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Hi All,

I have a multimix16 connected with firewire. I am recording using Audacity. I can record two tracks (which is in stereo which i think is a bit strange, i would expect two mono tracks), but adding any more tracks from the preferences page i get "Error while opening sound device. Please check the input device settings and the project sample rate", which i have done.

Im pretty good with computers (i work in IT) so i think i have installed the latest (March 2008) drivers correctly and followed the instructions regarding changing the default input audio device in both windows and Audacity.

Having said that, the manual shows the sound playback default device should be "Multimix Audio Out" and the sound recording device "Multimix Main In" (with "Multimix Channels in" available in the list). I dont have any of these, just "Alesis Firewire audio" and my soundcard "Soundmax HD Audio" as the only options for both settings. I presume the manual is out of date. Both my settings are set to Alesis Firewire audio.

I have checked the device is working correctly in Device Manager and tried updating the driver (windows said the only one available was already installed).

I also have found an Alesis firewire control panel has been installed of which the manual makes no referrence, so i dont know if the settings in there are correct.

If anyone has come across this and knows how to solve it i would be very greatful!

Cheers
CC

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Kapt.Krunch Thu, 09/18/2008 - 18:20

If you haven't already, try this:

In Audacity, go to:

Edit>Preferences>Audio I/O.

Do you see the "Recording" section with "Device" and "Channels"?

It doesn't show what you want? If it does, choose how many recording channels you want.

If it doesn't................I dunno.

Maybe try re-installing stuff? Is there any extra software that came with the Multimix, that you may have missed?

Good luck. :wink:

Kapt.Krunch

Boswell Fri, 09/19/2008 - 03:37

Audacity records from only two channels at a time, selectable as an odd-even pair from a mutitrack interface. The two tracks are by convention a stereo L-R pair, but could equally well be considered as two mono channels.

If you want true multi-track recording in a free/cheap program, consider Kristal Engine or Reaper.

Kapt.Krunch Fri, 09/19/2008 - 05:25

Boswell wrote: Audacity records from only two channels at a time, selectable as an odd-even pair from a mutitrack interface.

Why would they give the choices in "Recording" for Mono, Stereo, and 3 on up to 16 tracks? I only have it on this workstuff computer, so I can't test it, but it seems odd they'd supply those choices and only allow 2 track recording. That's why I wrote the previous post, but it's only from opening it quickly and poking around for a possibility. I really don't know, for sure.

Kapt.Krunch

Boswell Fri, 09/19/2008 - 07:04

The problem stems from Audacity not supporting ASIO drivers and instead relying on the native Windows audio drivers. The default Windows implementation is a two-channel (stereo) input driver. Most multi-track interfaces (such as an ADAT card) instantiate several instances of the driver to get more than two channels. Audacity can see only one of these instances at a time.

If a particular interface has a native Windows driver (not ASIO) that is true multichannel, then Audacity can record any number of channels, always starting from channel 1 up to all the channels that the driver makes available.