Hi, i'd really appreciate some help.
i'm new to the Moto 24 i/o, and new to recording audio via the PC.
Can anyone please explain to me how to record audio from my motu into SX3? I normally go the MIDI route and out into mixer/ monitors but would like to record audio directly into cubase if poss?
All my kit is MIDI'd up via a Midex 8 and all audio output going through the Motu 24 i/o.
Thanks for your help
Motu 24 i/o Recording Audio in Cubase SX3
Moderator: James Steele
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Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. with Windows
Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. with Windows
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James Steele
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Moving this to MOTU Hardware forum may help... so I did. This is mostly a Mac oriented board but many Windows users frequent this particular forum. Good luck.
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Mac Studio M1 Max, 64GB/2TB, macOS Sequoia 15.5 Public Beta 2, DP 11.34, MOTU 828es, MOTU 24Ai, MOTU MIDI Express XT, UAD-2 TB3 Satellite OCTO, Console 1 Mk2, Avid S3, NI Komplete Kontrol S88 Mk2, Red Type B, Millennia HV-3C, Warm Audio WA-2A, AudioScape 76F, Dean guitars, Marshall amps, etc., etc.!
A couple of days ago, I posted a rather long winded reply to someone with a similar question in this forum... It was titled something like "How to record into Behrenger 3216", or something like that. I'll expound on that here to focus on Cubase:
First thing to do when you fire up Cubase, go to devices menu, & click into device setup. Look for VST multitrack & click to that. Here you will be able to open the driver console for the audio interface & make any changes. This is the only way you can do it while any programs that access sound are running. When you close that, you'll be back in VST multitrack. It's a good idea to click the "reset" button in that window now. Click OK, then look in "VST inputs" & "VST Outputs" to see if it matches what you have MOTU setup for... Be advised that you might have to click reset in each of these as well before it will properly display what's there. Step one is done, so close the device window.
The second step is again go to devices menu & click "VST connections", this is basically an interface between the outside world & Cubase. This is where you actually assign inputs & outputs to the Cubase console itself. If you right click, it gives opportunity to create a bus, then gives the choice of stereo or mono (you can do either). Create as many of them as you to use, then when you click on each resulting line, you assign specific I/O ports to each bus.
That's it! On each track, you should now be able to assign any of your inputs, & any outputs to wherever. It will also show a new mixer strip for each input & output. I usually hide the input channels as it can get a little crowded. One last thought is don't use configure any more channels than absolutely needed at any given time as this just increases the latency unnecessarily.
Have fun!
First thing to do when you fire up Cubase, go to devices menu, & click into device setup. Look for VST multitrack & click to that. Here you will be able to open the driver console for the audio interface & make any changes. This is the only way you can do it while any programs that access sound are running. When you close that, you'll be back in VST multitrack. It's a good idea to click the "reset" button in that window now. Click OK, then look in "VST inputs" & "VST Outputs" to see if it matches what you have MOTU setup for... Be advised that you might have to click reset in each of these as well before it will properly display what's there. Step one is done, so close the device window.
The second step is again go to devices menu & click "VST connections", this is basically an interface between the outside world & Cubase. This is where you actually assign inputs & outputs to the Cubase console itself. If you right click, it gives opportunity to create a bus, then gives the choice of stereo or mono (you can do either). Create as many of them as you to use, then when you click on each resulting line, you assign specific I/O ports to each bus.
That's it! On each track, you should now be able to assign any of your inputs, & any outputs to wherever. It will also show a new mixer strip for each input & output. I usually hide the input channels as it can get a little crowded. One last thought is don't use configure any more channels than absolutely needed at any given time as this just increases the latency unnecessarily.
Have fun!
Great airstorm, thank you, I really appreciate it.
I'm kinda stuck on the initial instructions though as I checked out Device setup but couldn't see any reference to "VST Multitrack"? There is "VST Audio Bay" which references the ASIO drivers, with it currently set to my soundcard ASIO driver (Behringer BCA2000). I tried to switch it to MOTU PCI ASIO but it says it cant use it because no outputs are configured?
Am I way off track here?
Thanks for your help
I'm kinda stuck on the initial instructions though as I checked out Device setup but couldn't see any reference to "VST Multitrack"? There is "VST Audio Bay" which references the ASIO drivers, with it currently set to my soundcard ASIO driver (Behringer BCA2000). I tried to switch it to MOTU PCI ASIO but it says it cant use it because no outputs are configured?
Am I way off track here?
Thanks for your help
Thanks BigZ.. okay sorted, got that now and have managed through the instructions from airstorm and created the Input/ Output buses in the devices menus. 24 Inputs and 2 Outputs (for now).
I've added an Audio track amongst my MIDI tracks to test and where it says 'In' on the left hand side I get a drop down menu which displays the following:
ASIO Multimedia Driver Stereo In
Stereo In
Stereo In 2
Stereo In 3
..
..
..
Stereo In 11
Are these from the buses that I have configured in Devices?
