MIxers generally don't send effects to "tape"(disc). This is normal and it's a failsafe. Basically, once it's on disc, that's it. You can do nothing to undo what you've done. In Audacity, this will be your bane but in any other DAW, it's a blessing.

Do yourself a favor and download Reaper. The demo does not expire but it is nagware. In other words, they will nag you to buy a license every time you load it. That being said, a non commercial license is only $67. That investment will help you tremendously if you take the time to learn the software.

Right now Cakewalk also has a sale on Music Creator for only $19. That's cheap enough for anyone. For the price though, Reaper is an incredible value and it's not crippled in any way.

hueseph, post: 388945 wrote: MIxers generally don't send effects to "tape"(disc). This is normal and it's a failsafe. Basically, once it's on disc, that's it. You can do nothing to undo what you've done. In Audacity, this will be your bane but in any other DAW, it's a blessing.

Do yourself a favor and download Reaper. The demo does not expire but it is nagware. In other words, they will nag you to buy a license every time you load it. That being said, a non commercial license is only $67. That investment will help you tremendously if you take the time to learn the software.

Right now Cakewalk also has a sale on Music Creator for only $19. That's cheap enough for anyone. For the price though, Reaper is an incredible value and it's not crippled in any way.

Thanks for replying, Hueseph!

Then what's the point of having control of the voices? I'm doing a live podcast and the mixer has all these sound controls and effects. If I want more bass in my voice, or to make an echo effect, I can't record the changes the mixer makes? The highs/mids/lows/effects are pointless to even have or touch in this scenario? That seems weird...

Also... Just went into the living room, downloaded reaper, made a recording on it. Made myself sound like a chipmunk, then made myself sound like a devil, then just to make sure of things, i turned everything on the right side up for effects and pushed every button over there while recording. Effects were great in the headphones... Playback was just me.

Hueseph has described how a mixer would work that had a multi-channel USB interface. In the case of your Xenyx X1222USB, it's only the main stereo mix that is sent via USB to a computer. Any EQ or effect that is added in the mix and can be heard when monitoring the main outputs will be present in the digitised data sent via USB.

It's often difficult to relate what you hear in headphones while recording to the sounds reproduced when replaying the recording. For example, I've had to re-mix tracks brought in by performers who have recorded them while monitoring on phones but where the balance between voice and instruments has been wrong, even though the singer was adamant that it was right in his phones when he was singing. Similarly, a drummer may say he can hardly hear the drums in what I judge to be a balanced recording just because he sits almost on top of the kit when performing so his live balance is skewed.

I would try a simple test of you speaking into a microphone attached to the mixer and recording the output via USB. Then make gross adjustments to the mixer's EQ and add over-the-top effects via the mixer's effects unit. See if they come out in the recording. If not, there is something very strange afoot...

Hi Boswell.. I've gone so far as to make my voice sound like a chipmunk with the effects built in, and then switch it to the other end and sound like the deep low devil voice. I hear these drastic changes in my earphones, but in the recording I play back on my computer it's just my regular flat voice.

Read your mixers documentation closely. My hunch is that your effects are not inline with your source signal.

Standard practice is to add processing after you have recorded.

Hi GDub... My friend has this same mixer and he records a podcast. He adds echoing to his intro and it comes out. I've tried changing lows/highs/mids and no difference, but then I even changed the pitch to sound like a chipmunk or the devil in audacity and reaper and while i hear these drastic changes in my headphones, the recording is just my voice... And it doesn't sound nearly as clear as what I hear in my headphones while recording. I literally pushed every button and turned up and down every knob and slider while doing this test.

http://recording.org/home-recording-forum/52631-mixer-audio-interface-whats-difference-better.html

I don't know, but a bought a mixer and it's not doing what it does do for my friend who has the same model. Only difference is he's on Mac. But all the adjustments he makes come through his USB into the recordings and I want the same thing to happen for me.

You are simply experiencing operator error. You have no idea as a maintenance tech at NBC-TV, how many times I had to walk into a control room with someone who had 20+ years of experience who couldn't obtain what they wanted and all I had to do was press a button to fix it. Understanding signal flow and how all of this stuff works can be a frustrating and daunting task. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it. It makes no difference whether your friend has a Mac and you have a PC, it's operator error. Many of these manuals can be equally confusing to someone who was not familiar with what actually is going on. These are sophisticated little devices which are much more sophisticated than similar devices were just a couple of years ago. So you need to read a lot more about a lot more stuff, more stuff, then more stuff, followed by more stuff. It's simply a single combination of pushing the right buttons. Doing it willy-nilly obviously isn't getting you there. You can blame it on the equipment because that's the easy thing to do. But that's not what the problem is. The problem is a lack of understanding. You sound like you are 16 years old maybe 15? You want it now, like drive-through burgers. It doesn't happen that way. I've got 40+ years and I'm still learning stuff because I keep reading stuff and keep experimenting with stuff and keep trying stuff and then trying stuff again followed by doing more stuff that's similar to the other stuff after I've gotten tired of the previous stuff. Then it's dinner and back to the stuff.

