Is there an audio interface that..... ?

[JohnW63]

Ray,

The important point you missed is that I am not recording and exporting. I'm doing live lessons, so I need what goes into the interface to go to the web, live. Like with Zoom or WebEx or something. As I said in my first post, I could just grab my wife's laptop and sit in front of it and talk and play, but where is the fun in that ! Besides, the mic on a laptop isn't going to be awesome. Of course, I will need a web cam for my desktop, and for some reason, it seems there a LOTS of people using web cams from home, these days. Go figure. So the selection is limited.

I sent an email to the Motu folks and they said their loop back feature would allow this to happen. So, that might be were I'm headed.

 

[Cougar]

....I don't know if the feature that turned off my sound card as an input or output choice was the Cakewalk DAW software of just the interface I have. But, if I am going to basically send my guitar and voice to someone in another place, disabling the sound card as an output choice, just isn't going to work.

That sounds very tricky. Probably unrelated, but I do know that my Scarlett has to be plugged
in to a USB port when I boot up cubase, then the iMac recognizes Scarlett, and I'm good to start an audio project. (Then I monitor with headphones plugged into the Scarlett.) Otherwise the computer outputs to the computer speakers. Obviously this was pre-coordinated between Focusrite and Apple. Some interfaces might need a special "driver" for your computer so it knows what the heck you're plugging in, and that might have a place where you choose your input/output. (I've been recording many years, and I'm still not much of a tech, having to re-learn a lot every time I hook everything up!)

 

[Cougar]

...I'm doing live lessons, so I need what goes into the interface to go to the web, live.

Oh, right. There's a lot of that happening! And I don't know a thing about it!

 

[JohnW63]

We're all learning. Our district had to try and teach 600 teachers how to have web meetings ! As a rule, teachers are not technical people. After 30 years in a school district, I can say that with authority.

 

[ruedi]

JohnW63, another option might be to get yourself a decent microphone like the shure mv88. (This is for iPhone/iPad and it's the only one I have experience with and can recommend, I guess there are similar solutions for other plattforms). With this you can stream your lessons with a satisfying audio quality, which is probably limited by your streaming app anyways, and you don't have to annoy yourself with the questions we have discussed so far...

Edit: I will ask the music teacher of my kids how he technically handles this situation, and then come back here. He mentioned that he now teaches his lessons via skype. Not for my kids though, they are too young, for them this would not make sense.

 

[Rayk]

Ray,

The important point you missed is that I am not recording and exporting. I'm doing live lessons, so I need what goes into the interface to go to the web, live. Like with Zoom or WebEx or something. As I said in my first post, I could just grab my wife's laptop and sit in front of it and talk and play, but where is the fun in that ! Besides, the mic on a laptop isn't going to be awesome. Of course, I will need a web cam for my desktop, and for some reason, it seems there a LOTS of people using web cams from home, these days. Go figure. So the selection is limited.

I sent an email to the Motu folks and they said their loop back feature would allow this to happen. So, that might be were I'm headed.

Well ok then all you do is tell your PC what audio source you want use is .

Regardless of interface or PC sound card you have to select the audio source you want to use.

If you want to shoot live you need a platform that will support that like FB or whatever ( not my field ) either way you need to select the proper audio setting from your PC telling it my audio source is this .....
It's in your advanced audio settings I believe .

I'm over worked so bed time . Lol

 

[JohnW63]

Ray,
Yes, if the interface wasn’t part of the mix, unavoidable pun, it would be just that easy. What I run into was that the audio interface I currently have only sends the output to it’s 1/4” outs and not to the sound card. The free audio DAW I downloaded disables the sound card as an input or output choice, when the audio interface is present. All that stuff means the only output goes back to the audio outs of the interface. I can’t send that to a web application and who ever is at the other end.

Again, the smart thing to do is use my wife’s laptop, and a nice usb mic like ruedi mentioned and be set. But, my brain saw this as an opportunity to learn about mixing a bit and live streaming at the same time. The mixing might be handy for recording for the next noodle night you announce.

