New Sound Card Question

sunglassesatnight · Unread post by **sunglassesatnight** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 12:31 pm

I'm thinking of getting this sound card for just some basic recording I want to do in stereo.
http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp ... tegory=754
I have an external mixer which I want to run into this, what will I need to record in stereo? I mean, is there any sort of special patch cable I need get both Left and Right channels? Because right now all I can use is the Left channel out on the mixer with a regular instrument cable and 1/8" adaptor. I hope this makes sense, I feel good and dumb now. Oh, and if anyone has a better suggestion around the same price, let me know, because I'm a lot confused, as I'm sure is obvious.

Thanks

mangold · Unread post by **mangold** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 2:47 pm

u need a mixer thats stereo enabled

sunglassesatnight · Unread post by **sunglassesatnight** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 3:19 pm

Maybe you could read the post. Why would I even think about recording in stereo if the mixer wasn't stereo enabled? I need stereo INPUTS for my computer and since there are two out channels, I was wondering if I needed some special cable to connect them to the stereo ins on this card, or if I could just use two regular quarter inch instrument cables. Not that tough.

mangold · Unread post by **mangold** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 3:40 pm

slimerdmb24 wrote:Maybe you could read the post. Why would I even think about recording in stereo if the mixer wasn't stereo enabled? I need stereo INPUTS for my computer and since there are two out channels, I was wondering if I needed some special cable to connect them to the stereo ins on this card, or if I could just use two regular quarter inch instrument cables. Not that tough.

you said all you could use was the left output, i didnt know if it meant that your mixer only had one out, or if your cpu couldnt take two outs. i was confused i apologize, maybe you shouldnt attack the people that are rtying to help you. :roll:

2 reg cables will do just fine.

MWR · Unread post by **MWR** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 5:26 pm

I don't know if your mixer has blanced outs but if it does you should get TRS cable instead of regular TS cables. They have a ground which might reduce noise. Usually balanced is better.

sunglassesatnight · Unread post by **sunglassesatnight** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 6:19 pm

I have unbalanced outs, so the regular cables are all I can do? I also have RCA outs, is there anything I can do with those?

MWR · Unread post by **MWR** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 7:34 pm

No don't worry about it. It should sound fine unbalanced.

Make sure the signal coming out of the mixer is nice and hot though. Don't worry about any of the volume knobs, just zero all of those. You want to have the gain for each input up as far as possible WITHOUT it clipping. Just play as loud as you think you're going to play for that particular song and adjust it so it doesn't go into the red. You might also have a little led that indicates clipping. This is a very important step.

As far as that particular card goes I can't really say. They make a good product but in general I think m-audio is a bit more user friendly and the drivers are more solid. I've also heard that the onboard effects chip on the E-mu isn't that great. But once again I woulnd't know from personal experiance.

sunglassesatnight · Unread post by **sunglassesatnight** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:30 pm

MWR wrote:No don't worry about it. It should sound fine unbalanced.

Make sure the signal coming out of the mixer is nice and hot though. Don't worry about any of the volume knobs, just zero all of those. You want to have the gain for each input up as far as possible WITHOUT it clipping. Just play as loud as you think you're going to play for that particular song and adjust it so it doesn't go into the red. You might also have a little led that indicates clipping. This is a very important step.

As far as that particular card goes I can't really say. They make a good product but in general I think m-audio is a bit more user friendly and the drivers are more solid. I've also heard that the onboard effects chip on the E-mu isn't that great. But once again I woulnd't know from personal experiance.

Is that clipping indicator the LED by the input gain knobs that says "Peak?" And which volume knobs is it that you're talking about? When you say zero the volume knobs, do you mean the master gain or the channel gain? Or am I with you at all? Thanks so much.

MWR · Unread post by **MWR** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 9:58 pm

slimerdmb24 wrote:
MWR wrote:No don't worry about it. It should sound fine unbalanced.

Make sure the signal coming out of the mixer is nice and hot though. Don't worry about any of the volume knobs, just zero all of those. You want to have the gain for each input up as far as possible WITHOUT it clipping. Just play as loud as you think you're going to play for that particular song and adjust it so it doesn't go into the red. You might also have a little led that indicates clipping. This is a very important step.

As far as that particular card goes I can't really say. They make a good product but in general I think m-audio is a bit more user friendly and the drivers are more solid. I've also heard that the onboard effects chip on the E-mu isn't that great. But once again I woulnd't know from personal experiance.
Is that clipping indicator the LED by the input gain knobs that says "Peak?" And which volume knobs is it that you're talking about? When you say zero the volume knobs, do you mean the master gain or the channel gain? Or am I with you at all? Thanks so much.

Just to check, we are talking about mic(XLR) inputs right? If so what kind of mic/s are they?
You might as well let me know what brand/model mixer it is so I can get a picture of where everything is.

sunglassesatnight · Unread post by **sunglassesatnight** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:09 pm

Yeah, we're talking the XLRs. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=h ... id/630413/
There's the mixer. I'm using a condenser mic. Also, if I want to use my guitar's pickup, what should I do? Thank you again for all your help and patience for a recording dumbass.

MWR · Unread post by **MWR** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:51 pm

No problem. This stuff is really confusing when you're first starting out.

Ok, so the gain is right below the XLR and 1/4" inputs (little black knobs). You want to turn these up as much as possible without the LED's in the lower right going into red. Once again this needs to be adjusted depending on how loud you'll be playing. For example, a song like Wharehouse will need less gain than something quieter like Christmas Song. Pretty simple. All the other knobs should stay in their neutral position except for the pan knobs.
You want to pan each input hard right and hard left. That way you're keeping each signal seperate so you can mix them in your recording program. If you don't pan them then each signal is going to go equally to the left and right master outs. This isn't what you want. You want the left channel to be carrying one signal and the right the other. You'll also notice that there are two rows of LED to monitor the signal level. When you pan each signal to the left and right you are monitoring each signal seperately which is important in getting the gain right for each input.
As far as the guitar goes you would just plug into either of the 1/4" inputs located below the XLR inputs and then you would use the other channel for the mic.
It can get quite a bit more confusing when your working with software but the principles are still the same. I'd recommend downloading and reading through the manual for Cubase, Cakewalk, Ableton, Cool Edit, it doesn't really matter they all work in basically the same way.

sunglassesatnight · Unread post by **sunglassesatnight** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 12:10 am

Great. Thank you again.

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