Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => The Dressing Room => Topic started by: Johnny Mac on May 24, 2009, 01:20:28 PM
-
Another wasted weekend trying to record midi and audio with my PC! I'm at the point of smashing it to bits. My new Axon midi guitar processor seems to be conflicting with something to top off the usual cr@p and locks up cubase on playback. I can get it to record midi data but only once did it play back the presets on the axon unit.
I used to be able to record audio no problem, but now the signal isn't present and i've tried so many things to get it back and nothing seems to work.
I got into this as a hobby for enjoyment and its driving me ffing mad!
I have heard that Macs work with a lot less hassle than PCs so I think I'll get one at some point so I can make my own music rather than f*ck around getting nowhere. I've read manual after manual but none of them will know what your specific problem is. I've posted in recording forums for help but my post was ignored. The Axon forum the advise was get a mac! I don't work in IT and I don't want to but it seems to get anywhere with this, you have to be very clued up on IT or your lucky and it works without too much hassle.
-
Well I think it's easier for MAC because of GarageBand, but thats as far as my knowledge goes. As for the PC side I only use a Toneport so it's not so complicated.
But yes, recording is a bitch at times.
-
Yes.
-
I dont see why it would be really, a computer of the same spec will cost less and I assume it would work just as well with Windows, no reason why it wouldnt.
Lack of right click sucks!
-
Better no, but easier maybe. Because of the way mac's are their systems and software often integrate more closely then in PC's, hence less setup and running problems. But often less choice with a mac, and although I'm not sure what the current stats of afairs is, they always used to be over priced.
-
logic pro's pretty cool :P
-
Lack of right click sucks!
Macs have a right click. You just have to turn it on.
The short answer is yes. But if you're only ever going to be doing pretty basic stuff, you probably wont notice much difference. I use a Mac for all recording and would NEVER go back to a PC now, I still use a PC for the internet and general computer functions, but if I had the money, I'd have another mac. I far, far prefer their user interface now and find them an all round better machine, but personal taste does have a fair bit to do with it.
-
I have heard that they are easier on a number of fronts
Many people do use Garageband, but Logic Pro or logic Express are very popular too
Modern MACs can dual boot - allowing you to use it with a Windows machine (you have to own or buy a copy of Windows - XP or Vista), but much software is available for MAC too now and Mac also has some exclusive stuff.
I have always used a Mac and have always liked it - especially since OSX
Got my mum and girlfriend using it too as it seems a bit easier as far as security goes (gave them my old machines as I upgraded.
However i don't know what would be the conflict issue with the Axon
-
Thanks for your input. I think thats a yes then.
I've got 3 daws on my desktop and none of them are working now. The recordings i did make with it over the years were on a very fragile setup. Prone to crashes and lock ups. When I first got it I had to go through the set up over the phone with HJM who used to post in here when the forum first got going back in 05 and even then it was never great. Since then I'v lost all my settings which I left as templates. I'm not sure how all that happened but with the additional problem of my midi controller conflicting with the daws It's time to throw in the towel and try something more stable.
-
Lack of right click sucks!
Macs have a right click. You just have to turn it on.
The short answer is yes. But if you're only ever going to be doing pretty basic stuff, you probably wont notice much difference. I use a Mac for all recording and would NEVER go back to a PC now, I still use a PC for the internet and general computer functions, but if I had the money, I'd have another mac. I far, far prefer their user interface now and find them an all round better machine, but personal taste does have a fair bit to do with it.
What soundcard/interface are you using nfe? Do macs have pci one's like pc's or do you use firwire or usb based ones?
Also what daw are you using?
Thanks for the help. :D
-
Not sure if any PCI based interfaces can still be used in e.g. imacs. But I use a USB one, firewire will work as well.
I use Logic Pro, it's just amazing how well it works and the results are top notch. You can also get a mac and start with Garage Band, which is included for free and works quite well, too.
-
Not sure if any PCI based interfaces can still be used in e.g. imacs. But I use a USB one, firewire will work as well.
I use Logic Pro, it's just amazing how well it works and the results are top notch. You can also get a mac and start with Garage Band, which is included for free and works quite well, too.
All sounds very tempting! I'm going to have to do this when my funds allow. Thanks hunter, your clips always sound great. Do ever do anything with midi when you record?
-
Not sure if any PCI based interfaces can still be used in e.g. imacs. But I use a USB one, firewire will work as well.
