What am I doing wrong.

Q

quayhog

New member
I've been a musician for over forty years, playing acoustic bluegrass for the last twenty-five. I'm now trying to set up a live use PA and have a mixer that has a USB outlet among its many bells and whistles.

I'm trying to set up Mixcraft 5 to work with my new Mackie ProFX16 mxer. I arm the Mixcraft tracks but they all record the same thing regardless of Mackie channel. as an example I haven't figured out how to set up Mixcraft's track one and assign it to record only channel one of the mixer. I arm another track it doesn't matter what channel of the mixer gets used it the same signal goes to all armed tracks.

I know there must be a way to seperate and assign Mackie tracks and send to a unique Mixcraft track. I'm thinking it may be a limitation of the computer's sound card but am not sure. I don't want to invest in a new computer just to record band practices and maybe an occasional show without knowing it will solve issue.

Computer Laptop (Vista) Toshiba PSLB8U running Realtek High Definition Audio with updated driver # 6.0.1.6662. I don't want to buy a new computer since I'm only going to use it to record band practices and maybe an occasional show.

Sorry for the newbie question.
Jonathan Horne
 
Blues_n_cues, you confirmed my fears. I quess I'll require a different setup to do things right. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question.
 
That mixer does have inserts on the first 4 mono channels so, with the correct leads, you could pull a 4 track feed out to a suitable interface but that's yer lot.

Dave.
 
This Mackie has stereo USB connection. So, you can get two channels out of it. Pan left and pan right per input. Your DAW should see 1 and 2. Most people record tracks in mono with the exception of keyboards. Most solo recordists usually work with 2 channel inputs, so it will get you started. If you want more control, then you may want to look at something like a Presonus 8 channel (around $300), no mixer required as you connect straight to the interface.

Use what you have for now, setup two inputs, pan as stated, select a channel for each track and you are on your way. If you record the "band" then just make sure your mix is good at the board and you will get a decent board stereo mix (remember to set your pans back). Playback through the mixer as should be seen on the instructions, bypass on-board computer sound.
 
Read the sticky above about mixers and recording. Like DM60 said, you can record 2 separate tracks with the Mackie. Note that it is 16 bit, not 24 bit, and don't turn the USB knob past half way (noon) or you'll get a whiney frequency in the sound. (from a Mackie ProFX12 owner!)
 
Thanks for the replies. Sure learned a lot. I scanned the stickies before posting.
problem there, is one of language understanding assumptions by authors.
I do apprecuate the handholding and guidance.

Jonathan Horne
 
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