New problem

[AlChuck]

Ahhh sheeee-itt, after three years of trouble-free operation, I now have a situation.

For three years I've been running an SB Live card and a Delta 66, using Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 and the various versions of SONAR in turn (currently on SONAR 2.2).

Whenever I wanted to render a MIDI track to audio, I would select the SB Live WAV In as the source for my audio track, mute all MIDI tracks but the one(s) I wanted to capture, and hit record, and I had me an audio track from the SB Live's synth. (The MIDI synth on the SB Live was the only device enabled for recording).

A couple of weeks ago I bought my son a Logitech QuickCam. It installed just fine and everything seemed OK until...

I just went to try to render me an audio track from a MIDI part, and what do you know? The SB Live Wav In no longer exists as a device to be selected; it's been replaced by the Logitech QuickCam Mic L, R, and stereo.

I tried the Multimedia properties and reselected the SB Live as the preferred recording device, even tried unchecking "Use only preferred devices" and selecting "Use any available device." I ran the Wave Profiler in SONAR. No change. It doesn't see the SB Live's recording device. (It does see the playback devices no problem, which is why I never noticed anything until today).

Any hints?

 

[moskus]

Have you checked under Options -> Audio -> Drivers that the SB Live! is selected and the QuickCam is not?

I had that problem "a long time" ago, and I think that I solved it this way. In some way, Microsoft has re-arranged the way the different Audio-drivers appear on the system (I think). Say that before it was arranged like this:
1: Audiophile 24/96 Out 1
2: Audiophile 24/96 Out 2 (or whatever, I don't have that card )
3: SB Live!

And after the installation it changed nr 3 to "QuickCam Audio Device" and nr 4 became "SB Live!". Then Sonar wouldn't know what to do, so it just guesses that the drivers are in the same order that they were.

It could be...

 

[AlChuck]

Have you checked under Options -> Audio -> Drivers that the SB Live! is selected and the QuickCam is not?

Thanks for responding so fast!

I did check under SONAR's Options -> Audio -> Drivers, and the SB Live does not appear in the list and hence can't be selected.

The idea about the ordering of devices changing, that's curious... but wouldn't the Wave Profiler fix that up if it was run again? (It didn't...)

 

[moskus]

Ahhh, it's coming back to me...

I had to reinstall the drivers for the SB Live! after I installed the Logitech QuickCam. Then hit the Waveprofiler...

 

[moskus]

And I'm just curious... Does the SB Live! show in PA9?

 

[AlChuck]

I had to reinstall the drivers for the SB Live! after I installed the Logitech QuickCam. Then hit the Waveprofiler...

Ugh, really? Guess I can do that...

And I'm just curious... Does the SB Live! show in PA9?

I dunno, I uninstalled PA9 two years ago after I was convinced SONAR was A-OK and I wasn't going to get stuck with anything...

 

[moskus]

I dunno, I uninstalled PA9 two years ago after I was convinced SONAR was A-OK and I wasn't going to get stuck with anything...

Sorry, my bad. I thought you said you were still using PA9...

 

[guitar ed]

You might also try going to start>programs>creative, and look for 'restore audio defaults'. That should put all your audio and midi properties back to where they were. However, it will also restore your soundfonts back to the original 2mb soundfont, and the QuickCam might not work properly. Just a thought.

ed

 

[AlChuck]

Reinstalling the Creative drivers did not work.

 

[AlChuck]

Neither did guitar ed's suggestion.

Another clue, though. There is a SB Live Diagnostics program in there. I ran that, and it failed the part on recording (it runs a sine wave in that it uses to test the WAV In, and I could hear it while it was purportedly recording it, but no sound issued forth when that ended and you press Play. Then I clicked the Mixer tab and was greeted with the message "the mixer could not be found." Hmmm... the mixer would be the route for the MIDI synth's output stream to be piped to the WAV In device...

 

[moskus]

Okay... hmmm... strange!

If you completely remove the SB Live! card with drivers and all, and then reinstall it. If that doesen't work, you got a serious problem....

 

[DavidK]

This might sound stupid, sorry in advance...

When I had this problem, I found that my SB card was just a little bit loose.

 

[AlChuck]

If you completely remove the SB Live! card with drivers and all, and then reinstall it. If that doesen't work, you got a serious problem....

