Karaoke Forums

ok... some ppl are telling me that on my subs... the vocals are panned to one side...
WHAT THE HECK?!?!
I didn't change any settings....... every setting I have is all centered...
What might be causing this?

I heard somewhere that it could be a loose connection somewhere... is this true? Where would the bad connection be? the mic?

Can someone point me to the nearest window?? That's where my computer belongs... I'm 4 floors up so I think it should fix the problem...

Or how 'bout a big hammer....

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k... so I've listened to my sub over and over...... with headphones and without...

And the vocals sound balanced to me.... and to a couple other ppl too

So why is it that some ppl are only getting my vocals on the left side???

Is this a problem with My program.....or my soundcard.... or anything to do with MY stuff?
Or is this a site glitch?

HELP

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I listened to your latest sub Crystal ("Blue") and yes, your vocal is in the left channel only. I'd have to know a bit more about your setup to figure out what is wrong but I don't believe it's a bad connection somewhere.

Your finished product is stereo, even your vocal echo is in stereo. If you're using a PC to record double check the settings in your audio mixer. If you're using a mixing board (I ALWAYS recommend that by the way, you can get a little small one for home recording for almost nothing) then you do need to check both your pan settings and your output from the board to your PC. For instance, if you're using a Y RCA cable to go from the board to the PC I can see how the vocal could get in one channel if the line input you're using on your soundcard is not stereo.

List what equip you're using and I'll be happy to help that great voice sound better.

I'm using an external soundcard with XLR connectors
Tascam US-122

the recording program I use is "Acoustica Mixcraft" not many ppl know that program, but I find it to be the simplest program I've seen.

now because of my soundcard, I no longer have access to the standard windows volume controls, etc.... not sure if that's relevent or not...

No I don't have a mixing board.... YET... i do plan on getting one... seen a few little ones out there that are nice n small with good price tags

anything else u need to know?


btw.. thanks so much for helpin me out... So many of you have been so fantastic with helping to solve my problems

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I listened to Blue as well, and found a left channel mic recording only. Just a thought now..... your mic is a mono instrument and you are recording in stereo. It could be that your mic is panned on the Tascam someway. Have you moved switch 5 (mono switch) on the Tascam and see if that makes a difference?

Im thinking it could be your jacks on the mic or the jacks from line out to line in...I once had that problem and found that changing the jacks from mono to stereo corrected this....if you look towards the end of your jacks you will see a little black band...if it has one black band it is MONO....2 black bands...STEREO

I had the exact same tascam as you....ppl told me it was all I ever needed....but all it gave me was problems....and it cost a me £160 to boot and I was disgusted with it....I took it back and the guy wasnt gonna refund my money!!...he said I'll give ya a £160 credit note....so I chewed his nuts in front of all the customers until he finally paid me my money back.....I didnt like it cos I had to disable my soundcard and I specifically bought the soundcard for recording....I finally bought myself a little preamp called AudioBuddy and Im so happy with it....what Im sayin to you Crystal and I dont want to dishearten ya in anyway....is ...take it back if ya can....cos u are only gonna end up hating it like I did....I wanted to chuck my Tascam against a brick wall....lmao

I dont know about you but I like to record my voice thru line in ....plugging my audiobuddy directly into line in allows me to use my soundcard...then I can add a little reverb on my voice when Im going to record but the reverb doesnt come through in my recording...I just get dry vocals which allows me to put all my effects on afterwards...oh yeah ...one more thing....I think its better to record your voice through a condenser mic which is phantom powered through yer preamp......I hope Ive helped ya in some way and havent confused ya

well.... the mono switch is OFF
there's a switch above it that says DIRECT (what's that for?) it's ON

what's weird is that it all sounds perfectly balanced for me.... how come everyone else hears something else?

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With the momo switch off, my calculated guess would be that you record in a stereo mode, but with your mic being a mono instrument, you probably only record on 1 channel. So for step 1, I'd change to mono on. I'm gonna read the manual quickly, will come back. Let me know what's happening.

