Ableton Forum

Hi.

I'm new to Live and audio recording.

I know my way around Live now and I think my problem maybe down to how I have set up my equipment. ( It's not a bug or anything, I just thought this was the place to post it )

Ok, I have a basic set-up comprising of Live, my PC an Audiophile 24/96 card, guitar, hardware synth, mic and very small mixer.

My mixer is the small Behringer UB802

which is all I need for the time being.

Ok, here is the problem I can't work out:

I am having difficulty recording audio onto an audio track. I can for record softsynths to audio by selecting 'audio from midi 1' for example, this works fine. But when I want to record external stuff, as soon as I hit the rec arm button, I get a horrible feedback buzzing/humming thing going on and I'm not sure what it is.

On an audio track, I have audio from EXT in, but as soon as I arm it ready, it just goes off buzzing. I'm thinking I have routed something incorrectly, but thought I'd ask before I go any further.

My 24/96 cards output goes to the mixers TAPE IN, the mixers outs go to the cards input ( I have nothing connected to the mixers TAPE OUT ) and ctrl room out goes to my monitors.

I'm thinking I am wrong here somewhere as it feels like there is a feedback loop being created and it's this feedback thing that I need to understand because I cannot seem to record anything externally without also recording internal stuff.

I have a backing beat I want to use as a click track, I create an audio track and I cannot just record what I want, I also get the click track ( or whatever else Live is playing )

Hope somebody understands what I mean. I'm sure I will get my head around it eventually, but some assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi there,

Have you tried to skip the mixer in your signal chain? Remember that the more things you have in the chain - the more your signal degrades. When recording I would definately plug the instrument directly to the soundcard (use a DI box if there`s no "guitar-switch" that equals/matches the signal from your guitar on your soundcard).

If your using a mic, and your soundcard do not have micpreamps, you need use a micpreamp (your mixer might have this onboard - check it) and maybe a channelstrip (compressor/EQ) to tweak the signal to your liking.

I would anyway drop the mixer for recording purposes (also if it has micpreamps). Then I would buy a better micpreamp.

from what you're describing, it sounds like you may have the 'tape to mix' button activated on the mixer. that would give you the feedback loop. try 'tape to phones' only.

you could use the FX send on the mixer to go to the computer's input, but on your little mixer there's only one send so that would be mono only.

otherwise i'd go with morenm and say use the mixer either for input OR listening, but not both

sounds like a feedback loop to me. and I agree with longjohns

and it looks like the source is in your mixer. you're taking the live output and routing it to your mixer via TAPE IN, you're then mixing the tape in to your main mixer output, which I'm guessing is running directly to your 2496.

live->mixer->live->mixer.... etcetera......

press the tape to control room, run your monitors off your control room outputs and use your mains for the live feed. That way you can send all your instruments through your mixer and record audio in live and monitor the output of live through the control room outputs.

good luck

Thanks for all the advice guys, it's appreciated. I will try these as soon as I get chance. It's all the routing that does my head, I think I'm getting the idea here now.

Cheers.