Hey guys, I've looked around and I can't seem to find anything quite like this, so I figuered I'd ask and see if anyone has had this happen to them before. I've got a little Dell Desktop running XP media Edition, plenty of RAM, I think a 2.8g processor, with an original MOTU 896, NOT the 896 HD. The 896 is going into the Computer via firewire, which seems to work ok, I've got the latest drivers, courtesy of MOTU, and I can get a great signal from the box into my computer. I'm not really going hard out with this, I mean, the 896 is borrowed and the computer is the one I use to store my media files, so I figured I would use *gasp* Audacity. I know, mistake number one, but I thought I would still be able to play with the box a little bit, see what it does, you know the drill. So, context and rambling aside, the problem is, I can only pull down two channels of audio at any given time through Audacity. When I go to select the input source it gives me the 8 channels split out into stereo pairs, you know, MOTU analog 1-2, MOTU analog 3-4, etc. I can use those fine, but I would really like to be able to have more than two mikes available at a time. Any suggestions, aside from go get a new program? I'm going to poke around and see if I can find another freeware thing, not to use, but just to see if it has the same issue. I've got both the new beta version of Audacity and the latest stable release, they both do the same thing. Help, please? Anything you've got would be greatly appreciated...
Comments
I can't help you with Audacity per se, but I can tell you that m
I can't help you with Audacity per se, but I can tell you that most programs should be able to let you have stereo or mono settings per track being recorded with the original MOTU 896.
In my experiences with programs like Samplitude, Sequoia, Vegas, etc., running with the very same unit (the stock, original 896), you do indeed get exactly what you describe when selecting only stereo tracks. (MOTU Analog 1-2, 3-4, MOTU ADAT 1-2, 3-4, etc.) It changes to more options when you select "MONO" for the track's input/recording properties.
Somewhere in your software's track configuration there should be a stereo or mono configuration switch or radio button. Select "mono" and then see what happens with your choice dialog. If you can make that change happen somewhere in Audacity's track selection dialog (if it has such a thing), then you'll probably see the choices you want show up.
If Audacity doesn't do it (is that the basic software that comes with the Audigy cards?), then you're going to have to try something else instead. There's plenty of basic, affordable stuff out there (even Mackie Traction is pretty cheap, and should run on whatever you have) to experiment.
I believe Magix (maker of Samplitude and Sequoia) will let you download any of their products for free for a limited function try-out. (Probably can't save anything more than a 1 minute file, etc.) I'm sure many other software manufacturers do the same thing. Try one of these out, and I'm sure you'll be able to get the MOTU 896 working the way you need it.
FWIW: I didn't use mine for a while, and to cut a long story short, I have just re-installed mine as the AD/DA interface for a pair of production room DAWs here in my new/temp studio space, for cassette transfers, DAT transfers, ADAT & DA-88 transfers, etc. I have the analog inputs in a patch bay so that any of my older analog devices can be routed to it, ditto for any digital stuff in the ADAT or SP/DIF inputs.
I can tell you that it runs perfectly on Windows XP SP2, with the latest drivesrs from MOTU; I'm thrilled with it all over again. Just used it as recently as yesterday to import some old cassette copies for cleanup and restoration, and in my case, I needed two MONO tracks instead of the basic stereo config.
Hope you get it to work for you as it's intended. Good luck!