Okay, I now am listening at work again, and I only get you out of one speaker as well Sorry

Okay, so I tried the headphones again, and when I pan to the one side, i get nothing, no music, no singing, nothing. When I pan to the other side, it is good. As long as it is on center pan though (only with headphones), I can get you through both headphones.

At lest now I know it is not me...and I am getting the same as everyone else, so you are not getting too confused.....

Have you tried listening and then panning it to one side to see if you get the same problems?

nope.... no black bands at all....
I know exactly what bands you're talking about when you look at those little jacks you use for walkmans and discmans.... (don't know what they're called) but on THESE jacks... I don't see 'em anywhere... here's what my Line in/out jacks look like

EXCEPT WITHOUT THE YELLOW ONE (sorry... best pic I could find)


As for taking it back.......
Tyson (my hubby) is really heading in that direction, but we've allready past the return policy date, so we'd have to exchange it for something else... Plus, I don't want to let it defeat me just yet! !
The place we bought it from has some really great staff (NON commission, thank god!) and the guy who was helpin us gave us his card and told him to call him with any questions about it.... so we'll probably call him up and see what we can pick outta his brain.. haha!



YEP.. that's what I do. It's completely dry then I add my reverb, etc. also Don't ask me how it's connected tho! ! all I know is it's a USB jack... plugged into the back of the PC.... SOMEWHERE! !



yeah..... we were thinkin about lookin into that. Only problem is, Condenser mics aren't as durable, right? That worries my husband....
I dunno why, it's not like we take 'em out on the road or something! ! maybe I can convince him.
Why do you think a condenser would be better? What are the benefits of choosing that over a dynamic?

and yeah.. you have confused me a little....... but I guess this reply will determine that won't it? !

Thanks Songstar!

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Rits... ok I've put on my headphones....

I panned to the left... and I hear music AND vocals in BOTH ears.

when I pan to the right... I get music only...... in BOTH ears...no vocals.

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I was looking at Tascam's site for that unit, looks like you get a free upgrade to Cubase if you bought it after August, that's a decent program from what I hear.



That is partially correct, you still have them it's just that the driver for the Tascam has taken over. I took a look at the manual and it looks like it splits the channels on those mic inputs for whatever reason. I believe you have your mic in the left one, if you put it in the right one it would record on the right channel.

There has to be a setting in your driver for that mic channel either in the driver or within the recording program. You need to make it so that the mic channel you're using is recorded to both channels.

Basically what your Tascam is doing is making it so the computer sees each of those inputs as a sound input and records from it accordingly. It's up to the mixing program to get it on the right channel. I took a look at the Mixcraft manual and it's pretty spartan. I couldn't find any reference to it other than the "pan" settings, you want to make sure your pan slider is in the middle.

Personally I would ditch that program and get the Steinberg Cubase LE that Tascam is packaging with your system, bound to be higher quality from what I've seen. Give that a try and see if it solves your problem.



Actually, if you're using computer based karaoke for your source material that's going to be cleaner because you're not sending the signal to a mixing board or an external device, it's a digital track on your computer. You lay that down on a track and then lay down your vocal track and you're there. That Tascam is a pretty decent unit, I would have been partial to the Lexicon Omega Studio because you get Lexicon's effect plug-ins pacakaged with it and dbx mic preamps but that Tascam will definitely do the job.

Hope I've helped, let me know what you run in to. Have you considered buying a Mac?? Then I could really set ya straight!!

Guys, if she's using the computer to record this isn't a jacks issue. The mic goes to the Tascam, the Tascam goes to the computer using the USB interface, no jacks involved. Now, for some reason if you are using the output jacks on it Crystal don't, you should be recording directly from the mic input which your computer should be able to see as an input with the Tascam hooked up.

