Is your recording Mono or Stereo?

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Is your recording Mono or Stereo?

Postby Hugh-AR » 28 Nov 2017 10:18

Brian (007) has got a new keyboard, a Korg PA700, and posted his 'First Tune played on the new Korg PA700' in the Performance Board, here:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5827

The MP3 he put up was the Beatles number And I Love Her, and I repeat the Box LINK to Brian's piece here:

https://app.box.com/s/rmomt5lj2h6wjvqe1eimyj58m5xm9q5i

This is what Brian had to say about it:
Nothing fancy about this. No multi-tracking or anything like that, just a straight forward sit and play. And listening to it now I clearly need to alter some of the EQ`s a little to achieve a more balanced recording, but early days yet.

Listening to it, I realised that his recording was not in Stereo at all, but in 'Two-track MONO', confirmed by the Waveform I got by putting the MP3 into Audacity. Below is the beginning of his recording, and you can see quite clearly that the two channels are the same.

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When I asked Brian about this, he said:
For this first recording I used a small mono external sound card costing all of £5.00 , so no surprises it was rubbish really. What is more interesting is a newish laptop that has only one MIC/EAR socket wont record via a simple 3,5mm plug plugged into that EAR/MIC socket. But a 9 year old laptop with two separate Ear/Mic sockets, after adjusting the recording tab, will ?

As Brian couldn't use the 3.5mm MIC/EAR socket to do his recording, he did the recording to Audacity using this sound card (Audio Adapter) via the USB Port on his Laptop. And has ended up with 'Two-track MONO'.

I had the same problem with my Laptop, and had bought a NewLink Audio Adapter, which I reckon was very much like Brian's. I too just got 'Two-track MONO', despite the description on the box. I have already discussed using this here:

Do a right-click to open the topic up in a New Tab
viewtopic.php?f=200&t=5435#p36250

In the end, I have succeeded in making all my recordings in 'proper STEREO' by purchasing a BEHRINGER Audio Adapter, the UCA 202 (available from Amazon priced £28.95) and have used this interface plugged directly into the USB Port of my Laptop. I have leads to INPUT either from the RCA (Phono) OUT sockets under my organ; or from a 3.5mm jack plug.

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Click on this LINK below for a complete explanation on how to do this:

Do a right-click to open the topic up in a New Tab
viewtopic.php?f=200&t=5435#p36260

Now Brian has done his recording of And I Love Her again, not using a more expensive soundcard via the USB Port of his newer Laptop, but via his 9 year old Laptop which has two dedicated input channels. Brian's new recording of this song is below. Notice the difference in the sound between the Mono recording he made to start with and the recording he has done now.

https://app.box.com/s/ahsra1h59cc578w8iultpbnzbnjli3v5

This is the Waveform of the beginning of his recording, and you can see immediately that the two channels are in Stereo.

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I have a 'two-channel' INPUT on my old Windows XP Desktop computer, but unfortunately that is nowhere near where my organ is. Which is why I had to sort out my Laptop to do recordings.

Hugh
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Re: Is your recording Mono or Stereo?

Postby Brian007 » 28 Nov 2017 13:22

Hi Hugh,

That`s what I have ordered for doing my recordings with from the Korg and the Ipad into my Daw.
should arrive on Friday from Mr Amazon ? :lol: :lol:

All the best Brian007 :D
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Re: Is your recording Mono or Stereo?

Postby Hugh-AR » 28 Nov 2017 23:16

Sounds good. When you get your Behringer UCA202 bear in mind the following:

1. The Power Supply for the UCA202 comes from the Laptop's USB Port. So you may want to have your charger plugged in if you are recording for any length of time.
2. My Laptop had a habit of going into 'Sleep Mode' every so often eg. between recordings I was doing. If this happens Audacity 'loses' it's USB input and you have to close the Laptop down and start all over again. So I have disabled 'Sleep Mode' on my Laptop. OK, if I am using my Laptop on the train when going to London it may need a 'sleep' so the battery doesn't run down. If I was doing that I would put the Sleep Mode back as I wouldn't be recording on the train.
3. There is an INPUT and an OUTPUT on the UCA202. Can't think why you would want an OUTPUT. The OUTPUT is going via the USB lead into the Laptop. The INPUT sockets are RCA (Phono), so I have a Phono to Phono lead for my organ; and a 3.5mm Jack Plug to Phono to record from a headphone socket.
4. You can plug the headphones into the UCA202 to monitor what you are recording. The 3.5mm phone socket is at the front. There is a 'slider switch' at the back for the headphones. One position for 'recording/playback' and the other just for listening to the signal without recording it. It says MONITOR OFF - ON. Play about with this a bit. If you can't hear the signal coming in, slide the slider across the other way. Also, if you have it in the wrong position when you are recording you get both record and playback at the same time with a slight 'delay'. So eg. a piano sounds like a 'repeating piano'; and the drummer sounds crazy! Slide the switch the other way! There is a Volume Control for the headphones.
5. Important! You must get the UCA202 all installed and set up before you launch Audacity, otherwise Audcity won't find the Behringer USB. You must check on the Audacity screen that both Mike and Speakers are set to BEHRINGER USB.
6. There is no means of controlling the Volume at the UCA202 (the Volume Control is for headphones only). The general idea seems to be to have the Audacity Volume up to 1 (Maximum) for both Mike and Speaker.
7. When I am recording from a headphone socket I would normally have the Volume of that device up as far as I would normally have it to listen through speakers. I do not find Audacity easily goes into the 'red', but if it does I can turn the volume down.
8. Recordings from my organ are very quiet (can hardly see them on the Waveform) so I have to use Audacity to NORMALIZE the recording afterwards (Effect.., Normalize).

Any problems, let me know what!

Hugh
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Re: Is your recording Mono or Stereo?

Postby Brian007 » 29 Nov 2017 07:43

Hi Hugh,

Thanks for the info.

I will be recording from the Audio out of the Korg into the "Behringer UCA222 U-Control. ( a slightly different model )
so will be interested to see how much volume it pushes out ? time will tell , will have to wait till Friday to find out

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Re: Is your recording Mono or Stereo?

Postby Hugh-AR » 29 Nov 2017 10:10

Brian,

When I bought my UCA202 the UCA222 was also available to me. I did try to check out what the difference was between the two, but looking at the specifications I couldn't find any difference, apart from the fact that the UCA202 is 'silver; and the UCA222 is 'red'. I think all those 'hints' I gave above will apply equally to the UCA222.

When you get it can you put something up here to let us know how easy it was for you to use it?

I have a friend (in America) who has the UCA202 (which is partly the reason why I got it) and he has an additional bit of software he uses to control the Volumes. ie. the signal comes from his AR into this bit of software (where he can control the volumes), and from there into Audacity. His software doesn't appear to be on the market any more, and I haven't found anything similar.

I have another friend who uses the UCA202 from a keyboard. He has no problem with volume from wherever he takes his audio from. I think the 'LINE OUT' from my AR must be particularly quiet. Of course, I can always take the signal from the headphone socket of my AR through the UCA202, then I would have complete control of the volume from the 'Master Volume Control' of the AR (the Master Volume Control has no affect on the LINE OUT, which is at a fixed volume). But haven't found it necessary to do this. And anyway, plugging a jack into my AR cuts out the speakers of the organ, and I would prefer not to have to do that.

Hugh
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Re: Is your recording Mono or Stereo?

Postby Brian007 » 29 Nov 2017 12:28

Hi Hugh,

Once it arrives on Friday ( hopefully - too tight to pay for next day delivery ) I will post a full update
and maybe even a new recording ?

Brian007 :D
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