Did I get the right USB cable?

D

Delmont

Member
. . . and if I did, what am I doing wrong?

I have a fairly new Macbook Pro computer and a Focusrite Clarett 8pre USB interface. The Mac is not online.

I went to Best Buy to get a USB cable to connect them. They sold me an Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable.

It's all hooked up, and in the Mac's Systems Preferences section I selected the Clarett for sound input and output.

But the computer isn't recognizing the Clarett:

- Under Systems Preferences > Sound > Input I get a message that says, "The selected device has no input controls."

- In Audacity's Recording Device menu, the only choice is "Macbook Pro Microphone."

Have any idea what's going on? Do I have the wrong USB cable, or is it something else?
 
Delmont said:
Okay. Still stymied. I did the above Privacy > Micruphone cha-cha and got:

View attachment 114524
Click to expand...
So, did you click the LOCK icon and add apps? Here's mine with (just some) of the apps that can access the "microphone" on my Big Sur install. (If there are no apps asking for access, that's a little weird...)

Screen Shot 2022-01-28 at 4.09.21 PM.png

p.s. I no longer have F'rite apps installed because mine was FW, and it's just sitting on a shelf now.
 
keith.rogers said:
You have to unlock it to make changes. But, I honestly don't remember what it looks like before. What does your audio-midi setup app show?
Click to expand...
Aha!

I'll experiment and let you know what happens. And I'll look around for the setup and grab an image of that for you.
 
keith.rogers said:
You have to unlock it to make changes. But, I honestly don't remember what it looks like before. What does your audio-midi setup app show?
Click to expand...
So far so good. Thanks! Got the mic to record on channel 1. Now the mic is plugged into channel 2, but I haven't gotten it to record yet.

I wonder whether anyone publishes a hard-copy how-to book for Audacity. Haven't found one so far. The online instructions I'm finding don't tell much.
 
Hi,
As far as I know you can't choose input number per track on the fly in Audacity, but you can create two tracks and, I think, it should make them default to input 1 + input 2 respectively.
If you're interested in multi track recording, more than just the absolute basics, you might want to take a look at Repear.
It's got a lot more features and is way more flexible. Online documentation and support is very good too.
 
Yes, I think you have to set in your Audacity Preferences how many input tracks you want to record, and then you have to actually add that many tracks, whether you have input on them or not. I just tried to get Input 5 (where I have a preamp routed) to record, and I had to add 5 mono tracks (I guess I could do 2x stereo + 1 mono to save time).

I use Audacity for almost exclusively editing and almost never for recording. Most of the other things I might have used it for in the past are now done in iZotope RX (standalone).

(image is me snapping my fingers in front of the mic that's going into input 5 of my interface)
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2022-01-29 at 6.39.43 PM.png
    Screen Shot 2022-01-29 at 6.39.43 PM.png
    1.1 MB · Views: 4
Just FYI y'all.. My son has been playing with a demo of Fruity Loops but can't afford it. He has now found 'Cakewalk' by Bandlab. Totally free and he loves it.

Dave.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Hi,
As far as I know you can't choose input number per track on the fly in Audacity, but you can create two tracks and, I think, it should make them default to input 1 + input 2 respectively.
If you're interested in multi track recording, more than just the absolute basics, you might want to take a look at Repear.
It's got a lot more features and is way more flexible. Online documentation and support is very good too.
Click to expand...
Aha! I was planning on trying exactly that today when i'm up and running. Good to know i might not be wasting my time. Thanks!

I've looked at Reaper. It looks like a terrific DAW program, but the big difference seems to just be that Reaper has more plug-ins and whatnot. If Audacity doesn't do everything I want, I'll reconsider, of course.
 
keith.rogers said:
Yes, I think you have to set in your Audacity Preferences how many input tracks you want to record, and then you have to actually add that many tracks, whether you have input on them or not. I just tried to get Input 5 (where I have a preamp routed) to record, and I had to add 5 mono tracks (I guess I could do 2x stereo + 1 mono to save time).

I use Audacity for almost exclusively editing and almost never for recording. Most of the other things I might have used it for in the past are now done in iZotope RX (standalone).

(image is me snapping my fingers in front of the mic that's going into input 5 of my interface)
Click to expand...
Thanks! Why don't you record with Audacity?
 
Delmont said:
Aha! I was planning on trying exactly that today when i'm up and running. Good to know i might not be wasting my time. Thanks!

I've looked at Reaper. It looks like a terrific DAW program, but the big difference seems to just be that Reaper has more plug-ins and whatnot. If Audacity doesn't do everything I want, I'll reconsider, of course.
Click to expand...
It's your choice, of course, and if audacity covers your needs that's great,
but two obvious benefits of reaper would be that you can choose the input you want on any track at any time, and you can choose which tracks should, or shouldn't be recording at any time.
Whichever you go with, best of luck. :)
 
Delmont said:
Thanks! Why don't you record with Audacity?
Click to expand...
I just started using a DAW, GarageBand, very quickly after I started recording, and the ability to just turn "knobs" to adjust FX, switching and adding plug-ins, automation, etc. simply don't exist with equivalent usability in Audacity. (I did move to Logic Pro within a couple years - part of my move to Macs.)

You'd find a lot more support for doing recording and mixing if you choose a DAW that has an active user community and/or good support and documentation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top