Wow, this is a great machine. 

I don’t know if I’ll regret it when I finally get around to doing a final mixdown of my songs, but I am ready to sell my Mackie Onyx Satellite Firewire A/D D/A converter cuz I am so impressed with the sound and ease of using the Motif as my Audio Converter. 

Anyway, Let me spell out what I’ve got going on here and see if I can get some more insight from y’all.

Logic-mLan-MotifXS6-monitors (macbook pro-silver, latest OS)

I’m recording a bass guitar line (AUDIO) into Logic using the Motif as my soundcard.  I also have a MIDI track I’ve written in Logic and it is triggering the Motif’s organ sound on MIDI channel 2.

What I’m running into is trying to record the bass without latency, which means routing the bass output to the stereo L&R;channels (the L&R;Output of the Motif, where I have my monitors plugged in.)

I have Logic armed to record as Input 1 but as you may have figured out by now, if you understand my setup, the ORGAN sound on the Motif being triggered by Logic is coming out of the L&R;outputs as well.

I have attempted to send the audio from the bass through the Motif and out another channel, but then the latency shows up.

My workaround so far has been to mute the ORGAN playback during recording of the bass line, but wanted to see if there’s a better way to do this. 

Hope I was detailed enough in my explanation. 

Have a great day all!

There seems to be two separate questions here:
1) Should you get rid of your Mackie Onyx Satellite Firewire? And,
2) How do you eliminate latency?

So, for the first question- if you sell the Mackie you are basically saying the following things:

1) You will never need to use XLR or Phantom-powered mics…
2) You will never need to record two mics simultaneously…
3) You will never need to record two or more instruments (Bass, Guitar, etc...) at one time…
4) You will never require the use of two headphones simultaneously…
5) If you need any of the above things, you will make another purchase to regain the functionality…

(This is not a comprehensive list, but these are among the things you will be giving up. They may or may not be important to you)…

The second question is solved in both the software you are using and the hardware. Namely, in Logic: Preferences>Audio>Devices>Core Audio> I/O Buffer Size. (The greater the number of samples; the greater the latency. The smaller the number; the fewer plug-ins you can use without cpu overload...) You would also uncheck ‘Software Monitoring’ if it is checked…

In the XS, from Song or Pattern Mode- [UTILITY], [F2] (I/O, mLAN Monitor Setup - change to with PC (DirectMonitor)…

Finally, your routing is very unclear to me… but this should be a good start…

Thank you.  Good point as always re: Mackie.  I have no use for any of that right now, but I may in the future.

The connections/routing currently is Motif with Monitors connected to the L/R outputs.  mLan to the macbook pro.

Bass guitar connected to the L input of the Motif.  Inside the Motif, I have the sequencer set to pattern mode just for the multi timbral ability.  In COMMON EDIT of MIXING I under the AUDIO IN tab I have selected OUTPUT and chose L mono under the A/D Input, and L&R;for the OUTPUT SELECT so that when I play the guitar, I hear it ‘pre’ or rather, immediately - before it gets routed into Logic.

Now, since Logic is sending MIDI to the Motif via MIDI CHANNEL 2 (an organ sound) it also is being heard through the L&R;outputs, so I can hear the organ sound out of the Motif.

Inside Logic, I have an Audio track armed for Input 1 to receive the Bass Guitar from the L mono input, but when I record, I get the Bass Guitar and the Organ, since the Organ is also coming out of the L output. 

If I route the Bass Guitar to another Output Select, say m1, I won’t be able to hear it ‘pre’ and hence, will have to listen to it with latency.

So I guess maybe what I’m asking is if I can route the Bass Guitar to the L&R;and another output to be recorded into Logic?  Or have the organ sounds come out of the L&R;without being recorded?

If I route the Bass Guitar to another Output Select, say m1, I won’t be able to hear it ‘pre’ and hence, will have to listen to it with latency.

I need to play around with the A/D input a little but, there are a few things that you may want to address… Let me check it out and get back to you…

alwaysuptil1,
First of all, for the settings above, I failed to mention the necessity of pressing Store or Enter depending on the setting in order to ‘set’ them properly… Hopefully you’re familiar enough with XS to have done this…

This is the way I would record the Bass Guitar. My guitar is going into the 1/4” L Mono jack of the XS like yours. I set the L Mono as you do but I choose m1 as the output select. I change my mLAN Monitor Setup to ‘with PC (DirectMonitor)’ and store it… In Logic I create and Audio track and in its Inspector, I set the input to #3. (Important, this corresponds to mLAN output m1. When I record, there is no latency… All of Logic’s audio tracks, software instruments, etc… are outputted at the XS’ L/R jacks and everything is ‘synced’…

Got it.  Heard it all, working well, but I still heard latency.  So I changed the LOGIC channel to NO OUTPUT.  Now I hear the guitar dry through the Motif (yay!) and the track is going to Logic to be recorded.  Excellent, thank you. 

And again, can’t thank you enough.

Best,

C

Good to know. If you were still hearing latency, the solution has to be in the I/O Buffer setting…

Well, not what I was getting at.

Using your example:

In Logic I create and Audio track and in its Inspector, I set the input to #3.

In this Audio Track, you didn’t specify the OUTPUT and I did by making it OUT 1-2 which is why I heard latency.  By giving it NO output, I was no longer hearing the signal coming through Logic, and heard it only coming through the Motif, yet the signal was going TO Logic to be recorded.

Am I correct in this?

if you’ve got things working, that’s great- Go for it: that’s what’s most important! But, it sounds like some unnecessary work to me. There should not be any need to change the audio outputs in order to get this to work. There must be settings somewhere else throwing things off...

I do not touch the Audio track outputs in Logic. They remain Output 1-2. Not to belabor a point but, changing the mLAN Monitor Setup to ‘with PC (DirectMonitor)’ sends the XS signal directly to the XS L/R Output jacks with no latency. And, the output of Logic also goes there with no latency…

Check out this post CLICK HERE. Read Bad_Misters detailed description of the mLAN Setup Settings (the other part of the post probably won’t be useful to you)…

Hope this helps…

Peace…

Yes, we’re all on the same page here.  Using PC Direct you still send the audio into the DAW (Logic) and that routed through logic and back to the motif gives you BOTH the live signal and the routed signal which of course, is slightly delayed. 

To qoute BM’s guide:

You hear yourself direct and you hear the DAW audio tracks. This works because you can turn the monitor function within the DAW OFF to prevent doubling of signals.

Which is what I did.  I turned off the Bass Guitar’s return Output 1&2;so that I didn’t get “both”.  It helps me know also that the audio sound going into Logic isn’t as loud as it sound when both the live audio and the returning L&R;are coming through the monitors.

All clear.

Best,

C

From my post above:

Logic: Preferences>Audio>Devices>Core Audio> I/O Buffer Size. (The greater the number of samples; the greater the latency. The smaller the number; the fewer plug-ins you can use without cpu overload...) You would also uncheck ‘Software Monitoring’ if it is checked…

When this is unchecked, there is no need to disable the the Bass Guitar return Output 1&2;. We’ re probably saying the same thing but, if you are recording more than one track, it’s much simpler to do it from that setting…

AH! 

THAT, my friend is the additional step that I was taking that made it seem to you like too much going on. And the little detail I was overlooking.  Now I getcha!

What I like about our conversations is that neither you nor I will ever really let it go until we’re both completely clear and have the same page fully turned.

Always a pleasure and an education.  Thanks again.