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sbaitso · Posts: 1

I am wanting to record some drums tracks in the near future using cool edit pro 2.0. I would like to record four tracks simultaneously. At my disposal I have multiple old isa and pci consumer grade sound cards (of different brands), and two computers.

I was thinking of installing both sound cards in one computer. However, I understand that this could introduce sync problems between the two sound cards. Posts on this forum seem to advise against the two soundcard method because of the potential sync problems. Can the sync offsets be corrected within cool edit?

My other thought is this:
Is it possible to slave two computers running cool edit pro together using smtp or midi timecode for recording?

I could record to both computers simultaneously, save the resulting wave files and bring the wave files from the second computer back to the original computer via CD-R or ethernet. If this is possible, would I need to run midi cables from both computers into a midi keyboard or other device? I'll admit I'm a relative newbie when it comes to midi and timecode.

Any thoughts or other potential methods of doing this would be apprecieated.

obviously buying a single 4 or 8 input sound card would make my siutaution much easier, but this is just something I am doing for fun and I can't really justify the cost.

ak

Craig Jackman · Location: Canada Posts: 909

While I've never had a computer with 2 soundcards installed, I know people that do and have, and they havent' had any ... OK MANY ... problems. I believe that if you can get the cards to see each other and are on different IRQ's it should work. I haven't heard any ... OK MANY ... issues about sync between 2 card systems.

Of course you could use 2 computers, although that would mean that you would need 2 software licenses right? Wink

Nobody has their legal software installed on more than one computer do they?
(furtive glance)

While it would be easier with time code you can get away without it, and I've never done anything in CEP with time conde anyway. Record a loud sharp sound to all 4 tracks that you are recording at the same time. Record it before you record anything really important. Since you are recording drums, this should be easy enough to do. Then record away. Transfer one pair of tracks to the other computer. Zoom in increadibly tight and line up you sharp cue tone to the sample. There should be no drift between the tracks.

The one thing you don't mention is mixers or preamps. If you are planning on just jamming the mic into the "mic preamp" on your soundcard, you will be quite dissappointed in your results. Mic Preamps on 99.99% of the soundcards found in computers are horr-id. You would be miles ahead by running your mics through a mixer first, then going to the line-in on your computer soundcard.

bigpup · Posts: 2

I've recorded 8 drum tracks at once using a layla card. It works great!

bigpup · Posts: 2

Believe it or not, my Layla card is chained to 3 Gina cards. They sync with E-Sync cables that come with the cards. All 32 outputs play back through a Mackie 32x8 bus. It worked beautifully with Windows 98 and Cool Edit Pro 1.2. But there is a problem doing this with Cool Edit Pro 2.0 in Windows XP. If there are too many input or output devices then... CRASH! There are certain ways around it, but I hope they can fix the problem with an update, and its not a problem with Windows XP.

Graeme · Member Location: Spain Posts: 4663

Using separate soundcards, whether or not they are on separate computers, is not really the way to go about this.

The prime source of trouble will be drift between the tracks, since the clock rate of the cards is highly unlikely to be exactly the same. This is why bigpups system works - his cards are all locked to the same clock, whereas, yours will not be.

Quite honestly, I'd save yourself a lot of time, trouble and headaches by springing for a decent multichannel audiocard. There are plenty of these around and some of them are remarkably cheap for what they offer. You could pickup a C-Port for under $400 - a much more practical solution, in my view.

The fact you are doing it for fun is not really an excuse - most people have a hobby or two (sometime more) but few can indulge in that hobby without investing both time and money. Making music is a 'fun' thing for me as well, but that hasn't stopped me recently parting with well over the equivalent of $3,000 for something which I really wanted.

zeitgeist · Location: Slovenia Posts: 367

My Santa Cruz card has four ins and is theoretically supposed to be able to record four at once, but I've had trouble with it getting that to actually happen smoothly. It seems like 2 of the channels come thru way lower than the other 2. I may be missing something on the settings, but I gave up on it since I don't really need 4 into 4 at this point in time anyway. I was just trying it out to see how it worked. The CEP dB meters look cool in 4's tho :P

Anyhow, that is one cheap fairly good card that can accept 4 ins and record them if you are smarter than I, apparently.

Havoc · Posts: 735

Does your card has a SPDIF input? Otherwise, with something that has an AD (like a DAT, external CDrecorder....), you could do 4 track. 2 analog to the card, 2 digital to the card.

Kurator · Location: Finland Posts: 14

In fact it is possible to record with two different soundcards. I�ve actually recorded with 3(!) different soundcard models but all from Creative. (You can�t use multiple of same model eg. 3x SB Live!) Everybody are correct in the statement that you get drift between the cards and so did I. But Cool Edit has an amazing function that solved the problem. In System and the multitrack recording settings there�s a "Correct drift in recordings" option which you shall use. Cool Edit then corrects the waveforms in some way so they end up in perfect sync!! Believe it or not but it worked for me!

Ps. I must add that I have a C-port nowadays but it actually worked with multiple soundcards! It is worth trying of you are on a low budget.

djwayne · Location: USA Posts: 583

4 Track recording hmmmm. So you guys are saying with 4 channels input, I can record on four tracks, eh ?? The Audiophile 2496 has two audio inputs and a stereo digital input, does anyone know if you can record both from the analog and digital inputs at the same time ??

The next question is, Can I run the Soundblaster Live Value card and the Audiophile 2496 together to get 4 or possibly even 6 tracks ??

AndyH · Posts: 1425

here is four tracks for half of $400
http://www.floridamusicco.com/wav192m.htm

The Audiophile and the Soundblaster should work together, but the same timeing considerations apply.

signman · Location: New Zealand Posts: 60

I have an audiophile 2496 and an inbuilt card in my computer.The inbuilt card is a 16 bit but still works fine.I tried recording 4 tracks at once using both cards and had a slight drift but when I checked the CORRECT FOR DRIFT as mentioned in a previous post in the settings / multitrack menu it worked fine. The timing was spot on. Its not ideal, but it works.

djwayne · Location: USA Posts: 583

I've read that with the Audiophile you can access both audio inputs and the two digital inputs at the same time. So I'll have to do some experimenting next week. I'm supposed to get the card this coming Tuesday, if everything goes acording to plan. Smile

Recording four tracks at a time would be good for an acoustic duo, or drums, or a drum machine and synth at the same time.

330ms · Location: United Kingdom Posts: 22

Kurator · Location: Finland Posts: 14

Graeme · Member Location: Spain Posts: 4663

SteveG · Location: United Kingdom Posts: 6695