 

[Rayk]

I'm going to reread the posts. lol

What interface for you have again ? And what Daw .

I don't know why I'm having a hard time understanding. Lol thick brain I guess .

My head says your talking about audio coming back to the interface ,yes that's the way it works it comes back so you can hear/monitor what your recording or want to record .

You want to share what you record . You do that by recording your music when finished you save the project through your DAW settings at the same time in your DAW settings you export the audio file to a file named X.

My two folders are works in progress and completed songs. This files are in wav format . I use a program called Switch audio converter to convert the wav file to MP3 or other type like Flac .

At any point I can send that file to anyone . Wav files are big so emailing might not work . It's like my phone pictures there just to big so I have to make them smaller.

If your sharing a project DAW to DAW you need something like Dropbox or other type file share host site or share via USB storage.

Now it's been some time since I got into that so things may have changed and there better ways to share that stuff now .

 

[gjmalcyon]

Info from Reverb: https://reverb.com/news/how-to-make...utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200416 D&S US

 

[JohnW63]

Ray,

I am web conferencing live with my guitar instructor. I am not recording and saving the file and uploading if for someone to hear if they click on it. I need the output of my voice and guitar to go out to the web via video conferencing software. I then can have my teacher hear what I am doing WHILE I am doing it. The output of most audio interfaces goes to speakers and does not stay in the computer and out to the web. They expect the output to go to your studio monitors. I don't want that or need that in this application.

In other times, I may indeed want to have fun, mix up stuff, save it to a file and stick it on the web for people to hear. You just can't have a live lesson that way. He can't say, as I am playing, " John. You started out pretty good, but the end of that solo got lost. Try doing something like this. " at which point I would watch and hear him do some crazy thing on his 6 string base in Mixolydian mode or something.

 

[Rayk]

Ahhh , boy am I off in another galaxy . Lol

I did something like that been a long time ago . I got my interface to work but it program wasn't liking it but no video . The option for audio source should be in the video program to select input but maybe it only excepts input from one source and that has to have the camera as part of it . Interesting .

One thing that'll happen is latency and can get annoying .

I'm off to work and think about this. Have a good day everyone .


Ok I'm back sorry . Lol

What is the need to have the audio stay in the pc ?
You can monitor through headphones so it doesn't interfer with the mic .
Most vid software will only allow two inputs one for video one for audio so it's only going to be mono .

You should be to able select audio input from interface mono and select play back from your PC sound card .

Otherwise just sit in front of normal video setup without a interface while sitting in your amp . Lol

If we could talk in person this conversation would have been over a long time ago. Lmao

 

[beecee]

John,

How long have you been taking lessons?

 

[fronobulax]

Going back to your original question, I wonder if you are over thinking things a bit. I know instructors and students who are doing just fine with a traditional video conferencing setup. A laptop user just points the camera to get the most useful shot and then uses the built in mike and speakers. It's not great but it is good enough until you start trying duets. When duets fail it is usually because of network lag and not the input devices. If you get feedback, listen on headphones not the laptop (or equivalent) speakers. If you want a lesson, I'd try with what you already have. If you want a project, well you have one.

If you really want to go off on tangents, when I was looking at real time collaboration, the best solution seemed to be JamKazam.

 

[jcwu]

Two options we've been using at church since going online:

1) I'm the pastor, so my home/computer is considered the main hub. I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, which I can choose as the microphone input when I'm running Zoom. The only issue I've run into is that if I allow Zoom to use stereo audio, then Input 1 becomes Left channel and Input 2 becomes Right channel. Since input 1 is the main vocal mic, congregation was only hearing my voice on the left speaker/earbud/etc. Running in mono had no issues.

2) Other folks in the congregation who are music teachers have had good experiences with a Blue Yeti USB microphone. Seems pretty straightforward - they have a camera that picks up the visuals and the Yeti picks up the audio. I've heard good things about the sound quality too. This way, the microphone and the interface are all built into one unit, easy peasy.

