The Steel Guitar Forum

http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/

Although, I am an n-Track Studio user, ( http://fasoft.com ), I found this free program the other night, and wanted to tell you guys about it.

It is limited to 16 tracks, no MIDI, but I like it. It comes with several effects, and seems easy to use and very user friendly.

Just thought that there are many guys out there wanting to try home studio'ing, and this might be just what they have been looking for. After all, free is always good.

Les

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Strat,Tele
Dekley S-10

Les; great info. N-TRACKS ranks high in my research re record/edit software for use with the BEAST/BRAIN PSG project. It has flexibility re putting software effects at the input for performance, and has one of the best tutorials in the form of their FAQ section.

I downloaded n-track for use at the Slabs when I get there this Fall. Did so a couple of days ago, and have looked it over a bit but need to go page by page through the pdf manual and learn how to use it.

Did a lot of 4-track reel-to-reel recording of our local band performances years ago. But, I know the full studio computer program is going to involve a lot of learning. Hell, I is retired and got plenty of time to do so.

Will also download the free program mentioned by Les. I like the fact that it can be used as a mixer.

Gotta question about input devices into a laptop. I will be using USB. Have four USB ports in the computer. Found a couple of devices, each of which puts in two channels. Difference is the plugs used. One 1/8 inch, other RCA. I will probably buy the RCA version.

I would like to record picking at the Slabs when some of the really good singers and pickers is there. Most often for the jam the last week of January. Lots of folks show up, many of them are road dudes who want to chill out for a couple days. At the same time, during the season there are a lot of great singers and pickers who might show up for a day or two that I would like to record.

Most of time there will be 8 mikes available for input into a board that I hope will have 8 line outs as an option to simply two channels output into speakers or line out after effects added.

Three mikes will be probably be used for voice, and five for instruments. That might present problems with getting the full drummer sound since we will have steel, lead, bass, etc. I want to do mike pickups from the amps so musicians can use their effects and not have to worry about me trying to add them in the computer.

Looking at some of the stuff available in Musician's Friend's catalog. I can see one possible problem with the line outs where they might not be enough signal to drive the channel in the computer. Hmmm... might be a bit more complicated than I have realized.

Short of buying four input/output devices, is there available an adaptor where I can input 8 channels through one USB port that does not cost hundreds of dollars?? If you know? If I did buy four input devices and plugged them into my four USB ports, would n-track recognize them. Yeah, I know I is asking a theoretical question that most folks have probably never dealt with. Computer is late model with 1 gig+ processing speed (I think that is what it is called) 300 plus megs of ram, and all the other goodies.

I know one way to get all 8 channels in is to use a mixer and go into the computer with two channels. But what I get out of the mixer is what I get on the computer's two channels. No way to tweak each of the eight tracks going into the mixer.

What kind of experiences have you had using the n-track program?

My apology if I been confusing with the questions, or don't fully understand the ability of the computer programs.

Thanks in advance for any info that might help me.

Roger

Using multiple 2-channel USB devices to capture 8 chennels of audio will not give you the results you desire, as there will be small timing differences between the devices. There are lots of devices that will allow you to take in 8 channels of audio at once. Most of these devices use Firewire as the interface. (There are a few starting to come out that use high-speed USB, but generally Firewire devices have been better because their protocol is better suited for a stream of audio and there is more power avaliable for the electronics.) The entry price point is about $300 for some good used equipment. An excellent device that would fit your needs and is relatively inexpensive is the MOTU 828.

Thanks, Will, for the info. I'll have to read up on Firewall and see if my computer will work with it. I just looked at the connections the computer has. It does not have a pcmcia (?) card slot, the network connection screen lists a wireless connnection, a local WAN, and another local with Realtek. There is a phone jack a bit larger than the one for regular phone connection, parallel port, and what looks like a serial port but is not. It is a female connector.

Pulled up the Motu page on the 800 series.

Roger

Roger;
I'd recommend boosting your RAM up to at least 512 MB, if your laptop permits it, and more if possible. Audio recording is extremely RAM intensive.

If you tell me your brand and model I'll do a lookup at Crucial and tell you the part numbers to use for the upgrade.



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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
1983 Rosewood Emmons D10 Push-Pull, with 8 pedals and 9 knee levers (Crawford Cluster), Lawrence LXR-16 pickups and aluminum necks. Nashville 400 amp with Peavey Mod. Emmons pedalbar mounted, and Goodrich LDR floor volume pedals.
I use and endorse Jagwire Strings and accessories.

Keep Steelin' but don't get caught!

Reporting member of SpamCop

To record 8 channels at a time, your laptop will need to support Firewire, USB2 ("high-speed USB") or have a PCMCIA slot. If you don't meet those requirements you will be limited to 2 channels at a time.

No PCMCIA? That's unusual in a laptop made in the last 8 years.

The larger phone jack will be an Ethernet network connection, (WAN), most likely, and the serial like port will be for an external VGA monitor. The wireless network might be an infrared port. (The revolution that never happened).

I used to have an eight in/eight out card that I used with n-Track in my old PC. It used ASIO drivers. It worked very well, even with the 400 MHz processor with no obvious latency. The screen was a little crowded with all 8 input and output VU meters open at the same time. (I could have closed a few, but it looked so impressive).

Let us know what you come up with. You could try posting your question on the n-Track Forum page, as well.

Les