midi "static"?

Okay....so, stay with me?
 
We installed MC6 on our laptop, had a few issues with latency, got those solved with help from this forum....thanx again!  We then installed and hooked up an M-audio Fastrack USB interface, and new problems arose.  We wanted to use the interface to record electric guitar, which in the past with our other pc's and gear, had no problems, but to no avail could not get it to work right! We could hear the audio through the headphones, but nothing was "going into" MC6 audibly. (??make sense??) So, we then scrapped that interface idea to soley just go with midi for now. Uninstalled the M-audio interface, drivers and all, and now have horrible midi audio, which was NEVER a problem before.  We then uninstalled/reinstalled MC6 and have the same midi audio problem.  When we open Cakewalk SoundCenter and use the virtual keyboard, it plays the note, but it comes out very "fuzzy" and static-ey. This problem didn't occur until we used the interface and continued even after we unistalled its software. In "Prefs" I have the sound output set as "Speakers and Dual Headphones," and for the input I have "External Mic" selected.
 If anyone could help us it would be greatly appreciated. 

Hi Beagle,
 we had the software working fine before we installed the interface. There was no lag or audio problems once we set the buffer.  When we had the interface installed,(went to M-audio and downloaded the latest drivers) we had selected ASIO and could not get a signal in the track pane.  Any sound we heard was through the headphone jack on the laptop. We had the audio in set to the Fastrack and out through the Fastrack, and tried all the other combinations as well out of desparation. I would love to be able to use the interface, for my other studio pc is becoming outdated and can not run all the fun things in MC6. (I am in the process of upgrading it, but can't find a new pc with PCI slots for my M-audio soundcard!) And my research so far shows laptops need external cards/interfaces, or if I could, I would replace the card. Maybe the HP laptop and the Fastrack don't play well together.

It's the M-audio USB Fastrack interface. That's what we are trying to use on the laptop.  The 24/96 is the card in my pc in the studio. The 1010 is my next upgrade for use with MC6, but as I have learned in here recently, only 2 tracks max simultaneously for recording with MC6.  Which is a whole other topic for another thread...Sonar x1? ...Studio edition?....Producer edition?.....Which pc to buy?....
  Anyway, I digress!

Yes we did. Just tried it again, and same results.....

The M-audio is an audio only interface so getting the midi in will need to be done differently.... it won't go in through the audio only interface. 

Once it's in however, the M-audio running ASIO drives is the way to go. 

As Greg and Beagle point out..... you may need to delete the old soundcard and run it as Administrator the first time as you select the new ASIO drivers. Let the wave profiler run again and then choose the updated ASIO drivers for the M-audio USB. 

If it's seeing 2 cards it will get confused and that may cause issues too. 

I had issues at first setting up my laptop but once it was run as admin and the profiler ran, the ASIO drivers were seen and the new interface showed up and I was able to choose it as input and output and from then on it ran fine. 

jdscott


We will try that and see how she goes. The midi trigger we use (Alesis QX49) is usb, so we don't need the interface for midi. This sounds as though it might work.....Let you all know.

but that's not true.  you don't need the interface for the INPUT or OUTPUT of MIDI DATA, but you do need it for HEARING the sounds you trigger from MIDI and if you use an inferior soundcard (like the built in on one on the laptop) with inferior drivers, then you'll have popping/clicking/stuttering/dropout AND high latency.

Windows will automatically reinstall the hardware it finds and get the drivers it needs. No worry when deleting things.  

Do you see the M-audio devices now in the list of available inputs and outputs in the audio & midi setup windows? 

If not, the computer didn't profile them correctly. If so, you should be able to select them. DO so , then restart the DAW. 

It may take a bit of trying and adjusting settings.... it took me a few days to get my system figured out the first time I set it up. 

It will work.... so be patient and keep at it.   

ok, we did all you said above. but we still can not hear any audio...very puzzling....

the volume knob is up.  the output is on the fastrack.  we have the headphones plugged into the fastrack.  We can niether hear any synths or the guitar.  we disabled the onboard soundcard too.

it says m-audio 1/2 for both.

sorry for the delay again...working waaaay to much.....
ok, we are going to start from scratch one more time.  will let you know how it goes.....