So I've been recording music on my PC for a few years, but I just got a new system and wanted to upgrade to a more versatile DAW. Previously I was just struggling with one 1/8th input on my basic Creative sound card and doing whatever I could to make things work. What a pain!

So, I picked up an EMU 1820 and am really excited about being able to record from multiple sources (hopefully) painlessly. Right now I have some basic questions so I can make sure I've got this all set up in the most logical manner.

Everything seems to be working fine, minus some small issues I'll bring up in a bit. First off, I have my EMU box with it's sound card and an on-board sound card on my motherboard. I have my Windows system set to use the EMU sound card, and have my PC speakers (some decent monitors are on my to-get list) coming out of one of the 1/8th outputs of the EMU. So, I can hear anything going into my EMU. I have a strip in the Patchmix DSP program for my windows Wave sound so I can hear system audio as well. So far so good, I can hear what I need to hear.

I have an insert in my main inserts set to go to Wave, so if I want to record audio to Soundforge from either my on-board sound or the EMU inputs, I can do so just by hitting the record button and not have to change any settings in PatchMix.

Overall, the setup seems to work for what I'll be doing, which is basically just a combination of samples from my hard drive and one or two pieces of hardware (an Ion and some mics) going into the EMU, working together in Acid and Soundforge.

Now, there are some problems I'm having. Whenever I record audio into Soundforge, be it coming from my EMU inputs or from Windows, it always records much more quietly than what it's registering at in Patchmix. Like, so quiet I can barelly hear it. I was under the impression stuff should record at the same level that it's registering at in the main mix monitors in the Patchmix software.

Also, my Windows audio is coming into the Patchmix sofware incredibly loud. The peak meter on my Wave strip is practically always clipping, and I have to set the volume slider for the strip down to about -22 just to have it at a bearable level. This is straight into PatchMix, without going through any other inserts.

So, that's about it. I didn't realize the EMU 1820 was such an in-depth item, there's a whole slew of stuff here that I'll need to get acquainted with. I've never worked with AISO, and am still confused about how it all really works and how it's designed to be used.

So, if anyone could help me out with the problems I've having that would be greatly appreciated. I can't wait to actually start using this and not have to jump through hoops to do what I want to do.