Garageband problem or hardware problem?

January 24, 2007 12:42 PM

Garageband problem or hardware problem? Or what?

I am using an Alesis Multimix 8 Firewire mixer to record with Garageband. Everything is working fine except my drum machine. Working fine are the microphones and pickups in my acoustic guitar. The mixer is registering input from the drum machine like it does with the others, but Garageband is not registering this input. Why? I have tried every possible way to connect between the drum machine and mixer but I have only one way to connect the computer and mixer. The drum machine is a Boss Dr. Rhythm Section DR-5 and the computer is a Macbook Pro Duo. I would love a solution to this problem, and just as much would love to find a program without it.

posted by MNDZ to technology (6 comments total)

Forgot to mention:
Garageband does register the drum machine through direct input to the computer either.
I know the input selection in Garageband and System Preferences.
posted by MNDZ at 12:54 PM on January 24, 2007

Forgot to mention:
Garageband does not register the drum machine through direct input to the computer either.
I know the input selection in Garageband and System Preferences.
posted by MNDZ at 12:54 PM on January 24, 2007

Are you trying to MIDI the drum machine to the computer, or just capture the audio output from its line out?
posted by eustacescrubb at 12:55 PM on January 24, 2007

I'm not too familiar with garage band, but it sounds like a routing issue in the mixer.
At bare minimum, you should be able to unplug your guitar from the mixer and plug in your beat box into the same port. Then it's either
a) sound enters garage band, indicating a routing problem (see alesis manual)

or

b) no sound, indicating the box isn't pumping sound.

either way, if you can get guitar, the problem isn't garageband or mac os x, it's in the alesis. check your busses and aux sends. (if available)
posted by emptyinside at 2:23 PM on January 24, 2007

my guess:

emptyinside provided a good start. but if i remember correctly, the alesis is an 8 channel firewire interface . So the reason you're not hearing anything in GB is because you only have a track with inputs 1-2 enabled in GB, and you need to make another one to account for inputs 3-4 or whatever inputs you're using on the Alesis. Such is the nature of multitrack recording.

I'm guessing the reason you hear guitar and mic is because those are plugged into inputs 1 and 2 on the mixer, and that's what GB is choosing for the default inputs. Ideally you would have GB set up as

Track 1: (mono) Vocals, Recording input 1
Track 2: (mono) Guitar, Recording input 2
Track 3: (stereo) Drum machine, Recording inputs 5-6 stereo (use 5-6 because, on the alesis and mackies, the first 4 are reserved for mono and the rest are stereo pair channels)

p.s. eustacescrubb: midi is not a verb :)
posted by Señor Pantalones at 1:19 AM on January 25, 2007

Señor Pantalones, tell that to practically every music tech geek I know.
posted by eustacescrubb at 5:44 AM on January 25, 2007