I guess I'll try that if I get nothing useful from Creative or Logitech tech support or user communities (yeah, fat chance, I know...).

When I had this problem, I found that my SB card was just a little bit loose.

Hey, DavidK! Good to "see" you again. Was working on the Zappa and Rush tunes recently, hope to have something soon if I can keep myself from sucuumbing to despair...

If I have to open up the case to remove and reinstall the card, I guess I'll find out if it's loose at that point... I guess it's possible...

 

[DavidK]

Good to "See" you too, AlChuck. I have been very busy lately, and the Cave has too many trolls, so it is not fun there anymore.

I played Zappa's G-Spot Tornado on wednesday at the Cleveland Jazzfest, it went well, the audience liked it. I was never happy with my stuff on "our" Zappa, I will do it again. My chops are there because I am playing a lot now, I am just short of time, but I will give it another go.

I would like to play my electric, but the plugins I have dont seem to work , and I am to poor to buy a POD ( Girlfriend is out of work), so I will try something.

Your solo on the Rush is Killa, but I MUST play electric on that, so I will wait until I have something I can actually plug the electric into.

Anyhoo, I had the same problem, and my soundcard was loose. Go figure.

 

[AlChuck]

DavidK,

Yeah, I saw in another of your posts that you were doing that Zappa stuff after being abused by the Coppola family. Glad it went well. I had my JazzSchool combo performance a little over a week ago and I was really proud of myself. I played really well for the most part, fit well with the pianist, and took some good solos. I was going to videotape it but I bailed out at the last minute -- I was gonna have my kids be cinematographers but then I remembered the last time I tried to video something for more than twenty minutes and had mercy on them. Now I regret it.

I was thinking it would be nice to have a tune on the Home Recording.com CD #2 -- think we could come up with something original by May? I'm taking a composing class starting Monday night, maybe that will egg me on to come up with a vehicle for us. I also thought that Chick Corea's "Spain" would make a good collab. track -- are you familiar with it?

Bye for now...

-AlChuck

 

[AlChuck]

update...

Some motion forward, but still not totally resolved, and something very odd that I don't quite get...

I contacted Creative and Logitech's tech support -- both promise 24-48 hr responses. Logitech is past that now with no reply, but I had some feedback from Creative in well under a day.

First thing Creative TS suggested was to use the Multimedia Control Panel utility to tell the system not to use the Logitech mic. This had no apparent effect.

Next they suggested a uninstall/reinstall of the drivers and the Creative mixer app, so I followd their instructions. The mixer returned, but still no dice with the SB Live Wave In appearing in my audio devices list in SONAR.

But I did discover that CoolEdit 2000 and Sound Forge both see the SB Live WAV In, and I could record through it in those apps.

So I contacted Cakewalk Tech Support. WHile at the Cakewalk site I found a FAQ article about dealing with a corrupt AUD.INI file by delting it and allowing SONAR to re-create it when it launches and finds it missing.

Did that, still came up with no SB Live after re-profiling the card to rebuild the file.

Then I remembered that I have a separate HW profile thatI usually boot into when I work on a serious recording, with several devices disabled...

... so I booted to that profile and disabled the Logitech camera for that profile, and deleted AUD.INI again and let SONAR rebuild it.

Voila! Sacre bleu! Mon dieu! SB Live comes back!

Upon rebooting into the original configuration, though, SONAR still has the Logitech Camera's microphone in place of the SB Live drivers.

Curiously, under the Recording profile, the available audio sources show grouped by actual device name, i.e.

Delta 66 1/2 & 3/4 & S-PDIF -> Left PCM In 1/2 Delta, etc.
SB Live Wav In -> SB Live Wav In L, R, Stereo

but under the original profile, they show up grouped under different names:

(1 in, 3 out) -> Left, Right, and Stereo Logitech Microphone
(4 in, 1 out) -> Left PCM In 1/2 Delta, etc.

Now that's odd... it didn't appear that the AUD.ini file got rebuilt again after I rebooted back to the original configuration and ran SONAR -- yet the menus are different.

Well, at least now I know that if I go to my Recording profile, it should work just fine... so I can work with it again.

 

[moskus]

Wow.... hope you figure it out!


I'm all out of ideas...

Good luck!

 

[AlChuck]

Contacted Cakewalk Tech Support and their helpful reply was, "You will need to disable the Logitech audio driver because it is conflicting with the Live driver on your system."