Running Cool Edit on a Mac with Parallels - Help!

[patspita]

Hi all... I need some help with my home studio set up. I have a Mac laptop (OS X) and have Windows Parallels loaded with Cool Edit Pro on the windows side, and then I have Tracktion loaded on the Mac side, since it came with my Tapco Link.USB audio interface. I am running the interface, a mic, and a small Tapco Mix 60 mixing board. The Tracktion/Mac side sounds great...the only beef I have is that half the time I can't get the LAME codec to work properly when converting a file to an MP3.

Here's my problem, though. When I record through the microphone into Cool Edit on the Windows side, I sound off-mic. I have tried adjusting the Windows recording mixer inside Cool Edit, I have tried the mic boost option. I don't know what else to do. Everything is hooked up fine since it all works okay with Tracktion. I get sound through the mic in Cool Edit, but the quality isn't there, and the level is low on playback. The record level that shows while I am recording is fine, but the edit view shows a very low level, and I do have to amplify it by 10 to get it to a good listening level.

Any thoughts? I am not an engineer, so be gentle!

Thanks.

 

[SirRoxalot]

I had a similar problem on a PC laptop. I found that Cool Edit was recognizing the built-in laptop mic instead of the mic plugged into the USB interface. That's why you sound "off-mic".

Do you have the mic plugged into the USB interface? If so, make sure that you have the USB interface selected as your record device, not the mic.