Getting Started With Moto and Audacity

I’ve spent a couple days trying to get Audacity 3.05 to record (or even monitor) Inputs 3&4 from my recently purchased Motu M4. I am running Audacity on a 2017 MacBook Pro with Big Sur and it is connected to the M4 with USB-C cable. All MIDI and Sound settings on the Mac appear to be correct and are set at 96/24. I am inputting line-level balanced inputs into Inputs 3&4.

GarageBand works and it allows me to directly select combined inputs 3&4. But Audacity, allows selection on one of 8 channels - Channel 1 is labeled as mono, Channel 2 is labeled as “Stereo”, and the other 8 channels are not identified. No matter what Channel I select, nothing appears in the Audacity monitor display.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Audacity is fixed at stereo (or mono) playback and it’s normal to work stereo (or mono) recording.

Some multi-channel devices default their services to collections of stereo connections. People find they can record 1 & 2 -or- 3 & 4 -or- 5 & 6, etc.

Some scramble the connections which is what it looks like you have.

Sometimes the interface will include special software or drivers to make this easier.

This isn’t broken. You stepped into the magic land of multi-channel. Garageband lets you record 3 & 4 and nothing else, right?

If it will let you record many more than two, record in Garageband and do final production in Audacity.

Koz