Do ya gotta be a tekkie???

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rguagenti

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Okay! So I upgraded my soundcard to an Echo Mia MIDI and after some frustration I am finally able to hear some sounds out of this thing. Sound quality is great and I am hearing things much better than my old Allegro soundcard(which I have disabled). But now I am only hearing in mono. I have run Wave Profiler and the soundcard has been properly inititlaized in the software.

Maybe my cheapo setup is to blame. I am continuing to use my computer speakers for now until I can spring for some real monitors.

One speaker plugs into the other, which plugs into the sound card.(The speakers also need to be plugged into electricity, which makes them active to some extent right?)I have a Y chord going from the speaker to the 2 speaker inputs on the card. Both speakers work, but in mono. Everything worked fine on the Allegro which only had one mini plug for the speakers.

I prefer not to spend any money on monitors and or amps just yet - but they are on my short Christmas list. Can this setup work or am I just using spit and twine to keep this tied together.

BTW I have checked the stereo/mono function in the software(Cakewalk Home Studio 2004XL) and all indications tell me I should be playing in stereo.

What am I doing wrong???
 
I can't be sure, but it may be your Y cord. There are Y cords with miniplug sockets on one side that connect the same signal to both of the outputs, and Y cords that split a stereo miniplug to the seperate outputs.

-lee-
 
rguagenti said:
Both speakers work, but in mono.
Click to expand...
That's pretty wierd. I would have guessed problems with the cabling, but that should result in sound from one speaker only.

How do you know it's in mono?

There is a toggle on the VMain that can change the output from Stereo to Mono. Are you sure you haven't toggled it to Mono inadvertently? It should be jsut to the right of the Pan control on the Mix Tab. It's a little speaker icon. One triangle to the left for Mono, two triangles left and right for Stereo.
 
I know it's mono because when I hard pan a track to the other speaker(100%), nothing happens and sound comes out of both speakers.

I'm nor sure what you mean by VMain, dachay2tnr, but if you are talking about the software control, I am definitely in stereo mode. I even toggled back and forth last night to see if I was crazy, but I'm not.(At least as concerns this particular issue.)

Is it possible that the mini plug side of my Y cable, which goes into the speaker, isn't separating the two output signals from the soundcard? Is this a fault in the cable or did I buy the wrong Y cable? Is this what you're suggesting laptoppop?

I though a Y cable is a Y cable is a Y cable.
 
All Y cables are not the same. Make sure yours is a stereo to dual mono cable.
 
rguagenti said:
I know it's mono because when I hard pan a track to the other speaker(100%), nothing happens and sound comes out of both speakers.

Can we assume that the individual tracks are mono? Because if you're a panning a stereo track, you might get results like this. Particularly if the stereo track is a mono source that was recorded in stereo.

I'm nor sure what you mean by VMain, dachay2tnr, but if you are talking about the software control, I am definitely in stereo mode. I even toggled back and forth last night to see if I was crazy, but I'm not.(At least as concerns this particular issue.)

Your Track View screen should be split into a top and bottom. The top contains your individual tracks, and the bottom contains your VMain(s) and Aux Busses. The VMain (Virtual Main) is essentially your Master Out. It's where all the tracks get routed to for final routing to your sound card. Each track and each VMain has a stereo/mono toggle on it.

Is it possible that the mini plug side of my Y cable, which goes into the speaker, isn't separating the two output signals from the soundcard? Is this a fault in the cable or did I buy the wrong Y cable? Is this what you're suggesting laptoppop?

I though a Y cable is a Y cable is a Y cable.

Not so. A Y cable can come in a number of different configurations. Mono/Mono to Stereo, Mono/Mono to Mono, Stereo/Stereo to Stereo, and so on. My guess would have been that you had a mono/mono to mono Y jack. But as I said, that should have resulted in your getting sound from just one speaker. The fact that you are getting a signal to both speakers leads me to believe your cabling is "probably" OK.
Click to expand...

Check some of the above, but in particular let me know if your individual tracks are mono or stereo.

BTW, you might also try loading one of the demo projects that came with the software to see if they give you the same problem. If they don't, then obviously your cabling is OK, and the problem is in your software setup.
 
Individual tracks are mono tracks, because the panning hard right, hard left thing worked with the Allegro the way it is supposed to. Sound out of right speaker only, left speaker only.

I don't think I checked the VMain for stereo vs mono, although I KNOW I didn't touch it.

I will check the cable itself. I'm thinking sound would come out of both speakers regardless because I have stereo coming out of the soundcard which may be gettinbg "mixed down" in mono when it gets out to the speaker because the plug may not be seperating the sound at the speaker end.

I've got some teoubleshooting to do tonight.

Thanks for the tips and help.
 
Probably a dumb question, but are you using the correct panning slider when you do your test. There is a panning slider on the Mix Tab, and then additional ones on the FX Tab (for the Aux Busses).

I know on occasion I have caught myself adjusting the Bus Pan Control by mistake.

(Just thought I'd check. :) )
 
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