M-Audio Firewire Solo Setup

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queen_seline

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First off, let me say, I promise that I searched threads for answers to my questions! :D I'm brand new to home recording, just purchased a Dell XPS (w/ Vista), M-Audio Firewire Solo and some good headphones. I have Sonar Cakewalk 4 and also Audacity. I plan to record simple acoustic guitar and some vocals, to start with.

My question has to do with simple setup. I'm probably missing something right under my nose, but I have spent days trying to figure this out! I have my M-Audio plugged into my PC with Firewire cable; I have my guitar plugged into the M-Audio via 1/4" guitar input. I have my headphones plugged into my M-Audio. I know I must be missing some kind of cable for output into my computer? I have 2 unbalanced outputs and S/PDIF in/outputs on my M-Audio. Which do I use? And when I plug it into my computer, where do I need to plug it into? I know I need an adapter to go from 1/4" down to 1/8".

Or am I way off and I need to adjust settings in Cakewalk? Maybe both. My PC and Cakewalk both acknowledge the Firewire hardware, so I know it's installed correctly. But there is no sound.

This probably seems really basic.......I know. For this reason I feel all the more intellectually challenged!!! :o Any help I could get would be great. Thanks a bundle......
 
I used to have an m-audio firewire solo, but I don't remember it having a direct in. I don't think it has one. I believe it's got one XLR input and one 1/4" line level" input. This means you need a DI box or mic preamp for your guitar before the firewire solo, or you need to record with a mic through the XLR input. The line from your guitar is not the correct signal impedence to run directly into the m-audio.
 
guitar zero said:
I used to have an m-audio firewire solo, but I don't remember it having a direct in. I don't think it has one. I believe it's got one XLR input and one 1/4" line level" input. This means you need a DI box or mic preamp for your guitar before the firewire solo, or you need to record with a mic through the XLR input. The line from your guitar is not the correct signal impedence to run directly into the m-audio.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it has a direct guitar input...it's labled "guitar" and has it's own gain knob. Websites I've researched seem to indicate I can plug my guitar directly into it. Hmmmm, I admit I could be mistaken though. If that's the case I'm WAY more confused than I even thought I was! :eek:
 
Sorry, I didn't read your post very carefully. The firewire solo should come with a firewire cable to connect the back of the unit to the firewire port of your computer. Do you have that hooked up?

Also, you are correct, the 1/4" input on the front looks like a DI for guitar. The 1/4" inputs on the back are not DI, and won't work for that.
 
OK, your original post said your solo is connected to your computer via firewire cable. Sorry, I missed that originally. You don't need any other connection to the computer. I'm not familiar with Cakewalk, but normally you need to open a new project, and name it (song name). Create an instrument, name it acoustic guitar and tell the software which input it's coming in from. Then you choose that channel and hit record. Have you done all that?
 
Ok well I have fooled around with stuff a bit more and I can now get some action happening on the mixer for my M-Audio hardware. I didn't even have that before. Now I know the computer can hear my guitar at least. I'm thinking that getting my stuff together in Cakewalk will be my ultimate problem....It keeps asking me for MIDI outputs, but there are none to choose from on the list.
 
If it's asking you for midi outputs, you've done something wrong. If you hooked up a midi cable from the m-audio to the computer, unhook it. You don't use midi to record acoustic guitar. The firewire cable should be the only thing connecting the m-audio to the computer. Can't really help with cakewalk, don't have it, don't use it.

Anyone here that uses Cakewalk that can help a girl in distress?
 
No audio playback with Firewire Solo

I'm having essentially the same problem as in this post and am wondering if anyone figured it out. I have Sonar 7 with an M-Audio Firewire Solo. Plugging a mic into the XLR input and headphones into the headphone output, I can hear myself in the headphones, the M-Audio control panel meters show that it hears me, Soanr 7 (and Audacity for that matter) show waveforms and appear to record me, but I hear nothing on playback.

I've tried adjusting the Windows preferred audio device settings, etc, to no avail. Has to be something simple!
 
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