I'll be writting my tracks in MIDI and converting to audio when the tracks are complete.
So once I select one of the Stereo Ins and Record on the Audio track, will it record the Audio input from the corresponding Inputs on the MOTU dictated by whats already been recorded in the corresponding MIDI track within Cubase?
(I cant test properly right now, family asleep)
I've added an Audio track amongst my MIDI tracks to test and where it says 'In' on the left hand side I get a drop down menu which displays the following:
ASIO Multimedia Driver Stereo In
Stereo In
Stereo In 2
Stereo In 3
..
..
..
Stereo In 11
Are these from the buses that I have configured in Devices?
I'll be writting my tracks in MIDI and converting to audio when the tracks are complete.
So once I select one of the Stereo Ins and Record on the Audio track, will it record the Audio input from the corresponding Inputs on the MOTU dictated by whats already been recorded in the corresponding MIDI track within Cubase?
(I cant test properly right now, family asleep)
ok, tested it.. works perfectly in capturing the audio.
*does a happy dance!
Thanks for your clear instruction airstorm, I really appreciate it, and for the additional help bigz.
One thing I notice though is that the Cubase metronome and PC sounds like mouseclicks etc.. are coming through my monitors at a thundering volume. The sound is coming via the MOTU but I don't know how that is or where I can reduce the volume as I use another soundcard to take care of all PC sounds etc.. and that goes into 2 of the MOTU inputs but when I switch the soundcard off I still hear the PC sounds. Any ideas out there?
*does a happy dance!
Thanks for your clear instruction airstorm, I really appreciate it, and for the additional help bigz.
One thing I notice though is that the Cubase metronome and PC sounds like mouseclicks etc.. are coming through my monitors at a thundering volume. The sound is coming via the MOTU but I don't know how that is or where I can reduce the volume as I use another soundcard to take care of all PC sounds etc.. and that goes into 2 of the MOTU inputs but when I switch the soundcard off I still hear the PC sounds. Any ideas out there?
It took me a while but I got it, will add here just to close up the thread.
The MOTU had replaced the Behringer Soundcards place in Windows Audio Config setup.
Went to:
Control Panel/ Sounds and Audio Devices/Audio - then changed devices from the MOTU back to the Behringer Soundcard.
Best Wishes
Audio Noob
The MOTU had replaced the Behringer Soundcards place in Windows Audio Config setup.
Went to:
Control Panel/ Sounds and Audio Devices/Audio - then changed devices from the MOTU back to the Behringer Soundcard.
Best Wishes
Audio Noob
One quick follow up....
First, don't enable every input & output you can get your fingers on all at once in Cubase, or any other for that matter. Each live I/O point consumes bandwidth/memory/processor time, & for all we know, phone calls home to Bill in the background! (You laugh? Go read end user agreement for Media player) If you only need a pair of inputs & outputs, then just assign those. Overall performance will be much smoother.
The second thing is that if you can eliminate the other card, do it! The potential problems you are sitting on are immense, & that's just speaking of the MOTU box alone... Adding another interface to the recipe raises the potential for issues exponentially. Also, regardless of how many cards, lose the windows sound schemes. In those same windows screens you were referring to there are a couple of things to do: Turn off the sound schemes first, there's nothing worse than being in the middle of a track recording & have Windows yell DOOOHHH!!! right in the middle. If you continue down the line of options in the same area to hardware it gives you a list of installed devices/codecs & various other cryptic stuff. Work your way through all of these one at a time to make sure you know what all is available for adjustments. Most importantly is anywhere you see the option "Do not map through this device", make it true. If you click that statement to true, you are telling Windows to step off from that device... It won't try to fire any sounds that direction, & therefore won't hog resources trying to keep it handy. There are no side effects to this, just no system fired sounds... Bummer Bill.
First, don't enable every input & output you can get your fingers on all at once in Cubase, or any other for that matter. Each live I/O point consumes bandwidth/memory/processor time, & for all we know, phone calls home to Bill in the background! (You laugh? Go read end user agreement for Media player) If you only need a pair of inputs & outputs, then just assign those. Overall performance will be much smoother.
The second thing is that if you can eliminate the other card, do it! The potential problems you are sitting on are immense, & that's just speaking of the MOTU box alone... Adding another interface to the recipe raises the potential for issues exponentially. Also, regardless of how many cards, lose the windows sound schemes. In those same windows screens you were referring to there are a couple of things to do: Turn off the sound schemes first, there's nothing worse than being in the middle of a track recording & have Windows yell DOOOHHH!!! right in the middle. If you continue down the line of options in the same area to hardware it gives you a list of installed devices/codecs & various other cryptic stuff. Work your way through all of these one at a time to make sure you know what all is available for adjustments. Most importantly is anywhere you see the option "Do not map through this device", make it true. If you click that statement to true, you are telling Windows to step off from that device... It won't try to fire any sounds that direction, & therefore won't hog resources trying to keep it handy. There are no side effects to this, just no system fired sounds... Bummer Bill.
thanks again airstorm... and yea i'll phase out my other soundcard.... as soon as i can get the MOTU happening properly. I've noticed a couple of annomolies which I think might be related but after a tedious afternoon trying here I still cant sort things out.
