Recording an Analog Drum Machine into Cubase?

[magritte]

Greetings. I'm trying to get my old Alesis SR-16 into Cubase.

This is what I did:

1. Plugged in a 1/4' into the SR-16 output
2. The other end of that is a 1/4 to 1/8' adapter that I put into the line-in on my computer.
3. Opened Cubase, set the bus and correct driver for the sound card.

But..I have no sound.

What am I doing wrong here?

Thanks.

[magritte]

I should also note that I created a new stereo track in Cubase--that is what I am trying to record onto.

I don't even see the VU signals moving in Cubase so there's no signal coming in. I went into the control panel and set the "line-in" for the card to max volume and such.

Very frustrating and confusing.

[ThePitz]

Tough to say. Do you have anything else that takes 1/8" cables to see if that whole thing is passing sound?

Otherwise - if you have a a small mackie mixer with RCA outputs - you can try plugging the drum machine into that and taking a RCA to 1/8" cable out from that into your computer. That may sound better than going straight in, anyways - 'cause you can preamp it to sound good through the mixer and then send a perfectly boosted/attenuated and unbalanced signal to your soundcard.

Can you record anything else through you computer this way? If you can't - then it's probably sound card/settings problems.

[magritte]

Okay, I figured it out.

Now the problem is a low signal. The strange thing is if I play a preset pattern the signal is good, but when I program my own it's really low. I raised the volume on each drum (i.e. kick, snare) to 100% so it's not that. Any idea why the presets would be high volume and the user defined drum kit so low?

[Snarl 12/8]

On the SR 16 the pads are touch/velocity sensitive. You've got to really stab them with your finger to have them "play" at full volume. Try wailing on them.

[magritte]

On the SR 16 the pads are touch/velocity sensitive. You've got to really stab them with your finger to have them "play" at full volume. Try wailing on them.

You're correct, I found a velocity setting and put it at max. I haven't used this machine in a few years and forgot about that.

Thanks.

[Snarl 12/8]

On the SR 16 the pads are touch/velocity sensitive. You've got to really stab them with your finger to have them "play" at full volume. Try wailing on them.

You're correct, I found a velocity setting and put it at max. I haven't used this machine in a few years and forgot about that.

Thanks.

I didn't realize there was a velocity setting. Good to know. Thanks for coming back with the resolution to the problem.

[magritte]

On the SR 16 the pads are touch/velocity sensitive. You've got to really stab them with your finger to have them "play" at full volume. Try wailing on them.

You're correct, I found a velocity setting and put it at max. I haven't used this machine in a few years and forgot about that.

Thanks.

I didn't realize there was a velocity setting. Good to know. Thanks for coming back with the resolution to the problem.

It's tucked away on one of the "pages" of the drum kit.

No problem.

I actually found a pdf manual of this machine. If anyone ever needs it shoot me a pm.

[Meriphew]

Have you tried plugging into all of the 4 outputs of the SR-16? If you have certain drums panned to certain sides, and assigned to certain outputs, that all can affect vol levels.