I use Logic Pro, it's just amazing how well it works and the results are top notch. You can also get a mac and start with Garage Band, which is included for free and works quite well, too.
All sounds very tempting! I'm going to have to do this when my funds allow. Thanks hunter, your clips always sound great. Do ever do anything with midi when you record?
Sometimes. I use the internal synths in Logic, EZ Drummer for Drums, sometimes my external synths when I bother to hook them up (they collect dust most of the time). For MIDI I use the internal port of my audio interface or the MidiSport 4x4 (mainly for updating firmware and manage patches on the Axe FX, later this week for the Axe Editor when it comes out for Mac).
-
Lack of right click sucks!
Macs have a right click. You just have to turn it on.
The short answer is yes. But if you're only ever going to be doing pretty basic stuff, you probably wont notice much difference. I use a Mac for all recording and would NEVER go back to a PC now, I still use a PC for the internet and general computer functions, but if I had the money, I'd have another mac. I far, far prefer their user interface now and find them an all round better machine, but personal taste does have a fair bit to do with it.
What soundcard/interface are you using nfe? Do macs have pci one's like pc's or do you use firwire or usb based ones?
Also what daw are you using?
Thanks for the help. :D
Yeah I use (and always used when I was using a PC) external Firewire soundcards. Currently, an Mbox II Pro. With various preamps depending on what I'm doing. With Pro Tools.
-
No right click on a Mac? All I had to do was plug a normal mouse in and 'It just worked' ;)
Johnny, if you're close to one of the Apple retail stores book yourself a seat in one of their workshops if you want to see and try the stuff first. http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/workshops/
I'd recommend having a play first as the hardware is substantially more expensive than going the PC route.
-
How old's your PC Johnny? And what other guff have you got installed on it?
And... three DAWs?? I wouldn't dare install any other recording software on my laptop in case it blew my Cakewalk installation. A few years back I decided to experiment with my POD XT Live's ability to act as a soundcard and allow re-amping and wotnot - NEVER again :lol: It took me a day or so to get my DAW recording again... It was just driver problems, but life's too short...
Get yourself a brand new PC with as much power and disk space as you can, then only ever use it as a dedicated music workstation - only ever install stuff on it that you want for music . You can do emailing, novel-writing, web-surfing, etc, on the old cr@ppy one.
I'm not completely prejudiced, but I do fondly remember the mantra of one of the techies I used to work with - "the only decent Mac is a Big Mac..." :lol:
Also, I reckon you are an obvious candidate for something like a Boss Micro BR. For what it does, its cheap, very cheap. It's like a high octane version of an old 4-track cassette recorder with Abbey Road, George Martin, and Ringo Starr built into it... and unlike old 4-tracks, you've got unlimited bouncing capability. If you just want to get creative and bang out a few tunes, and learn about mixing and EQ, it is an excellent piece of kit.
The only drawback is it doesn't have midi implementation, so you'd need to use something else for sequencing, and get all the sequenced parts down as audio first. But as a recording scratchpad, to get you recording instead of @rsing about with drivers and continually wondering whether your soundcard's as good as the next man's... I don't think you can beat it. I haven't used my DAW at all since my missus got it for me for christmas, and I've done more recording in the last 5 months than I have in the last 5 years of owning a DAW!!
-
Mac owns.
No right click??
I can right click fine.
+ Logic is awesome.
Mac + Logic or even Garageband is all you need.
-
Sort yourself out an iMac, some Adam A7s, Logic Pro, and an Apogee Duet and just be done with it!
Awesome set-up.
-
Johnny, if you're close to one of the Apple retail stores book yourself a seat in one of their workshops if you want to see and try the stuff first. http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/workshops/
I've occaisionally gone along to the lectures at the regent street store and really enjoyed them
Sometimes they have special themed lectures on stuff like logic pro and intarfacing guitars etc
-
I dont know if the Mac Pros at our uni are just trashed or what, but they run Pro Tools on Windows way better than on the Mac side of things :lol:
I do keep considering a mac but then I realise how expensive they are compared to a similarly specced pc and thinking "hmm, probably not worth it"
Let us know how you get on though, Johnny :)
-
Thanks for all the advise.
