Hi Everyone,

Posted this earlier in the wish list topic by mistake, and I don't think anyone is seeing it there, so I copie dit over here.

Got a couple of questions I'm hoping someone can help me out with.

I've been a Powertracks user for quite a while now and have done some decent recordings with it, but one thing I've never been able to do is to monitor an incoming track live, along with the applied plug in effects, as I'm playing, through my headphones.

What I usually do is
i) record (I can hear all of the other tracks that have already been recorded as I'm recording the new one)
ii) accept the take
iii) and then I can listen to it along with all of the effects (EQ'ing and reverb) that I have enabled in PT.

But I would really love to hear those effects in my phones as I'm playing, and I'm sure it's possible. I just haven't figured out how (in a couple of years of trying every now and then).

I've got Full Duplex turned on in the PT Options panel and I'm using a MAudio 2496. And I'm using PT 10 b. Just curious if anyone can point me to what it is I'm missing.

Question #2 :
I play a lot of solo guitar and I'm starting to get a little more sophisticated in my miking techniques and am starting to use 2-4 mics as well as a DI box when I record a single pass. Right now I'm pre-mixing and sending Power Tracks a single stereo signal (because my audio card only has 2 ins).

I've been wondering, if I get a more heavy duty card that can handle 4 audio ins, is PT able to map those to 4 separate tracks? I've been browsing the documentation for my version and it's looking like PT can only handle a single stereo input (ie two tracks) at a time. Is that correct?

Open your Delta Control Panel by clicking on the M-Audio icon in your taskbar.

Hit the Patchbay/Router tab and in the column under H/W Out 1/2, hit the selection radio button that says, "Monitor Mix".

That should turn on the hardware monitoring for the card and you should be able to hear any audio that comes in on either the Line Input or the Spudiff ports, provided they are unmuted and turned up in the Delta Mixer view.

I use the same card with PT all the time and it works.


--Mac

Are you using a mixer or interface before the card? How do you plug the guitar into the card, thru the DI box?

I suggest getting a small mixer to front the card, like a behringer 802 zenyx, or my fav a Yamaha 12/4 both have the ability to monitor at the mixer.

Ther AP2496 Direct Monitoring feature does the same thing as monitoring at a mixer, it is a true hardware monitoring toggle that routes input directly to output on the card, thus bypassing the computer. Zero latency. Works a treat.



--Mac

So it does not function like a "what you hear" feature, but sends to output bypassing the program?! That is cool, i have never had to use that, since i have always had a mixer.

Well, it can indeed also function as a "What U Hear" too. Useful for recording webstreamed audio, etc. but that's not what it was originally intended to do, which is provide zero latency input monitoring.



--Mac

It really is a sweet mixer in the M-Audio cards. So many possibilities.
Yes PT can route the seperate inputs to seperate tracks. I do it all the time with the Delta 1010lt. Excellent workhorse of a card.
To hear the realtime effects while recording (if that is what you were asking) enable it by using the checkbox in the audio preferences window (icon of 'a' in a circle). There is a checkbox to 'enable' realtime monitoring of FX and another to enable 'recording' of that signal. So you can hear it and record it dry (usually best choice), or hear it and record the processed signal (stuck with that sound because it was recorded with the audio.
Then when you select a track to record on, change it to audio (stereo or mono) and click the 'edit DX' button below the track number.
In the top box (very top box; above the four FX slots) use the arrows to scroll all the way down to 'input monitor'. Should be the ticket.

Be forewarned; this uses a lot of system resources.

Hi Mac,

As always, thanks for the help. That did the trick. I can now hear myself in my phones as I'm playing. I try as much as possible to not use headphones at all, but if I've got to wear them, I want to hear what I'm doing. It wasn't so much of an issue with sax (loud enought o go right through the phones), but with a quiet acoustic guitar it's ending up being a must.

Hi Rob,

I have a really nice little 12 channel Mackie mixer as my front end. I mix down to 2 tracks on there and then into PT. Works well. But it only has one bus, so I had to get another puny little mixer (A Behringer Mini MON-800.....you know for 40$, this is one of the coolest little toys I've ever seen, check it out if you've never seen one) to handle the output from the computer.

I was always able to monitor at the input mixer, but I was trying to figure out a way where I didn't have to constantly switch my headphones from being plugged into my front end mixer and my output. Mac's tip did the trick.

Hi rharv,

Just checked out what you said. I only have one checkbox that says "real-time effects enabled", so I have a feeling that what you're describing may have been added in some version after 10b. Not a big deal, I can live without hearing the reverb in my headphones, would have been nice though.

