I got a synth and drum machine

strms · Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 58 Location: mexcio

I finally got an Alesis Micron and a boss dr 202 drum machine....how am I supposed to record them.

I want to be able to directly record into my computer, my computer doesn't have any midi in/out.

I bought a Behinger MX400 4 channel mixer.....

I have a tascam 4 track portastudio

Am I supposed to record them with the midi out/thru or through the headphone output?

Totally confused with this.

Andrew

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:33 am Post subject:

You need some sort of audio interface for you PC. Many come with a built in midi interface too. Most of such products also come with a lot of bundled software.

Something like this: http://www.echoaudio.com/Products/FireWire/AudioFire4/specs.php

or:

http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?category=610&subcategory=611&product=15185

strms · Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 58 Location: mexcio

I just ended up buying a midi to usb cable today, it will work.

jksuperstar · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:20 pm Post subject:

MIDI does not do audio. It contains only the information that, for example, a musical score would have. MIDI was developed in the early 80's. Long before computers were doing anything near quality audio.

ian-s · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:24 pm Post subject:

strms · Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 58 Location: mexcio

audacity and fl studio

strms · Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 58 Location: mexcio

EdisonRex · Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 7:42 am Post subject:

strms · Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 58 Location: mexcio

EdisonRex · Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:45 am Post subject:

Let's put it this way.

The mixer takes the signals from your synthesizer and drum machine and allows to to mix, or combine, them, as well as position them in the stereo field (using the pan controls). Also allows you to colour the tone using the equalisation controls.

The output of the mixer is what you need to record. So you need to look at those outputs. Depending on the mixer, they could be RCA (phono) jacks, they could be 1/4" phone jacks, or they could be XLR balanced output jacks. In any case, they are all "line level", or of suitable amplitude (volume) to serve as input to your computer's sound card.

However the sound card probably uses 1/8" mini-phone jacks, and stereo to boot, so you'll need an adaptor. Radio Shack carries these, most computer stores would have them too, but usually they are mini-phono stereo to RCA, so you might need RCA to 1/4" phone jacks. Not knowing the mixer, I couldn't tell you for sure.

strms · Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 58 Location: mexcio

I already have 2 1/8" to 1/8" cables, and two 1/8" - 1/4" adapters. So I can take the output from the mixer and plug it into the line in on my computer. I have that much figured out. When I recorded that "song" yesterday, the sound got somewhat distorted, I really don't know how or why. I'll figure it out don't worry I guess.

EdisonRex · Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:46 pm Post subject:

strms · Joined: Jul 10, 2007 Posts: 58 Location: mexcio

dewdrop_world · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 1:41 pm Post subject:

To be more specific... the audio interface has to convert the analog signal from the mixing board to digital. Digital audio has a fixed range of amplitude values it can handle. If the voltage coming in goes out of that range, the digital stream will be clipped to the minimum and maximum values.

The only way to fix it is to make sure the input signal to the computer is not too loud. Audio interfaces don't magically adjust the input volume for you.

Have you read any material on digital audio basics? A quick google search on "digital audio tutorial" turned up some useful documents.

I strongly recommend you check some of this out. Recording audio (analog or digital) requires some specialist knowledge... not too hard to learn but you should be prepared to put the time into it if you want to get good results.

James

dewdrop_world · Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 6:45 pm Post subject:

This one isn't everything you need to know, but it's a decent start.

Digital Audio Primer

Also a couple of nice ones from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation - still the most typical way of converting analog audio into digital (and vice versa)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_sound_vs._digital_sound - a bit of a weird article but it does contain some useful concepts

James