Cubase and audio monitoring

[hummingbird]

I updated the M-Audio driver and that fixed a problem with Tracktion2 I'd had for awhile, lol.

It occured to me that when I set-up this new computer, I didn't even think about installing a driver for the fastrack. My computer recognized the hardware. I couldn't figure out why I had pops and clicks when I tried to record vocals in Tracktion, so I used a different program for that.

Now there are two drivers showing in Cubase. The ASIO driver and the Fastrack ASIO driver.

Installing the updated M-Audio fasttrack driver reduced the latency on the audio monitoring while recording, however there is still a distracting lag if I sing along to a track.

I have no other latency issues in Cubase. When I play the midi keyboard, it sounds right away, and it 'records' in time to the click.

When I record through the mic, there is no latency in the signal to the computer, it records in time to the click.

It is only the audio monitoring that is the issue. We're closer, though!! Output latency reduced for sure. My head is spinning with all this so I think I'll take a break and come back to it in a couple days.

[Len911]

Hummingbird, I just looked up m-audio fast track and it has a button called "Direct Monitor". Push that in for on. This allows you to monitor your voice pre-cubase.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrack.html

[mazz]

Yes, you need to be monitoring the direct signal from your mic mixed with the tracks coming back in from Cubase. There will always be some latency if you monitor through the channel you're recording on to.

Regarding the tracks being recorded in the right spot: Modern DAWs know how much latency is being generated by the drivers and will automatically compensate for it so the tracks are recorded in sync. The thing is, if you set your latency too high, you will notice a lag from the time you hit your keys to the time you hear a sound from your VIs. At that point, things will start to get weird because you won't be able to play in time to what you are hearing. This is why one needs as beefy a computer as possible when using Virtual Instruments. The higher the latency, the less stress on the CPU but the more time lag is there. The lower the latency, the more the CPU is taxed but the response is much faster, until, of course, you start to make the computer stutter and stall!!!

That's why you can easily get away with high latency settings when mixing, you aren't concerned with recording or playing in sync anymore, you're just playing back and everything is in relationship to itself. If there's a little lag when you push Play, it doesn't matter.

It can be confusing, but hearing it happening is worth a thousand words!!

You'll get it !!

Mazz

[Len911]

Hummingbird, just a tip, you may have to turn the volume way down on the music coming from cubase when you are singing and turn up the volume on the m-audio fast track headphone amp, in order to hear yourself, and adjust accordingly. If you don't, you might think you are only getting music from cubase and no vocals from your mic. Don't forget to turn the volume on your fast track back down before you listen to your recorded vocals and music though. From the main cubase drop down menu, select device and then select mixer to adjust the audio tracks. If after you have recorded your vocals, they seem to be recorded very low, you might have to normalize your vocal track, you do that by choosing audio from the drop down menu, then select processing, and from that normalize.
I hope that helps and saves a little time.

[Dwayne Russell]

It is only the audio monitoring that is the issue. We're closer, though!! Output latency reduced for sure. My head is spinning with all this so I think I'll take a break and come back to it in a couple days.

Don't use "audio monitoring'" when you are recording honey. Leave it off. The only reason you will want to use that is if you want to record hearing reverb but not recording the reverb.

If you want to hear reverb while recording but record the reverb you will need to put your sound card all the way down to 64 and then use your "audio monitoring" And your computer might not handle that.

[hummingbird]

Hummingbird, I just looked up m-audio fast track and it has a button called "Direct Monitor". Push that in for on. This allows you to monitor your voice pre-cubase.

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrack.html

my Fastrack doesn't have a 'direct monitor' button. It does have a input monitor for mic, or guitar, 'up' is stereo, 'down' is mono.

[I tried plugging my headphones into the Fastrack, then I can hear myself, but not the music on the computer.]

[hummingbird]

It is only the audio monitoring that is the issue. We're closer, though!! Output latency reduced for sure. My head is spinning with all this so I think I'll take a break and come back to it in a couple days.

Don't use "audio monitoring'" when you are recording honey. Leave it off. The only reason you will want to use that is if you want to record hearing reverb but not recording the reverb.

If you want to hear reverb while recording but record the reverb you will need to put your sound card all the way down to 64 and then use your "audio monitoring" And your computer might not handle that.

Hmmm. Thanks. Not sure if we're talkin' bout the same thing. Every recording studio I've been to provides a headphone mix of music & voice. It's better for a singer to hear themselves singing, since the headphones block the sound. That's all I'm attempting to do here. I don't want to record with reverb because it can't be changed. Better to record dry and add effects later if needed.

However, I've been recording vocals without monitoring for 3 or 4 years, if I can't get this to work that's okay. Just wondered if it was something I could resolve.

[hummingbird]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advice! This forum is great

[Len911]

Ok Hummingbird, if you have the fast track pro, there is a different knob. Input/playback mix knob. Fully counterclockwise you should hear only your voice. Fully clockwise should be only cubase music. anywhere in between is both signals mixed, more left more voice, more right more music. It also says to make sure you mute the tracks you will be recording your voice on because if not they will be sent back out of cubase and you will hear both versions of your voice and the cubase music.

http://www.m-audio.com/images/global/ma ... N01_V3.PDF


scroll down to "monitoring your inputs for recording" in the manual. (bottom of page 12 of the pdf document)

If you have some other model,lol, if you let us know specifically which one we can find how to get this done I am sure!!

[lindpop]

You change the latency (buffersize) from the fastracks asio controll panel, not inside Cubase. You should be able to go down to 10ms or less when you're recording and increase the buffer size when you're mixing. On some systems you have to restart the computer when you make changes, Cubase doesn't always like the changes on the fly.