Karaoke Forums

I'm a bit of a newbie when it comes to Karaoke so be gentle..

I have two mics hooked into a mixer running into the Line-in on my sound card.

I'm not all that impressed with the effects the mixer has for the mics.

I'm wondering if there is any software that I can run on my computer to put real-time effects just on the line-in (Don't want to mess with the music playing) that would come out of the speakers?  Basically something to take the place of a hardware vocal effects machine.

The computer would output the sound to my receiver from there.

Don't even know if it's realistic to hope for, but if the imaginary program above also encoded the line-in to a digital signal to go through my optical output I'd be in heaven?  At least until my cpu overheated  

What mixer are you using?  May just have it set wrong.

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It's a cheap mixer ($40?), it was just to hook up multiple microphones into the computer.

All it has is an echo effect.

What is the make/model?  You MAY even consider a new mixer.  Something like
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=630166

This has built in digital effects of different kind including reverb, chorus, delay - not just 1 echo knob which will come out in real time like you want.  It is also USB compatible to plug into your computer PLUS it comes with some pretty good recording software as well so you can record your performances as well.

Here is a program that will give effects in real time.
http://www.sfxmachine.com/pro/index.html
Most plug in effect type programs are designed for specific software applications in recording.

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Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see where that program will put effects on live music, just recorded sound files.

I want the sound to go from mic > line-in (computer) > effects program > line-out > receiver all at once?

I use SB Live as my sound card. It can add vocal effect on the fly without adding the same effect on the music. And I plug my mic directly to my sound card.

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

You could always get an external processor as well & run it inline before your input.

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Ok, I found Sonar (Cakewalk) which lets me add real time effects to the line-in (and only the line-in) like I was looking for.  It even encodes it to the digital output which is awesome!

Only problem I'm having is that it seems to amplify the line-in which is causing some problems. I tried making sure all the gain settings are at 0, but it still seems to be doing it somewhere along the line.

Anyone used this program and have any ideas?

I'm a bit new to this level of audio software so I'm struggling a bit to figure everything out.

For live sound use hardware to apply FX to the vocals or backing The amount appllied is adjusted by the FX send 2 on each channel strip. This is for both FX in the mixer and external FX..

Recording:

With sonar the only "live" FX I use during tracking is a wee bit of compression. Usually I am recording directly out of a compressor anyway.

Track with an input 0f -3- to -6 db.  During mix down and esp during the mastering all levels are brought up to line level.

The first step is bouncing the vocal down to stereo then Fx can be applied and tailored with the backing and certain singers style.

Experiment with different FX during mix down and gradually the process becomes rather simple as experience is gained.

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Thanks for the suggestions, it's a bit over my head at this point, but I'm sure I'll get there once I play with the program some more.

I figured out my windows mixer settings were doing the unwanted amplification.