Interface Input / Metering Issues!

[pauljones699]

Hi all hopefully there's an obvious fix i'm missing here. All i want to do is record a stereo track coming in from my line ins (input 3+4) on my focusrite scarlett soundcard. How/where do you make a track, then select the input?? I have found a random workaround, on the main screen i can select a 4 channel record then if i randomly start recording it starts recording 4 mono tracks and the last two are obviously what i want (3+4). But then i have to record channels 1+2 unnecessarily every time, and i'm doing like 2 hour recordings at a time so this is just a waste.

Second issue with doing this way the metering doesn't work whilst recording i assume its defaulted to channels 1+2 on the soundcard.

SO the question, how to i just add a stereo track, make the inputs 3+4 from my soundcard and get the recording metering to reflect these inputs?

Also when i record in from my mixer the signal is nice and hot, i'm coming out the record outs on my desk into the line inputs on the interface, but the waveform is very small in audacity. I know i can make the track 'taller' but i mean the actual recorded signal is low? When i normalise it it reflects what i'm after. Is there something i'm missing here??

Thanks in advance from everyone. I am brand new to Audacity so sorry if these are obvious questions, i'm used to DAWs but i'm struggling with these simple things. Cheers,

[jademan]

SO the question, how to i just add a stereo track, make the inputs 3+4 from my soundcard and get the recording metering to reflect these inputs?

You don't. I assume you are referring to the USB Focusrite Scarlett 4i4. This feature has been requested before, but it is not currently available. On some devices, notably the UMC404HD, some drivers have presented the four channels as two sets stereo tracks only one of which can be selected at a time (either 1-2 or 3-4), so there may be a setting in your software. You can check the different hosts (MME, Windows Directsound, Windows WASAPI); there may be a different grouping. Also you can try installing new drivers I believe the current one is 3.6.0, but don't keep your hopes too high...

ASIO doesn't currently address your issue either. Audacity will take all of the tracks or none of them.

Second issue with doing this way the metering doesn't work whilst recording i assume its defaulted to channels 1+2 on the soundcard.

I would assume you are correct. This is a whole 'nother issue relating to how levels should be represented with multiple tracks, see below.

Also when i record in from my mixer the signal is nice and hot, i'm coming out the record outs on my desk into the line inputs on the interface, but the waveform is very small in audacity. I know i can make the track 'taller' but i mean the actual recorded signal is low? When i normalise it it reflects what i'm after. Is there something i'm missing here??

There may be some stereo to mono level conversion going on here. Try changing the stereo/mono setting for tracks 3-4 in your Focusrite Control software package.

I hope this helps.

[steve]

You can check the different hosts (MME, Windows Directsound, Windows WASAPI);

The options are different on macOS. Usually the only option is "CoreAudio".

I don't know how many channels the CoreAudio driver offers for the UMC404HD (I don't have a UMC404HD), but Audacity has a diagnostic tool that displays info about all audio devices that it can find on the system:
"Help menu > Diagnostics > Audio Device Info"

If you save that info somewhere convenient, then attach it to your reply (see: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=64936), we can help you to interpret the results.

[jademan]

You can check the different hosts (MME, Windows Directsound, Windows WASAPI);

The options are different on macOS. Usually the only option is "CoreAudio".

Yes. Thanks for catching that, steve.