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Bass mixing with music on PC.

BassNGuns

BassNGuns

Aug 20, 2010
144
18
#1
Hi,
I have to learn a bunch of songs and I'd like a simple
way to just plug my Bass into my PC and mix in the song
with it. Like a Bass Trainer, but for PC. And then practice with headphones.
Will the mixer in Windows just handle it and I could just plug into the Microphone input?
If not....is there something I can just download online and then plug my axe in with a USB connection on the other end?
Thanks in advance.
 
#3
I would like some advice on this as well.

I have Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme. It has mic in, line in, line out.

When I plug my bass in to record, there's a horrible latency. It's about 0.4 seconds or so. So when I play a note I won't hear it in my headphones and it messes up synching with tracks.

I've looked at Tascam, M-Audio and Presonus as far as preamps - but will this solve the latency issue?

I run Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

It's really frustrating. I've spent long hours combing the Microsoft forums, nothing.

Ideas? Suggestions?
 
#4
The way I do it is with an M-Audio JamLab, which is a usb to guitar interface, Reaper and ASIO4All. The Jamlab was in the case with a guitar I bought. I don't know if you can still find them, maybe craigslist. Any USB interface should work but you might be able to find a JamLab cheap. Reaper is a download that is a fully functional for a month and then $60 but it is very powerful and worth every penny. It supports VST plug-ins and comes with a bunch of free ones. ASIO4all is free and reduces latency by a lot. Reaper also allows you to slow a song with out effecting the pitch, great for learning. I tried plugging my bass in the line-in on my sound card but could never get it to work correctly. I'm trying to find a better usb interface that will allow me to use the XLR output on my amps.
 
#5
Does that sound card do most of its processing in software? I had issues with my laptop using a keyboard with latency, that disappeared when I used my desktop. Turns out the laptop sound card happened to rely on software for lots of the work, and the desktop did that in hardware in real time.

That was a midi keyboard though, so maybe A/D conversion on pc's always results in latency, and midi processing doesn't necessarily, I don't know....

But people DO digital recordings, play along with existing tracks to record new ones on pc's so latency is not something that can't be eliminated.

Randy
 

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