No sound with guitar plugged via Alesis USB mixing desk

Question

No sound with guitar plugged via Alesis USB mixing desk

Hi
I suspect this might be a dumb question, so please go easy on me 🙂

I have a guitar plugged into an Alesis 16 track USB mixer.
The mixer is plugged into the iMAc via USB port(s).
I have set Garageband to use the USB Codec as its input source
I can hear the guitar when headphones are plugged into mixer headphone socket

I create a new GB project - Electric Guitar and choose an amp/effects - but I cannot hear a thing through headphones connected to the iMAc nor can I see any volume in the meters on the track

Am I doing something fundamentally wrong ?

Thanks in anticipation
Mark

iMAc 24" 3.06, Mac OS X (10.5.6), Alesis Multimix USB 16

Posted on Apr 17, 2009 3:16 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 17, 2009 3:38 PM in response to PhatBottomEnd

Did you pick the correct channel (i.e. the one that you guitar is plugged into) in the Track Info pane?

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Answer 2

Apr 17, 2009 3:43 PM in response to Christoph Drösser

I have selected the USB Audio Codec as input on the GB preferences - but I cannot seem to find a track number on the info pane.

Is the GB/USB interface clever enough to determine which of the 16 tracks the signal is coming across the USB on?

Thanks for your help

Mark

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Answer 3

Apr 17, 2009 4:00 PM in response to PhatBottomEnd

Definitely not, you have to pick your channel. Select your guitar track, click cmd-I to open the Track Info panel, click on the amp you selected, and then you can pick which of the channels your guitar is on.

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Answer 4

Apr 18, 2009 3:50 AM in response to Christoph Drösser

By channel, do you mean "Input Source"?

I have tried all 3 (mono 1, Mono 2 and Stereo 1/2" and still with no joy 😟

I did turn the tuner on at the bottom of the panel and that did show a tuning note - but I couldn't hear it play so I wonder if it's very low signal from the usb mixer?

The peak meters on the mixer are bouncing into the red with the guitar signal.

It does seem a bit of a hassle to have to go through and set the guitar channel for every amp I might want to use?

I wonder if there is a problem with the mixer - it's showing up OK in GB - if I unplug it - GB warns me that I have unplugged the USB Audio and asks me if I want to quit. So I think the USB is being recognised OK - perhaps the audio is not making it out of the desk up the USB cable.

Thanks Christoph for your help/advise - much appreciated

Mark

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Answer 5

Apr 18, 2009 7:30 AM in response to PhatBottomEnd

I have tried all 3 (mono 1, Mono 2 and Stereo 1/2)

Wait a minute - how many out channels does your mixer have?? (I was under the impression that it sends out multiple channels".)

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Answer 6

Lust

Level 3

515 points

Apr 18, 2009 5:18 PM in response to Christoph Drösser

They're 2 channel output.

Since the tuner seems to respond then it sounds like a monitoring issue...?

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