[Neil Moxham]

It is true. USB may have a larger burst but fire wire is consistant. DV files datarate is lower than both so I dont really notice a big difference…if at all.
If you arent really taxing things then USB works fine.
I even work on projects inside a 2 gig thumbdrive.
;>)
I have several LaCie drives that have treated me well.
They prompt, recognize quickly and dont fall asleep on you, however my WD mybook will fall asleep on me. If I let it sit for ten minutes….

[Neil Moxham]

I think you have a grounding problem.
I have had this problem before.
the problem isnt the 410. its bad data

What happens if you disconnect the speakers, hook up headphones
listen to your audio then. If its quiet…cool
While you have headphones on…plug in a speaker….do you hear it comeback?
If so…

Are you using balanced (tip/ring/sleeve) 1/4″ cables to go between the 410 and the speakers. Balance lines will not attract erronious magnetic fields. but wont solve a grounding problem.
Try ground lifts on your speakers. Also Make sure that your speakers are plugged into the same circuit that the computer is.
Once I had to disconnect the audio wire that went from my CD/DVDrom drive to the motherboard. Crazy…I know but it worked. worstcase…try it
Somekind of digital info loop that jumped onto the the wrong bus.
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[Neil Moxham]

Yes this works great. We swap entire projects back, forth this way. My friend does the importing, bulk editing,trimming. then I do the detail work. we just hand over the drives, move on.
I even hook up another firewire drive for the final render, render to that. Saves time. We have separete drives that hold stock media, fx. Just connect, drag over the ones needed, move on.
Good luck
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[Neil Moxham]

Sheena-
Relax…take a deep breath. We can get through this.
Realise…the reason I am helping you is because when I was new at Vegas someone walked me through some tough stuff.
I feel it is my duty to pass this on.
Forgive me for asking…. but is there a way to talk directly.
Its harder to write explanations than it is to deal directly.
you and Your system is caught between two choices. Its just a matter of putting it all on the same page. It will all make sense soon enough !!! trust me
I have been through this several times with myself and friends.
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[Neil Moxham]

Ok-

Do you mean 5.1 by any chance?
The mapper in Vegas is only for vegas. changing it only affects vegas, not itunes etc.
Changing settings in the control box for the creative card will affect all software

Just so you are aware…nothing personal but
Its a known fact that creative labs audio cards have really poorly written drivers and are geared towards gamers. Gimmicky
features that rarely work as expected.
If you get serious. Think heavily on changing that audio device.

With that said…
ASIO soundcards usually have two or more driver options.
ASIO is a form of driver that is fine tuned to bypass a lot of windows bottlenecking crap. It can increase your rec track count and make your meters respond quickly etc..
Since you are using this card for other applications that are not ASIO compliant. we will try the lesser mode to make it compliant with all your software.

Microsoft Sound Mapper is the way Windows tries to map audio streams to make them work. As soon as you introduce something foreign it gets dodgy.
So lets step away from The Mapper.
You can even try the “direct sound” option. its a little better

In Vegas go to Options/pref/audio device tab.
dropdown, choose “windows classic wave driver”
you will now see options in the playback, rec boxes.
Choose the creative device.
OK out of everything. Test Playback, test record in vegas.
should work fine
If you get a sample mismatch error. then Refer to my previous email about matching sample rate settings.
use the advanced button to get to the creative ASIO settings, then go to vegas audio properties, match it. All should be fine

then try all your other software.
Also that creative device may have an options box under programs or maybe in the Control panel, maybe a shortcut on the task tray.
the Point is to make sure that it isnt in some weird forced 5.1 ASIO mode etc… go in there and check to see that it is in some basic mode and not forced into surround or ASIO.

Refer to my previous email about matching sample rate settings. thats your next issue to tackle.
The workaround I just gave you bypasses the matched sample issue.

Anytime I use my Motu multi channel audio converters I must set my vegas project properties to a specific sample rate then set the Motu unit to match. then all is good
Lets start there.
Good luck
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[Neil Moxham]

Ahhhh yes …the dreaded splash sreen. I have run into this many times. The audio prompts are always under that damn splash startup screen. Theres no use for it…sooo
Get rid of it !!!
Heres how.
Start Vegas…when it gets to the splash screen you may hear a windows exclamation sound telling you there is an error…
Either way when the splashscreen just sits there hit the enter key.
this is actually hitting the “OK” button underneath acknowledging that you know there’s a problem.
Vegas should then continue to load.
When its loaded. got to Options/preferances/general tab
and uncheck “show logo splash screen on startup”.
While you are there uncheck “load last project on startup”
this one is up to you but I’d rather not sit through a lengthy project I may not use.
Hit OK
Close vegas, restart. you should just see your error prompt.
Hit OK, move on
It appears that you have an ASIO audio device setup up in ASIO mode but Vegas has not been told to use it that way.
Got to options/preferances/audio device tab.
drop down, find your ASIO device, select it. then select your device as the default rec , playback.

