You turn off the monitors. Is there a mute button on your interface? You should have things wired so there is a separate feed to your headphones so that you can turn the monitors off and leave the headphones on.

hhmmm I'm not really sure what you mean by turning the monitors off. Is the interface you're referring to on Cubase or somewhere else. Basically, I want to record what's coming out of the speakers back in through the mic (long story) but because I can't stop the mic transmitting what it records straight back through the speakers there is horrendous feedback.

You are talking about 60 cycle hum. The signal goes into the mic and gets boosted by your gear and system then leaves through the monitors. Then it goes back into the mic and gets boosted again and leaves through the monitors. This keeps happening thousands of times per second and results in feedback.

What you need to do is turn off record/input monitoring. I don't know how to do it in Cubase, but in Logic what you do is set the track to record then drag the track fader down to -∞. This will stop 60 cycle hum and only make the mic record what is coming out of the monitors once.

Feedback can be caused from any frequency-especially if the lead singer gets a demonic look in their eyes and six seconds later points the mic right at the FOH stack.

60 hz hum is usually generated from the electric supply and usually referred to as a ground loop.

Other than that, GF has a workaround. Pull down the fader on the track you are recording. That should be sufficient. Another solution is to NOT assign the track output. I'm sure it defaults to Mains. This is similar to what a home studio would need to do when re-amping a guitar track for instance. Caveat-I'm not a Cubase user either.

By interface I am talking about the connection between the compute and the monitors. What are you using for this? Just the sound card?

Tell us the long story of what you are trying to do. Sounds like it is something...nonstandard?

The long story is that I'm trying to convert a MIDI drum track from MIDI to audio. I know there are ways of doing this internally without using the mic but every time I do it that way it's far FAR too quiet I've turned up the record volume on my computer and all that and it didn't do anything so it has lead me to this.

What you are talking about is actually pretty common. Well...at least as common as people using MIDI drums in pro audio. Just mute the track that you are recording, it will still record, but it won't send anything to the monitors to be re-recorded. You see what I'm saying?

Got it just there! It was just a matter of adjusting something on the interface. It's just I didn't actually know what that was. Thank you everyone.

Glad you got it working this way, but you should learn to do it all internally. Maybe you will find that you like the sound of the way better, but I'm betting not. Post a detailed description of the way you were trying to do it internally and see if some of the Cubase users can help you.

Good luck.

Guitarfreak wrote: You are talking about 60 cycle hum.

JFTR, He's not talking about 60 cycle hum. Sixty cycle hum and feedback are completely different things.

It's called 60 cycle hum because, well, it hums. Feedback most definitely does not hum. It pierces, wails, screeches and screams...but doesn't hum.

60 cycle hum is generally caused by grounding (ground loop) problems.

You guys are being so awesome responding here. You are helping this guy in the most respectful manner where some would not. We often forget the basic's and forget we were once here hoping someone would help us. Kudo's and respect to everyone. I'm impressed.

I think the OP is trying to record the midi tracks via the monitor and a mic which is causing an audio loop / thus horrible feedback. Its been a while since I did this. I'm not a cubase user either but you definitely can do this by exporting the midi to audio.

Its time for hueseph. He is more familar with cubase protocal

I thought it was called 60 cycle hum, my bad. BTW, TC just a heads up, when you say "interface" people think you are referring to a unit, specifically an analog to digital converter like this one. link removed People refer to interacting with software as a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) or GUI (Graphic User Interface). It's not that it's wrong, but it will help us help you in case you post in the future.

If it's not inappropriate to point someone elsewhere:

http://forum.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=8773

Converting Midi to Audio in Cubase, for newbies. It was a popular thread, a sticky for a long time. If that doesn't answer the question, a search on those forums will give about 200 posts on the subject.

I use a VST plug in called Senderella for this and it works perfectly. No degradation in levels or quality.

Do you have a link? Apparently it isn't available anymore generally though it was freeware so there shouldn't be issues with copyright.

BrianaW, that reminds me.

I use a plugin called "Tape it" which is freeware. You can slap it in, give it a wave file, and start/stop recording. You can even pause it and it'll simply wait until you press play again, then continue writing where it left off. It provides a pair of peak meters and options for bit depth.

http://www.silverspike.com/?Products:TapeIt
Yeah, there's actually a free version and a paid version.