Razz
12-04-2003, 05:33 PM
Hi folks, Im hoping theres a guitar player in this bunch thats familiar with the mia midi, although I dont actually believe my problem is with the sound card, but possibly with my effecs processor ("Zoom" 707 which has max +3db output, I assume that meens with all volumes maxed the processor will output a max +3db)..
anyways I finally decided to upgrade to a "pro" card 24/96 with the pro standard of +4 db ins and outs so I bought the echo mia midi.
Ive been going direct in to a sblive with my guitar for the last 2 years with no problems in recording levels, and it became obvious after installing the mia that I wasnt going to able to do that anymore. I went from my guitar to the effects processor and from the effects processor to the line 1 on the card(as ive always done in the past) and no matter how much tweakin I did on the zoom pedal nothing would achieve an acceptable recording level. All the volumes regarding the bank and patch selected are all the way up, the main vol out, the compression vol level maxed, and the patch volume its self maxed but my levels just wont come up to a recordable level...
I called and was told that the mia midi doesnt have a pre amp in it like the soundblaster, so line level input just wont cut it, an It was suggested that I get some kinda of mixer with preamps and run threw that out to the soundcard so I went and bought a mixer http://www.behringer.com/02_products/prodindex_ub.cfm?id=UB1202&lang=eng seemed like a nice little unit with pre amps on 4 lines and it was right inline with my sound card +4db out so I figured this mixer will bring my signal up to this "Pro standard" im trying to achieve and output the final signal at +4, which should then give me the levels im looking for. but shortly after hooking that up guitar>zoom>mixer>soundcard....I found that I still could not get an acceptable level. I had the output on the effecs processor all the way up and I still had to increase the gain on the mixers pre amp to 60db(maxed) and the line level of that channel up to 15db(maxed)that gave me a realistic level to work with but also introduced a horrendous wall of white noise and the signal was being overdriven or something because it was distorted somthing fierce..not to mention the mixer seemed to introduce massive latency to the signal, at one point the pitch of what I was playing changed and the timing of the delay I was using changed (sounds crazy I know but I went threw my amp, and sounded fine, pluged back into the mixer and the pitch and reverb changed again.could have been the sound card tweekin out I suppose..)so after some fudgin I brought it back, it wasnt helping, so I then tried using a small peavy audition 110 amp as my pre-amp and I used the pre amp out directly into the sound card, and still I hafto crank the volume on the amp pretty much all the way up to get a decent recording level...its not as noisy as the mixer but it is still unacceptable......
I figure this card will do me perfectly, 24/96, audio and midi, great sound, +4db in an outs, good converters, and solid wdm drivers with low latency (I Run most of my midi data threw softsynths for drumbs bass and keys)...sounds great sure. but I cant seem to achieve a levels that sound good.
any help at all would be much appreciated, it sounds pretty pathetic but with my sblive life was so much easyer.........and cheaper....I recon I spend 700.00 bucks or so for what I thought was going to be a no brainer upgrade....(sound card, new monitors, and the mixer + patch chords)
ps. im not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes the electronic side of things, but it would seem to me that if i got an effects processor that output at +4db my problem would be solved but im reluctant to try because when I mention it to anyone at the guitar center or any of the other music stores around here I get this kind of blank stare. most around here arent pc daw enthusiasts so they just dont seem to understand whats happining and im really not wanting to spend another 500 on a new processor if its not my problem...
and yes I know I can drop back down to -10 db and regain a good chunk of my levels back but thier still to low and that would defeat the purpose of upgrading to the +4 standard...
Thanks in advance..,,hell thanks just for reading this long misrable thred...
anyways I finally decided to upgrade to a "pro" card 24/96 with the pro standard of +4 db ins and outs so I bought the echo mia midi.
Ive been going direct in to a sblive with my guitar for the last 2 years with no problems in recording levels, and it became obvious after installing the mia that I wasnt going to able to do that anymore. I went from my guitar to the effects processor and from the effects processor to the line 1 on the card(as ive always done in the past) and no matter how much tweakin I did on the zoom pedal nothing would achieve an acceptable recording level. All the volumes regarding the bank and patch selected are all the way up, the main vol out, the compression vol level maxed, and the patch volume its self maxed but my levels just wont come up to a recordable level...
I called and was told that the mia midi doesnt have a pre amp in it like the soundblaster, so line level input just wont cut it, an It was suggested that I get some kinda of mixer with preamps and run threw that out to the soundcard so I went and bought a mixer http://www.behringer.com/02_products/prodindex_ub.cfm?id=UB1202&lang=eng seemed like a nice little unit with pre amps on 4 lines and it was right inline with my sound card +4db out so I figured this mixer will bring my signal up to this "Pro standard" im trying to achieve and output the final signal at +4, which should then give me the levels im looking for. but shortly after hooking that up guitar>zoom>mixer>soundcard....I found that I still could not get an acceptable level. I had the output on the effecs processor all the way up and I still had to increase the gain on the mixers pre amp to 60db(maxed) and the line level of that channel up to 15db(maxed)that gave me a realistic level to work with but also introduced a horrendous wall of white noise and the signal was being overdriven or something because it was distorted somthing fierce..not to mention the mixer seemed to introduce massive latency to the signal, at one point the pitch of what I was playing changed and the timing of the delay I was using changed (sounds crazy I know but I went threw my amp, and sounded fine, pluged back into the mixer and the pitch and reverb changed again.could have been the sound card tweekin out I suppose..)so after some fudgin I brought it back, it wasnt helping, so I then tried using a small peavy audition 110 amp as my pre-amp and I used the pre amp out directly into the sound card, and still I hafto crank the volume on the amp pretty much all the way up to get a decent recording level...its not as noisy as the mixer but it is still unacceptable......
I figure this card will do me perfectly, 24/96, audio and midi, great sound, +4db in an outs, good converters, and solid wdm drivers with low latency (I Run most of my midi data threw softsynths for drumbs bass and keys)...sounds great sure. but I cant seem to achieve a levels that sound good.
any help at all would be much appreciated, it sounds pretty pathetic but with my sblive life was so much easyer.........and cheaper....I recon I spend 700.00 bucks or so for what I thought was going to be a no brainer upgrade....(sound card, new monitors, and the mixer + patch chords)
ps. im not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes the electronic side of things, but it would seem to me that if i got an effects processor that output at +4db my problem would be solved but im reluctant to try because when I mention it to anyone at the guitar center or any of the other music stores around here I get this kind of blank stare. most around here arent pc daw enthusiasts so they just dont seem to understand whats happining and im really not wanting to spend another 500 on a new processor if its not my problem...
and yes I know I can drop back down to -10 db and regain a good chunk of my levels back but thier still to low and that would defeat the purpose of upgrading to the +4 standard...
Thanks in advance..,,hell thanks just for reading this long misrable thred...