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Alright, so I just purchased an Echo Audiofire 8, as well as Sonar 7, and for some reason, Sonar 7 won't recognize the Echo interface, so I'm completely unable to record anything. I'm getting output from the interface, so I know the hardware isn't broken or anything. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Comments

anonymous Fri, 07/25/2008 - 08:26

Greener wrote: Did you pay for both units from an actual shop?

You should be entitled to support. Or a refund.

What OS you using?

I'm using Windows Vista. I'm really hoping it's not a problem with the OS. Vista's been a bit of a musical nightmare since I got my new computer. I got the interface off of eBay, so I don't know that I'm entitled to support.

anonymous Fri, 07/25/2008 - 08:34

Dude, so many factors.

Firstly, being a tightarse and buying from e-bay hasn't made your life better.

Secondly, You have three miss-matched things. Audiofire 8, Sonar 7 and Vista...

My monies on Vista.

Try right clicking the volume control in the bottom right corner. Got to playback properties and recording properties. Make sure they are set to the device you want by default.

Use the help function in Sonar to search for "device" "interface" and as many buzz words you can think of.

Sonar has an annoying way of needing you to set parameters in more than one place.

Personally. I'd lose Vista.

anonymous Fri, 07/25/2008 - 08:59

A little bit from each column.

Unplug the device, uninstall everything.
Reboot.
Install drivers for device. Drivers certified for Vista.
Connect device.
Verify it's the default device.
Install Sonar.
Update it to the current Vista edition (If you can).
If Sonar's not recognising the device, point it at the device.
If you can't, I'd say you're all in the fucked column.

anonymous Fri, 07/25/2008 - 09:08

Greener wrote: A little bit from each column.

Unplug the device, uninstall everything.
Reboot.
Install drivers for device. Drivers certified for Vista.
Connect device.
Verify it's the default device.
Install Sonar.
Update it to the current Vista edition (If you can).
If Sonar's not recognising the device, point it at the device.
If you can't, I'd say you're all in the fucked column.

Haha, alright. Thanks so much for your help. I'll do all of this. If I can't get it to work, could you recommend another DAW offhand? Sonar's the one I prefer to use, but I'm not that experienced with it yet and it wouldn't be a big pain for me to switch to another. The interface, on the other hand, would be a big pain to have to change.

pr0gr4m Fri, 07/25/2008 - 10:01

I don't think the problem would be with Sonar or necessarily with the interface. My guess is that the problem is a configuration issue involving Vista and the interface. Make sure that the Audiofire is Vista compatible. Make sure that the drivers for it install properly and then get the lastest updates for them from the manufacturers web site.

If you still don't have any luck try some other audio apps and see if they recognize your interface. See if the vista version of sound recorder can record audio from your interface. Maybe install something like Reaper just to see if it can see your interface.

If you can't get anything to see the interface, then it won't matter what DAW software you use.

Keep up the troublshooting and let us know what your results are.

anonymous Fri, 07/25/2008 - 13:27

Alright, status report. I updated the drivers for my Echo interface, and my computer is recognizing the interface now. Thank god. I set it to my default. I've set up everything in Sonar (which is now recognizing the interface as well), but there's one last hurdle. I can't record anything into Sonar for some reason. I've got all my ins and outs specified in the audio options, and everything should be fine. I can't figure out exactly why the signal from my interface isn't making it into Sonar.

anonymous Fri, 07/25/2008 - 15:17

Greener wrote: Click the R button in the audio track panel. This arms the track. Hit record.

When you're done getting it to work, can you post an example of your playing/singing whatever?

Yeah, I know all that. I'm not totally clueless (though I may present myself to the contrary). The problem is that when it's recording, it's not receiving any signal, and so it's just a blank track. I'll gladly post stuff when I actually get this to work. I'm always looking for constructive criticism on my musicianship and my audio-work.

Space Fri, 07/25/2008 - 17:11

Piccadilly wrote: Alright, nothing offered to me on Cakewalk's website helped. I'm now in freak out mode. Could they possibly be incompatible? I don't understand why Sonar would simply fail to recognize the interface I'm using.

That was why I asked, to rule Sonar out, which is almost always the easiest to do. It either does or does not recognize the audio device which means it's the audio device.

