A cable connecting problem

R

Reggie49

New member
Hi Guys,
I have a question that could blow out to be a disertation in the complete understanding of how a sound systems work, due to my lack of knowledge on these matter, but I hope it's works out to be a little more simple than that! :o

Okay, at the moment I have an Alto mixer, with it's left and right output connections going to the 2 inputs of an ESI Duawire, (firewire) audio interface. The 2 outputs are connected to the right and left channels of the sound card on my old P4 desktop clunker, and things seem to work okay.

I've bought an ASUS N61JQ laptop, and thought from the speel the salesman gave me about how to connect the output from the audio interface, that it could be done via the microphone input of the laptop.

However after buying a you beaut RCA L&R cable with a 3mm stereo plug to go to the mic input on the laptop, I now find out that the laptop input is mono. So how am I going to connect the output from the audio interface to the laptop, to get the L&R data? Assuming that the original connections to the desktop were wired up correctly.

The only other audio input to the laptop is a HDMI socket. Is it possible to connect the RCA outputs from the audio interface box to the HDMI connection on the laptop?

Probably a really silly question, but knowing the success rate I've had in the pass here I'll give this one a fly and see if some kind soul chimes in with a solution.

Cheers

Ron
 
Reggie49 said:
Okay, at the moment I have an Alto mixer, with it's left and right output connections going to the 2 inputs of an ESI Duawire, (firewire) audio interface. The 2 outputs are connected to the right and left channels of the sound card on my old P4 desktop clunker, and things seem to work okay.
Click to expand...
wait... what? from mixer to sound card to another sound card? you dont need the built in soundcard, just use firewire cable to connect ESI to you computer. if you dont have firewire socket on your laptop then you should get PCMCIA firewire extension card... if you don't have PCMCIA extension slot then you can go and buy yourself a new laptop:)

oh and btw is that mixer also nessesary?
 
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If for whatever reason, you don't/can't get a firewire card inte that laptop, there are adapters to go from the stereo mini plug to a mono miniplug. The sound is not going to be good.
 
Reggie49 said:
Hi Guys,
I have a question that could blow out to be a disertation in the complete understanding of how a sound systems work, due to my lack of knowledge on these matter, but I hope it's works out to be a little more simple than that! :o

Okay, at the moment I have an Alto mixer, with it's left and right output connections going to the 2 inputs of an ESI Duawire, (firewire) audio interface. The 2 outputs are connected to the right and left channels of the sound card on my old P4 desktop clunker, and things seem to work okay.

I've bought an ASUS N61JQ laptop, and thought from the speel the salesman gave me about how to connect the output from the audio interface, that it could be done via the microphone input of the laptop.

However after buying a you beaut RCA L&R cable with a 3mm stereo plug to go to the mic input on the laptop, I now find out that the laptop input is mono. So how am I going to connect the output from the audio interface to the laptop, to get the L&R data? Assuming that the original connections to the desktop were wired up correctly.

The only other audio input to the laptop is a HDMI socket. Is it possible to connect the RCA outputs from the audio interface box to the HDMI connection on the laptop?

Probably a really silly question, but knowing the success rate I've had in the pass here I'll give this one a fly and see if some kind soul chimes in with a solution.

Cheers

Ron
Click to expand...

What you need to do is:

1 Make sure both your PC and laptop have firewire cards in them

2 Make sure you have a firewire cable to go from the ESI to the PC (or Laptop).

3 Forget the soundcards in both PC and laptop, because the ESI becomes the soundcard. You would have to select this as the audio device for recording and playback.

4 And as Reggie49 said, you probably don't need the Alto. You can plug a mike straight into the ESI.
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What those guys said. You don't have a cable connecting problem. You have a conceptual problem. You are using a *firewire* interface. It connects and transfers audio data *by firewire*. Its purpose is to bypass your soundcard, essentially becoming an outboard soundcard. It does the analog to digital conversion, and sends a digital signal to your computer for processing by software. Unless you are requiring more simultaneous inputs than your interface can handle, and you have to use submixes, the mixer only adds additional preamps, gain stages, and noise.
In order to use the equipment you have, you have to have a computer with a firewire card. If you have it, use it. If you don't have it, get one. If you can't add one, you have the wrong computer.-Richie
 
Thanks for your help guys. When I first started blundering around trying to hook up the ESI, I couldn't get any sound output at all. You could see the VU meters registering when I tried recording something, but no output from the computer. Then by an act of desperation I connected the output from the ESI box to the input on the desktop soundcard and what do you know I had sound!!

