How 'bout mono x2 recording?

[Agent5Audio]

I know this is an old string, but it seems to be in to vein of my newbie question:

I just bought Metro 5 for my old G3 and so far successfully recorded a stereo track, but can you explain again how to record a mono track. And if I can record mono (Thru my AMIII card), can I record 2 mono tracks simultaneously?

And, as I mentioned, I successfully recorded thru my AMIII card, but can I play back thru the AMIII card? I have only been able to play back thru the Mac's built-in sound card.

Thanks!

[Jerm]

I just bought Metro 5 for my old G3 and so far successfully recorded a stereo track, but can you explain again how to record a mono track. And if I can record mono (Thru my AMIII card), can I record 2 mono tracks simultaneously?"

To record mono, select the mono check box in the digital audio setup dialog. To record two mono tracks, select the correct output port by assigning an instrument in the tracks window and then expose the record-audio-input select column by clicking on the downward pointing triangle. The in the audio-input column, select the correct inputs for each input track, such as L for track 1 and R for track 2. Then shift-click on the record-select column to arm both tracks.

And, as I mentioned, I successfully recorded thru my AMIII card, but can I play back thru the AMIII card?

Yes. You should create some instruments (renamed outputs in Metro 6) by going to the modify instruments and busses item from the special menu. Then in the tracks window's instrument column assign the correct instrument to each track as desired.

[Agent5Audio]

O.K., In the 'Modify Instruments & Aux Busses' dialog box, I click the 'Instruments On' pop-up menu. Do I select 'Internal' or 'Audio'? AMIII is not one of the choices. I don't really understand what I'm assigning here. Am I defining a buss that later must be assigned to a physical output or am I assigning a physical output? How do the Aux Busses work and what are they used for?

Thanks!

[Scoot]

Maybe some of the terms may have changed but I'm sure metro 5 and metro 6's aux busses behave pretty much the same way so I'll try and explain this.

If you have an audio track containing audio and you wanted to add a reverb to it you could assign a reverb effect to it by selecting something from the plugins with and dragging it over to the effects window.
This way the effect chosen only works on the audio track you dragged it across to.

If you however place the reverb onto an aux bus you then could in theory place the same reverb in any strength on multiple tracks......so I'll give the vocal track 90% and give this snare 15% and ...........that way you're saving computer power for something else.

If you go into the downloads there is a PDF file explaining it a little better and it takes you through the process. The key to getting the sound or the effect out of the aux is all to do with the wee popup in the top righthand corner of the instruments window labelled 'main'. Do a walkthru with the PDF and you should be able to figure it.

[Agent5Audio]

Thanks, but my main problem is that I cannot get Metro to playback thru my AMIII card.

In the 'Modify Instruments & Aux Busses' dialog box, I click the 'Instruments On' pop-up menu. Do I select 'Internal' or 'Audio'? AMIII is not one of the choices.

How do I assign an "instrument" or "port" to the AMIII? I was able to record thru the AMIII card, but I cannot get it to play thru the AMIII.

Maybe if someone could explain in more detail the purpose of the 'Modify Instruments & Aux Busses' dialog box (Metro 5).

Thanks,

[Jerm]

To use the AMIII card you must have a driver. It is recommended that you use an ASIO driver by placing the AMIII driver (or an alias) in Metro's ASIO folder. Once you have done this you should be able to see the AMIII for input and output. If you are using the sound manager driver (not recommended) you will have to specify the outputs in the sound control panel (I think).

[Agent5Audio]

I placed a copy of my 'Digidesign Sound Drivers' extension in Merto's ASIO folder, but still nothing. In the 'Digital Audio Setup' dialog box, the pop-up next to 'ASIO' is still empty "--". I tried re-booting, but nothing.

Is this 'Digidesign Sound Drivers' extension possibly not an "ASIO" driver? If so, where would I find one?

BTW: Since day one, the pop-up next to 'Direct Support' in the 'Digital Audio Setup' dialog box has offered 'Digidesign' as one of the choices. Is it "seeing" the AMIII card, and if so, why will it only let me record thru the AMIII but not playback?

Please help, if I can just get this AMIII playback functionality working, I'll be off and running.[/code]

[Jerm]

Have you contacted Digidesign? Or have they stopped supporting that card yet?

[Agent5Audio]

...I just found reference on Digidesign.com to an 'Digidesign ASIO Direct I/O' driver that can be found (and I found it) on www.steinberg.net under the topic of "ASIO compatibility information for Digi 001 and Audiomedia III hardware (Mac OS only)".

Does this sound like what I need?

[Agent5Audio]

I installed the Digidesign ASIO driver metioned above and was able to get the audio to play thru my AMIII card, BUT the playback is littered with digital noise - pops, clicks, and sometimes downright choppy. It plays back perfectly fine on the Mac built-on sound card AND thru the AMIII card using Protools. Does this mean that my ASIO driver is crap or are there some other settings I can play with in Metro 5?

[Scoot]

- check you levels you're putting into metro under digital audio

- download the metro 6 demo and see if you have the same problem


you have a old G3 but I used to get metro 5 to do a few tracks just fine on a 603e 100mhz machine.......usually with an external scsi drive....so that shouldn't be the issue.

[Jerm]

If you use the ASIO driver make sure to deactivate the sound manager driver completely in the sound control panel.

[Agent5Audio]

Ready for this one?

Per your suggestions, I disabled sound manager and checked every level available thru "Digital Audio Setup' and the problem persisted.

Then, I noticed that the clipping or 'jittering' seemed to be in synch with the audible sound of the read/write head of my Glyph 4Gig EXTERNAL SCSI hard drive from whence I "imported" the aiff's that I was trying to play back.

Sooo, just for fun, I copied the aiff's to my INTERNAL hard drive, opened a fresh Metro document, imported the aiff copies, and.... the clipping/jittering is gone!

Explanations? Anyone? ...very strange if you ask me, but I can work this way so I'm happy for now.