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I just picked up a Microbook 2 yesterday for portable recording and almost pulled my hair out just trying to get the thing to work on my Macbook for a good part of the day. I looked on various forums and found some helpful hints but when I boot up DP or Logic or any DAW, I cannot for the life of me get to hear my main outs on my phones even when I have routed them in CueMix under Mix1. It's exceedingly frustrating especially because I just want something plug and play. My 2408mk3 wasn't this hard to configure for pete's sake!!!

Does anyone have any suggestions? To get any sound I have to route everything through Phones but this doesn't allow me to monitor my mix unless I switch the all the tracks. I'm considering exchanging it for a Apogee One but frankly the MB2 kills it on features...

Have you checked under MOTU Audio Setup? I don't know about the Microbook, but on my Ultralite there is the option to select the headphones from any source - Phones Assign drop down menu....

Cheers

Stephen

It says no unit can be found, so I don't think it applies. Could just be a defective unit.

Hello dcoscina,
Your MicroBook II is not defective. The MicroBook II's headphone output is a discreet output, which will not automatically mirror the main output. To mirror the main output on all outputs you can simply tell Logic (or any other program) to play through the Aux output (output 7-8) of the MicroBook II. This will patch the output into the CueMix FX mixer where by default it will be sent to all outputs simultaneously. This TechNote will give you more specific instructions to set this up:

http://www.motu.com/techsupport/technot ... le-outputs

FYI, I believe there is an option in Logic's preferences that allows you to assign the 'Stereo Output' to any output stream on your hardware. If you assign this to the Aux output Logic should automatically route everything to the main outs and headphone output simultaneously.

Cheers,
Lorne
MOTU Tech Support

Thanks that is good to know. I appreciate your response. I did stumble upon this link and used it to get going with local sound on my Macbook.

so how would I set this up for DP7.24? I can route out to phones but I'd love to be able to default to phones on any track when I add virtual instruments.

Thanks again for the response. Much appreciated!

Here's the routing behavior I've observed:

Mac: 1/2
MicroBook2: Aux 1/2
CueMix Behavior: Input on Aux fader for normal mixing
Expected Behavior: Nice!

Mac: 3/4
MicroBook2: Main 1/2
CueMix Behavior: Sums with Main mix bus exclusively
Expected Behavior: Nice!

Mac: 5/6
MicroBook2: Line 1/2
CueMix Behavior: No signal
Expected Behavior: Huh? Why not work like Main output?

Mac: 7/8
MicroBook2: Phones 1/2
CueMix Behavior: No signal
Expected Behavior: Huh? Why not work like Main output?

This is important to anyone trying to send their metronome to the phones output to be summed with regular bus mix while sending everything else out the main outs for public consumption. Can anyone suggest a way to achieve this goal with a) MicroBook2, b) another Motu product or c) any other data converter?

In Ableton Live,
I have the Master Out going to MicroBook II 1 & 2
I have the click going to Ext 3
I have the cues going to Ext 4

I'm aware that Ableton will use these outs:
1 & 2 is Aux, routes signal to all MicroBook II outputs
3 & 4 is Mains, only routes signal to MicroBook II Main Outs
5 & 6 is Line Out, only routes signal to MicroBook II Line Outs
7 & 8 is Phones Out, only routes signal to MicroBook II Phones Outs

With this setup,
I can hear the Ableton Master Out in the Main Outs
I can hear the click in the Left Mains Out
I can hear the cues in the Right Mains Out

With this setup,
I can hear the Ableton Master Out in the Phones Out
I cannot hear the click in the Phones Out
I cannot hear the cues in the Phones Out

Using Cue Mix, how can I route USB channels to designated MicroBook II Outputs? ie.. Phones.
I'm aware that I can send to 7 & 8 from Ableton, but there's other needs for this routing.

bjamn wrote:Using Cue Mix, how can I route USB channels to designated MicroBook II Outputs? ie.. Phones.
I'm aware that I can send to 7 & 8 from Ableton, but there's other needs for this routing.

Use the "Aux 1&2" input on a mix bus. You have four mixes. It's a somewhat confusing and non-standard way to access them imo (a small drop-down on the MIXES tab itself). Then on the Outputs tab, select that mix bus for the Phones 1-2 output. I'm pretty sure you can send more than one mix bus to a physical output – but again, it's a weird way of doing it – just select a different bus again in the same drop down ("SOURCE") and it gets added.

A little unintuitive imo but once you grok it you'll see the flexibility you have.