The line out of the Tascam should only be used for monitoring purposes only and not for recording. If you're recording from there that could be your problem. Do you have the output on the Tascam hooked up to your soundcard? If you do that's definitely the problem, think of the Tascam AS your soundcard and the one inside your computer isn't being used.

In Cubase there's something called the "audio control panel", I'm sure Mixcraft has something similar but that manual is terrible, I can't see it referenced anywhere. That control panel is where you select the audio inputs and assign them to recording that you will use in the recording interface. As part of that you need to tell it to route your mic input to the left and right channels. I'm certain this is where you're hitting the snag.

ok... I tried 3 different combinations..
ORIGINAL-mono off and direct on --- one channel
mono ON and direct ON --- no change
mono ON and direct OFF ---- no change

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Wgfinely...

I see your posts... i've read 'em... but I don't have time to respond as of yet. They look VERY helpful tho thanks!

I GOTTA GO TO WORK!

I'll get my hubby to read this when he gets home..

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Wgfinely,

ok... I'm back

First of all.... the free upgrade (cubase) that you are talking about... was only available in US.... not Canada
The program that came with MY unit is called Gigastudio (made my Tascam, I believe) But it's only a bundel version so a lot of the functions are disabled.


right. I'm only using it for Monitoring purposes (line out is connected to my speakers with RCA cables)


Yes... I agree the manual for Mixcraft is horrible.... I can never find my answers in there! ! I guess I'm gonna have to smarten up and ditch this program! !

Thanks for your help.... My next task is to find a different program...
I know everyone's using Cood Edit Pro or Adobe Audition 1.5 (which I have a demo of)
but I find them so confusing and complicated...

BTW... my hubby would like you all to know... that he's very computer literate, (he's quite the smarty pants as far as computers go) he just doesn't understand professional recording equipment. He also plays guitar, so he knows about amps and the like
He just doesn't understand mics, mixers, PA systems, recording stuff, etc

THANKS A BUNCH!

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Hopefully you can get it fixed, I would start with the recording program as the source.

I also read something on the Tascam about it having an ASIO driver problem, might want to make sure you have the latest stuff that is listed on their site, I believe they released a fix for that.

If you can still take it back I think that Leixcon Omega is a great unit, would take a look at that as an alternative. If you went to a music store I would think they would let you trade in.

ok.... *sigh* I'll give in... ! I'll get a different program.. Do you know anything about the one I mentioned? Gigastudio24?


yep. Indeed they did. Tyson (hubby) downloaded the fix and it corrupted some of our files and crashed the computer.... good stuff, huh?



yep I bought it from AXE music (which I think may be Canadian... not sure) they said they had a 30 day return policy, but they also have a $100 repackaging fee.... dunno if it's worth it since that's almost half the cost of the thing in the first place ($240 CND)..... but we'll see.. the guy that helped us out seemed like a really easy-going guy, so he might be able to waive the fee. Apparantly, they don't charge the fee if you return within a week... go figure
Thanks for the advice... I'll definately look at the Omega if we decide to exchange.

BUT! I'm still hoping I can figure this out before I settle on returning it.

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Hey Crystal...

Not that I know anything...and I mean that...But I have used only one recording package...ah I take that back I have used 2 one was cakewake and the one I use now is called Pro Tools LE. I bought it from Sam Ash and at the time it was a bit pricey (priceie Price...eee) but know on ebay you could get a DIGI 001 system with pro tools 5.3.1 for a really good price and make killer recordings...It might be a bit of over kill but it is killer. It does have a bit of a learning curve but once you get over that you will wonder how you ever lived without it...Check it out !!

Why not try the easy-to-use and free fully functional Audacity for recording/mixing. you can find it at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/windows.php


note: Audacity does not run on Windows 95 or NT4. Windows 98 or higher is required.


The other thing, why not exchange the Tascam for a normal little mixer and PC soundcard . Easy to use and it works pretty much first time, every time.