A little basic help please!

[anthracite]

Hi there,

I recently purchased a new computer in order to be able to record music at home. I used to do it through the inboard generic soundcard of my old machine but decided it was time to step up.

I got a M-audio delta 44 at first and thought it'd be the only thing i'd need as i only have my MIDI controller and bass to plug. After installing it, I had the problem of only hearing from the left side in the phones and bass getting in only from the left as well. I contacted M-Audio who told me it was normal and that I needed Y connections. I figured, why bother and get a mixer instead which i did. I bought an Alesis multimix 6. Once everything plugged, everything was working fine and the sound was fantastic. But my problem occured when i tried to track a bassline with sonar. I plugged the outs from the delta into the stereo aux return and plugged the main mix of the mixer in the ins of the delta while my bass into channel 1.

My problem is when i record my bass, the audio coming in from the computer leeks into the track it seems i have no choice but to record everythying that comes out of the mixer.

So how can i record only my bass while hearing the audio source at the same time?

Forward thanks!

[brandondrury]

The problem is you are sending the main outs of your mixer into your computer.

You are combining the your recorded bass track and the drums/music/whatever you are playing to and then sending that to the computer.

Instead, you have a few options here, depending on what the Alesis multimix 6 can do. The idea is to not send the music you've already recorded (and are only using for monitoring) back into the inputs of your soundcard.

On Mackie 1604 this is easy. I would send my bass into a channel and then use a 'half-normalled' connection. Basically, I would put a 1/4" cable in halfway. This splits a signal of an insert and also keeps the signal in the mixer (so I can hear it). I would send the signal split of the insert into the input of my soundcard.

I could also use a Bus out if I felt like it. Meaning, I could assign the bass to Bus #1 and Bus #2 (these are mono busses) and then assign the stereo mix to Bus #3 and #4. Of course, I would assign all 4 busses to the main mix so I could actually hear what I was doing.

I'm not really sure what's up with the "Y" cable. I don't understand why you would need one. I'm not sure what you are plugging your bass into, (hopefully a preamp or DI of some kind) but it sounds to me like you are recording stereo tracks for a mono source (like your bass). Obviously, a mono signal is going to fill either the left or right side of the stereo track and leave the other side empty. Playing this back will make the bass play back only on one side.

If you were to record a mono track, you could then pan it however you felt like (or just leave it center). The function of the Y cable would be handled within Sonar.

Since you were able to get your bass into your Delta 44 before, I would probably stick with that rig and do all your monitoring within Sonar. Sonar will spit out a stereo mix , which I would feed into the mixer.

Does this make sense?

Brandon