Which input/output devices to choose!
Hello friends,
I’m really looking forward to registering this product, but I decided to demo around for a few days to make sure everything runs smoothly.
I’m having trouble. Two major crashes related to choosing the wrong wave devices, and now also, everything I record from my keyboard ends up about 3/4 step out of tune.
I’m using the M-Audio Audiophile USB. Things seemed ok, then I set the M-Audio to 24 bit recording. Then it didn’t work, so I went to the wave device chooser.
It lists the following for both the output and input devices in order:
M-Audiophile
M-Audio Quattro ASIO
MME: M-Audio M-Audiophile
M-Audio M-Audiophile USB SPDIF
MME Modem #0 line playback
1 - MME Wave Mapper
WDM: M-Audio M-Audiophile USB line
WDM: M-Audio M-Audiophile USB SPDIF
The original one highlighted was 1 - MME Wave Mapper
I thought this must be wrong, because I’m using M-audiophile, so I selected the top one, “M-Audiophile”. The result was total distortion of everything, followed by a non-responding program, an emergency re-start, then the disk check, and a message that said my system had just recovered from a serious error. Twice.
I removed and reinstalled the program. Twice.
Sorry folks, I’m not a techie. I’m just a guitar picker who wants to record nice work. I really need help with this, and I’m willing to learn. If anyone out there cares to respond, I give thanks in advance for your time.
Canoeflyer
Which version of n-track?
1811, pretty sure - demo. Not the beta version.
Hi Canoeflyer. I had trouble running the M-Audio Audiophile USB with n-Track 3.3. It seemed OK for several months while I was only using a few tracks of audio but when I started to add MIDI channels it kept crashing. I found the WDM drivers more stable than the ASIO but still very unreliable. I searched the web for reports of similar problems and found that there are a lot of people unhappy with the Audiophile USB, regardless of the DAW software. It seems that it needs 99.9% of USB2 capacity, and any weakness in the USB host causes problems. People with modern desktop/tower PCs with good USB handling usually have no trouble; users of laptops with less capable USB often have problems. I ended up swapping the Audiophile USB for a Tascam US-122. I lost 96kHz capability but I gained stable, reliable operation, 2 XLR mic inputs with phantom power, a direct monitor switch and Gigastudio 2.5 with a triffic piano. I still have the old Audiophile USB if anyone’s interested…
Good luck, happy tracking
TusterBuster
Hi Canoeflyer
In terms of which interface to select, I’d select the “WDM: M-Audio M-Audiophile USB line”. You should select this for both input and output. WMD and ASIO give similar results generally, so it shouldn’t degrade the quality of your recordings. The other advantage of WDM is that you can set the buffers from within n-track.
From “File/Settings/Buffering Settings” set this as “Default”, then select input and output at 16-bit from “View/Soundcard Settings/Recording Format” and “View/Soundcard Settings/Playback Format”.
Try a quick recording and make sure that everything sounds good.
Once you are happy with the basic settings, you can change to 24-bit from “View/Soundcard Settings/Recording Format” and “View/Soundcard Settings/Playback Format”. Be aware that the evaluation version does something weird (I think it mutes or puts a beeping noise in every 20 seconds) when set at 24-bit. You’ll have to experiment with which 24-bit setting is correct - I use an M-Audio Delta 44 and the “24 unpacked left justified” works for me, but this might be different for the Audiophile USB.
Try recording something again and make sure that all is OK.
The last thing to set up is the Sampling Frequency. If you go to “File/Settings/Preferences”, you can set this at anything up to 96000Hz (for your Audiophile USB). The higher you go, the better quality you get, but the larger files you produce and the more data you stream through your USB port which may decide it can’t handle the throughput at some point. I personally use 48000Hz.
Hope this helps.
Ta
John
Thanks to you John and TusterB, I’ll try, try again.
Canoeflyer
Some Closure on this thread,
I THANK you again for your kind assistance! I’m now recording with the settings at 24 bit, and I’m more optimistic. John M, that walk through was what I needed.
And searching this forum answered another situation as well, when my VU meters were not working well. The buffer settings were set at “high” and I changed them to “low.” I’m not sure what that does! But it solved the problem.
Onward and Forward!
Canoeflyer