Need help asap!

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maxabillion

New member
Recording a band today. However, for some reason I cannot get a signal to process in the 3rd and 4th inputs of my interface (a fastrack ultra). The mics are working fine (they send a signal when plugged into the 1st and 2nd input) but the third and fourth will not even register a signal. What could be wrong?

Also, for the 1st and 2nd input, the channel levels don't affect anything. For example, I have them turned all the way down (on the interface) but the signal still comes in way too hot.

I have tried closing everything down, rebooting, switching mics, etc. What could be the problem

Setup:
mic (either a shure sm58 or mxl 990) micing a guitar amp, into the channel input of a fastrack ultra interface, connected by usb to an Imac, into Protools 9. Any help would be great! Thank you!
 
Hi there,
A couple of questions for you.

maxabillion said:
Recording a band today. However, for some reason I cannot get a signal to process in the 3rd and 4th inputs of my interface (a fastrack ultra).
Click to expand...
Is this a new setup?
Did you ever get a signal into 3+4?
Assuming the answers are no and yes, the interface isn't broken, and the correct drivers are installed....do the following.

  • Open Protools and go to Setup>Playback engine
  • Make sure that your maudio interface is selected, not aggregate device.
  • Go to Setup>I/O.
  • Click the input tab, select all paths and hit delete. ( don't panic. :p )
  • Once they're all gone, hit default and the paths will repopulate.

This removes the possibility of ProTools calling an old I/O layout from 'built-in audio', for example.

maxabillion said:
Also, for the 1st and 2nd input, the channel levels don't affect anything. For example, I have them turned all the way down (on the interface) but the signal still comes in way too hot.
Click to expand...

Is it a case of the gain knobs not doing anything, or the source signal just being too loud.
By that I mean your signal is too loud with the gain at zero, but does it get even louder when you turn the gain up?
If so, you need to use a pad, pick a less sensitive mic, turn down the source, or move the mics further away from the source.
 
It is not a new setup, but I did break it down and rebuild it in a new room today. Yes, I used to get signals into the 3 and 4 spot, but haven't tried for a while, and I don't think the interface is broken, but I don't really know now haha.

I went to the I/O settings and delete them all, hit default and they all popped up again. However, same problem - no signal at all.

As far as the gain knobs go, they affect the signal after being turned past about 12 o clock, but even at zero the signal is overloaded. This isn't a huge issue because I was just going to mic farther away, but I thought I'd tag it on to this question. Thanks for your help by the way...

So any other ideas about the lack of signal going into 3 and 4?
 
I see there's a switch for each of the 4 inputs that says 'front/rear'.
Looks like if you push it to rear, the interface will look for input at the TRS sockets round the back. Any chance it's that simple?



maxabillion said:
As far as the gain knobs go, they affect the signal after being turned past about 12 o clock, but even at zero the signal is overloaded.
Click to expand...
Whether this is a fault or just the norm requires your judgement.
Is the amp pretty loud? Does everything react normally with speech rather than the amp?

If normal speech @ 6" is overloading the unit with the gain at zero, something's wrong.
 
Also just opened up the Fastrack driver thing under system preferences and when I hit the 'Monitor 1/2" tab, it says that there is a signal (I can affect the faders/knobs etc) however when I go into the "monitor 3/4" tab everything is grayed out i.e. it doesn't even register that there IS a 3/4 input. Don't know if this is relevant or not....
 
Hmm. Strange enough one.
I don't know the maudio software to be honest, but reinstalling the drivers and rebooting couldn't hurt while I google. ;)
 
Alright just figured it out - apparently I just had to unplug it, turn it off, close down PT, the replug it back in and open it all up again. - Not really sure what happened but its working now. Thanks for your help Steen I really appreciate it!
 
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