Feb 14, 2011

Recording audio in energyXT

This tutorial will show you how to setup energyXT for audio recording.

1) Setting up your PC or Mac for recording.

In energyXT go to File > Setup > Audio to open the audio driver properties.

Windows: you need ASIO drivers for audio recording in Windows. If there is no audio drivers available for your soundcard, you may download universal ASIO driver from http://www.asio4all.com

Select ASIO as your device and then select your Soundcard. Next make sure that the audio inputs are activated by a checkmark.



Mac OS X: select input device for recording and output device for playback and make sure that the audio inputs are activated by a checkmark.


Linux: JACK is required for recording on Linux. See this page for more info.

2) Create a new project for recording

Select File > New and then select Empty as your project type.



3) Create a new Audio track

Click the Quick-add track button and select Audio from the popup menu. This will create a new track and by default it should now receive input from your soundcard.


Double-check that audio input is routed to the audio track. Right-click the track and select Input from the popup menu, then verify that Audio in is activated by a checkmark.


You should now see some activity inside the audio track when playing your guitar (or mic connected to audio input on your soundcard).


If this is not the case, make sure:

1 - You have selected audio device properly in Audio Setup
2 - Audio inputs are activated by checkmark in Audio Setup
3 - "Audio in" is routed top the audio track

4) Start recording

Well, before actually you start the recording there is a few things you can do. First you can enable the metronome. Click the Metronome icon in the toolbar to toggle it on/off, or right-click the icon  for more options.



You may also want to turn off Looping in the main transporter if you want to record more than 4 bars. Just click the Loop icon to toggle looping on/off. Or press the 'L' key.



Next, to start recording click the Record button in the transporter. Or press the 'R' key.


When you are done, click the Stop button or press the 'Space' bar. If recording was successful you should see the recorded waveform in the audio track.


If you need to process the recorded audio file, right-click it and select Process from the popup menu. Here you can do things like normalize and even open the file in an external Wave editor.



6) The recording didn't sound right on playback, now what?

Make sure your input signal is not too high, this will result in clipping and does not sound very nice.

If the recording is far too low or you get recording only in one channel, you could try to disable one of the audio input channels in the Modular view. Select Modular from the Window menu, then right-click the Audio-in component. Un-check the second channel and the try to record and see if it helps.



http://www.energy-xt.com

Using your MIDI keyboard to control the Transporter (play, stop, rew, rec and tempo) in energyXT

In energyXT you can use your MIDI controller to start playback and recording. To enable this feature start by opening the Controller map by clicking the MIDI icon in the main toolbar.



In the Controller map window you can preview incoming MIDI data and see the MIDI values your controller is sending to the MIDI input of energyXT.



You can enter the MIDI CC value in the Transporter map to manually setup MIDI automation of each function of the transporter. Double-click the "--" and input the CC number of your choice. I will use CC 40 since that is what I see in the preview info.



You can also use MIDI learn to automatically setup MIDI automation of the transporter. First you need to enable MIDI learn by clicking the MIDI icon in the toolbar.


Next, you need to repeat 2 steps for each function.

1) Double-click the function you want to automate with your MIDI keyboard. In this example I double-click the Stop function. You should then see a question mark next to the Stop label.


2) Turn the next knob on your MIDI keyboard to tell energyXT what MIDI CC to use for automation Stop. In my example the next knob on my MIDI keyboard was CC 43 and is now mapped to the Stop function in the Transporter.



http://www.energy-xt.com