Hello

JUKES · 06-01-2007, 04:45 AM

I am new to recording and totally green. After reading a few forums, decided to give reaper a try, so far its quite straight forward. However i do have a problem recording from my mixer (Alesis multitrack usb)which has 8 channels, 4 look like single mono (Channel 1 - 4) and four stereo (channel 5 - 8). Accoustic guitar is on channel 1, mic on 2 and drum / bass machine on 2 track.
I can record channel 1 and drum and bass ok but not mic or channel 3 & 4.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

tspring · 06-01-2007, 01:59 PM

If you have the Alesis MultiMix 8USB, you have 8 inputs, but the mixer will only pass the mixed stereo (i.e. 2 tracks) over the USB cable to your PC.

If you have another Alesis mixer, right click on the track arm button for one of your tracks. Then select mono input. What choices do you see for inputs (ignoring rearoute channels)? Same question for stereo inputs?

I've noticed that the advertising for many of the USB mixers that are becoming popular do not make it clear that only two channels are passed to the computer. You have to really dig to find out. When I was shopping online for a USB mixer, the specs for some mixers were so vague about this that I never could figure out the truth.

T

JUKES · 06-01-2007, 10:00 PM

Thanks, Selecting mono i get a drop down with sound blaster 1 & 2 with a tick next to 1 - if i select stereo both 1 & 2 are ticked.
If i select mono i can record from the 4 mono channels, same with the 4 stereo channels, which all become active (not individually)

tspring · 06-02-2007, 04:35 AM

Soundblaster is listed? I don't think that you should see that. Be sure that you have selected the Alesis as the audio device (in the Windoze device manager).

Sorry, but I don't understand something. What do you mean when you say that you can record from the four mono channels? I thought that the problem was that you couldn't record from channels 3 and 4? Also you said that the drop down showed only channels 1 and 2.

Here is a picture of the input selection panel for my system (which has an Edirol FA-101 interface). On my DAW this means that I have selected channel 3 as the source for recording. Your display might look a bit different, but you should see more than input 1 and 2 if the other inputs are available to Reaper.

T

JUKES · 06-02-2007, 01:01 PM

All i see from the drop down is sound blaster 1 & 2.
For the mono inputs sound blaster 1 is ticked, for stereo they are both ticked. I could not record channel 3 & 4 because i did not select mono. I also do not see alesis anywhere.

JUKES · 06-02-2007, 01:12 PM

Thanks, just tried to reconfigure windows audio device. Two options are available, sound blaster and usb audio device, changed to usb audio device and i now have the same two options on input (reaper settings) and 8 channels for the output. If i knew how to take a screenshot i would post it. (as you can tell i am new to this)

tspring · 06-02-2007, 06:16 PM

Jukes, what is the model number for your Alesis mixer? I am still suspicious that two channels is all that the Alesis is designed pass to your PC. Sorry for dragging this out over such a long time, but I'm working on some other things and just check in periodically.

Diogenes · 06-02-2007, 07:48 PM

Hi T, Hello JUKES and welcome to Reaper-ville.

The Alesis Multimix USB does indeed only pass 2 stereo channels of audio. One stereo channel TO the PC and one stereo channel FROM the PC. The Alesis Firewire Multimix can send multi-channel audio i.e. more than a stereo pair TO the PC/DAW but still only returns a stereo pair FROM the PC.

JUKES, make sure you have the Alesis audio device selected in Preferences > Audio > Device. Also, I suspect that the unit is USB "Class compliant" which means no special drivers are needed to "plug and play". It also means the correct driver name to select in Reaper may be something wonky and not too obvious. Most of these "Class compliant" jobbies run WDM or MME for audio drivers. Some of the makers offer a special ASIO driver for their "Class compliant" devices. If I were you, I'd cruise over to the Alesis site and see if they have a download for an ASIO driver for your Multimix USB.

OK... Check this out, http://www.alesis.com/downloads/manu...rack_Setup.pdf

Tells all you need to know to set the thing up in Cubase LE that ships with the unit. The procedure is VERY similar in Reaper.

D

PS The device name you should select is "USB Audio CODEC" according to that document. Choose that as your device in Preferences > Audio > Device and you should be set.

JUKES · 06-03-2007, 05:24 AM

I did not recieve any driver software when i bought the Alesis multimix 8 usb (just Cubase LE). I am running windows 2000. I have set up as the manual said, and loaded asio drivers. I was using asio4all as the driver, and changed to asio full duplex after reading the above reply,s. Everything now works, but to record the mono inputs i have to turn the level and gain to maximum and playback is still low in volume.
I went to alesis website and they do not have the drivers, you are diverted to a roland driver which you have to pay for 3 lots of sotware to load.
Thanks for your help.

tspring · 06-03-2007, 10:53 AM

Hmm... ASIO4ALL should have worked. Both ASIO4ALL and the "ASIO full duplex' drivers are "wrappers" that allow ASIO compliant software to talk to underlying Windows subsystems (Windows WDM drivers in the case of ASIO4ALL and Windows Direct-X in the case of "ASIO full duplex"). Direct X is not very efficient, and you may encounter some performance problems using the "ASIO full duplex" driver.

If you saw only two mono input channels when using ASIO4ALL, that is what you should have seen.

Regarding the weak signal, when you say that you have turned up level and gain to maximum, do you mean on the mixer? I assume that you have tried turning your microphone preamp gains and stereo mix output level all to maximum levels. Are the level meters on your mixer showing a strong signal(i.e. can you drive the meters into the red)? If you can't the problem is with microphones, mic cables, or mixer.

T

JUKES · 06-03-2007, 11:30 AM

I have now set audio device in windows to - Playback = sound blaster - recording = usb audio device.
changed back to asio4all driver in reaper, set up mixer as above.
Everything seems to work now and levels are good.
Thanks again for your help.

tspring · 06-03-2007, 01:49 PM

Great! Glad you've got it going.