M-Audio for music production.

 

[0beron]

I'm not really that worried about super sound quality, I just want to be able to separate the input from the output - at the moment everything that is on my speakers ends up on the currently recording track, ie I can even record the windows bell sound on a live track!! This only seems to be a problem using ASIO, since it goes away if I swap back to the MME drivers (with half a seconds worth of latency).

Does anyone have any other suggestions besides 'buy a new card' ?

 

[Behemot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 0beron /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm not really that worried about super sound quality, I just want to be able to separate the input from the output - at the moment everything that is on my speakers ends up on the currently recording track, ie I can even record the windows bell sound on a live track!! This only seems to be a problem using ASIO, since it goes away if I swap back to the MME drivers (with half a seconds worth of latency). Does anyone have any other suggestions besides 'buy a new card' ?

It sounds like Ableton settings are not correct. Creative mixer settings are pretty straight forward make sure that you select what you want to be recorded under "record". Dont select "what you hear" or you gonna end up recording everything. As for ableton settings I am not familar with them, but sure there must be some sort of mixer where you route ASIO tracks. Possibly you have just one ASIO track and everything gets in there - metronome and audio and all.

Hope this helps

 

[Broosta]

Which Ableton Live is it? 5, 6 or 7?

 

[Nocturnal310]

dude..

did u install the Latest firmware? ..for Monitoring an update was released last month.

just go to 'recording Devices' in Vista and set it to Line.

Now go to Audacity & set the input device as same.

u ll be able to Monitor Audio while recording.

i recorded a Chord my brother played on guitar using that in Wav format.

Not bad i would say...but far from professional by miles.

i also recorded some piano sessions using Monitoring feature.