John

robert_e_bone


Personal preference, on that.  All of my sounds run through my interface and speakers, and they sound fabulous that way.

I am just trying to get him up and running with sound, as simply as I can.

Let's get him producing sound.

Bob Bone

Right I'm trying to hold him back. Bob It is not just personal preference it is years of experience that guide my postings. Often it is recommended to disable the on board sound chip which I do not do. I have been doing it this way for as long as this forum has been around. 

What I do have that many don't have is two output systems and speakers. One is for everyday sounds going through a Cambridge sound system and the other for pro audio. The two don't often interact. 

The way I listed the way to get his system working is the way I do it when ever I have to install a new OS or a new Sonar or on a new computer. And it works. It is not difficult and shouldn't take a long drawn out procedure. I did not talk about using his M Audio for windows sounds at all. He can if its the only way open to him but I said nothing about it. 

You have every right to your opinion but in the same way so do I. I don't need any one telling me that what I am posting is trivial. That is how your post in response sounds to me Also by posting a lengthy and unnecessary list of things the OP should do you seem to be countering my post. If my instruction are wrong or need further illumination I can respect that but your's appears to undermined by disregarding it. That is rude. 

 

Hi, John.  Please please please do not think I meant ANY accusations of you holding him back, or that I had any issue with what you had posted.  I TRULY did not and do not feel that way.  


My comment about it being personal preference was meant to be just that - in that folks are entirely correct to do things however it best works for THEM.  Your method of having both the audio interface and the on-board sound card is EVERY bit as valid is someone else only choosing to use an audio interface for both duties.  That is what I meant to convey by that comment - it's personal preference - it's certainly every bit as valid which ever way someone chooses for that sort of thing.


That post that you read the way you read was only meant to say that I was just trying to give him a set of steps to follow to get him up and running, and my comment of "let's get him up and running" was meant to be inclusive - meaning 'we the forum' collectively working on getting him going.  Your steps, my steps, anyone else's steps - all working together to get him to where sound is coming out the other end of it all.


I HIGHLY regard your posts, and I also HIGHLY regard anyone's opinion on their choices for getting the most productivity out of their work flow.  I did not in any way mean to come across as rude to you - and just meant to have those steps be one example of configuring things, in an attempt to give him something he could walk through and hopefully solve his issues.


I try very hard to avoid injecting adjectives in my posts, meaning that I try to offer things up with no criticism or negativity.  I sincerely hope that you understand what I have tried to explain here - I am VERY happy that you also take the time to try to help folks, some of your posts have helped me.


OK?  Are we cool?  (I certainly hope so, because again, nothing in what I had posted was meant to be any sort of comment on the validity of your posts or anything like that).


Bob Bone

At this stage of information, there's a lot that could be wrong. Drivers and software settings are common issues.

I've also made mistakes with making sure my cables are connected correctly, power units turned on, basic stuff. I can't count the number of times I've looked for a meter signal and gotten nothing--because I forgot to switch on phantom power first.

I tend to work as Bone does above in the first numbered-steps post. I start with, does the device exist in Control Panel, drivers updated, is it enabled and selected for output, are playback channels muted and volume up, etc. A gain structure with a DAW could easily have a dozen steps in it, all the way out to active speakers. Just my opinion, I do like the decision-tree type steps for problem-solving.

Bob we are cool. 

You guys are all rockstars. I'm really appreciative of all the suggestions (of which I am about to try). This is a really great community to have this much help this quick! I'll be posting back likely with the next hour to let you know what has worked.

So, here's what just happened: I went to and made sure my drivers were up to date for the fasttrack pro (they were), uninstalled ASIO4all, and selected the fasttrack pro as my default device for playback and recording. When I went to play a song through WMP, I heard nothing but saw the sound meter registering as though it was playing music but had no output. So...I'm stuck fairly early in the tree but at least I likely have found the problem? What should I try now?

Try playing a CD or another WAV file that you know worksk in WMP. Maybe you have the Windows Sound Mixer turned down or muted. There's 3 places to check for your output: 

Sonar console
M-Audio Control Panel
Windows Sound Mixer

All of those have to be set right for you to hear the sound. 

Have to ask - are your cables to your speakers connected properly?  Powered?

If the audio interface has a headphone jack, see if sound plays through the headphone jack.

Good place to start - so issues are present outside of Sonar - please post back on the above (sorry I had to ask those questions).

I'll have a look see in the doc for your interface,

Bob Bone

What sort of port do you have your audio interface plugged into?

Try to make sure it is using a USB 2.0 port, as some interfaces do not play well with USB 3 yet.

Bob Bone

New update! It's a little bit of progress though not much; I opened X2 for the heck of it, and selected the ASIO driver and used my fasttrack as my main in/out and as my playback and timing master. I armed the track and this time, I am actually registering input, but am not hearing it through my speakers, neither plugged into the computer nor directly plugged into the fasttrack. I see this as getting somewhere as yesterday, I couldn't even register a signal to save my life. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I changed other than uninstalling ASIO4all but I tried getting a signal in X2 even before I tried ASIO4all....anyways, I had disabled and re-enabled a sound card during that process but didn't see a difference at the time. It definitely seems like an output issue as I am now getting a signal, X2 is even recording/registering sound waves when I record (with no direct monitoring) so now it seems my issue is how to listen to what I've recorded/monitor what I'm playing. I can get it into X2 but can't hear it without changing the output and tinkering again. Thanks again for the help.

Bob, I got no sound even when plugging my speakers directly into the fasttrack. I still get a strong signal in the fasttrack and in X2, but can't for life of me find a way to monitor it or play it back if I try to record it.