It's more fun if you just throw it on the floor, hard.
Mx. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD, post: 389008 wrote: You are simply experiencing operator error. You have no idea as a maintenance tech at NBC-TV, how many times I had to walk into a control room with someone who had 20+ years of experience who couldn't obtain what they wanted and all I had to do was press a button to fix it. Understanding signal flow and how all of this stuff works can be a frustrating and daunting task. If it was that easy, everybody would be doing it. It makes no difference whether your friend has a Mac and you have a PC, it's operator error. Many of these manuals can be equally confusing to someone who was not familiar with what actually is going on. These are sophisticated little devices which are much more sophisticated than similar devices were just a couple of years ago. So you need to read a lot more about a lot more stuff, more stuff, then more stuff, followed by more stuff. It's simply a single combination of pushing the right buttons. Doing it willy-nilly obviously isn't getting you there. You can blame it on the equipment because that's the easy thing to do. But that's not what the problem is. The problem is a lack of understanding. You sound like you are 16 years old maybe 15? You want it now, like drive-through burgers. It doesn't happen that way. I've got 40+ years and I'm still learning stuff because I keep reading stuff and keep experimenting with stuff and keep trying stuff and then trying stuff again followed by doing more stuff that's similar to the other stuff after I've gotten tired of the previous stuff. Then it's dinner and back to the stuff.

It's more fun if you just throw it on the floor, hard.
Mx. Remy Ann David

You know what Remy... Your belittling pompous reply was unnecessary and totally unhelpful. I have been reading. I have been experimenting. I have been trying to learn. But for you to say "You sound like you are 15, maybe 16" just makes you look like a total jerk. What gives you that assumption? Was it my grammar? Was it my lack of mixer intelligence that made you assume this? You said yourself people are always learning. Yet you just had to get on your high horse and throw that at me? You're a POS and I guarantee I'm not the first person to say that to you. WOW... I could not even imagine replying to someone that's looking for help from experts with that sort of crap. I didn't say he was on mac as a reason it might not be working for me. I was simply saying that is the only difference between our setups and his is working. Thanks for the constructive, helpful advice.

Yeah, well you are sounding like a spoiled brat pompous child. What do you expect me to say. Everybody is making suggestions and all you can say is I want what I want the way I want it and I want it now. And my friends is working. So maybe you're figuring out this is not for beginners? Some of the best people on this site give you suggestions and your response was that of a child. So I talk to you like a child. So now go to your room and make audio.

Sheesh
your mother

Please show me where I was replying like a child, Powermod? I've replied to their replies with "I've tried that" or "I will try that" You're very strange. Please paste my childlike behavior so I can learn. Waiting anxiously. I'm really not looking for a fight. I'd love to find out it's user error. There has not been one suggestion made that I have not tried. Wow, you're amazing.

The only suggestion you haven't tried is the one that works. And that's commonly called operator error. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to the best professionals. But they learn from it. You're still on a learning curve and you will be until you press the right button or the left. Perhaps you should consult your friend whose unit " works "? It has nothing to do with the Mac. That's just the recorder. The PC is just a recorder. The software and the device itself is your control room. And you have to know where to plug the patch cords in whether it's software, a mixer or your brain. It's got to connect right in your brain first. Until that happens, you are pissing in the wind. Read the manual again. Once you finish, you read the manual again. Then you go to the bathroom and while on the toilet, you read the manual again. You wake up in the middle of the night and you read the manual again. Then you sleep on it. When you wake up, you read the manual again. And that's what professionals do. Then you'll be a professional. And then you'll be able to intelligently discuss this better with other professionals.

It's not the drive-through
Mx. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD, post: 389023 wrote: The only suggestion you haven't tried is the one that works. And that's commonly called operator error. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to the best professionals. But they learn from it. You're still on a learning curve and you will be until you press the right button or the left. Perhaps you should consult your friend whose unit " works "? It has nothing to do with the Mac. That's just the recorder. The PC is just a recorder. The software and the device itself is your control room. And you have to know where to plug the patch cords in whether it's software, a mixer or your brain. It's got to connect right in your brain first. Until that happens, you are pissing in the wind. Read the manual again. Once you finish, you read the manual again. Then you go to the bathroom and while on the toilet, you read the manual again. You wake up in the middle of the night and you read the manual again. Then you sleep on it. When you wake up, you read the manual again. And that's what professionals do. Then you'll be a professional. And then you'll be able to intelligently discuss this better with other professionals.

