How To Record Drums And Music From Computer At Same Time ?

[graoully]

I 'd like to record a cover video playing the drums with Dream Theather's at the same time. I plugged my alesis dm10 to the UX2 line inputs. I read the song on the computer and then I had everything in my headphones. But.......... there's only the drums on my video. I use podfarm 1.2 with line 1 and line 2 inputs selected.

 

Any idea ?

[BigChas52]

You cannot record the music that your computer is playing through the UX2.

[hulbert]

Hi,

 

    As Big Chas said, you can't record the computer audio directly with the other (if you mean you are recording straight to the computer), but there might be some other ways you could get the video to have both the song and drums.

 

First off, I don't know exactly what you are planning on doing with your video. It might be for other purposes etc. so forgive me for the the following :)  - but I thought I'd just say the other issue involved - If it's intended for youtube etc. it might not be copyright allowable) - sometimes however, bands etc. don't mind people doing tributes/instructionals etc. and they even link to them so others can see them.  It might be worth writing to their publishing/record company and letting them know what you would like to do. They might really like it. I feel a bit bad saying that because I don't know what you will do with it. I just wanted to say it just in case.

 

Concerning how to go about doing it - it depends on how it's being recorded.

If you are taking the outputs from the ux2 and plugging it into a line input on the camera (you probably aren't doing it this way as you said you can't get the song audio on the video) then it will work fine.

If you are filming straight to a computer, then you could; get a digital audio workstation program (DAW) and put the song into it, then (possibly -I'm not sure if this will work) you can have the live drums being recorded in the DAW, and have the program 'resend' the combined audio out to something like virtualdub or a video program that accepts such sending programs.

There is a program called Jack Router which allows two programs to have the same thing at the same time i.e. audio from one program being sent live into another program. I haven't got Jack Router to work with my DAW. I have used it ( it may have been another program?) with other things (video) though, so it might be worth trying.

 

The video program would then record from the jack router input and take the video directly from the camera's.

 

Another way is to record your playing into a DAW and put a saved version mixed with the song, into the video.

To do this you would first put the song into the daw and record your drums as you play along to it. Then you could make an audio file of the resulting mix (of the song and your drums) and input it into the video. This will naturally result in slight sync problems but things like virtualdub can give you options to try to keep the video and the audio in sync. It won't be 'absolutely perfect, but it is a way it is often done. Audio recording sample rates are different to video rates, so there is a mismatch. For a song though it's not so bad as a long video where the audio can get really out of sync.

 

Hope this helps.

 

God Bless,

David

[hulbert]

You could also do a bit with wires to i.e. allow you to :

 

1. play the song on the computer

2. the sound comes through the ux2 to the outputs

3. the output is then taken via a wire to the line inputs mixed (possibly via an outside mixer) with the drum signal

4. you use a DAW and have the sound 9both song and drums) going to a stereo track (recording)

5. you turn down the daw's volumes totally - so that the audio is not going round in  a loop through the ux2 again and again

6. record the stereo track which will have the song and the drums

7. save the result as an audio file

8. import it into the video you have recorded

 

You could do this a few ways - like combine the drums and song via some form of mixer, or have the drums all going to a single 'mono' line in on the ux2 and a 'mono' version of ux2 output (song) going into the other line in on the ux2 (this is getting a bit complicated isn't it?  :)  )

Another way is to buy a convertor which will change the level and impedance of either the drums signal or the ux2 output's signal. Then have one (i.e. either the song or drums) going to the line in and one going into the mic inputs of the ux2. This will require correct parts and probably asking others to give an all clear about this approach.

 

Of the above, I think the mixer would give the best results with the least hassles, but it requires purchasing a mixer. You can often get old 2nd hand 2 input cassette mixers that would easily do the job or buy a new mixer or something which can mix the signals.

 

If you are going to use a DAW though, I think it would be better just putting the song into the DAW and then recording the drums and saving the combined result and importing it into the video.

 

God bless,

David

[graoully]

Thank you all for your advice

 

I gonna try to follow your recommendations. One more question if you please : I recorded my video using a stereo input (dual mode but maybe that's not mandatory ?) The signal appears to be stereo in the headphone but the 2 channels are mixed together for sending. I tried to setup the podfarm parameters in the mix interface using tone1 on channel 1 and tone2 on channel 2. In fact when I mute the 2 tones the outputs remain active. It seems there are no connexion between tones adjustments and sends ....

 

Looking at the users guides did not help me ...(please consider I'm french.. :wacko: ).

 

I'll inform you of the progress asap.

 

Graoully

[hulbert]

Hi Graoully,

 

I have just tried recording from the line inputs and have found that the following works:

 

-Go to the mixer section of Pod Farm and select 'Line Stereo'.

-Then select 'dry input' in tone a or tone b, or in both of them.

-If you select dry input in the box above 'send 1-2', then select 'send 1-2' in the program you are recording in. It might be called 'channel 1-2' instead of 'send 1-2', or it could be something similar.

 

If you want to have effects, then you can select  tone a in the  box above send 1-2.

 

If you want to have different effects on the left and right, then select dual mode and create an empty tone and select the effects for the other channel. This will change the inputs to Line 1 and Line 2. This is ok. Then select tone a in send 1-2 and tone b in send 3-4. In your recording program then select 'send 1' as one input and 'send 3' as another input.

 

I hope this works for you.

 

 

God Bless,

David