Studio Setup Help

Hi, so I have been trying for a while to set up my studio and Im at a loss, so Ive come here. So I have an Alesis 24 bit USB recording inter face, a Folio Notepad mixer, my laptop with Cubase LE 5, Pyle pro wirless mic system, my guitars, keyboard and a Galaxy audio monitor. My question is how do I set it up? im only planning to record about 1 track at a time, maybe 2 (hence the USB thingy wich is 2 input) please any help is welcome (im sorta a noob to recording but i have a lot of musical intrument experiance.

I don’t know your mixer, but the ideal setup would be:
All mics and instruments to the mixer. Use the mixer to route the required signals to the audio interface for recording. Setup the audio interface in Cubase to accept the incoming 2 signals and create 1 stereo or 2 mono audio tracks to record on, depending on what you’re trying to record. Route your output back to the mixer and connect your monitors to the mixers main output.

The only difficult part might be monitoring. If you are using a guitar amp you obviously don’t need monitoring, but if you use a DI for instance, you’ll have to find a way to route the audio signal to your speakers as well as to Cubase. If your mixer has the functionality to route the signal to both the main outputs and the audio interface you can use that. However, Cubase also has monitoring, which means you can route the recorded signal straight to the output, including any effects you want on it.

Should you run into problems setting up Cubase, I suggest you post up in the Cubase forum for more specific help.

The mixer is made by Spirit. So I now have: Guitar---->Mixer---->audio interface---->computer
Mixer<----audio interface
Mixer---->Monitor
so if this makes sense, i guess im now wondering what inputs do i need to use on the audio interface? I have it right now running from the headphones (so i get both left and right without a special adapter or cable) to the audio interface in the first channal, I then have it running from the left and right out (on the audio interface) to 2 inputs on the mixer. The monitor is conected to a red/white output labled mixer/amp. I also have 2 shielded cables that guitar center said I would need, where should they go? from the mixer to the audio interface? if that than would I use the 2 differant inputs on the audio interface? When it somes to this im really a noob…

The shielded cables are probably meant for the mixer to audio interface, although it does sound a little like Guitar Center wanted some extra bucks from you :wink:

Anyway, using the headphones jack from the mixer to the audio interface is not a very good idea. The headphone is stereo, while the inputs on your audio interface are most likely mono. I could not find the manual on your mixer, but going by the review on SOS, you have sends on every channel. You could use the 2 sends for the connection from the mixer to your audio interface.
From audio interface to mixer, I suggest using the tape input on your mixer. (you might need new cables for this, as they’re RCA connectors and not your regular jacks.). This has the advantage that you can still use all other inputs on your mixer for other instruments.

Using this setup you can:
Hear everything you play directly on your monitors.
Determine exactly what and how much you want to record of each channel using the send. If you want to record 2 mono sources simultaneously, pan 1 hard left and the other hard right, so both go into a different audio interface input.

How you connect your mixer to your monitors does not really matter, as long as you use an output that takes the tape input and all the regular inputs at the same time.

Cool, thanks. now I have to figure out whats wrong w/ my computer and or software lol

Go through the Getting Started manual. Come back and tell us where it goes wrong.

So when I try that setup (tunning it through the FX send) i get nothing so im thinking its simpler to run it through the audio interface. So right now its going wrong when I try to record a bass line (or anything for that matter) The recording bar thing jumps and lags and then skips around. When i monitor the track through the computer (and cubase) it A: is a half step lower :question: :exclamation: B: crackly/poppy/cuts in and out. :cry:

Is there some audio buffer thing i have to fix? or is it my horrible laptop from hell? (HP running Vista) maybe i should save up for a mac…or get linux?

Did you select the correct, specific ASIO driver for your soundcard? Which one are you using, specifically? Is the Alesis USB or Firewire? Do the samplerates of the soundcard and Cubase match?

haha i think i fixed it by lowering my graphics down to bare minumum…it looks like windows 98 :smiley:

Look at the driver selected in Cubase, the Alesis probably came with a dedicated ASIO driver which is what you need to use. Avoid DirectX ASIO or generic ASIO.

The crackles can be avoided by increasing the buffer inside your asio driver.