I'm trying to do some simple, basic home recording. I'm running a mic and electric guitar though a Tascam Portastudio 424 mkIII that I'm using as a four track mixer. I want to connect this mixer to my computer, where I'm running Cubase SL to record the actual tracks.
Now, since I need to monitor the tracks coming from Cubase, how do I reconnect the computer to the mixer so that I can hear both the active recorded track and all the old tracks from the computer? I'm guessing that I take the output signal from the computer and send it to the 'sub input' on the mixer, but am I wrong?
Finally, I want to be sure I'm doing this right, so which output do I use coming from the mixer to the computer? I thought it would be the 'monitor output', but if this is so, how will I monitor the final mix, complete with the tracks coming from the computer. Man, I'm sure all this stuff is very simple, but I don't have much experience with this kind of thing. Any help would be appreciated.
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same situation... I started out with what sounds like the same
same situation...
I started out with what sounds like the same setup (but with different software). I was recording drums on the tascam (424 MkIII, just like yours), then dumping them into the computer. Then I used the tascam as a preamp for guitar, bass, and vocal overdubs. What I did was get a USB external soundcard. Its a Creative Soundblaster MP3+ (I know, no one likes SB cards!). I picked it up at Staples for $45. It has stereo RCA inputs and outputs. SO! I hooked an RCA cable from the line out of the tascam to the inputs of the card. The card has a headphone output, which is seperate from the line output (which is RCA). This way, you can hear what you already have recorded coming out through the card, and hear your input (the overdub part) as well. The bonus was I could hook up my monitors (Event TR5's) to the card as well from the RCA out for mixing. The card is USB, so make sure you have a USB port available if you want to try this. I hope I made this clear enough! If you have any more questions, let me know, since it seems I was in the same boat as you! ANDY
Awesome. You guys really helped me out. Thanks for replying. I'm
Awesome. You guys really helped me out. Thanks for replying. I'm going to look into that soundcard idea. Should be getting some stuff down soon (finally!).
Hey drumist69, I know you're using real drums, but have you ever done anything with the lm-9 drum synth in Cubase? I don't have drums and I need to make some basic beats, but I don't like the sounds that I'm getting from that program. Ever used artificial drums or tinkered with that kind of thing?
leaf drums I haven't messed with much "faux" drums. The one pro
leaf drums
I haven't messed with much "faux" drums. The one program I've tried a bit was LeafDrums. A bunch of people from another forum use it extensively, with good results. It uses some very well recorded samples, and you can program in velocity, and generally make things sound believeable. I think its still free for download. Here's the link...
http://www.leafdigital.com/software/leafdrums/
You can pick up some really nice free drum kit samples for LeafDrums here...
http://www.naturalstudio.co.uk/ns_kit7free.html
Like I said, I never used it past trying some simple beats and a few fills. It just seemed like too big a learning curve when I can just go play real drums, but if you don't play or don't have a place to play, the sounds and programability of that software is a good alternative... and completely free!
Also free, and more easy to grasp, is Hammerhead. Its set up like an old school drum machine, is free, and comes with some basic samples, but allows new samples to be added. I use it when writing a song to get a basic, solid beat working to record guitar ideas, and to see what beat may work with the song. ANother link!
http://www.threechords.com/hammerhead/download.shtml
Good luck to you, sir (or ma'am)!
drumist69 - thank you, thank you, thank you! This program is swe
drumist69 - thank you, thank you, thank you! This program is sweet! I've used Hammerhead before, but it was so limited compared to this.
Now because I'm using Cubase as my main studio, I suppose that once I've made a drum track I just convert it all into one .wav file and import that into Cubase. Is that right?
Oh yeah, I fiddled around with the cables and imports on the Tascam, and I have it sending a signal to the computer, then getting the signal from Cubase and sending that all back through the Tascam's monitor. So it seems to be working fine now. Just wish I had a real recording space to cut down on mic hiss from my computer. :)
(Edit) Nevermind, I messed around and figured out the file importing. Wasn't hard at all.
Ok, first off, I don't know about the output configuration of Ta
Ok, first off, I don't know about the output configuration of Tascam, but...
If it has aux sends/inserts/direct outs, use one of those.
What comes to monitor outs you're suggesting... I assume you have the same mix on both main outs and mon outs. So, can't use it, ABSOLUTELY NOT. See, you don't want to feed the computer-to-Tascam signal back to the computer. In case you have already tried that, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. If Tascam allows you to choose which channels to feed thru mon outs, then it works pretty much like aux send and can be used.
Hope this helps.