I don't have the Input Monitor option either in my effects dialog, so it looks like that is all pretty new.

Nice to know that more than two tracks at a time is possible, I'll probably be going that route very soon, then. It wasn't really clear from reading the doc.

Thanks for the help!

This is an issue I've been troubled by for several months. I used to be able to monitor audio tracks as I recorded, through headphones in the computer headphone socket, without problems, but since I upgraded my system it’s been impossible and any advice would be welcome. Before, I had a Compaq laptop with XP and Powertracks 9. Now I’ve got an Acer Travelmate 6292 with Vista and Powertracks 12. I record guitar, voice and harmonica audio tracks via a speaker/amp with a line output. The Acer has both mic and line-in sockets and the audio is processed by a Realtek system that came with the computer. Realtek does not appear to want to record and output audio simultaneously and while I can successfully record audio tracks on to PT, despite several email discussions with PGMusic, Acer and Realtek, I still can’t monitor audio input. The best that Realtek have managed is what they call a software solution that plays back what’s being recorded with a delay of about a second, which just confuses. I’ve tried installing ASIO drivers, but I get no audio input at all with them. I seem to have tried all the possible combinations listed under Options/Preferences/Audio. I can’t easily use my speaker/amp to monitor, as the levels needed to get a sufficiently high signal on the Acer are unacceptably loud coming out of the amp. For the moment I’m resigned to recording without monitoring, and without audible amplification, which is just about possible with a semi-acoustic guitar, but was impossible with a solid. I can also just about monitor output from the amp direct using ancient headphones with their own volume controls turned down, in the amp’s headphone socket, but it all seems an unfortunate, frustrating lash-up and a significant step backwards when I could do it successfully before on supposedly less advanced equipment.

Welcome to the forum, Brian. Sorry you are having problems

If you have had input on this situation from PG Music, Acer and Realtek, then the only thing I can suggest is using an audio/midi interface such as the Tascam USB US-122. This is a USB sound card in its own right.

A number of new Vista laptops unfortunately have "input monitoring" disabled or not available in the soundchip driver. You may have to pursue an external (e.g. USB) sound solution for your laptop.

Also, a number of new Vista laptops come with Stereo Mix disabled by default. You need to go to the audio properties of your sound card ("Control Panel / Sound"), select the recording tab, right click in the area where the different options are listed, and selecte "show disabled devices". If "stereo mix" is available, it will show up here and you can enable it. That doesn't give you "input monitoring", but it puts you one step closer to more fully using your laptop.

Thanks very much for the replies. It’s good to know there’s a helpful community out there. The usual way I use PT is to paste a song from BB and add my own audio tracks, one at a time. I’ve looked (on the internet) at the Tascam device you mentioned and agree that it looks like it could help when I record, providing I can hear what I’m recording and the midi tracks in PT at the same time through headphones into the Tascam. If this is the case I’d go ahead and get one, but I’d also be interested to know if you think it’s worth spending a bit extra on the 144 rather than the 122.
I’ve also looked at stereo mix but I can’t really grasp what it can do, particularly in the context of PT. I have tried enabling it and have found some confusion and no advantages yet. Realtek came with the computer, but with no instructions and minimal ‘help’. If the Realtek stereo mix is enabled when I’m in PT I can get no signal on the VU meters when inputting audio, even though line in is active and the Realtek drivers for line in and stereo mix have been activated. I can still record an audio track but stereo mix doesn’t seem to have any effect. I may be missing something, but during the last few weeks, I’ve seem to have spent far more time grappling with system variables than actually producing music, which is a shame because I really value PT and BB.

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I’ve looked (on the internet) at the Tascam device you mentioned and agree that it looks like it could help when I record, providing I can hear what I’m recording and the midi tracks in PT at the same time through headphones into the Tascam. If this is the case I’d go ahead and get one, but I’d also be interested to know if you think it’s worth spending a bit extra on the 144 rather than the 122.

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Yes, you can. It acts as a sound card and runs both ways. Just listen via either the 'Line Out' or the 'Phones', or run the 'Line Out' into your PA system and listen through the 'Phones'. As to whether the 144 would be a better bet depends on what you want to use it for. With a max of 2 mono inputs in my case (vox plus an instrument), the 122 is all I need. You could have more inputs (as many as you want) if you run all of your inputs through a mixer and then run the mixer output into the two US 122 inputs. I haven't tried the 144 and have no need to.

FWIW, I also use it as the sound interface on gigs.

HTH