It would be helpful if you could tell us what type of computer and audio interface you are using.

I have no trouble recording 24 tracks, simultaneously, in Audition 1.5. But that stopping short thing, is indicative of a window that is, for some reason, bright white and highlighted. In that respect, Audition will only record within a highlighted area that way. It's also possible that the Temporary folder in the options drop down may not be set to your storage drive? It might be set to your operating system drive as the default, which might be causing you problems for lack of temporary space on your C drive? If you have a larger storage disk drive, you might want to try to change the system settings for the temporary folder to your storage drive as the primary and your operating system drive as the secondary?

Instructing Audition to record from your multitrack audio interface can be a tricky selection process. I would assume that you are in the multitrack window within Audition? When instructing the software to use the multitrack interface, you can generally right-click, to the left of the timeline, for the track you want to assign to the multitrack interface. And by going to the options menu drop-down to "devise order". Have you done that?

Let me know
Ms. Remy Ann David

I am using a presonus firestudio and i cannot specify my computer but it is not very fast...

i do not have anything highlighted, but i will try switching to the storage drive next time. What happens is: the recording process stops whenever i scroll, click or do anything.

i will get back to you on the device order. would this enable the 4 recording tracks i need?

thanks

Oh? Yes, in Audition, when you are recording, you really don't want to touch the computer. It is supposed to stop the recording if you try to instruct the software to do anything else. That's normal. In fact, most computers that capture any kind of audio or video, don't like to be interrupted by anything else. That's another reason why screensavers, scheduled events and other programs running in the background should be disabled. Optimal performance and track count require the computers full attention span.

You indicated your computer was not very fast? That new FireStudio product looks to be quite something! I assume your computer meets the minimum requirements of a Celeron at 1.6GHz, 1GB of RAM? Don't forget that's the minimum requirements. But you should have no problem recording at least 8 tracks, even with a Pentium III, @ 800MHz.

You should assign your device at the top of the device order. Once assigned, you shouldn't have any problem selecting the input number for each track by right clicking anywhere in the area to the left of the timeline, within the box of record and solo button. You can then select the input number and if you want a mono or stereo track. In the event, after you assign device order and still cannot get the input source you desire, it might require that you close the program and reopen it? I have gone through that myself.

Let me know how it goes?
Ms. Remy Ann David

I have the Firepod... which is basically the Firestudio without ADAT...

When you use Cubase, you have to activate your inputs to get more than just the first two channels working (at least with the firepod you do... don't know why it would be different with the firestudio). To do this (in cubase) go to Devices -> VST inputs. Inputs #1 and #2 should be active... then you have to scroll down and activate the other inputs (in pairs). Then, open up your virtual mixer (in Cubase should be f3) and assign each track to a different input (input assignments are located at the top of of each fader)... that should allow you to multi-track up to 10 tracks at a time (assuming you are using all 10 inputs).

If you put in say 8 tracks but fail to activate all of the inputs (so you only have inputs #1 an #2 active), Cubase will auto-assign those tracks only to inputs that are active... i.e. it will probably auto-assign 4 tracks to input #1 and 4 tracks to input #2. When you try to arm all of the tracks to record it won't let you... it will only allow you to record 1 track from 1 input at a time (can't record multiple tracks from the same input... as far as I know) so you will only be able record 2 of your 8 tracks at a time. But, If you activate all 8 inputs and assign each one to a different track (1-8 ) you should be able to arm and record from all 8 at the same time.

As far as optimizing your computer for recording check out http://www.musicxp.net/

I hope this makes sense! Good luck!

(oh yeah, I have no idea how to do this in Audition.... sorry :( )

RemyRAD,
I just read your reply about multi-track recording with Audition 1.5-I'd like to be able to do that as I use it for 2 channel recording (mostly what I do) and editing, of course, and I like the interface much more than the other programs I have. I've tried to get it to record seperate channels with my Alesis Firewire mixer, but unlike Cubase, I only get channels one and two to show up when I select the "Channels In" device. Any tips you or anyone reading this might have would be greatly appreciated!

ok i promised you some feedback with my recording. the session did not turn out very well. i cannot explain how frustrating it gets when recording in a place you are not used to. Im not sure if the recording has any type of phase cancellation, but an overhead was used while recording (live.) The drummer only had three peices.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=150634156

Yo! lonestar19444 is that Jamaican reggae or Texas reggae? LOL!

I thought it was an excellent first effort? The snare has good sustain and a nice feeling of space around the grounds. It's a little unruly however and not as tight as it could be? The bass drum lacks that certain reggae, thump that makes reggae sound like reggae. Experimentation here is the key. Different microphone, different equalization, inverted phase, compression/limiting/gating will get you that huge bass drum sound. In the software or with hardware.

I liked the vocal. Short, sweet. No problem understanding lyrics.

I listened carefully but may not have heard everything since I was coughing and gagging throughout the song. I wanted it to sound more realistic and by adjusting my listening system, it worked.

Cough
Ms. Remy Ann David gulp

Yeah, that's more like it......

vocals will be tracked once i figure out how to use my mic. i am having some trouble with the dynamics and also "separating" the vocals from the rest of the track. Im not sure if anyone does this, but i like recording the vocals with two mics. would this technique sound good with the song?

cough.... need some inspiration ...cough

I have on certain occasions utilized 2 vocal microphones. But perhaps, not quite in the same way as you might think.

Generally, stereo vocals don't work. If I was going to do stereo vocals, I would absolutely do it as an MS recording. That way, the microphone is facing their face and decide microphone picks up the stereo ambience. The biggest problem trying to record a stereo vocals is Nobody keeps their heads still enough and so you're stereo image keeps wandering. That makes for a confusing sound.

You could however, utilize 2 microphones summed together, "a la mono"? So, you might actually want to have one close and one at least 3 feet further away. A good way to get an intimate sound complete with the room resonance, acoustics and flavor.

On other occasions with someone that does not work a microphone well, (Oy...we've all worked with plenty of those) I will frequently set up a microphone that they are uber comfortable with and then a second one just a little further away. The microphone that is slightly further away is frequently the microphone I'll end of using. Being between 1/2 and 2 feet away from the microphone is an ideal location for tracking vocals.

Then there is unique situation known as a "differential microphone". A differential microphone is generally 2 Omni directional microphones spaced a very short distance apart and are wired reversed phase. Because the capsules are close and wired out of phase, any audio that both capsules pick up simultaneously will electrically cancel by virtue of their nearly identical signals. The performer/announcer simply speaks/sings into a single diaphragm of the microphone pair. Because that signal will now have something completely uncommon to the second capsule, you will only hear that "difference" or differential, between the signals as they hit the capsules. Very good to use this in extremely noisy environments for newscasters/announcers/MC's. This technique of differential miking, actually made a special appearance once in a Grateful Dead movie of a live performance. You'll see Jerry Garcia singing into this really peculiar microphone thingy. It looks like nothing else. It was 2 Sony ECM 50's Omni directional lavalier microphones on a custom microphone mount. He sings into only a single capsule. In many ways, this kind of on stage microphone has the ability to cancel all common sounds that are hitting the capsules. Greater gain before feedback can then be achieved, beyond any conventional directional pattern microphone. However, there is a trade-off in frequency response aberrations. Frequency response is no longer flat but follows a rather peculiar curve. Still completely usable, especially for vocals.

There you go, everything you wanted to know about utilizing 2 microphones on a single vocal.

Ms. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD wrote: I have on certain occasions utilized 2 vocal microphones. But perhaps, not quite in the same way as you might think...

Way to cut down (or greatly increase) the resale value of your mics.