plugging R16 Zoom into Garageband as interface?

I believe all you have to do is download the latest driver, install it and plug in the zoom.

In my experience, Garageband and Zoom are not a very useful combination, especially with GB 10.

The Zoom can be used as an A to D converter, allowing you to record analog audio sources, but it does not work as a control surface. Faders, knobs and playback controls do not work. The controls will play midi notes, so they are being seen by Garageband, but they are not mapped to anything useful. If there is a way to change the mapping, I'd like to know about it.

Another problem is that the lastest GB release (10) makes even the A to D feature almost worthless. In previous versions of GB (6.x for example) a "real instrument" track could be assigned to any input channel of the Zoom, including stereo pairs. This was great. For example, a keyboard could be connected to inputs 3 & 4, and the GB track assigned to those inputs as a stero pair. The keyboard could then be recorded as a stereo analog source. Additional track could be assigned to other inputs and multiple tracks recorded simultaneously. So for that use the Zoom was great.

Not any more. The latest GB release eliminated that capability, along with several other useful features.

I'd love to know if Logic has the ability to do what GB used to to. I will not buy it until I found out the answer.

In fact, I'm currently not going to buy ANY Apple software. How they can justify removing features when they "update" their software is beyond comprehension. They did the same thing with iMovie. This is a terrible business practice. There are industry standards for DAWs and control surfaces (Mackie Control), but Apple refuses to adhere to them. Apple clearly does not care about their existing users.

The problem is that Zoom has not updated their drivers yet. It looks like they just updated the Windows 7 and 8 drivers so they may have Mavericks drivers soon.

You may want to contact Zoom.

That is a valid point, up to a point. R16 is not well supported by Zoom either. However, I've had the zoom for three different Mac OSes and multiple GB versions and it has not worked as a control surface for any of them. Other people report success using the Mackie Contril driver for other DWAs, so I see this as an Apple issue first. If they supported industry standards I would expect the zoom to work with GB without special drivers. Is Apple requiring Zoom to write special code for its subset of users who have GB? Seems unreasonable.

But the larger issue for me is the fact that the new GB does not allow tracks to be assigned to the 8 R16 inputs. That functionality was removed from the "upgrade". I can still use that feature with GB 6.x. If the latest release is a new code base or something, keep it in beta until the feature set is complete. Don't just take features away without notice or explanation. Not cool, man.

I don't think I mentioned that I have the up to date zoom drivers and firmware, FWIW.

rawitten wrote:

the fact that the new GB does not allow tracks to be assigned to the 8 R16 inputs.

did you enable multi-track recording? GBv10 still supports it, if the R16 (and its driver) does:

http://www.bulletsandbones.com/GB/GBFAQ.html#multitrackrecordinggbv10

This FAQ entry offers a Minute GarageBand video tutorial

(Let the page FULLY load. The link to your answer is at the top of your screen)

By the way, if you have an iPad, this discussion is largely moot.

Apple's free Logic Remote app is an excellent control surface for Garageband too. You can control everything the Zoom would do (if it could do what it should do) and much more. The only downside is the knobs and faders are virtual, not physical. But the faders are very smooth and responsive, and I used it to pull 6 tracks at once.

Now if the automation could be recorded in GB instead of being click-n-drag only, that would be fantastic. Perhaps Logic allows that, but I'm not dropping $200 to find out. Besides, the next version of Logic might just eliminate that capability anyway.

Thank you, thank you! I love to be proven wrong. The capability was not removed, it was just hidded behind an absolutely non-intuitive "i" button (a classic Apple interface). And, of course, the "Help" feature provides no help at all. Thanks for the 3rd party link!

As it turns out, everyone, GB 10 retains the ability to assign tracks to the Zoom R16's 8 inputs. Open the Smart Controls window and click on the Show Inspector button (rectangular button with an "i" on a blue circle). Select the input via the Input pull-down control. To create a stereo track, click on the non-intuitive "O" at the left of the Input pull-down and it will switch to stereo-pair mode.

Now, can you show me where the "Import iOS Project" feature is in the new iMovie? ;o)

Thanks, HangTime!

you're welcome, glad that bit works.

re: iOS iMove

afraid i've never used the iOS version B–(>

This just in from Zoom support:

"Unfortunately Garage Band does not have Mackie Control. It would be best to use Cubase or Logic."

BTW: GB 10 doesn't seem to have the "enable multitrack" step anymore (one of the reasons I thought it was gone). You can simply click the record button on multiple tracks (that have been assigned inputs) and go.

FWIW: This isn't an iMovie discussion, but the issue is that the desktop version seems to no longer allow importing an iOS project. Major bummer because I often start a project on my phone and complete it on the desktop.