Please Help Band in a Box is ruining my life

[bangkokali]

Ok a bit dramatic but at least has ruined my weekend !I've been usin it quite happily for a year to practice with until I disocvered that it would be a good idea if I recorded my practice . BIAB has a facility to do this with a line into the computer. To make matters easier I tried to record with a microphone and lay a bass line over a drum track. One whole weekend later I have 20 diffferent recordings of the drum track but no bass line over it. I have tested the mic with windows sound recorder and that records so I know that the signal is getting into the computer. I 'm guessing its something to do with the recording levels but I've adjusted all the ones I can. I have contacted BIAB support and in fairness they have come back to me within a day with some suggestions but thats still not working. Has anyone else come across this problem. Just for clarity I'm using a ACER travelmate TM5330 which has Audiotek audio manager.

If there isnt an easy solution to this can anyone point me in a cheap ( sub $ 200) alternative . All I really want to do is record my daily 30 min practice so that I can review it the next day to get some objectivity on my playing . It cant be that hard can it ?

[Razorjack]

Get a USB audio interface, the Line 6 Toneport GX would be perfect as it's got a built in DI and it's sub $100. I wouldn't cutting album tracks with it but it's great for demos and practice. The M-Audio Fast-track is another you could look at.

[crazyBassClown]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

So you are plugging your bass into a mic input?

That just won't work! You will need a line input and will probably need a pre-amp to boost the signal - especially if it is a passive bass!

-1

a mic input should work fine.
If you can get both biab and your bass both coming out of the computer speakers or headphones, you should be able to set the windows mixer to record the output from the computer. so you can record both in whatever program you want.
The only problem is beeps and clicks and stuff get recorded too. If all you want to do is check practices it should be fine

[bangkokali]

Thanks for the quick replies ! just for clarity I 'm using my microphone to record my bass which is plugged in my amp. So bass plugged in being played normally and the micorphone placed near the amp and recording it onto BIAB. I thought that make it easier than trying to amp the bass signal before a line in recording Does that make sense ?

[varunkapahi]

get a 1/4in to 1/8in jack converter, plug in straight into the mic-in on your computer and you are set. i have a passive bass and i do this all the time!

[seamonkey]

If you have a fairly recent copy of BIAB then it probably came with RealBand
RealBand is a lot easier to do recording with. It works just like any track recorder.
It can import a BAIB arrangement, you can add an additional track for your bass.

I'll second the Line 6 Toneport GX. It comes with POD Farm and gives you several amp and cabinet choices. It also has fairly low latency with it's ASIO drivers.

[Nick Kay]

You've got What You Hear set as your preferred recording device in the Windows volume control, and probably have the mic input muted. Select the mic input as the preferred recording device and you should be good to go. You're going to do this from the Windows volume control. I don't remember how to get to the recording/voice pane (it defaults to the playback pane), since I haven't used a WDM driver in years, but it should be somewhere in the menu.

[Jim Nazium]

Let us know if you get it figured out, and how well it works. I use BIAB to practice with, but haven't tried recording with it.

[bangkokali]

thanks I've tried some of these suggestions but still cant get anywhere which is a pity as BIAB is a nice piece of software. Still I've emailed the support department again and I'll pass on any advice they give me

[paul_wolfe]

There's also a great forum at PG Music where you can post questions. The guys who are on there are very helpful...just go to the PG Music website, find the forums drop down and go to the BIAB forums and post your question.

Somewhere there will probably know....