Low volume from external synth [SOLVED]

[DJ]

Hi,

I was hoping someone could help with the following.

For the last few years I have been using logic 9 and soft synths. Recently I purchased a kurzweil pc3le hardware synth to add to my setup.

The problem I am having is as follows.

When I run logic and the plugins the volume is ok but the incoming volume from the kurzweil is so low that I have to drop the volume of all logic audio and soft synths so the kurzweil can be heard.

I have done the following with out success.

I have purchased new audio leads

I have set the kurzweil volume to max and set my audio interface to max as well (motu 828 mk2)

I have set up an aux track in logic and have the kurzweil audio coming into audio3-4 on the motu and set the aux track imput to 3-4.

If I add any effect like gain to boost the volume the kurzweil has a huge amount of latency, if I initiate soft recording the audio is increased a huge amount but yet again latency from the kurzweil. I also get latency if I add an I/o imput into the channel strip.

I have increase the i/o buffer setting to every setting within logic but to no effect I still get latency from the kurzweil.

Am I doing something wrong?

Do I need to buy a piece of kit to increase the volume and place it between the kurzweil and the audio interface.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Imac 3ghz logic9.1.8, motu 828mk2, kurzweil pc3le,

[fastfourier]

There are a couple of ways you can raise the gain of the 828mk2 line inputs, both accessible via CueMix or the front panel:

 

1. switch the sensitivity to -10dBV instead of +4dBu

2. Activate the "boost" (I believe this adds 6dB of gain)

 

and regarding the buffer size, you want it as low as possible ..

[DJ]

Hi,

Many Thanks for the info it worked a treat, I bow to your superior knowledge

Speaking of superior knowledge maybe your could advise on a similar issue?

Now that I have the correct volume levels I am trying to get a headphone mix correct.

I have an alesis cumix headphone amp, which has loads of independent channels for separate mixes

 

What I normally do is the following!

Step 1

On a channel strip which has either audio or a softsynth coming from it I will put a bus insert, and send the signal to a nominated bus channel, on the bus channel I will set the output to say 7-8. Output 7-8 goes from the motu into my alesis cuemix headphone amp and I get my headphone mix. At this point I have a good headphone mix anything in logic, my problems occur with latency from the kuzrweil appear as soon as I introduce the kurzweil into logic.

The way I would set my headphone mix to include the kurzweil sound is to do as I have described above for the logic stuff and for the kurzweil I would create an aux track, set the imput to say imput 3-4 in logic, imput3-4 on the motu is where the kurzweil audio is.

But as soon as I instantiate input 3-4 on the aux track again I get latency from the kurzweil.

 

So at present the only way I can figure out how to get a headphone mix from logic and the kurzweil is to do the following

Take a patch lead from the headphone out on the motu 828 and plug that into the alesis heaphone amp. That way I get a good headphone mix of logic parts and kurzweil parts, but for the singer to hear the keyboard parts without latency what I have to do is, Step 1 then record all the keyboard parts that I will play live as audio files and route them to his headphone mix and not output the recorded audio files into the main mix, so basically the singer can not hear me playing the parts live

In cuxmix, audio from the Kurzweil is on analogue 1-2, I cannot see where the audio etc comes in from logic, everything outputs on main output 1-2.

Is there anyway I can come up with a better solution by using cuemix for headphone monitoring? As soon as I create an aux channel or a bus channel within logic and attached the imput from the kurzweil I get latency.

I have never used cumix until today so any help would be apprciated

Many Thanks

[Jordi Torres]

Now that I have the correct volume levels I am trying to get a headphone mix correct.

 

Please open a new thread for your new question: Forum Rules - please READ THIS before posting (#4)

 

Thanks.

 

J.