Ableton Forum

Ok, heres the skinny. I am using all 8 XLR inputs on my Firepod. The firepod has an additional 2 channels that can be used via SPDIF input. I run 2 more channels, thru my yamaha mixing console, thru my Lexicon MX200 via 1/4". The output from the Lexicon goes to my Presonus Firepod via SPDIF. I have used this exact same setup with Sonar Producer Edition and I basically get 10 channels of simultaneous recording. My problem is, with AL5, I can't get this to work. When I configure my inputs under preferences, it shows all 10 channels on the firepod. I highlight them and that should activate them to be able to use during recording. So far so good. I run an instrument, lets say guitar, thru my mixing console thru my lexicon, thru my Firepod, but that is where it stops. I can listen to the live mix from the Firepod and hear the SPDIF channel fine. But in AL5, it never shows up. I made sure I had my track selected to 9 and another to 10 just incase I mixed up which one was which, and still no luck. Again, I can see my signal on my lexicon, and can hear it in my Firepod, but it just never gets into Ableton. Now, mind you, all of these signals, the 8 XLR's and the 2 SPDIF's all go to the computer with the Firewire plug, which I know is working because all 8 XLR inputs show up fine. It is possible that the problem is in the Firepod, but very unlikely, because A: I can hear it in the firepod and B: I have done this in Sonar Producer and had no problems at all. Can someone give me some advice. Do I need to set up Ableton to be able to handle SPDIF? There has got to be a way to do this. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. If anyone can help, and would rather talk directly, which makes troubleshooting so much easier, either email me at [email protected] or call me at 1-(870)532-0267. My name is Shawn. Thanks in advance for your time, and I hope I can figure this out.
My equipment is as follows
Pentium 4 3.2Ghz w/ 1G ram
Windows XP
Presonus Firepod
Focusrite Platinum Trakmaster Pro preamp
Lexicon MX200 Dual Reverb effects processor
Yamaha MG16/4 mixing console

Your Humble Ableton Supporter,
Shawn

Bump

i would try changing the clock source to spdif in the audio preferences tab.

In Ableton, under Options - Preferences - Audio tab

I have Driver set to ASIO
When I click the tab for Hardware Setup, it opens the firepod control panel, which I have already set to SPDIF. I verified this again just to doublecheck. No luck. Is there another way to sync this to SPDIF? I can't seem to find anywhere else to change the clocksource. Oh, and by the way, the clocksource itself is set to my Firepod and that is what opens up the Hardware setup button. Thanks for your reply. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Shawn

our screens may be a bit different due to not having the same audio device

not entering the device setup (which also brings up my aardvark manager screen) - but on the audio tab in Live itself - just under the display of buffer size and latency times - i have a drop-down menu in which i can switch the clock between 'internal' and 'spdif'

the reason i'm suggesting this is that i was helping someone set up an Mbox2 with ProTools (and I know F**all about PT!) - we were having difficulty getting anything into the spdif inputs until we switched the clock to spdif

Well, i'm pleased to announce, I have fixed the problem. I downloaded Firepods newest drivers today and when I started Ableton, it worked fine. However, later, when I rebooted my computer, and restarted Ableton, the SPDIF stopped working again. I then reinstalled the drivers that I downloaded today, and the SPDIF started working again. I guess, until Presonus figures this one out, i'm gonna have to keep reinstalling the driver everytime I restart my computer. But oh well, i'm atleast back to 10 channels of recording instead of 8. Thanks for your help.

Shawn

hmm. that sounds weak. aren't computers fun??