So we ruled it out...next, make certain you have up-to-date drivers for the audio device. I cannot impart to you how important this is to your situation. These kinds of concerns can go on for days and days with nothing but frustration on both sides due to the inevitable oblique issues that germinate in the process.

anonymous Fri, 07/25/2008 - 17:46

Space wrote: [quote=Piccadilly]Alright, nothing offered to me on Cakewalk's website helped. I'm now in freak out mode. Could they possibly be incompatible? I don't understand why Sonar would simply fail to recognize the interface I'm using.

That was why I asked, to rule Sonar out, which is almost always the easiest to do. It either does or does not recognize the audio device which means it's the audio device.

So we ruled it out...next, make certain you have up-to-date drivers for the audio device. I cannot impart to you how important this is to your situation. These kinds of concerns can go on for days and days with nothing but frustration on both sides due to the inevitable oblique issues that germinate in the process.

Yeah, I've got that all sorted out. My problem now is that the signal from my interface isn't making it onto the track in Sonar, which I have no idea how to fix.

Space Fri, 07/25/2008 - 18:00

Piccadilly wrote: [quote=Space][quote=Piccadilly]Alright, nothing offered to me on Cakewalk's website helped. I'm now in freak out mode. Could they possibly be incompatible? I don't understand why Sonar would simply fail to recognize the interface I'm using.

That was why I asked, to rule Sonar out, which is almost always the easiest to do. It either does or does not recognize the audio device which means it's the audio device.

So we ruled it out...next, make certain you have up-to-date drivers for the audio device. I cannot impart to you how important this is to your situation. These kinds of concerns can go on for days and days with nothing but frustration on both sides due to the inevitable oblique issues that germinate in the process.

Yeah, I've got that all sorted out. My problem now is that the signal from my interface isn't making it onto the track in Sonar, which I have no idea how to fix.

It is time for Lesson Two Grasshoppa:

Read the Manual.

It is NOT Sonar...we already know this to be true. It can however still be a lose nut on the keyboard.

Read the Manual.

anonymous Fri, 07/25/2008 - 18:03

Space wrote: [quote=Piccadilly][quote=Space][quote=Piccadilly]Alright, nothing offered to me on Cakewalk's website helped. I'm now in freak out mode. Could they possibly be incompatible? I don't understand why Sonar would simply fail to recognize the interface I'm using.

That was why I asked, to rule Sonar out, which is almost always the easiest to do. It either does or does not recognize the audio device which means it's the audio device.

So we ruled it out...next, make certain you have up-to-date drivers for the audio device. I cannot impart to you how important this is to your situation. These kinds of concerns can go on for days and days with nothing but frustration on both sides due to the inevitable oblique issues that germinate in the process.

Yeah, I've got that all sorted out. My problem now is that the signal from my interface isn't making it onto the track in Sonar, which I have no idea how to fix.

It is time for Lesson Two Grasshoppa:

Read the Manual.

It is NOT Sonar...we already know this to be true. It can however still be a lose nut on the keyboard.

Read the Manual.

Haha, alright thanks. I'll do that tonight. Hopefully I can get this sorted out relatively soon.

anonymous Sat, 07/26/2008 - 14:12

Alright. Read the manual and I'm now able to record into the program, but I've got two new problems. For reference, at least at the moment, I'm running a blue bird into one channel of an MPA Gold Preamp, into an Echo Audiofire 8 Interface, and then into Sonar 7.

The Echo comes with a digital control console, which allows me to pan and adjust the volume on the signal from my inputs. Since I only need to use one mic, I'm running that into input channel 3, and in the console, I've centered it so it's not panned 100% right. However, when I record into SONAR, I get full signal on the right channel, and no signal on the left, even though I've centered the signal in the console, and selected a stereo input in SONAR.

The next problem is that I don't get playback through the headphone jack in my interface. I can hear everything coming from my mic (which is present in both channels, by the way), but nothing in the way of playback from the program. When I plug the headphones into output channel three on the interface, I can hear playback from the program, but I can't adjust the level I'm monitoring at, so this isn't ideal.

I know nothing about S/PDIF, but that's an option here. Would that take care of this problem?

I appreciate any help you can give me.