The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

I get a big difference in volume between my recording and playback on guitar tracks I am trying to record. Am I doing something wrong?

Lets say I get everything set up to record in Audacity, especially level on the backing track and the new track I am recording. I record a track.

Then - just to play it back I have reset the volume of the track I just recorded to even hear it (it is far too low) plus the latency is so bad I have to guess on how much to cut from the new track and delete it from the front.

Are these common issues for you guys as well - or is there a better way to do what I'm trying to do?

What are you recording your guitar through? I use a Line6 Guitarport and haven't had any of those problems.
I have had other problems, occasionally the Audacity software decides that it doesn't want to talk to the Line6, and I have to fuss with it.

Looking forward to reading the replies to your post Cruisemates.

I don't want to take the focus away from your question before you get some answers, but I had a related question. Maybe our answers can be incorporated together.

Here's my situation...
I just bought the Line 6 UX1 interface this weekend and have been playing around with it. The software seems pretty good, especially the Pod Farm. I'm not sure whether to record with Audacity, Krystal, or with Riffworks T4. Have you tried any of these other recording software? Maybe one of them would work better than Audacity??? Anyone else have any experience with these software programs?

I use ProTools regularly, but I wanted a free and quick recorder just to add guitar to backing tracks.

I am using a rockman line out into my computer's mic inout. It sounds great, the only problem I have is the sound level difference between record and playback.

If you are not having this problem then I have something set up wrong, perhaps a difference in level for my mic input and line out.

Another new DAW a LOT of people are looking cery seriously at is: Reaper.

Even pros using Protolls are moving to this - a single user license is cheap and it is a very comprehensive recorder good enough for professional use. It is open source.

Cruisemates... I'm sure you are further into this than I am, but here is what I have been doing up to this point... I'm a pretty frugal guy, so I try not to drop too many coins unless it's something I am really confident about. I try the "free" route first and see what works. As I mentioned before, I just bought the Line 6 UX1 after much research and comparison of features, reviews, and cost. It came with RiffWorks T4 which I found works but has it's limitations. It also came with Ableton Live 7, which is very complicated. I think it will record but I haven't quite got it all figured out just yet, I believe that it is mostly a mixing software. It could be the best thing ever, but so far I'm lost. So... what has worked the best for me so far (mostly for free, except for the UX1) is a combination of Audacity and Kristal. I open a backing track in Audacity and export it as a WAV file. I then use Kristal and open the WAV file in one track and record my playing into another track while using my UX1. As I play there is no latency because (I believe), the UX1 routes the input directly to the output while the computer is processing the signal.

When I play the combination recording back there is a few mili-seconds of latency between the recorded guitar and the BT. I just clip out a little of the lead end and move the entire waveform back to line it up with the BT. This is probably NOT the best way to do this... like I said, I am very new to this, but for now it works for me and is cheap, cheap, cheap !!!

Hay... if ANYONE has suggestions on improvements or better ways to do this... PLEASE SHARE... Thanks.

Let's split it into separate problems...

Program: you only need one instance of Audacity (although any other may work) to play a BT and record at the same time. Be sure to have "preferences - recording - Overdub" checked. If you hit the record button, it will play the BT and save your playing in a new track.
Take your time and carefully go through all program preferences! Although most defaults are OK, you can tweak it a lot to your needs and your equipment. Spend some time to play with the program features - there are many!

Latency: if you are Windows based, install ASIO ( http://www.asio4all.com/ , see also http://12bar.de/homerecording.php for settings ). With a decent PC latency should not be a problem. Audacity also has some settings for latency to try.

Level: you can adjust the playback and recording levels both in Audacity and Windows. It should be possible to get the same level on both, as long as your Rockman has enough power. Be sure to select the correct devices in Audacity! For windows, double click on the speaker icon - there are two different windows for recording and playback! Usually only the playback levels are shown. In Audacity, there's a slider for input as well as slider for gain of each track.

For more help maybe we'll need more details of your system and settings... maybe I can't reply within a day or two (see other post).