So it seems I have a configuration problem in Reaper that I need to sort out. It sort of explains why I had so many I/O showing up in the Routing matrix.

So back to fiddling again, but if and when I sort it out it will make it a lot easier to sort the laptop out as I've got a firecard coming from the US for the Expresscard slot, so hopefully I'll get minimal grief from that part of the setup once I've sorted out my desktop setup! :o

To all of you thanks for your guidance, and Richard, you're dead right I have a conceptual problem. That's what happens when you don't know what you're doing you tend to improvise, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But thanks for telling me I've been barking up the wrong tree. LOL

BTW I don't suppose there's anybody out there who are using the ESI box and Reaper. Maybe I could get a look at you I/O config setup?

Cheers

Ron
 
Reggie49 said:
Thanks for your help guys. When I first started blundering around trying to hook up the ESI, I couldn't get any sound output at all. You could see the VU meters registering when I tried recording something, but no output from the computer.
Click to expand...

How did you originally have the ESI connected to the PC? Were you using a firewire cable?

Reggie49 said:
So it seems I have a configuration problem in Reaper that I need to sort out. It sort of explains why I had so many I/O showing up in the Routing matrix.
Click to expand...

Go to 'Options' on the menu bar.

Go to 'Preferences'

Click on 'Audio', then 'Device'

Select 'ASIO' as the audio system, then select ESI as the 'ASIO Driver'.
 
I'm almost afraid to ask this, in fear of looking like a real dork, but hey I guess I am and maybe my silly questions may help someone else - well that's my theory. :D

Okay I have the demo completed track supplied with Reaper setup, VU meters are flashing like a beaut, but no sound. Reaper is configured with the ASIO and ESI as the driver.

So here's the doh question, If I want to hear what's going on in Reaper I have to connect to the output of the Duafire box to a speaker system - yes? Or with the correct config in Reaper the box should transfer sound via the Firewire cable to the soundcard in the computer and out my computer's speaker system?

In Control panel the Duafire is a recognised audio device, however if you select it for the default playback and recording device there's no sound output from Reaper or anything else.

Is it a simple matter of disconnecting the speakers from the soundcard on the computer and connecting them to the output of the Duafire to hear what's going on in Reaper.

Sorry for the being so thick but the only way I got around the problem before was to route the output from the Duafire to the soundcard. It worked okay but apparently more by good luck than good management.

There's obviously a vital bit of info I'm missing here so please be patent guys! :o

Cheers

Ron
 
Reggie49 said:
I

Is it a simple matter of disconnecting the speakers from the soundcard on the computer and connecting them to the output of the Duafire to hear what's going on in Reaper.
Click to expand...

Yes. The Duafire is now your new soundcard. Forget about anything that's in the computer.

Record through Duafire, and monitor and playback through it as well. Disconnect speakers from the computer's soundcard and connect them to the Duafire (you may have to do some messing around leads; typically the sound card has a mini-jack, whereas the Duafire has 6.5m and RCA outputs).
 
Thanks gecko zzed, you're now answering the questions I'm about to ask! :laughings:

I thought for sure someone would ask why I would ever want to use computer speakers as a means to monitor the recording process. My answer is firstly to save some dough and that I'm getting reasonable results to my ear, but here's the situation.

The laptop is to be setup in a different location to my desktop and I'm not going to take the desktop computer speakers and continually set them up again on the laptop all the time. I just wanted to try and get the same sound quality output, (or better :)) from the desktop to the laptop. Hence the original questions about connecting to a socket on the laptop. A total misunderstanding on my part, of the properties of the Audio interface :o

So, do I spend $80.00 on a decent set of computer speakers, or for a few dollars more would you recommend a cheap pair of monitor speakers? (if they exist)

Any suggestions on brands, types, etc and some sites to check out would be really appreciated, I'd much rather make a purchase on a recommendation from here than the local computer shop or Hi Fi store!

Again thanks a lot to all who have helped me over this hurdle, with sharing their time and expertise to set me straight. Maybe there's someone else out there that might also get some benefit from my silly questions. :)

Cheers

Ron
 
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