There should be an “Advanced” button that will take you to the properties of the ASIO device
Decide the sample rate you want to use. IE: 24bit 48k.
Closeout boxes by hitting OK

play back an event. If it plays ..WOO HOO

If it gives you a “unmatched sample rate” error.
Then go to file/Properties/audio tab. set the audio
settings to match what your audio device is set.
If these dont match you will continue to get prompts.
Try play back again.
Dont get frustrated
Let me know how far you get.
I have a workaround if your stuck

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[Neil Moxham]

Good afternoon-
I am familiar with all of the choices you mentioned, many others.
If you need more than 2 inputs then
I would highly recommend the Motu 8pre !!
It is firewire, not USB and requires external power.
The preamps are very nice, quiet. Superior to the ones on expensive digital mixing boards we use.
Yes you can use it with vegas , many other audio programs.
It is rock solid, glitch free. The drivers are well written.
Just plug in the mics, assign the different channels to the tracks ,record.

Did you say you were videotaping as well ??
Well here’s the cool part about the 8pre !!
aside from multi-track recording into Vegas at high resolution.
Within the 8pre You can assign the 4 channels to mixdown, playback out the “main out” on the 8pre ..Then connect those to the “line in” mini inputs on the camera. This way you get high quality latency free audio straight into the camera that is locked to your video. There is a “main out” volume knob on the 8pre for quick level control.

Now when you do your editing…drop the video above your multi track audio track, now you have video with locked audio that you can align easily to your audio. After your aligned.. mute the camera audio and away you go.

The 8pre is a standalone mixer as well. Their included cuemix software is perfect for this type of use. read up on it at their site.

Your camera audio hiss is most likely a noisy wireless system coupled with preamp noise on the camera. Not the Mic itself.

If a 2 channell USB bus powered converter is an option then I recommend the Edirol UA-25. It never fails me and the onboard compressor limiter really helps with getting a good hot signal while keeping the input from clipping.
A small 6 channel mixer feeding this unit works well for getting more inputs. Cost effective option.
Both the little mixer and the ua-25 would only be about $225 together. Then buy some of those cheap “Marshall” large diaphragm condensor mics for about $80 ea., call it day.
The sound pretty damn good for the $$$

I am a videographer with extensive audio background
And in in no way affiliated with the products. I just have a lot of experience with these types of gadgets.
Good luck
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[Neil Moxham]

WMV works great !!
check out this link to a youtube specialist.
lesson is for vegas5 but applies to all versions after.
We have posted about 75 videos like this with great results.
give it a try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03p3UlvkAT4

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[Neil Moxham]

Yes…
SF (up until the latest release) is a 2 track editor.
designed that way on purpose
It excels in this dept.
I have used this product line from version 1 of everything. sound forge 1, vegas audio 1 etc…
they work together as a family. much like adobe does.
One doesnt ask photoshop to do video…but you use it to do the photos, backgrounds, text etc.
SF.. is the surgeons tools for the audio event itself.
Vegas ..is the manipulator of all the events.
DVD Arch… is the output packager for video
CD arch… is the output packager for audio
Acid… is the backing audio/midi music builder.
Cinescore… an intelligent acid for video

They all overlap to some degree.

I use SF exclusively for 2track recording audio at clubs.
The beauty is in the small remote window . Also that it asks where to put the file after the recording.
Batch conversion to mp3 with wavehammer.. then dump to thumbdrives for band members.
This would be more cumbersome with vegas.

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[Neil Moxham]

I have 4 computers or laptops with dual output capabilities.
two of them dont work as an external preview.
Why… I’m not exactly sure. If vegas sees the vid card outputs as seperate entities then it seems to allow the next page for setup.
However…even though I can do “windows” dual monitor on all of them. 2 of my editors wont do vegas ext. preview..Vegas’s setup screen is greyed out as though it is not an option.

I thought maybe it because its a shared video memory, not a real card with dedicated ramdacs…..NOPE !! My laptop is shared memory and does a fine job of splitting for external preview.
My tower with 512 megs of ram, dedicated dual outs …isnt recognized ;>(
Hope this helps even though its not an answer.
using:
Vegas 6d
xp pro

Of course visually I prefer outputting thru a camera to a real monitor anyways

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