Audacity Question

Play the guitar track back to her through headphones.....that's what I always do when I'm overdubbing.

Actually I could have phrased that better....make sure the guitar track is at the start, put the headphones on her then press record....she then sings over the guitar track and you'll have one guitar track and one vocal track.

:D :D :D

Vic

Vic is right on. There are settings there so that it will not play her voice through the headphones as she is singing. I have found that to be a problem because the sound will be slightly delayed and it really throws you off. If it doesnt sound quite right, then go to preferences and make sure its all set right.

Jim

You may also have to change your input setting if you have the mic in a different jack than what you used to record the guitar.

And as far as tracks go. If you use mono settings you can record as many different tracks easier with less PC stress than using stereo tracks.

I have a small mixer that I have everything fed into, then out to the mic jack of the pc from there. So its not like the mike is picking up the sound from the speakers or anything. I just looked at the settings and havent seen anything. I'll keep playing with it.

I have version 1.2.4.

If you go to the top of the program and click EDIT and PREFERENCES you'll see some tabs. In the AUDIO I/O tab there are two settings you'll want to try. Assuming Playback and Recording devices are set corretly you can also choose the type of track, Stereo or Mono.

Below that are two check boxes. I have "Play other tracks while recording a new one." checked and the box below that unchecked.

So I record a track. I can turn right around and click record again, and the first track will play while you can record another track and NOT get the first recording into the second track. Hope this helps some.

I have been messing with this off and on all day and stil cant figure it out. No matter how I set the software I get the guitar track recorded onto the vocal track.

Here is my setup.

I have small mixer through which I am running everything.

Channel 1 = Guitar In
Channel 2 = PC Headphone Jack
Channel 3 = Handheld Mic (Would like to use this to record vocal)
Tape Out on mixer to PC Mic Jack

What am I missing here?

Thanks,
Allen

First, let me understand. Everything goes into your mixer and your mixer goes into the PC. If so,

I would use the Line In jack on your sound card, if possible. Then you have two places to check.

Ensure that you are selecting the Line In source in the control panel of Audacity. Mine is in the upper right corner of the program.

After that, go check the settings in Windows Audio options. If your default is set to "What You Hear" change that to Line In for the Recording Options. Also, in Playback options, make sure your mic option is muted.

Good luck with your mission. Should you get caught, any knowledge of this mission will cease to exist and GN will blow up. Be successful. :twisted:

Thanks for all responses. I think I am getting there.

Now, what do I do about the latency issue? When I plug into the headphone jack of the pc, there is a delay in hearing the vocal through the headphone.

Thanks for all responses. I think I am getting there.

Now, what do I do about the latency issue? When I plug into the headphone jack of the pc, there is a delay in hearing the vocal through the headphone.

That just may be PC overload. Try shutting off some of the services running on your PC that you don't need while recording. More RAM and faster CPU's remedy latency. :(

Sorry to say it again, but Audacity has this delay/latency problem with some soundcards ( typical low-end Soundblaster card etc ).
I needed to changeover to the free Kristal Audio Engine (with the also free ASIO4ALL ASIO driver) to get rid of the delay/Latency problems.

If you have a PC with CPU clock freq. of >1500 MHz and at least 512 MB RAM that should not be a problem. But if you are running XP and only have 256 MB RAM you are on the limit.

As Kalle sais a big part of latency is the soundcard. You'll need a sequencer that suports ASIO and an ASIO driver. ASIO4ALL is a 'fake' ASIO and works somewhat well, but to really fix things you'll also need a soundcard that has been designed for ASIO.

I have been using Audacity for a couple of years and in the last few weeks I have tried it on a new laptop with no success. I keep getting the delay when monitoring the input on the Mic jack from the headphones on the headset jack. This didn't happen on my old desktop and old laptop both XP. After a disc crash last week I reloaded XP on to my old laptop reinstalled Audacity and suddenly I have delay. This soulds like an audacity problem with the latest download. I am going to try and find an old copy of Audacity and see what happens

any ideas?????

just tried the old versions with no success
but maybe my success on desktop PCs is down to the fact I record using line in and not mic

You might try the Audacity web site. They have some tutorials and a user forum.It helped me get going.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/index.html

Alouden, Try putting your headphones into the headphone out put in the mixer when recording. I had that problem when I was using a soundblaster a few years ago.

I have the same problem I see many of you guys have..
When I record one track, and then another one(f.ex. a harmony with myself), it's not in sync.
And I checked audacitys website, where I found this:

"3. When I try to record harmonies with myself, why are the two tracks out of sync?
This is normal and it happens because there is a small delay between when Audacity starts playing sound and when it actually reaches your speaker. Audacity does not automatically try to correct for this delay, and you must do it manually.
To correct this delay, use the Time Shift tool to slide one of the tracks over until they line up. Note that you can use the tool while you are listening to the recording."

If it only was that easy...
My problem is that the delay INCREASES throughout the track. So if I use the the time shift to correct the delay, I can get it into sync for the first couple of measures, but after sa little while, it slowly gets out of sync again...

Anyone with the same problem?