Andy my Desktop is from 2004 a P4 3.2, 1g ram and 2x 200g hd plus a terrabyte external. The sound card is a E-mu 1820 pci which is probably where all the aggro is. I've had it working fine before but I did a driver update and it just seems to have a mind of its own whether its going to work or not. Your right life is too short for all this, i've wasted days on this now. I only use it for recording and linking up with my ipod, i have a laptop for net use. I cleared out all the stuff on it i don't use. De-fragged it, that took nearly 2 days. Treated it to an external drive. Updated the drivers and I still get no audio signal, or it won't play midi externally. I think E-mu patchmix dsp software, as good as it supposed to be, is too overly complicated. I've read a ton of stuff on it but its not getting any better. The 3 daws are 2 copys of LE cubase one is 4 one is VST and Reaper. The same midi and audio problems are present in all of them.
I've thought about buying a new pc just for recording but if i'm going to buy a new machine i may as well get a mac. I have a few friends who use them and they never suffer the problems I'm having on any applications.
I have that claim for personal injury still pending so if things go well there than I'll get a mac. In the meantime it would be nice to get something working but I'm spent on this poxy desktop. I did my bkp clips on it and its been really good, even with lots of tracks. Now i don't even want to look at it! Anyone else get like this? Could it be an IRQ conflict? They remind me of trying to get 28k modems to work in the mid 90's!
-
Andy my Desktop is from 2004 a P4 3.2, 1g ram and 2x 200g hd plus a terrabyte external.
That P4 is a little long in the tooth, and dependent on the OS you're running 1GB is probably woefully inadequate. Another thing to consider with PC recording is the hard drive speed. I suspect with the age of the CPU, they're normal IDE drives, which are quite slow compared to the newer SATA drives.
Dependent on the OS, maybe you could enable Remote Assistance and I could dial in and have a look at your settings (if you're willing). Can't help with Cubase unfortunately, as I moved to SONAR after using the cut down Cubasis for a few months and haven't looked back.
As to the Mac issue, I've lots of friends who love Macs, but I've never got on with them myself. The main thing to be aware of with Macs is that you're paying over the odds for the styling/brand. You'll get much more bang for your buck with a carefully chosen PC configuration.
-
Andy my Desktop is from 2004 a P4 3.2, 1g ram and 2x 200g hd plus a terrabyte external.
That P4 is a little long in the tooth, and dependent on the OS you're running 1GB is probably woefully inadequate. Another thing to consider with PC recording is the hard drive speed. I suspect with the age of the CPU, they're normal IDE drives, which are quite slow compared to the newer SATA drives.
Dependent on the OS, maybe you could enable Remote Assistance and I could dial in and have a look at your settings (if you're willing). Can't help with Cubase unfortunately, as I moved to SONAR after using the cut down Cubasis for a few months and haven't looked back.
As to the Mac issue, I've lots of friends who love Macs, but I've never got on with them myself. The main thing to be aware of with Macs is that you're paying over the odds for the styling/brand. You'll get much more bang for your buck with a carefully chosen PC configuration.
Thanks for the help Muttley. How would I enable remote assistance? I didn't realise windows had that. The OS is XP Pro with Service pack 3.
I know Macs cost more but if it means not wasting my weekends clicking around in the dark then I'd gladly spend more cash on a mac! I've been having grief with it all for years!
-
i feel your pain johnny... have a look in the apple online store for refurbished models, you can sometimes get great deals.
MIDI is a proper pain in the arse, I'm not sure a mac will help with the axon issues you've been having, but just about everything else you mentioned is much more of a breeze on a mac - the operating system has less 'edges' and its designed for creative people rather than business men.
-
Thanks for the help Muttley. How would I enable remote assistance? I didn't realise windows had that. The OS is XP Pro with Service pack 3.
There's a bit of information here on how it all works: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/remoteassist/intro.mspx
It basically lets you allow someone to connect to your machine remotely. Used quite a lot in the IT industry (or rather, the alternately named "Remote Desktop") for managing servers the other side of the country/world.
As you're running XP, I know for a fact you'll get a massive performance improvement by upping the memory from 1GB (and memory is cheap these days), but let's solve your other problems first. ;)
-
If you want to spend double for the same thing buy a MAC.
Truth is now you can get an average PC for peanuts and it will run cubase without breaking a sweat, the hardware has moved on so much that almost all desktop PC's will run all that you will ever need.
I recently bought a laptop for £400, the almost equivalent MacBook had 1gig less Ram and was £700.
I do like Macs and Logic but they are so expensive for what you get I always go back to PC's.....
