I used an Echo Layla 20 in a small songwriters studio for years. You should have no problem going 8 out into a board. Just watch your channel assignments in the editor and Laylas virtual mixer. Sometimes Laylas mixer can be confusing because of the various ways of getting things in and out. It may be helpful to know what editor you're using. Not that it makes a real difference, but sometimes the mixing structure in the editor can be contradictary to that of Laylas mixer. Are you using a version of Cool Edit that used to come with Layla? If you are, I can step you thru the process. If you know anyone that wants a Layla 20 in good condition with a new cooler running factory installed power supply, let me know. Mine is sitting in safe storage.

Thanks - I thought (and hoped) that would be the case.

The software is cool edit pro on the disk that came with it. I also downloaded the most recent (beta) drivers for XP.

Do you think it will work ok w/ XP or should i think about installing Win98? It's an older pentium I machine with 256K memory (one of the guys in the band "donated" it). Do you see any issues?

Duh, question, but what format are the sound files saved in? WAV?

Yes WAV, and you'll want a massive upgrade on your memory and Processor or else you will have some latency and overall playback problems. You'll want at least 1gig of RAM and a Pentium 3 minimum.
Not too much of an upgrade (newegg.com)
good luck

multoc wrote: Yes WAV, and you'll want a massive upgrade on your memory and Processor or else you will have some latency and overall playback problems. You'll want at least 1gig of RAM and a Pentium 3 minimum.
Not too much of an upgrade (newegg.com)
good luck

Frankly that may not be feasible with this machine - and maybe not worth the time and hassle.
I'm rethinking all this - it might be easier to resell on ebay and get a Korg D888

I'll try it first and see.

I've checked ebay and a simple PC Pent 3 can be had for under $100 - so we'll see

will a powermac G4 be a better option?

I agree, more ram and a better processor will always help. I ran an AMD Duron at 900MHz with 512k ram for my old Layla without any latency issues. A less than ideal setup when the work load increased. But what about the original issue of getting 8 back out of the box? Did you get that worked out? Get that worked out before you invest more in a system that may not be able to do what you want it to do in the first place.

Did you get that worked out? Get that worked out before you invest more in a system that may not be able to do what you want it to do in the first place.

Good Point.
I'll install and test tomorrow - see how it looks/acts - then be back here - thanks.
Sure, more ram and cpu is always better- but for simple 8 track in and out - what can I squeak by with. I'm not recording the next grammy album (i don't think :) )

Just letting my band hear itself more cleanly.

You never know, you may be recording the next grammy winning album. Remember, a shitty recording of a great song is always better than a great recording of a shitty song! Also, if you do want to upgrade your pc, there are many different ways to do that. Find out what your current chipset and socket is, cross reference your mobo to determine the best processor it can handle, and you may be able to find a better processor than the one you have for cheap on eBay. I recently put an old 478 socket pc back into action with the fastest P4 my mobo could handle for less than $35.00 on eBay. (The P4 is now an extinct chip, so they can be acquired easily and inexpensively.) I picked up 512k more ram for about the same price and ended up with a fairly decent upgrade for $75.00. Granted it isn't a "state of the art" pc, but it's great as a backup. I know that it could run circles with the old Cool Edit. If you ever decide to upgrade Cool Edit into the Adobe Audition series, then you will most likely need a better pc. The real time plug ins require a lot of processing power and a sizeable amount of ram.

understood. I figured a smuch ) i've built and upgraded pcs before - didn't look forward to the whole MBO thing again - but...ok if I have to.

My goal with the pc/layla setup is to:
1. Record and playback the band in 8 track - 16 bit should be fine so we can hear ourselves and "fix/adjust' our sound, arrangements etc. All mixing for band listening an defects would be offboard the PC on a mixer.
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2. Take the wav file to my iMac core-duo intel for any "final mixing" with effects, etc. 2 Gig ram there and plenty of HD - so should be great for mixdown on a computer for 2 track stereo.

we'll see tonight how the base pc works out...

Echo Layla worked fine - pc is a piece of crap - easier to just buy a used Dell P4 on ebay or $100 - still com out way ahead.

One question - what software do you recommend - the software that came with it is crap - 4 tracks and no VU meters during recording.
I'd some thing OK - good, not great.
What do you suggest.

I assume that by software you're referring to Cool Edit. I never really thought that Cool Edit was all that bad for what it is. I surely don't ever remember it being limited to 4 tracks. It will also give you some fairly massive horizontal metering capabilities along the bottom of the editor. You may just not have them activated. I believe that you could even set the peak indicators on the meters at various levels. Are you trying to record in edit mode or multitrack mode? Try to stay in multitrack mode for everything you need to do except when you edit individual tracks. Though you can record in edit mode, I believe Cool Edit requires you to manually transfer those tracks to multitrack mode to build a session. Also, if you scroll down the right side of the multitrack view, you should be able to expand it to more tracks than you'll ever need. On the left side of the tracks you can expand to show mute, record enable, solo, pan, etc.. With Cool Edit and the Layla mixer try to always remember the old 4 bus / 8 channel configuration. Bus 1 Ch. 1&5, Bus 2 Ch. 2&4, Bus 3 Ch. 3&5, Bus 4 Ch. 4&8 in mono pairing. As for other editors, there are many options. Since the original Cool Edit, the software has been upgraded several times all the way thru Adobe Audition 2.0, maybe even further. So, upgrading is most likely still an option. Pro Tools LE is out there, but you need to have Digidesign equipment to run it. Cubase is a favorite of many, but buyng stand alone software can be quite costly. An equipment package that includes the software is always a better deal, just like Layla coming with Cool Edit. Actually, most editors pretty much work in the same way. There are features in Pro Tools that I prefer over Cubase. There are certian features in Cubase that I prefer over Pro Tools. To blasphimize even further, there are features in Cool Edit that I prefer over Pro Tools and Cubase. A lot of it has to do with what software you learned on and grew accustomed to. Needless to say, there are advanced technical details of each that you may need to discern between in the future. But, for what you want to do right now, Cool Edit should perform wonderfully. I hope this helps. Just take the time to experiment and get to know the software better.

Well, I can give cool edit another try - but with no manual it's tough. I have access to cubase 1 and 3 -
On the cool edit display (remember this is the version that came with layla 20) there are 4 horizontal bands - will I get 2 tracks on each ?
also didn't see any way to get vu meters but I can try again.
I may just get cubase and be done - a friend has it and I can borrow to try.

The ui you speak of was not there- and I'm a pretty good computer guy - but will look again.

Actually on the screen is showed 4 tracks (no expand option) and each "track" was sourced to ch1/2, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 to/from echo source

If you have Cubase available, more power to you. Give it a try. I don't ever recall any versions of Cool Edit only having 4 tracks. Did you try click and drag on the right side of the listed tracks where the track numbers are? As I recall, there was a double click involved to activate the meters for different functions. I believe the meters may be listed under a view drop down menu that you have to check to make them appear. It's been a long time since I used Cool Edit, so some of these things are just guesses. I don't believe that Cool Edit included a manual when shipped with Layla. However, one could be requested thru Syntrillium (since bought out by Adobe). The editor should have a help menu to help you with some of these issues. Currently, I am in Chicago doing a session. I should be back home in Nashville by next Tuesday. I think I still have some Cool Edit info filed away that does include a manual. When I get back, I'll refer to it to answer your specific issues.

ok, I'l give it one more try - thanks
;-)