Which soundcard should I get?
I have a Mackie Onyx 1220 board (12 channels) with the compatible firewire card.
I have a Dell that currently has the original “SoundMAX digital Audio soundcard” so I’m in the market.
I don’t know a whole lot about soundcards, but I know I obvioulsy need to get one with higher capabilities to do simultaneous track, digital recording.
I’ve heard good things about the Delta 1010, but I was wondering if that would be the best for my setup?
Which soundcard would you recommend and why?
Also, I haven’t bought a newer version of N-track yet that would be compatible with my board.
Is there anyone out there who has experience using N-track with a Mackie Onyx firewire board that could tell me how well they work together?
The Onyx with Firewire? You don’t NEED another soundcard. The Onyx F/W IS the audio interface. I have heard they work quite well. I believe the 1220 with the F/W card will send 12 channels of audio via F/W TO your PC while returning a 2 channel feed FROM your PC.
Nothing else needed.
D
That’s good news if I don’t need to get another soundcard.
I downloaded the trial version of N-track 5 to test the waters a bit.
I tried plugging 4 channels into my board (3 from my Korg T2 and 1 from my Akai S5000 Sampler) all of which sounded fine through the headphone jack.
Then I changed the settings on the audio devices to “Mackie Onyx Firewire” for the record device and playback device respectively.
It appeared to be recording at first but then I visibly noticed it wasn’t picking up all the channels.
It only picked up one channel - the other channels recorded, but with no visible sound wave.
Then I couldn’t get my recording to playback audibly unless I changed the audio playback device back to the Dell’s internal SoundMAX soundcard.
Even then, the recording
on the 1 channel that did have a sound wave didn’t sound like what I played.
Even though I had the record/playback devices set to Mackie Onyx Firewire ASIO, I couldn’t figure out how to record simultaneous digital signals.
Has anyone else had this experience?
What should I do??
Did you check your recording settings by clicking the “Hammer” icon on the Recording Vu meter? You should see and be able to enable/disable all the I/O made available by the Mackie ASIO driver there.
D
yes, I clicked on the hammer and all of the inputs were enabled and the ASIO output was enabled as well. Any other ideas?
After a little research, it turns out that part of my problem was needing to adjust the sampling frequency to match my soundcard (44100).
Now at least the tracks are recording.
However, I still can’t hear anything when I try to playback unless I select the internal soundcard.
Does anyone know why I wouldn’t be hearing anything when I have my “Onyx ASIO driver” as my playback device?
Are you pressing the firewire button in the monitor section of the mixer to hear the return audio from the computer and listening to the Mackies output on headphones or speakers?
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/images/onyxfirewirehand.l.jpg
Nick
Interestingly enough I didn’t have the “firewire (option)” button pushed on the mixer - so I will keep that button pushed in from now on, but I still can’t hear playback with “Onyx ASIO driver” selected.
Any other ideas?
Make sure the Onyx is selected as the output device in Soundcard Settings. Click the “Hammer” icon on the playback Vu meter and you should find an option to enable and use the Onyx ASIO driver there. It sounds like you still have your onboard audio card selected for n-Track’s output device.
As a matter of fact, I would disable the onboard card totally in n-Track preferences until you get the Onyx sorted out. I know the Mackie works with n-Track cause somebody or another on here posted some of the same questions a long time ago. He/she got it working just fine.
Hang in there…
D
PS You ARE talking about straight AUDIO here right? No MIDI generated sounds?
Just to clarify - When I click on the hammer on the “playback vu meter” I get a window that says “Select Audio Format” at the top.
Then I click on “Select I/O channels” and the next window says “Select channels to use” at the top.
The “Onyx ASIO driver” is already selected as the output device there.
Is that what you were talking about?
Or is there something else I should be looking for?
So the playback should be coming back through the firewire into my mixer and I should be able to hear it in my phones jack right?
Because unfortunately I’m still not hearing anything.
And yes, I’m running everything straight analogue into the mixer and firewire out of the mixer.
Hi, Yes your Playback will come through the mixer, make sure you haven’t got any “solo” buttons pressed as that will overide the monitor select switch.
nick, that was it! I had the solo buttons pushed so I could hear through the headphones while recording. Thanks both of you guys for sticking it out with me!
Sweet! Now record a song for the contest… 
D
PS Sorry I couldn’t be of more help quicker but err… I don’t have a Mackie Onyx FW mixer! 