Using Outboard Gear With M-Audio Fast Track Pro And Logic Express

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Using Outboard Gear With M-Audio Fast Track Pro And Logic Express

My Fast Track Pro has 2 insert jacks on the back where you can run a send and return to use outboard gear. The cable you use has 2 female 1/4" jacks (one is send and the other is return) that go to a 1/4" male jack that you plug into the back of the interface.

My question is this:
How can I get Logic Express to send a track through the outboard gear connected to my interface? On the track's output settings in Logic there are "Output 1+2", which run to my monitors I think, and "Output 3+4", which don't have anything plugged into them. There don't appear to be any other options for sending the track. How can I get Logic to recognize the Inserts jack on the Fast Track Pro? I'm running all the latest drivers if that means anything. Any help is much appreciated.

15" Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6), 2.16 GHZ Intel Core Duo, 2 GB RAM, 30 GB 5G iPod, 16 GB iPhone 3G

Posted on Feb 25, 2009 9:38 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 25, 2009 10:03 AM in response to TenaciousN8

There are several ways to do this. Here're a couple.

1) If you want to process a single channel, insert an I/O plug-in (in 'Utility' in your plug-ins menu) on the channel, and set it's input and output to 3-4. Hook up your hardware to insert on 3-4 on your interface and adjust the levels if necessary.

2) If you want to process a bus (drum or guitar bus, for example) send to this bus from however many tracks you'd like and in the Aux, insert the I/O there (also 3-4), with its output set to 1-2 so that you control the effect return.

There are other ways too - the best method depends on which processor type you're using (compressor? reverb? EQ? etc) and what you want to achieve.

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Answer 2

TenaciousN8 Author

Level 1

25 points

Feb 25, 2009 12:44 PM in response to John Alcock

Thanks for helping me on this. I'm still a bit confused on how to send the channel through the insert. The jacks on the back of my interface are "TRS Output 1+2" (my monitors are plugged into these outputs), a RCA "Output 1,2,3, and 4", an S/PDIF out and in, and then 2 TRS inserts jacks, marked 1 and 2. Each jack does it's own separate send and return which is why I had to buy the cable with the 2 female jacks on it.

I've been able to use the I/O plugin and get the track to accept a signal from the insert on input 1 (I have a looping pedal running in the send chain and was able to get it to play a loop over top of the audio already recorded on the channel), but am unable to send the recorded track through the fx send. What would I need to set the output to to be able to do this? Thanks for your time.

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Answer 3

Feb 25, 2009 1:22 PM in response to TenaciousN8

As I don't use your interface, I'm guessing here - but can your interface function as a 4 in, 4 out configuration? That's what you need, so if so, sending the input and output of the I/O plug-in to/from 3-4 should get you the results you want.

I took a quick look at the Fast Track specs, and the ins/outs seem to change depending on whether you're using 16 or 24 bit, which seems a bit odd, but in any case it talks about ins/outs for 3 & 4 on RCA connectors. Sorry I can't give specific advice for your interface; hopefully someone using your interface will jump in. Maybe your inserts only work when recording on 1-2, in which case you'll have to use the separate ins/outs to 3 and/or 4 and not the inserts.

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Answer 4

TenaciousN8 Author

Level 1

25 points

Feb 25, 2009 2:02 PM in response to John Alcock

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. Hopefully someone with my interface will chime in at some point.

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