It's not the drive-through
Mx. Remy Ann David

Sounds like forum boards should just be for discussing successes then! Hahahah
Dude, I apologize publicly if you think I was rude to someone. You could have pointed it out, rather than making a belittling comment back to me. I simply thought someone might know the answer to my probably user error issue. I did read the manual. I have 3 cables. 1 for power... 1 for usb to the computer and one for my mic. I've adjusted just about EVERY adjustment there is when I'm recording. It still very well might be user error. I know I'm not an audio professional. But the audio does not sound nearly as clear as it does when I'm recording in my headphones... And none of the adjustments are taking. I honestly don't think reading or sleeping or pooping is going to get this one solved. You've made me out to be a bad guy when I'm not, and I'm sort of at a loss at this point.

I certainly apologize also. I have a tendency to be a bit terse and an ass hole. I do believe that these manufacturers do occasionally make changes to their equipment which are not reflected upon in their manuals. $3300 microphones from West Germany had typos in their schematics. So did $36,000 Ampex MM 1200-24 track machines where the typo was in the motion sensing. So if you corrected the wiring error according to the schematic, the machine would not work. It took me a while to find that one out and I was actually an authorized Ampex service technician. The German folks laughed when I called them up and told them their schematic was wrong. They already knew about it by then. But they were still printing their manual wrong. I believe it was actually done on purpose so that nobody could repair a stolen U87 condenser microphone without sending it back to the factory who would then send it back to its rightful owner. LOL The Ampex thing was just a stupid typo in the schematic. It was hard to steal a 500 pound tape recorder. Dictaphone, who made logger tape recorders for NASA, the military, police and fire departments did not supply up to date wire harness schematics to the Ampro Corporation that purchased Scully from Dictaphone. And that too was just plain stupid. Mackie's 1640 FireWire enabled mixer did not transfer the equalization out the FireWire until later in its manufacturing run. So really, the joke is on all of us Professional Consumers that have to deal with this crap. And they don't necessarily update their manuals accordingly. So it can be any number of problems causing this for you. With so much stuff out there, none of us can keep up with all of this crazy nonsense. Though some are better at it than others. Boswell is one of the best at this. I have a great deal of respect for his knowledge and experience. I think in some ways he might even respect some of my knowledge and experience but he's British and he knows all of us Americans are hacks. But sometimes you just have to keep hacking away at things until you discover it's not your fault. It's not anybody's fault. It's the fault of progress.

I like old stuff best.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Kilerb,

Slow down. Remy was NOT belittling you. You might have taken it that way but that's not the way it is. You've got to learn to laugh a little. Everything Remy says is a little good advice and a little bit tongue in cheek.

I can't help but think that there is a single button that you are missing. Something to the effect of "To Mix" or any button that refers to sending effects to the main bus. You either have to depress this button or release it depending on how vague the description is.

Some times good advice stings. :cool:

Hey guys... 2 things...

1. I figured out the problem! It wasn't the mixer as I figured. The software had a bunch of possible inputs. It had a generic USB input selected. I switched that to the correct Behringer input and it worked.

2. Hueseph, we've made up and are buddies now... But just so you know, I was frustrated when he assumed I was a 15 or 16 year old out of the blue. It was a communication problem... But I felt that was belittling at the time. He said some things, I said some things, and we both agree'd it was stupid! Thanks for all your input by the way.

I suggested you should read the documentaion!

Consult with your friend, he is the only one who CAN tell you where you went wrong.
Make a detailed diagram of his connections and settings.

I don't own that piece of gear so I can't give a detailed answer.

kilerb, post: 388984 wrote: Hi Boswell.. I've gone so far as to make my voice sound like a chipmunk with the effects built in, and then switch it to the other end and sound like the deep low devil voice. I hear these drastic changes in my earphones, but in the recording I play back on my computer it's just my regular flat voice.

The instruction manual for this product states:

The audio sent from the mixer to a computer is identical to the MAIN MIX.

If you are hearing the effected vocals in the MAIN MIX output at the time of recording but not when you replay the recorded audio, then either your mixer is not working to specification or the specifications are wrong. Note that the audio present at the headphone connector is not the same as the Main Mix.

From his description, it appears that he had solved the problem because the mixer required a specialized driver. He was using the generic USB driver. I've had this similar problem happened with the Edirol UA1ex. Though it actually has a hardware switch to select the specialized enhanced driver (which must also be loaded) or the generic USB selection that limits one to standard resolutions only of 16-bit, 44.1/48 kHz. You've got to love this crap. I'm so glad he worked it out. And now we are all friends because we are united in our quest for superlative audio productions. Yahoo!

It's like déjà vu all over again.
Mx. Remy Ann David