- When I record an Audio track in Cubase the Level of the recording on playback is very very very Low, and i'm not sure where to increase the levels for recording? Cuemix channel faders are near maximum, and all the MIDI tracks are of fine loud enough volume.
- I play an MP3 on my PC for example, and the volume damn near blows me through the house wall and out into the garden
Not sure how things are working here exactly but an extremely low level output in Cubase on one hand and yet a very high level output from my PC audio files on the other makes for a puzzling circumstance.
theres one more....
- When I try to open Windows Volume Control I get an error message which starts "There are no active mixer devices available....."
Any ideas out there?
Thanks very much for your help
- When I record an Audio track in Cubase the Level of the recording on playback is very very very Low, and i'm not sure where to increase the levels for recording? Cuemix channel faders are near maximum, and all the MIDI tracks are of fine loud enough volume.
- I play an MP3 on my PC for example, and the volume damn near blows me through the house wall and out into the garden
Not sure how things are working here exactly but an extremely low level output in Cubase on one hand and yet a very high level output from my PC audio files on the other makes for a puzzling circumstance.
theres one more....
- When I try to open Windows Volume Control I get an error message which starts "There are no active mixer devices available....."
Any ideas out there?
Thanks very much for your help
The Berg programs from Nuendo2 and probably CubaseSX onward have a weird input trim control in the mixer. The catch is, it should default to a unity setting (I never mess with mine). If all your MOTU panel i/o settings are relatively close to the gear you're running, you should be getting decent levels right off.musicmad wrote:i'm not sure where to increase the levels for recording?
The input control should be a knob near the top of the channel strip. It will be in the "inputs" section of the mixer, so make sure that's visible. I think you may also need to hold a shift/mod key or something when you turn it.
Again, if you're running the proper PCI-424 ASIO driver (not the multimedia/full duplex crap), your levels are set to the right reference (+4 or -10) and you haven't been messing with any of the trims already, then it should already be giving you halfway decent levels.
Hope that helps,
George
Thank you very much for the feedback Jidis.
I notice that I have the MOTU PCI ASIO Driver selected in my Devices config within Cubase. However, when I select the Input/Ouput for the setup of an Audio track I am only shown the ASIO Multimedia Driver.
The Input Trims within Cuemix were at ZERO and I changed them to MAX and recorded another audio track but unfortunately it didn't make any difference to the low level.
What I did do though was increase the main volume levels of all my outboard gear, and changed the input reference levels from +4dbu to -10dbv and this has helped the audio recording levels in that I can see an actual WAVE now within the audio track instead of a few little bumps and blips. I had to reduce all the faders within Cuemix as the MIDI tracks were coming through at a massive level.
I'm half aware of what i'm doing here, and would be grateful if anyone could help set me straight.
I still have the issue with Windows Volume Control Mixer in that I cant get near it to modify Wave levels. Error when trying to open it "There is a problem with your sound hardware, to install mixer devices go to control panel, click printers and other hardware, and then click hardware".
I notice that I have the MOTU PCI ASIO Driver selected in my Devices config within Cubase. However, when I select the Input/Ouput for the setup of an Audio track I am only shown the ASIO Multimedia Driver.
The Input Trims within Cuemix were at ZERO and I changed them to MAX and recorded another audio track but unfortunately it didn't make any difference to the low level.
What I did do though was increase the main volume levels of all my outboard gear, and changed the input reference levels from +4dbu to -10dbv and this has helped the audio recording levels in that I can see an actual WAVE now within the audio track instead of a few little bumps and blips. I had to reduce all the faders within Cuemix as the MIDI tracks were coming through at a massive level.
I'm half aware of what i'm doing here, and would be grateful if anyone could help set me straight.
I still have the issue with Windows Volume Control Mixer in that I cant get near it to modify Wave levels. Error when trying to open it "There is a problem with your sound hardware, to install mixer devices go to control panel, click printers and other hardware, and then click hardware".
I'm not 100% certain on this, but I've seen Nuendo hang on to "old" names before, when I had changed soundcards and stuff. It may be giving you the VST Connections options from back when you had the multimedia driver running or something. You may need to go in and hit the reset buttons in all of the i/o boxes and VST connections boxes that have them, and reselect your correct ports and/or map the correct available stuff in the connections panel. After all that's up to date, you should get the right names in the pulldowns for your channel inputs.musicmad wrote:when I select the Input/Output for the setup of an Audio track I am only shown the ASIO Multimedia Driver.
FWIW- I keep CueMix off (don't use it here) and don't map system stuff through the PCI-424, but I doubt that stuff would have an affect on the levels like that.
I'll be off and on this computer for a while, so post if you figure out what it was.
Good Luck,
George