Anyone using one of these???
Is anyone using one of these interfaces (8, 12 or 16) with N-Track??? If so, how does it work for you???
Hi Phantom II. Yes, I have one of these; I got it about 6 months ago. When I first tried to install it I nearly went crazy, I couldn’t get it to work with anything - n-Track, the freebie Cubase, Sonar LE… I hunted around the forums a bit and found a thread about it, I think on the Sonar forum, which helped. Basically there was an error in the Alesis manual about the switching-on sequence.
You need to
1) download and install the latest drivers and firmware from the Alesis site.
2) From a “total system off” situation, power up only the PC.
3) Connect the Firewire Multimix firewire cable to the PC
4) Switch power on to the mixer.
4) Start running your DAW software (e.g. n-Track).
The DAW should now be able to “see” the Multimix. In n-Track you can select Asio Multimix in the Settings/Audio Devices dialogue box. ASIO drivers should be fine, they work for me, but if you have stability issues then WDM also works, but you need to check the WDM box in the Multimix control panel, accessed from the desktop icon, but only while the Multimix is powered up. You should be able to choose any or all of the 16 channels plus the stereo mix (total 18 inputs) as recording inputs.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
TB
I should add that my Multimix 12 firewire works fine. It may not be as sweet sounding as a Mackie or Soundraft but my ears are not golden and it does the job for me. It seems well made, many of the 100 built-in effects are useable and I really like being able to record all 12 tracks plus the stereo mix. IMHO it’s good value for money. I live in Switzerland and I paid CHF 900 for it, about USD 730; I guess like most things it will be a lot cheaper in the USA. I needed a firewire interface because most USB interfaces were flaky with my laptop. Apart from the start-up issue I’ve had no trouble.
Cheers
TB.
I am also planning on using this with a Laptop computer. I assume your cable/connector on the laptop side is the smaller 4 pin firewire connector???
Could you give me some specs on your laptop??
Mine is an HP 2.8 gig P4 with 1Gig ram, 60GB hard drive. It has only USB 1.1, but I have an PCMCIA/cardbus USB 2.0 adapter.
Also anything special you have done or configured would be of interest?
I am considering using an external hard disk on the USB 2.0 adapter. Have you tried this??? If so, is it any better than using the internal Hard drive for recording???
Some of the reasons I am considering this are:
1) I have a lexicon Omega (4/in channel USB device) which occasionally gives me latency /sync issues.
2) I do some live recording, so the capability to do 12 or 16 tracks at a time is highly desireable. 4 just isn’t enough if I want to remix individual instruments later.
Yes, the connector on my laptop is the small 4 pin type, which doesn’t deliver any power like its 6-pin big brother. I think the Multimix came with a 6 to 6 and a 6 to 4 cable.
My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 9400 with Celeron Duo 1.83MHz processor, 1GB RAM, 80 GB 7,200 rpm HDD and a good graphic card that doesn’t use shared memory. I have Windows XP SP2 and all programmes (including n-Track) on the C drive, and all music projects, songs, waves, samples etc. on a separate WD 160GB usb2 drive. I rarely use more than 12 tracks and I have no latency issues; using a midi keyboard and a software instrument, there is the merest hint of delay, I guess less than 7 or 8 msec and quite acceptable for my low level of keyboard skill. I have the PC set up in line with the recommendations on www.musicxp.net, and I take care to disable the network connections, wireless, bluetooth etc., and switch off antivirus, spyware detectors and so on, before doing audio work.
Good luck. Cheers.
TB
I’m looking to get one of these but I have a question. Does the multimix also function as a control surface like the old Tascam us-428 did?
<!–QuoteBegin>
| Quote |
| Does the multimix also function as a control surface like the old Tascam us-428 did? |
Nope.
D