Submitted by: Thomas on 13-Mar-2000
Hi.
I've been trying to record my MIDI compositions to WAV
using the OUT-to-IN method talked about on this forum, but I'm
getting a lot of background noise. It seems like this method of
recording is extremely sensitive. I have to lower the mixer volume
to almost nil or I get distortion, and even at the lowest possible
setting I'm getting the noise. Is there something I could be doing
wrong, or is it likely because of my sound card (Yamaha OPL3 SAX),
or is noise normal for this type of recording?
-T
Reply 1 offered by: Barry Starfield on
13-Mar-2000
It looks as if you are connecting the high level loudspeaker out
to the low level microphone in. This can only result in a very noisy
recording. Use line in and if possible line out. But why are you
recording this way? See thread # 1003 in the off-line forum.
Reply 2 offered by: Thomas on 13-Mar-2000
Yes, I was using the microphone-IN. That didn't seem right to me
either, but it was the only way I was able to get anything at all.
For some reason, Line-IN isn't recording anything. I hope I'm
identifying these connections right (I'm pretty clueless about this
stuff). Basically, I've got the green, blue, and red connectors on
the sound card, and it's my non-educated guess that green is OUT,
blue is IN, and red is microphone. There are only 3.
I read
the offline thread about MIDI to WAV before I started, and it
appeared to me that connecting IN to OUT, starting a WAV recorder
recording, and then starting the MIDI player playing was the best
(in fact, only) way to get faithful recordings of Yamaha XG MIDI.
All of the MIDI2WAV programs out there rely on their own sound
fonts, which is not going to give me the results I'm looking
for.
Thanks for your help!
-Tom
Reply 3 offered by: Fred Nachbaur on
13-Mar-2000
I suspect that your problem may perhaps have to do with your
mixer settings. Check it out if your sound card has its own mixer
applet. If not, it may hook into the native Windows Volume Control;
bring up sndvol32.exe (on some systems it's a little icon in the
system tray). When it comes up, it typically defaults to "playback
volume" mode. To change to "Record Volume", select Options -->
Properties --> and click on Recording. Make sure the available
checkboxes are all enabled and click OK.
Unless your
soundcard is really unusual, you shouldn't have to muck about with
cables at all. For instance, on mine (a SB clone with a Yamaha
daughterboard) the volume control for the midi signal output is
shared with the CD player (under the perfectly valid assumption that
you'd rarely, if ever, want to play midis at the same time as your
CD player). On others it might be shared with the Line level volume
control.
You can experiment with this as follows: if using
CoolEdit, select Options --> Display Monitor VU level. This way
you can see if the signal is getting to the wave input port. Then
play a midi, and muck about with the various playback and recording
volume controls.
Hope that something in this ramble points
you in the right direction.
Reply 4 offered by: Thomas on 14-Mar-2000
Ahhhh ... I didn't know about the Options->Properties for
changing to recording volume. Yes, Line-IN was in fact turned off. I
haven't tried it yet but I have a hunch in should work now. I'll try
it without cables first.
Thanks a billion!
-Tom
Reply 5 offered by: Charles Hall on
18-Aug-2001
Make sure your computer chasis is grounded corectly. Touch your
hand to chasis and record a wave file. Did this reduce noise? Thats
what I thought. check your computer ground path, and as a last
resort attatch a wire from your computers chasis to a water
pipe.
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