How do I get Audacity to recognize and therefore record from my Motu Audio Express? I have the Motu connected to my windows 10 laptop via USB and whenever I turn the Motu on or off my computer “bings”. However, when I go into Audacity and try to choose the source, it does not give me an option of a USB input or anything other than Microsoft Sound Mapper input or Internal Microphone. I have read through these boards and I know people are successfully using Motu Audio Express with Audacity, but I have not found directions on how to get them linked initially. The Motu is clearly working - it is powered up, lights are working and when I play my guitar or use my mic the levels move up and down on the Motu. Many thanks!
I assume you installed the drivers? You’ll need the regular WDM Windows drivers. Audacity does not support ASIO.
Plug-in the interface before starting Audacity.
Right-click on the Windows speaker/volume icon and see if it shows-up as an input & output device option. From there you may have to “drill down” to make sure it’s enabled. The “general rule” is, if Windows can see it and it’s enabled, Audacity should see it too and it should work with Audacity.
If you are going to use more than 2 inputs, Audacity seems to have “trouble” multi-track recording. It’s s supposed to be possible with the right drivers, but from what I see here on the forum “nobody” is using Audacity for multi-track recording and you might want to use the software that came with your interface.
Thanks DVD - I didn’t download any additional drivers. I’ll give that a shot.
Ok - after looking up info on regular WDM Windows drivers I see a lot of info but no actual drivers to download. Maybe I’m just being completely ignorant. I’ve got probably 20 hours put into getting this Motu to work (which I started with their free software and couldn’t get it to work). If you could point me to where the driver downloads would be that would be great. Are they Microsoft downloads? On Audacity somewhere? Many thanks.
Connect the Motu to the computer.
Look in the Windows Sounds control panel. Is the Motu available as a recording / playback device?
If it is, send an audio signal into the Motu and see if the green recording meters in the control panel respond.
If they do, Launch Audacity and open “Help > Diagnostics > Audio device info”. Save the info to a file and open it in a text editor. Is the Motu listed?
If it is, select the Motu / USB option in the device toolbar.
Where did it go wrong?
If you bought it new it should have come with a CD but the drivers are on the MOTU site: http://motu.com/download#download-group-audio
If you didn’t get the user manual : http://cdn-data.motu.com/manuals/firewire-usb-audio/Audio_Express_User_Guide_Win.pdf
I never provided an update but downloading the drivers for my Motu worked. Everything was working great and I was recording for a week or two. Then for various reasons (primarily focusing on writing and not recording music) I hadn’t recorded for a few months. Went back to record some material today and… not working again. This time a little different though. When I click on record, the line doesn’t even move and therefore nothing is recording. My motu is there as the input device, I tried downloading the latest drivers, I reinstalled audacity, I reconnected my Motu Audio Express. I checked all sorts of settings etc… But nothing will make that recording line budge. The red record button in Audacity even changes as if it is recording but absolutely nothing is happening. I changed the input over to the internal computer mic just to see - and that worked fine. As soon as I hit record it started recording right away… Switch it back to my Motu input… and you can click all the command buttons like record etc, but nothing happens. Any ideas?