So, I’ve always made use the act of, in windows, recording whatever app is making sound live into cooledit. This has almost always been done direct to digital, unless via some on-board routing I’m not aware of, using my PC or laptop’s built-in or pci/isa soundcard.
My on-board sound has died on my laptop quite some time ago, and being able to record “stereo mix” or “what u hear” (referring to the windows mixer) is not available with usb sound modules, at least not my little behringer, or my m-audio ft pro.
I’ve tried some utilities like virtual audio cable, but they work so opaquely, often adding tons of latency, or forcing me to switch settings around every time I want to record something. I need to be able to do it more transparently and casually.
any suggestions? insight? tricks? applications?
The only real alternative right now is to route the output of my m-audio ft pro back into the inputs. It is relatively noise free, but there is still some which can be quite limiting, and although it gives me some more fun options with what i can do with the sound before recording it, it is not always preferable.
I know windows vista will let you adjust the volume of each application separately. I wonder if it will also let you capture the output of each application separately.
You might want to try and fumble with the binaries of Jack for windows: http://www.grame.fr/~letz/jackdmp.html with the binaries of QJackCtl for windows: http://www.grame.fr/~letz/qjackctl_CVS.zip
Though you have to manually start Jack with the right audiocard driver to have qjackctl recognise the right amount of outputs and inputs. (jackdmp -S -dportaudio -l)
Perhaps installing Reaper (Specially aiming at its free ReaRoute asio driver) gives you some extra headroom. At least you have 16 ins and outs with ReaRoute to connect in Jack.
(Though i would not use Jack to connect ReaRoute audio, since you can port your ReaRoute audio outputs to Reaper or any other application that allows to recognise and handle the ReaRoute channels.)
i’ve been looking for a way to do this myself - unless you can find a browser extension called freecorder which runs with firefox and and allows you to record any sound coming out of your pc (not just from the net) it’s pretty hard without an internal soundcard. - problem is it’s real buggy and may not work for your particular setup and also the install includes a lot of stuff you probably wont need
jack doesn’t seem to give you the option to route thesystem output back into the input as far as i’ve found - think it’s probably best just to do it through the soundcard as you said.
I’m surprised I hadn’t come across rearoute with all my googling. I’ve tried totalrecorder, vac, and also jackdmp for windows.
The main thing is that I want to record whatever is happening in schism, renoise, or ableton, directly into cooledit; no messing with recording with one app to later load back into cooledit, or rendering tracks in tracker or ableton to then import as wavs; it’s all about the flow.
New laptop might be the best way to go if rearoute doesn’t do it. It’s a few years old now.
(i actually spelunked deep into my laptop to replace it’s sound module and it didnt fix the problem. the prob is only one channel of the line out works, and the speakers never come on after removing the line-out cable; jacks are on the module, insinuating the prob is on the mainboard or somewhere much more costly to fix. hp dv9000)
Also, it appears the creativelabs xfi expresscard supports recording “what u hear”
The nice thing about ReaRoute is (With Reaper) that you can synchronise Renoise to it through a MIDI slave/master connection (which also requires MIDI Yoke), so if there is any delay, you can fix that problem as well.
It also depends what you want to run on it.
I got a lot of heavy stuff that won’t run smoothly on a laptop or i don’t want to install on a laptop and deinstall from my Stacker cooler master monster. (One PC only license with dongle protection etc.)
at least you can carry a laptop around if your dongle gets stuck in it.
I purposely purchased a laptop with a full numpad, and when at home, I just use it as a 2nd monitor, with the primary focus on a 28" lcd and a 1984 ibm clickey ;D
(referring to the windows mixer) is not available with usb sound modules, at least not my little behringer, or my m-audio ft pro.
