I have had Music Creator for about a week now and I have a big problem with selecting separate audio input devices for different tracks.

I am using a Phonic Firefly 302 USB device for the two recording inputs.

I can see all of my input devices for the Firefly when I go to the prefs dialog so I choose the Firefly mic input as my recording device. Then I assign the Firefly mic input to, say, track 1. Everything works great.

For track two I want to assign another Firefly input for an instrument. When I click on the track two input, I can only see 3 MME devices : Left, Right and Stereo for the Firefly mic input. (WHat I think I should see in the popup are all of the MME devices from the Firefly). So I go to prefs and choose the one I want. It now becomes available for track 2 but when I select it, the input for track 1 is changed from the mic input to the instrument input.

Please can someone tell me what I am doing wrong?

Music Creator is limited to 2 mono or 1 stereo input.  you have to upgrade to X2 Essentials for more inputs.

First of all: you should use the ASIO drivers with your Firefly. MME is the oldest and poorest driver.
Secondly: If I've understood correctly, Firefly can only output two channels, even though more inputs are used, so MC can record everything 302 can output.

From Sound on Sounds review:
"Although it only outputs two channels at a time, the 302 can simultaneously record up to five channels when its three analogue inputs are used alongside the stereo S/PDIF input."

MC doesn't record the outputs.  it records inputs.  if he wants to select inputs other than those listed he can choose, in MC, any 2 mono or any 1 stereo inputs, but cannot choose more than that at the same time.

I don't understand what you mean about MC capable of recording the firefly's outputs.

"Although it only outputs two channels at a time, the 302 can simultaneously record up to five channels when its three analogue inputs are used alongside the stereo S/PDIF input." 


this does not apply in MC.  MC can only record 2 mono or 1 stereo input at a time.

Switch driver mode to ASIO.... DL the latest ASIO driver from the company website. 

do not use MME driver. 

while I agree that ASIO is the best driver to use, I don't even know if his soundcard HAS ASIO drivers

and even if it does, that doesn't solve the problem he has.  ASIO drivers will not allow him to record more than 2 inputs at the same time in MC.

Welcome to the forum.
If you've already recorded track 1, you should set the input to None on track 1 when you record on another track.
It's irrelevant what the input is if you're not recording on it.
Just change the interface's inputs as you need to, and previously-recorded tracks don't need an input.
 

According to the web site for the interface it does support ASIO


Firefly 302 USB
Portable USB Audio Interface
5 x 6 24-bit/192kHz USB stream I/O
2 x 2 analog operation (RCA)
Front-panel microphone input (XLR) with +48V phantom power
Two 1/4" TRS and two RCA input connections
Headphone output with dedicated level control
Low-latency ASIO software direct monitoring
Power indicator LED
Powered via included DC power adaptor
Easy-to-see sig and clip LED indicators for input and output
Compatible with Intel-based Macs
Compatible with Windows XP, Vista & 7
Steinberg's Cubase LE 5 digital audio workstation software included

57Gregy


Welcome to the forum.
If you've already recorded track 1, you should set the input to None on track 1 when you record on another track.
It's irrelevant what the input is if you're not recording on it.
Just change the interface's inputs as you need to, and previously-recorded tracks don't need an input.
 

best answer!  as long as you don't care about recording more than 2 at the same time, then all you have to do is change the inputs in MC back and forth while recording the different inputs.  MC is limited to 2 inputs but it can be ANY 2 paired inputs at the same time.

Thanks for the responses.

What I want to do is record 2 inputs at the same time - I have tried using ASIO drivers and I don't get any further forward. It is however encouraging to hear that it should be possible.

What I don't understand is that although the prefs dialog sees more than one Firefly input, when I try to assign an input device to a track, the pop up of MME devices never shows more than Left, Right and Stereo for the Firefly input device currently selected in prefs.

Shouldn't the MME devices popup list Left, Right and Stereo for all of the Firefly inputs?