Direct PC Recording

[learningtolive]

My Dad has an old model of the Soundblaster Audigy Pro that he doesn't use anymore with a 1/4" line in and MIDI I/O besides other ports, along with the Soundforge recording software. I was thinking of getting a V Amp 2 to record directly with the MIDI but I've got a question about the MIDI on the Audigy. The ports look odd; instead of having five pins around the bottom of the circle so to speak, there are 2 on one side, 3 on the other and a sort of small rectangle in the middle (like you find in the middle of older keyboard/mouse jacks). Seeing as this is a different type of MIDI port, would I be able to get it to work with a V Amp 2?

Alternatively, I could plug my (bad) Digitech RP200 directly in to the line in, but would this have any latency issues? I've heard of direct analogue connections like that being rather poor. Any advice? Obviously I'd rather get using the Digitech right away then wait saving for the V amp, but not if the recording itself is poor. Can I have some help here?

[JESTER700]

The MIDI just needs an adapter, but it's not for sound anyway - it's for patches. A V-Amp will still connect via analog. Try using what you have and see what you think.

[hexa-db]

This may be obvious but I'll add it anyway, just in case
You won't be able to record audio through the MIDI port. What you can do though is send MIDI data to the V-AMP for sending new patches, or controller data (ie, to control the effects or tone settings).
Apologies if you already knew that.

[edit] D'oh, Jester already said that..

[Dr. Funkenstein]

Originally Posted by learningtolive

My Dad has an old model of the Soundblaster Audigy Pro that he doesn't use anymore with a 1/4" line in and MIDI I/O besides other ports, along with the Soundforge recording software. I was thinking of getting a V Amp 2 to record directly with the MIDI but I've got a question about the MIDI on the Audigy. The ports look odd; instead of having five pins around the bottom of the circle so to speak, there are 2 on one side, 3 on the other and a sort of small rectangle in the middle (like you find in the middle of older keyboard/mouse jacks). Seeing as this is a different type of MIDI port, would I be able to get it to work with a V Amp 2?

Alternatively, I could plug my (bad) Digitech RP200 directly in to the line in, but would this have any latency issues? I've heard of direct analogue connections like that being rather poor. Any advice? Obviously I'd rather get using the Digitech right away then wait saving for the V amp, but not if the recording itself is poor. Can I have some help here?

The latency of the souncard will be the same for analogue or digital connections, it's nothing to do with the input type. The only way to get low latency is to buy a card good enough to run that fast. I never used the audigy, so can't comment but for live use you want 4ms latency or less.

regards,

Dave

[Ibateur]

Yeah, get a y-cable and you're good to go with a vamp2. I even just use my onboard line in to record from the vamp2. Not bad.

... not great

[kbh]

if youre having lateny problems with sound output, you can trim it down by using asio with your card, if your card dosent do asio, you can use Asio4All. very handy

[learningtolive]

Update!

We installed the Creative Audigy soundcard along with Cubase SX3. I am plugging directly into the line in with my Digitech RP200 pedal. Right away I recorded Sisters along to a backing track with no trouble. However, when I tried recording Satch Boogie or Erotomania, the track I record over the backing always came out at just under a second out of time.

I then downloaded ASIO4ALL after reading the advice from KBH and now everything is great. Thanks a lot everyone for all the help.

[BCrowell]

The time lapse is due to the monitor latency of the Sound Blaster card. Basically the SB is a piece of crap in this category (been there done that). I won't get into details but the A/D D/A conversion is slow and needs a big buffer on that card, thus you'll be a up to 250ms off from the recorded original.

You have two options...one, set Cubase to automatically compensate for this (it will shift the recorded wave appropriately). Or 2)Get a better, faster A/D card. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND M-AUDIO 2496 as an excellent choice. It can do 24-bit @96kHz...more than enough for most. I've used it for two years now with Cubase SX, Adobe Audition, and works great. They are even a subsid of Avid (Digidesign) and now PRO TOOLS supports it! (Figures right after I get a Digi002 they'd do that! hmmmpff)