Working with Tracktion

[guy]

Hi guys.
I'm gonna record a song or 2 in the near future with a friend who has a Layla 3G and we'll be using the Tracktion software that comes with.
Anyone use either of these before?

I plan to use the ADAT setting with the optic connector because of my love for multitracking.
Any insight you'd all care to share with me?

Thanks a ton.

[brandondrury]

Anyone use either of these before?

No. The Layla was a popular soundcard several years ago, but I don't hear much about them today (for whatever reason).

I plan to use the ADAT setting with the optic connector because of my love for multitracking.

Doesn't the Layla already have the ability to mulititrack? I thougth that was the 8 input audio interface?

Any insight you'd all care to share with me?

I'm voting for Ron Paul. I'm assuming you want more info about recording, though. With that said, I have over 300 articles and blog and a big ol' forum on the subject. I'm writing a book as we speak. So if you want any info, you'll need to be a tad more specific.

Brandon

[guy]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

The Layla was a popular soundcard several years ago, but I don't hear much about them today (for whatever reason).
Brandon

I don't know why he chose this interface. For around the same money Presonus and Focusrite have some products and seem to get more favorable reviews from what I've read.

Originally Posted by brandondrury

Doesn't the Layla already have the ability to mulititrack? I thougth that was the 8 input audio interface?
Brandon

Yes it does but you have to select the proper setting and use the optical cable. The owner hasn't used this configuration yet and has been using it in stereo mode. I was just wondering if anyone had used it this way and could share their experience with it.

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I'm voting for Ron Paul.
Brandon

I'd define this as more informational than insightful. Insight would be "Ron Paul seems to be an ethical person".
I do appreciate your input though and consider it very helpful. Thanks.

[brandondrury]

Yes it does but you have to select the proper setting and use the optical cable.

This conflicts with their website: Echo Digital Audio Corporation They say the Gina has 8 analog inputs in addition to the ADAT input.

Brandon

[guy]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

This conflicts with their website: Echo Digital Audio Corporation They say the Gina has 8 analog inputs in addition to the ADAT input.

Brandon

I'm so glad you brought this up because I'm a little confused. I'm so inexperienced at this and maybe you can help me understand the analog inputs vs digital inputs and how they work. First of all I'm confused as to why there's analog inputs on a computer interface. I thought the whole idea was to do digital recording. And if I can simultaneously multitrack with the analog inputs and outputs, then why is there an option to use an adat setting/ optical cable for multitracking via the 8 digital inputs?
My head hurts
Here's a link to the manual if you feel like looking at it and offering more clarity.
Echo Digital Audio Corporation
Thanks again.

[brandondrury]

I'm glad I pushed the issue. Let's get this cleared up.

In order to record digital audio from a microphone (which is an analog device) we must capture the analog sound out of the air with a microphone, send this analog signal through a cable to a preamp, that preamp must boost the analog signal up to line level, and then that signal must be converted to digital and that signal can then be sent to a computer, stored on hard drive, and/or manipulated with recording software.

If we want to actually hear that that sound in our recording software, we need to convert it back to analog. (Our ears are analog devices).

First of all I'm confused as to why there's analog inputs on a computer interface. I thought the whole idea was to do digital recording.

In this case, we need to convert the signal to digital first. An audio interface has two jobs. It needs to convert analog signals to digital (some, like the Echo Layla, allow you add additional digital inputs) and it needs to route these signals into your computer in a way that is friendly with your operating system.

When you use the ADAT Optical IN, you are really just bypassing the first part of the audio interface (the analog to digital conversion) and then going straight to the second part (the computer interface).

then why is there an option to use an adat setting/ optical cable for multitracking via the 8 digital inputs?

Assuming you had the necessary gear, you could then record 16 simultaneous tracks instead of just 8. (8 analog inputs + 8 digital inputs).

My head hurts

Take it slow. This stuff isn't too complicated. It's much more complicated to cook spaghetti.

Try looking at the picture here:
Soundcard Troubleshooting 101

Brandon

[guy]

OK great...
so if what you are telling me is correct then we will be using the 8 analog inputs and recording 8 simultaneous tracks via the usb cable. I'll give it a go and see what happens. I thought I'd have to use the adat/ lightpipe cable to tansfer that much info at once.
Cool.
Thanks for the help.

[brandondrury]

so if what you are telling me is correct then we will be using the 8 analog inputs and recording 8 simultaneous tracks via the usb cable.

I didn't know the Echo Layla was a USB 2.0 device? I thought it was PCI. Maybe you are using some newer version? Maybe my memory is shot!

It's no problem for USB 2.0, Firewire, and PCI audio interfaces to easily send in 20 or more tracks to a computer.

In this case, you still need to use the ADAT cable to transfer the 8 digital inputs into the back of the Layla.

Does that make sense?

Brandon

[guy]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I didn't know the Echo Layla was a USB 2.0 device? I thought it was PCI. Maybe you are using some newer version? Maybe my memory is shot!

It's no problem for USB 2.0, Firewire, and PCI audio interfaces to easily send in 20 or more tracks to a computer.

In this case, you still need to use the ADAT cable to transfer the 8 digital inputs into the back of the Layla.

Does that make sense?

Brandon

Your right. It has a pci card and uses a cable (not optical) from the card to the interface for the analog ins. The manual states to use the optical cable for using the digital inputs, although I only see 8 inputs so I'm assuming those can be either digital or analog but not both simultaneously.
We did use the interface to do some multi tracking this weekend. Still in the learning curve on the unit but did manage to lay the bed tracks for a song that we will hopefully finish up soon and post for peer review.
One thing I want to explore further is how to assign outputs to tracks. It's confusing to look at them on the screen as they are grouped in stereo pairs. So it looks like 1&2 are together..3&4, so forth. Was able to assign them to seperate tracks however.
I have begun playing with Tracktion for editing and seems like I'll be able to accomplish a mix even with the stock plug ins.
One question on that though...kinda wierd how there's no busses that I can see. All processing is done by adding filters to the individual tracks (even volume is treated as a filter) or you can add the filters to the summed tracks. But, there is no gate listed as far as I can see. I like to gate out leakage sometimes on things especially kick drum, snare, hi hat, etc...
they do have a compressor/ limiter filter but I always thought of a gate as sort of a limiter in reverse. Is ther another way to handle this?

[brandondrury]

The manual states to use the optical cable for using the digital inputs, although I only see 8 inputs so I'm assuming those can be either digital or analog but not both simultaneously.

The 8 inputs you see will be analog inputs. The digital inputs will look like this:

it will pass up to 8 channels through it into the audio interface.

Is ther another way to handle this?

Are you referring to lack of a gate? What kind of plugins does Tracktion use? There are almost alway free plugins out there (many of which are very good). VST is probably the largest of free plugins, but there are free plugins in just about any format.

Brandon