Cannot Record External Synth

[rekina]

Hi guys,

I have an issue with recording the Korg Monologue synth though the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interface on Ableton and I'm out of solutions. I hear the sound coming out but I cannot record it into the software, I cannot get it onto the AUDIO or EXTERNAL INSTRUMENT channels. I can see playing only in the MIDI channel but it's greyed out and cannot be recorded.

I looked at all the tutorials, asked for help and looked all over the internet on forums, but nothing seems to address the issue. I was in communication with Ableton support but this doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I can get it working on Logic, so the cables are good.

The setup is Korg Monologue connected via audio cable to the audio interface which is connected to the computer vie USB and the synth is also connected to the computer via USB. I am using a MacBook Pro Monterey with a processor 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 and using the latest version of Live.

I appreciate any help or ideas. Thank you.

[rekina]

I have Core Audio selected for Mac, it's the only option

[Greenapples2019]

Could you post a screenshot of your Ableton set-up? That may help someone to spot what's wrong.

[jlgrimes]

Hi guys,

I have an issue with recording the Korg Monologue synth though the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Audio Interface on Ableton and I'm out of solutions. I hear the sound coming out but I cannot record it into the software, I cannot get it onto the AUDIO or EXTERNAL INSTRUMENT channels. I can see playing only in the MIDI channel but it's greyed out and cannot be recorded.

I looked at all the tutorials, asked for help and looked all over the internet on forums, but nothing seems to address the issue. I was in communication with Ableton support but this doesn't seem to be going anywhere. I can get it working on Logic, so the cables are good.

The setup is Korg Monologue connected via audio cable to the audio interface which is connected to the computer vie USB and the synth is also connected to the computer via USB. I am using a MacBook Pro Monterey with a processor 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 and using the latest version of Live.

I appreciate any help or ideas. Thank you.

For External Instrument, you will need to set the correct Audio Input. Sometimes this can be tricky to figure out which number to use but you should see an audio signal light up on the instrument chooser to let you know that you are choosing an input with an audio signal. That said you don't want to use a loopback input as that can cause a nasty feedback loop if you are monitoring the audio (and/or record other computer signals depending on your monitoring setup). If you got an audio signal going in and the meters light up, you should be able to record. Do you see meters in Ableton?

If you don't see meters, do you see meters light up in the Focusrite Control Mixing interface (if you are hearing sound from Interface, I'm assuming that audio is at least getting there).

[jlgrimes]

The setup is Korg Monologue connected via audio cable to the audio interface which is connected to the computer vie USB and the synth is also connected to the computer via USB. I am using a MacBook Pro Monterey with a processor 2.3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 and using the latest version of Live.

Another question since you have synth connected both USB and Analog audio, it could be possible that audio is coming out of USB connection and not audio connection. You might need to somehow tell synth to send audio out of Analog out and not USB, or try setting up Synth Core Audio via USB in Ableton and record that way.


The ultimate test though is checking your meters in both the Focusrite Scarlett control and Ableton. It might be also that you aren't using Focusrite Control on a Mac, as many Mac Interfaces install Plug and Play without needing a Focusrite Scarlett driver. This can make things easy to setup but you might lose some of the flexibility of the Interface such as using its Mixing Console App (which can be handy for troubleshooting audio connection issues). That said it is recommended to check Focusrite's recommendation whether to install interface without their drivers or just use the Mac's driver. Pretty much all Windows Interfaces require installing the driver from the manufacturer but Macs can be different.

[rekina]

SOLVED: It was the Mac settings, I had to allow mic permissions for Ableton. So happy to have it working. Should have this up somewhere though for other people because it took me so long to figure out!

[fishmonkey]

yep, that's an annoying one.

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/artic ... cent-macOS