[drabbag]

I just downloaded audacity and havent played around with it too much just yet. Im curious of what all the program can do. Any pointers on how to get going with the program. Id like to overlay a few different recordings and dont really know how... Wish you were here, the guitar solo over the background for example.

Post any cool features that may be hidden from a beginner such as myself

[justinthyme]

drabbag - here's one that might save you a bit of time. In order to be able to record over a track that is playing in the background, go to Edit | Preferences and in the Audio I/O tab, check the box 'Play other tracks while recording new one'. Took me a little while to discover that.

Also, I connect a Line6 PodXT to the putr via USB, and then choose it as a 'soundcard' in Audacity - that way I can plug my guitar into the Pod instead of into the putr. Saves me having to find out the hard way what that direct connection might do to the computer :-)

Cheers

JT

[Lcjones]

i've been using audacity for a few months. which port are you running, windows or linux?
it's a fairly straight forward package. simple in looks and simple to use. there a number of effects to play with, but this is a bare bones editor. so it's not going to have all the bells and whistles of cakewalk or magix or band-in-a-box. plus, its GPL, as in free ... as in use it!

NOTE::::: be aware, the program is free from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . it's not shareware or adware. this is a true GPL licensed project being developed for the recording community. there are some "unscrupulous people" who have hijacked audacity and selling it on ebay ...... do not patronize these ebay "users". rather, donate a few bucks to the people who are actually creating the program.

i have personally forsaken the glitzy editor/studios for Audacity because of it's simpilicity. it has excellent recording abilities, time slider, multi-track and if you back it up with a small console and something like a Line6 Pod, you don't need all that glitz!

i highly recommend signing up for the Audacity devel mail list. there is a lot more going on than i can tell you about it.

good luck

les

[Sports91]

Yeah audacity is a great easy program that i've been using for a while. I bought a cable to connect my amp into the mic input on my computer to give it a great sound and it works great. What I really like is making it into an MP3 and putting it on my ipod. Then I can show my friends what i've done.

[nagukush]

Hey buddy

do u mean u connect this way :

guitar ---> guitar amp ---> mic in of computer ?

does it work fine??, i mean wont output be too much for the mic-in of comp, will it be better to connect it to the line-in input of he computer??? (Just my doubt, not to conflict against anyones idea)

i would love to do that too !!!
Kindly reply.

[allthumbs]

Originally Posted by nagukush

Hey buddy

do u mean u connect this way :

guitar ---> guitar amp ---> mic in of computer ?

does it work fine??, i mean wont output be too much for the mic-in of comp, will it be better to connect it to the line-in input of he computer??? (Just my doubt, not to conflict against anyones idea)

i would love to do that too !!!
Kindly reply.

That is another common way of doing it Kush.

[toryst]

I plug it into the line in jack on my sound card and seems to work fine...is there a diff?

[MCH]

I think Line In is a better way. This is what I always use.

[toryst]

That's what I thought...thanks for confirming MCH.

[fly135]

Has anyone noticed any latency in record while playing another track? I'm running it on a slow computer VIA Eden CPU @800Mhz, so that may explain it. I measured about 45msec by comparing waveforms. I also have a Behringer mixer in between. Not sure if that could contribute any latency (I'm doubting it). I'll have to research it a bit more and try on a faster computer.

[CanuckTodd]

One note on audacity. It's a good idea to save often if you are recording multiple tracks. I have the Mac version, but a couple of times, the program had a brain freeze after I had recorded multiple tracks of a song. The result? Lots of good guitar practice but nothing to show for it or listen to later! Probably just as well for some of my songs, maybe the secret audacity critic pulls the plug on really bad efforts! : )

[737blues]

My computer has a pretty ordinary MB integrated sound card, so this is how I do it:

Instrument --> Line6Pod/Toneport/Guitar port (whichever you own) --> USB into your computer.

Then: Disable your computers sound card in Windows XP and use your Line6 device as your soundcard instead. (It's actually a pretty good quality 24 bit sound card in itself) You can also output sound directly from the line6 device to an amplifier/speaker combination, using it's RCA output and phones at the same, time using it's standard 3.5mm phone Jack. That way you can just turn your amp on/off depending upon whether you want to annoy your neighbours or not. The only problem I've found with this is that sometimes you might have to unplug/plug the USB cable to reboot it if some other sound-enabled program program has not 'released' the USB port after closing. You could of course, insert your guitar amp/stomp board/whatever in the chain but for just doing a bit of home recording or playing, I find the my guitar port and the 5.1 sound amp/speakers I use with my computer is plenty loud enough. There is detailed information on this under the support FAQ for your particular device at Line6, BTW. Make sure you download the latest drivers and software from Line6 BTW, the stuff on the supplied CD will probably be superseded and flaky.

The two most important tips for Audacity have already been made, I think; eg. (enable Play other tracks while recording new one and save often)

Fly135. Haven't noticed any latency at all. My computer is far from state of the art, but it's a reasonably quick AMD 3200 processor so I'd suspect that 800 MhzCPU of yours too.

[fly135]

737blues, I suspected the slow cpu was it. I have some faster computers but this one is very quiet, in my bedroom, and I live it on all the time. I guess I'm gonna have to set up a recording station on another computer elsewhere in the house.

[737blues]

Just amazes me why computers and their input/output devices are not separate. I guess dollars and signal losses over long cables have something to do with it. I'm looking forward to the day when the 'guts' of a computer live's in a soundproof closet and all I have on my desk is the keyboard/mouse and monitor ..... I've got air conditioners that make less noise than my computer

[monty]

any good plugins any one