Studio for iMac

[Kazak]

I am developing a portable studio to take to Kazakhstan when we move in a few weeks.
Yesterday I bought an M-Audio Fast Track sound interface & M-Audio speaker monitors &
connected them to my new iMac. The sound is amazing!

Working on the rest of the installations for other components this week

Have a special Memorial Day, in remembrance.

[hazineju]

hi Kazak. did you get the AV 40s? they seem promising in reviews, only problem is it sounds like they are quite heavy to travel with (14 pounds), and that is heavier than ideal for me. you had yours shipped i think, but customs will charge me an arm and a leg to get them through.

[Kazak]

Hi Juliet:

To tell you the truth I can't remember the model numbers. The sea freight has still not arrived here. They are pretty heavy as I recall. I see you have your debut album out in 2009 like I do. How is life in the Carribbean

[hazineju]

hi Alicia, geez how long does it take, you've been waiting for that a long time right?! cool about your album! you and your second cousin need to a duet!

[Kazak]

Yes the shipment was picked up mid June from Houston, but they don't actually ship it until you get settled into a home.
Nobody tells you that of course. Still waiting

A duet with cousin Carrie would be the ultimate, for sure.

[Kazak]

Yes, I bought the M-Audio AV 40 recording speakers. Yesterday I was finally trying to connect the M-Audio Fast Track and speakers to my iMAC. So far it says there is no output for the sound. I sure wish I could call my guy at Guitar Center who was a wiz with this stuff. I will try again today to see if I can get them to put out.

When I connected this all in Houston before moving to KZ, it took me 3 days to get the speakers to work.

If anyone can help trouble shoot for me, I would appreciate it SO much )

Thank you!

[mojobone]

Speakers are connected to the Fast Track and Fast Track connected to the iMac, yes? You probably need to tell the iMac to use the Fast Track's driver for sound output. The iMac otherwise defaults to its internal soundcard and driver, iirc.

You'll maybe want to do this globally for iTunes and other programs besides your DAW to access the big monitors, but my preference is to let the Mac play its internal sounds on the internal speakers/card and use iTunes/GarageBand preferences/settings and/or the DAW's preferences/settings to play through the outboard monitors, but it can be a bit tedious if you have a bunch of programs that all need to access the new speakers, like Wavelab and other standalones.

Setting this globally used to be a problem, because the internal sounds would automatically reset the soundcard to eight bits every time the Mac played a sound, then the next time you fired up the DAW, you were treated to 8-bit versions of your compositions; hilarity ensued. [sigh, good times].....I don't think this is still a problem with the newer operating systems, heh.

[Kazak]

Mojobone:

I am not sure I followed everything you said, but yesterday a guy here who manages a store got me a T500 fuse for the M-Audio speakers (other T100 fuse blew when I set it up, the voltage is up to 230 here). I put it in and finally the speakers were live. Then I realized that to play thru the M-Audio Fast track and using my new AKG 220 Perception mic on Garageband, I had to change the system preferences on input and output on GB like you mentioned. Once I did that, voila! Everything worked! I am finally live with my new mini home studio here in KZ for the first time.

Next week I am going to do a short demo and post it to see if the sound quality works as broadcast quality before I post to any songs to Taxi listings formally.

Thanks a bunch, you were right.