Trying to start a podcast through Cubase

[msp710]

What up all,

I'm new to the forum and new to Cubase. I just got my hands on the Alesis Multimix8 USB FX mixer which came with Cubase LE 5. I'm eventually trying to get 4 tracks to record simultaneously for a podcast, but for the time being I am just trying to get one track to record.........and I'm running into some issues.

I currently have one track in my project. My VST connections are: Stereo Input - left (Mic 2-USB Audio 1) and right (Mic 2-USB Audio 2). Stereo Output - left (Speakers 2-USB Audio 1) and right (Speakers 2-USB Audio 2). I also have the option of Digital Output(optical) for my output device ports.

When I add a track and select the monitor button I am able to see audio when speaking into the mic, although it is with a good amount of latency. When I record I also see audio being recorded to the track. When I play the track back I hear nothing.

Strangely, I had this working perfectly the first time I attempted this. But now I can't get it to work and I've been toggling around with a lot of settings so I'm not sure if I've made a simple change somewhere that is affecting the process that I am overlooking.

Any help/input would be greatly appreciated.

I guess some general questions I have are:

What should my playback device be? (I do not have any speakers to listen though, strictly using headphones)

What should my input/output settings be for me to record and hear playback, whether that be with just one track or 4 simultaneously?

 

[Guitargodgt]

Headphones are fine, but don't monitor with cubase (that pesky delay/latency thing).

Monitor direct on your board. Plug the headphones into the board (NOT THE COMPUTER) and hit the mix to control room switch on the board and use the headphone knob to listen to what is plugged into the board directly.

I'm confused as to why you think you have optical ports to work with? There are none on your mixer. Your mixer is your "sound card" don't even bother with what is on your PC, your mixer should send and receive audio from cubase and is the only thing used for listening back and recording audio tracks into cubase.

Reading your manual you should have 10 inputs to work with in VST connections (cubase menu under devices) and 2 outputs. It says:

The USB2.0 port sends every individual mixer channel as well as
the MultiMix’s MAIN OUT/2-TRACK OUT left and right signals
to the computer. This means that, for the MultiMix 8 USB2.0, 8
individual channels are sent to the computer along with the MAIN
stereo pair (10 channels in total).
Individual channels
The INDIVIDUAL channels sent to the computer send the signal
after the preamp gain knob, the high-pass filter, the three-band EQ,
and the channel fader.
The effects of the AUX send knobs are NOT included in the
outputs of the individual channels.
MAIN MIX channels
The MAIN mix channels sent to the computer exactly mirror the
MAIN output of the mixer. If you are only interested in making
stereo recordings, consider recording the MAIN channels in your
recording software