help with soundcard

natural pulse · Post by **natural pulse** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 1:17 pm

hi,

i recently bought a focusrite saffire 40 firewire sound card to use with my macbook.

it works great however im having trouble routing audio out of it to some outboard gear.... i want to route channel three to my compressor and route it back on channel eight to back into ableton.

i have the routing sorted but when i turn the output up on my compressor i have a loud screeching sound rather than my track.

any ideas ?

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:24 pm

Are you sure whatever outputs you're using on the soundcard are just channel 3 not the main out or something? Could be happening internally in the saffire. It has it's own mixer software right? Is everything set there? People often think they never need to look at these things.

Have you tried using the external audio device instead of routing back to another channel? May not be what you want, but worth trying anyway.

natural pulse · Post by **natural pulse** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:37 pm

i dont have a external mixing desk

i do all my mixing and mastering within ableton.

this is how i have the sound card set up, outputs one and two are going to my monitors (channel one left channel two right)

channel three is being used by ableton to route my dirty bass channel (its actually filthy bass my vxt8's love it, my neighbours not so much) out of the sound card into my compressor.

from there the compressor is being routed back to the focusrite under input 8 on the reverse of the sound card, i have the volum set to nill on the front so when i increase the volume knob i there is a loud metallic sound (sounds a lot like skrillex tbh) but its not my bass.

so ive looked in the saffire mix control and i can see the audio being routed out and when i turn the volume knob for input eight i can see the level rise but only with this terrible sound... ive also tried it trough different inputs... also it isnt a problem with the out board gear as i have tried pluging themain outputs to the compressor and it works fine.

any more help would be appreciated, i dont want to take a hammer to this sound card, lol.

natural pulse · Post by **natural pulse** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:46 pm

i have noticed one thing.... when i go into the preferences and the audio tab after attempting to route it.

ableton says i have to chose a driver type... all i have showing are no audio or core audio.

so im using core audio and selecting my saffire 40 from the list below that

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:55 pm

Have you tried plugging the monitors into outputs 3&4 or whatever you are using as outputs to the compressor? Do you hear the bass (just the bass). Do you monitors have a volume knob? Would be safer to turn right down if you suspect faulty outs, or plug in something you care less about.

All I can suggest is to test each in and out individually to nail down the problem.

Yeah, you want core audio. Assume you have all necessary inputs and outputs enabled here as well?

natural pulse · Post by **natural pulse** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 3:39 pm

ok, i have tried playing audio out of all ten outputs on the saffire 40, each channel worked fine.

i have also tried playing audio from my iphone trough each input, which has worked fine as well, so its not a problem with the sound card, nor is it a problem with the compressor as i have routed the audio to a pioneer efx-1000 i have and i have had the same trouble, although i did end up messing around and making a little beat around the noise.

if you excuse the side chaining, listen to the first ten seconds on the below link and that is the noise im getting when im routing the audio out of ableton and back in.

http://soundcloud.com/skitzodancer/hahah

so i have established that there is no fault with any hardware, now i am really stuck i dont know what to try next... i think i may wipe the drive off my macbook and reinstall everything. and try that, it could do with a clean anyway.

chrk · Post by **chrk** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:36 pm

natural pulse wrote:so i have established that there is no fault with any hardware, now i am really stuck i dont know what to try next... i think i may wipe the drive off my macbook and reinstall everything. and try that, it could do with a clean anyway.

Review your routing first - each and every step, and look at your sends and returns twice.

listen to the first ten seconds on the below link and that is the noise im getting when im routing the audio out of ableton and back in.

To me that sounds like you have some kind of feedback loop going on, just building up very slightly.

Btw., I guess you would want to use the compressor as an insert - have you considered using the External Audio Effect device?

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 6:47 pm

Can't listen to the track as on phone. Don't start reinstalling yet, that's a bit drastic. Sounds like you've missed something in routing. It's the kind of thing you can go over agein and again and still not see it.

Could be a setting in saffire mixer software that tells it to output main on all outs or something.

You said, you've tested all ins and outs on sound card. But have you tried for that track. Listen to output on track 3 to see if it's just the bass. Play iPod on the in and make sure it only goes to track 8.

