Learning Something New - Amazingly Frustrating Fun

Learning something new can be both frustrating and satisfying at
the same time.

Over the weekend I was able to sneak in several painful, frustrating, hair-pulling, beard-graying hours trying to understand my new audio board. Now please keep in mind it is not the Behringer Xenyx X1832USB's fault. I personally have taken to task learning from scratch how to incorporate a more professional piece of equipment into my studio with almost nil of previous knowledge. So I understood from the very beginning I would hit some pitfalls getting said board incorporated with my multiple, PCs, recorder, iPad2, and new condenser and dynamic microphones. After some rather long sessions I still have much to learn.

So what did I get to work? 

• New condenser microphone feeding to main - check
• New dynamic microphone feeding to main - check
• ZOOM X4N - Recording from either microphone and a direct line back in to listen to recordings as well. -check
• iPad2 - Line into board for playing from Garage Band or other audio apps.- check
•           - *Note - Have not tested for recording into iPad2 - yet.
• Studio PC - Direct line in and back
•                  - USB Webcam - Check
•                  - Skype Session - Check
•                  - Hangout - Check
•                  - AVS4YOU -  recorder - works but buzzing noise (60Mhz issue with monitor) - help!

What is driving crazy and not working!

Laptop - Direct line in and back
            - Line back into the board is working fine - check
            - USB Webcam - Cannot get to work without using webcam speaker instead of board mic.
                  - This renders any video programs useless until figured out.
            - AVS4YOU - Cannot get input to work correctly to record

I have played with the Dell application that recognizes the input into the microphone jack and I have played with the sound recorder settings as well making sure the default line in is microphone/headphones. I can get it to input through the board mikes but there is a buzzing noise being caused by my secondary monitor being plugged in - HELP! The bigger issue is I can't figure out how to get the webcam to have input from the board mikes like on the Studio PC. I am using the same settings but not getting the same results. I suspect this studio microphone application from Dell is the culprit but I don't know how to disable it and just rely on Windows 7 to control everything. That is my main pain at the moment.

If anybody has suggestions about how I can resolve this please feel free to email me at headhardhat@gmail.com. I would greatly appreciate it.

If not I am going to figure this out one way or another. Ah the wonders of technology when learning something new.

-Andy

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Be sure to keep up with everything HeadHardHat at his website:
HeadHardHat Productions
http://www.headhardhat.com 

What to know what Andy HeadHardHat Smith is up to?
Check out his personal blog for the inside scoop:
http://andyheadhardhatsmith.blogspot.com

Out Of My Comfort Zone

Well it was most definitely time to either sit back and coast or put on my big boy pants and get serious about my media career. So to be able to do what I want in regards to podcasting, video casting and better quality video work I needed some serious equipment upgrading.

For starters I just unboxed and am currently configuring this:

This is my new Behringer Xenyx X1832 audio board and I have never touched anything like this equipment before. Needless to say I am out of my comfort zone when it comes to technology like this and yet I am as giddy as a school boy with the fun and frustrations I will be going through learning it.

So yeah, long story short I will be hooking in two pc's, an iPad using Garage Band, several condenser and dynamic microphones, some external speakers, headphones, Xoom recorder and possibly my smart phone. I will be able to record two simultaneous Skype sessions and the video shows themselves (video on pc's and audio here).  See easy. 

I have so much planned over the next few months and into next year and I am so geeked to be seeing things going into fruition.

Stay tuned and when I get everything up and running I will take you around the GeoSnippits Studios.

-Andy

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Be sure to keep up with everything HeadHardHat at his website:
HeadHardHat Productions
http://www.headhardhat.com 

What to know what Andy HeadHardHat Smith is up to?
Check out his personal blog for the inside scoop:
http://andyheadhardhatsmith.blogspot.com