I’m having problems recording sound (acoustic guitar, vocals etc) into Cubase and, I must say, I’ve been having these sorts of problems off and on for something like 10 years of home recording with Cubase. It seems like every time that I use Cubase, it just doesn’t work like it did the last time. And usually, I have to spend 2-3 hours trying out different things before I get it working again but this time, I’m stumped. And yes, I do find this extremely frustrating and time-wasting. And yes, I know it’s because I can’t figure the damn thing out!
I’m hoping somebody can help out with some suggestions on what I might be doing wrong. And yes, I have watched You Tube videos and read the forums but I just can’t work out what is going on and what I’m supposed to do to fix it.
If interested, you can hear/see an example of a successful recording here: Richard Sandlant - I Got the News Blues - YouTube. This should prove that I CAN get it to work, when it’s playing nice.
Technical details:
Cubase Artist 8.5
ASIO driver: Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO
Windows 10, Intel i7-6700 at 3.40 GHz with 8 GB ram
Steinberg UR22mkII USB audio interface
Behringer Xenyx 502 preamp
Problem description:
I create a new project (using ‘create empty’ because I don’t like the presets). I try adding a new Track (e.g. Audio - for Acoustic Guitar). I usually select ‘Mono’ input and ‘Stereo’ output (mostly because that has worked in the past). I then have a microphone connected to the preamp and then into the UR22 (I’ve found that unless I use the preamp it doesn’t seem to work).
I then try to record the Guitar. Through my Headphones (plugged into the UR22) I can hear that the mic is working fine. I can see a green bar moving on the Cubase Transport (in fact there’s a red square at the top telling me it’s clipping). So, the sound seems to be getting through somewhere and being picked up by Cubase but nothing comes through on the track that I created - I just see a straight line with no waves (although, when I’ve turned everything up, I can sometimes hear a distorted sound coming through weakly).
So, is it the way I’ve set up the Track? On the Inspector, under where it says ‘No Track Preset’ there are a couple of settings that I can edit. I’m guessing it’s something to do with these ‘Bus’ settings? Currently, one has ‘Stereo In + Left’ selected (the only other choice is ‘Stereo In - Right’ or ‘No Bus’). It would make sense to me if this gave me the option of selecting ‘Mono’, since this is what I selected when I created the Track. The other one has ‘Stereo Out - Left’ selected (the only other options being ‘Right’ and ‘No Bus’). No matter what combination I select or use the result is the same - nothing records on the Track, though I see can see on the Transport that the Mic is recording just fine.
See Screenshot:
If I go into Device Setup, what I have is the following:
In - UR22mkII Input 1 and 2
Out - UR22mkII Output 1/L and 2/R
All in ‘Active’ State
I’d love to know what is going on here. Sometimes I can get one track to work but the very next one won’t - on the same Project! Even if I try to duplicate the track that’s working, it’s Duplicate won’t work (though as far as I know, it’s exactly the same). Once I got it to record even though the line was dead straight and displayed no ‘waves’.
If anyone can assist it would be greatly appreciated, thank you.