You'll get it. And probably kick yourself after.

natural pulse · Post by **natural pulse** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 7:53 pm

i honestly am confused now.

i thought you might be right that i have just missed something whilst routing, so i have unplugged everything apart from my monitors and my macbook from my focusrite, i the went to ableton and draged in a vocal stem so i could route it trough the vocoder on the efx-1000.

so in ableton ive gone to 'audio out' and select 'ext out' and then '6' relating to output 6 on my focusrite, ive then got my cable and connected output 6 to the mono input on my efx-1000.

from there i have created a second audio track in ableton and changed this to get audio from 'ext in' and selected channel '3' relating to input 3 on the focusrite... ive then connected the mono output of the efx-1000 to input 3.

so ableton is now routing my vocal track out of channel six to the mono input of my efx, the efx is then routing it back into input three of the focusrite where ableton should be hearing the vocoded vocal but instead i get that screech.

im going to hold off on reinstalling everything... its been pouring down with rain all day and ive been inside trying to figure out this and its driving me mad i thought threatening my macbook might help LOL.

ive contacted focusrite but i have to wait for a reply and since its now weekend i doubt ill get a response till monday... but i could do with getting it sorted before hand as i have a remix to finish and also doing some dj work next week.

im going to keep rerouting this and trying to figure something out, any more comments would be greatly appreciated guys.

andydes · Post by **andydes** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:59 pm

Sorry to hear that mate. Just got back from pub and thought I'd see if you sorted it. Sadly too drunk now to wrap my head around all that. Obviously this kind of trouble shooting is hard to do without being there. All I'm good for now though is to say good luck.

natural pulse · Post by **natural pulse** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 9:11 am

thanks... ive had another go this morning and still getting the same problem, im going to wait to hear from focusrite and see what they suggest.

chrk · Post by **chrk** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 9:23 am

Would you mind giving us a screenshot of you Saffire MixControl? - There has been an update just a couple of days ago, btw.: http://focusrite.com/downloads/saffire_pro_40/

And, what sort of cables are you using? From looking into the efx-1000 manual I don't see any reference to balanced in- or outputs, so, if you're using trs-jacks it may not handle the signal well.

natural pulse · Post by **natural pulse** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:13 am

chrk wrote:Would you mind giving us a screenshot of you Saffire MixControl? - There has been an update just a couple of days ago, btw.: http://focusrite.com/downloads/saffire_pro_40/

And, what sort of cables are you using? From looking into the efx-1000 manual I don't see any reference to balanced in- or outputs, so, if you're using trs-jacks it may not handle the signal well.

not a problem they will be a b it further down the post.... ive installed the latest mix control and its not helped much, i have been able to route the audio out of the saffire into the efx and back, however ive had the efx on bypass mode with both effects turned off and the vocal is still being effected and when i turn up the volume knob on the focus rite i get that horrible screech, on the soundcloud link below is a example, also before that screech that is with the ableton channel turned to max and two ableton compressors on full aswell.

http://soundcloud.com/skitzodancer/vocal-test

[img]postimage.org/image/h5wppkv1p/9c9b2639[/img]

there is my focusrite mix control... as for the efx-1000 at first i was using trs connections, i have now moved to using a trs to phono cable but im still having the problem.

natural pulse · Post by **natural pulse** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:15 am

further to that post, the cables dont seem to be the problem, as i have connected the efx directly to master and the efx directly to the monitors and then i dont have a problem

fishmonkey · Post by **fishmonkey** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 12:07 pm

it's almost certainly a feedback loop in your routing.

i've never used the Saffire Mix Control but i just had a quick squizz at it. unless i'm mistaken, DAW 1 and DAW 2 are the channels that you have set up as main outs from Live, i.e. your L/R master channels. i bet that in your Ableton routing your return channel from your external effects is going to the Live master; from there it goes to your DAW 1/2 channels which you've got routed not only to your monitors, but also out through the analog output going to your effect. feedback loop.

in other words, i don't think you should have DAW 1 and DAW 2 routed to all your hardware outputs. i would think that DAW 3 should go to output 3, DAW 4 to output 4, etc...

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