-
There's only one way (http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Mac&word2=PC) to sort this out properly.
The short answer is that you can use either to record and properly set up either platform will work fine. There are plenty of pros and cons to both platforms but I think most of those centre around issues unrelated to sound recording. If you only plan on using the machine to record sound I'd say save a few quid and buy a PC, if you plan on using it as a general computer as well then the other issues come into play and it becomes a more complicated question.
Personally, I use a Mac for a host of reasons particular to my needs from a computer. I really like my machine and have yet to use another that suits me better but I wouldn't proclaim that it is right for everyone.
-
My PC which I built last year cost me £650
The equivalent mac at that time? over £1,700, and even then, half the hard drive space.
Mac was good when it was PPC, but now it's x86 I'm still confused as to what it really is, It is essentially now just the same as Dell or Alienware or HP, it's just that they have a different operating system.
But, I love iMacs, Mac Minis, iPhones. I like their design, i love the space saving that a iMac or a Mac Mini gives.
If i had unlimited money though, i'd have a mac.
-
If I had the choice i'd go for a mac. Although I would get a pc if it was set up by someone who knows what they're doing and not by me! I just want to record, that is a minefield in itself without having loads of techy problems.
-
My mac has a right click, who told you it didn't?
-
My mac has a right click, who told you it didn't?
I need my eyes tested... on my screen I read that as "My mac has a right dick" :lol:
-
Oh I didnt realise you could get right click on a mac.. well thats ok then!
-
Oh I didnt realise you could get right click on a mac.. well thats ok then!
It gets even better. You can do middle click too in applications that support it.
-
Muttley can you put me in the right direction if you do the remote access thing? When is it convenient for you to probe around in my pc?
-
Muttley can you put me in the right direction if you do the remote access thing? When is it convenient for you to probe around in my pc?
Sure, I'll see what I can do. Can probably do most evenings after about 8pm (apart from tonight), so let me know and I'll set some time aside. If we can't get the remote desktop stuff working I could probably talk you through things to check with the help of MSN and the odd screenshot.
-
Muttley can you put me in the right direction if you do the remote access thing? When is it convenient for you to probe around in my pc?
Sure, I'll see what I can do. Can probably do most evenings after about 8pm (apart from tonight), so let me know and I'll set some time aside. If we can't get the remote desktop stuff working I could probably talk you through things to check with the help of MSN and the odd screenshot.
Great! :D Ok Monday night sound ok?
-
The Mac is an interesting system in fact I had one of the first 16 Macs imported to the UK for its launch over 20 years ago (I was recruited for the launch team). The main reason the mac is so good in this area is that very early on it was taken into vertical makets initially publishing but very rapidly it moved to the creative arts, design and music. That focus has influenced the development of the operating system where microsoft was driven by business software. Although over time they have both merged into each others markets that insitial 10 plus years of focus often still shows through, hence the Mac is easier for creative talent.
-
Muttley can you put me in the right direction if you do the remote access thing? When is it convenient for you to probe around in my pc?
Sure, I'll see what I can do. Can probably do most evenings after about 8pm (apart from tonight), so let me know and I'll set some time aside. If we can't get the remote desktop stuff working I could probably talk you through things to check with the help of MSN and the odd screenshot.
Great! :D Ok Monday night sound ok?
Sounds fine.
Drop me a PM with your MSN and we'll get it sorted. :)
-
Ok I've got my audio signal back after lots of re-installs. The midi conflict with the axon is still there.
-
Muttley is god :D
-
Muttley is god :D
:oops:
Glad I could help mate. :)
-
Midi conflict resolved as well?
Nice one :D
Well done Muttley...
Right, Johnny, get some toons going, we're all waiting :lol:
-
Midi conflict resolved as well?
Nice one :D
Well done Muttley...
Right, Johnny, get some toons going, we're all waiting :lol:
Muttley got the Axon unit listening to Cubase, which is good. There are still locking up issues. Its very hit and miss. If I change a preset on the Axon unit after recording midi with it, Cubase and the Axon lock up. I think its the PC. The whole machine is a bit unstable, the graphics cards always crashing. It could do with a windows re-install and and everything else re-intalled minus the dodgy warez! That doesn't sound at all appealing, it will take me ages to get all that working again. I'd rather get a new machine as its old. I'm still learning midi as I've never really used it before apart from seeing how it works.