Need help, feel free to dumb down,lol

Support and feedback for Acoustica's Mixcraft audio mixing software.

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RobertAllan
Posts: 222
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2014 12:17 pm

Need help, feel free to dumb down,lol

Post by RobertAllan »

NEED HELP!

SO..Since the last time i was here my mother passed away out of nowhere in June, been through a breakup and had some adjustments made in my proffesional life. The good thing (i guess) is ive written about 20 songs during this time, and atleast half of them i feel are worth completing and recording. SO this morning (had the day off) i decided to start recording one of the songs, atleast my goal was to record accoustic guitars, bass and drums, but i didnt even get passed the accoustic guitars.. SO..Im using my Focusrite scarlet solo as my audio interface and my Røde m3 as a microphone, been a solid combo in the past, now for whatever reason the audio-recording was unbelievably low, to the point where i had to boost the volume to max just to hear what i had recorded (so something is off on my focusrite or my settings there), And then (keep in mind i had recorded ONE track when THIS happened) i was about to clean it up and add some eq`s and what not to the accoustic guitar track to sort of give me a rough idea of what i was looking for, as soon as i had the EQ working all of the sudden the audio started struggling and on the bottom of my mixcraft screen it said in yellow that Mixcraft processor was at 66-80% or something, so prolly close to crashing, i tried to fiddle a little, but dont remember what i tried, but ended up just saving the track and closing the project.

SO..im guessing i have a issue with my focusrite solo (probably something ive checked wrong or something,due to my m3 (which has been brilliant in the past) suck at picking up audio, and with the warning and audio issues in mixcraft im guessing i have a serious CPU/processor problem.. Can anyone help me make sure ive got all the right things checked and in use and what not? Making sure my settings are optimal for decent recording and mixing??

I have a computer that was decent when i baught it, that might not say much as its roughly 10 years old, lol
running on windows 7 i think.. My monitors suck, but i have in the past solved that by using decent headphones,
Like i said i use Focusrite Scarlett solo, and and currently im working in Mixcraft 7 ( the pro studio version)

Not much of a techy guy, so feel free to dumb it down if needed,lol
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Mark Bliss
Posts: 7313
Joined: Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:59 pm
Location: Out there

Re: Need help, feel free to dumb down,lol

Post by Mark Bliss »

Robert,
Its hard to give specific details without personal experience with the specific device and its specific driver, which I dont have.

But the two things to suggest:
1- Learn how to set your buffers/latency.
Set your sound device to use the asio driver for your interface (if available), and experiment until you find the buffer setting that works smoothly while providing the least latency for recording purposes. Its a balancing act.
Keep in mind, you may want to change this setting to a higher buffer/latency for mixing/playback when latency isnt relevant, to allow for more tracks, more processing, etc.

2- Review your users guide on both the above issue/settings, as well as setting recording levels.
Do some sound check/practice runs until you are confident you have this sorted.
No need to record too hot. Average levels around -18 and peaks never going anywhere near 0 are fine.
Stay in tune, Mark

My SOUNDCLOUD Page
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jlouvar
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Joined: Wed Jul 24, 2013 4:56 pm
Location: California - USA
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Re: Need help, feel free to dumb down,lol

Post by jlouvar »

Also make sure you have the most recent drivers available for your audio interface downloaded and installed.
Plus the Rode M3 can be powered with an internal battery or by external phantom power, so if you have a battery in it (even if your using phantom power)... Check the battery (hopefully the battery didn't leak).
- Joe -

MX9PS, 64-bit, build 460. Windows 10, Intel i5, 64-bit, 1.8GHz, 8GB.
Reverbnation: https://www.reverbnation.com/joelouvar
RobertAllan
Posts: 222
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2014 12:17 pm

Re: Need help, feel free to dumb down,lol

Post by RobertAllan »

Thanks a million guys! Guess i just got a bit thrown off when nothing worked properly and got a bit overwhelmed as far as where the #### to start :lol: Goal for tomorrow is to start and work my way down all suggestions and hopefully i can make sense of things and "on with the show" as they say :)
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