Hopefully this helps!
Jason

 

[Rayk]

Going back to your original question, I wonder if you are over thinking things a bit. I know instructors and students who are doing just fine with a traditional video conferencing setup. A laptop user just points the camera to get the most useful shot and then uses the built in mike and speakers. It's not great but it is good enough until you start trying duets. When duets fail it is usually because of network lag and not the input devices. If you get feedback, listen on headphones not the laptop (or equivalent) speakers. If you want a lesson, I'd try with what you already have. If you want a project, well you have one.

If you really want to go off on tangents, when I was looking at real time collaboration, the best solution seemed to be JamKazam.

I agree and some where in my mess if words I said the same thing just not as direct. Lol
Latency will be a big issue .

Two options we've been using at church since going online:



1) I'm the pastor, so my home/computer is considered the main hub. I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, which I can choose as the microphone input when I'm running Zoom. The only issue I've run into is that if I allow Zoom to use stereo audio, then Input 1 becomes Left channel and Input 2 becomes Right channel. Since input 1 is the main vocal mic, congregation was only hearing my voice on the left speaker/earbud/etc. Running in mono had no issues.

2) Other folks in the congregation who are music teachers have had good experiences with a Blue Yeti USB microphone. Seems pretty straightforward - they have a camera that picks up the visuals and the Yeti picks up the audio. I've heard good things about the sound quality too. This way, the microphone and the interface are all built into one unit, easy peasy.

Hopefully this helps!
Jason

That's right Video conference audio is only in mono . Basicly video is two channels one for video one for mono audio .

So when using your focusrite one channel is the mic then the return audio out for speaker/ monitors .

 

[JohnW63]

Ray,

What is the need to have the audio stay in the pc ?

Because the video conference software can't grab the output if it leaves and goes to some other place, like my monitors. It's got to be a "source" than the video software can recognize.

Frono,

Oh, I know I'm overthinking it ! I figured it would be a good project to figure out and using a video conference as the problem to solve gives me a reason to spend time and money doing it. Besides, don't we all overthink this whole guitar thing all the time ?

jcwu,

I started off trying to work out how to get my Zoom HN4 to just be a microphone that could feed a computer, so at least the sound quality would be better. That's just a recording device, not an input device. Then... my inner computer/audio geek woke up.

Beecee,

I think I'm in my third year. Guitar is a WHOLE lot more fun, now.

 

[jcwu]

If you really want to go off on tangents, when I was looking at real time collaboration, the best solution seemed to be JamKazam.

Is JamKazam something you're using? I looked into it, website is maybe 25% defunct, and YouTube video comments indicate people are trying to use the service but it's not working. Would've been a terrific tool to use!

 

[fronobulax]

Is JamKazam something you're using? I looked into it, website is maybe 25% defunct, and YouTube video comments indicate people are trying to use the service but it's not working. Would've been a terrific tool to use!

I have not used anything other than (free) backing tracks in quite a while. WiFi connections are discouraged and the best collaborations are with geographically close players. So between trying to remember where I stashed the long ethernet cable and then find someone within an acceptable lag.... griehund was using it at one time. Perhaps his experience is more up to date?

This thread suggests it was working as recently as March 2020 and mentions some alternatives.

Remote rehearsal/livestream options

Hey all, Considering live gigs are a no go for many of us for a while, wanted to see what everyone’s suggestions are for remote rehearsal ideas. What software are you using and how is the latency? Can you rehearse from 3 or 4 different locations? What hardware is required? If you wanted to...

forum.fractalaudio.com

 

[fronobulax]

Just to update my comments.

The teachers I talked to again have given up on any type of collaboration in a Zoom lesson. The lag is just too much. What they are doing now is either a call and response lesson - teacher does something, student imitates and then teacher talks about it - or prerecorded. Student records something and the teacher plays it back and they discuss.

JamKazam sent out an email saying they were still here. There are some money issues so they are not meeting the level of service they hope but they are working on resolving that.