Members RDesjean Posted August 26, 2006 Members Share Posted August 26, 2006 Yes, there is a setting for buffers in Garageband. It offers 2 options, smaller and larger. "Smaller" buffer size equals minimum delay when playing instruments live / "Larger" buffer size equals max number of simultaneous tracks. My setting has been on "smaller" while experiencing the latency. Does this make sense? Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted August 27, 2006 Author Members Share Posted August 27, 2006 Yes, it does...too bad I don't know more about GarageBand, maybe I could be more helpful. My understanding is that it's not a "pro" application like Logic or Cubase, so maybe it doesn't give you the same kind of flexibility for adjusting latency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ViLo Posted August 29, 2006 Members Share Posted August 29, 2006 Originally posted by Anderton Yes, but note: Two of the inputs are line, one input can be mic or instrument, and the fourth input can be mic or instrument as well. And by that you mean, I can record 2 mics and 2 instruments, Right? or for instruments? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted August 30, 2006 Author Members Share Posted August 30, 2006 In addition to two line inputs, you can do: * 2 instruments, or * 2 mics, or * 1 mic and 1 instrument Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fendercaster Posted September 2, 2006 Members Share Posted September 2, 2006 Thank you for your review, Craig. I'm a newbie when it comes to recording to a computer, but I'm going to give the 1394 a try. I recently purchased a Toshiba notebook and upgraded it to two gigs of RAM, so hopefully the 1394 will be a nice fit. I'm looking forward to having the mobility that this setup will offer, it will be nice not to be tied down to one place when I get the urge to put down a few tracks! Thanks again, I always value your knowledge. I bought a Tascam 2488 a couple years ago based on your review, and have been very happy with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members katscratch Posted September 7, 2006 Members Share Posted September 7, 2006 This is a great thread and very helpful. I'm a newbie myself and after reading Anderton's thread I thought I would add my shopping experiences and something to consider for those other newbies (or not) who might be trying to decide on the Inspire. Because I am just starting and wanting to get my feet wet in recording, I really had no idea what I wanted. I just knew that I wanted a good quality interface for my iMac G5 at a beginner price. The Inspire was at the top of the list because it seem to have all I needed in a simple, user-friendly box and couldn't complain about the price. And after going to their website and watching the demo videos I thought "That's it! This is the one." But then I started seeing reviews for the Firebox and what it was capable of for $100.00 more. And in Anderton's thread, he made it seem that if you had the money, the Firebox might be a better option. It seemed to me that $100.00 wasn't that much more for something more versatile. But, still, I wasn't sure if I should stick with something simple and straight forward rather than get in over my head with more inputs and options and, after all, I was only going to be recording myself with maybe two inputs at the most with GarageBand for now, which the Inpire is perfect for. THEN ... I saw this from a company that sold the Firebox for the same $299.99 that the other major dealers were selling it for WITH a free Audio Technica AT2020 mic AND mic stand. So .. I figured after spending the $199.99 for the Inspire and maybe another $80.00-$100.00 for the same mic ... I'm up to $300.00 right there. It seemed that this was now the obvious choice. Yes there is shipping which the larger companies don't charge but it's still a good deal. As a matter of fact the company also sells this same deal on e-bay and charges $25.00 for shipping instead of $35.00 from their website. The company claims to be a Presonus authorized dealer and hopefully everything is legit. If so, I will have an interface that's a step (or two) up from the Inspire and a pretty decent mic for $300.00 ... not bad. I have to say, that even without the free mic and stand I think I would have still gone with the Firebox. It just seems better to spend a little more now and have a piece of equipment that I can grow into instead of something I might grow out of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted September 7, 2006 Author Members Share Posted September 7, 2006 Well, the FireBox is a great piece of gear. One of the main things about the Inspire is the ability to chain them together into a bigger interface. The typical scenario is members of a band each having an Inspire they can use at home, then be able to bring to a group rehearsal for recording; another scenario is someone who wants a multi-input interface, but can only afford to buy a few inputs every few months. He could keep adding Inspires on the "installment plan." The applet is pretty cool, too, although the FireBox has something similar. However, with the FireBox, you do need access to the hardware to be able to adjust the gain controls. And let's also not forget that the FireBox has MIDI, so that will be a defining factor for some people out of the box. Your post brings up the real strength of the Pro Review format: The ability to discuss something in such depth that you can decide whether something is right for you or not. Some people have read this and felt the Inspire would be perfect for them, while others (such as yourself) see the FireBox as more useful, and I'm sure others have other needs met by other interfaces. It's all good -- as long as you end up with what works best for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UltramegaOK Posted October 5, 2006 Members Share Posted October 5, 2006 Does Cubase LE have a MIDI editor, like the SL3 and SX3 versions of the software? I'd like to be able to create custom drum tracks on a MIDI track without having to connect an external sequencer or DAW controller. Can this be done in LE? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted October 5, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 5, 2006 Yes, it does. You can use the MIDI tracks to drive the drum sounds in a software synth or external device. \ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UltramegaOK Posted October 5, 2006 Members Share Posted October 5, 2006 Originally posted by Anderton >Yes, it does. You can use the MIDI tracks to drive the drum sounds in a software synth or external device.\ I am used to adding a MIDI track in SL3 and then double-clicking on it in order to open a MIDI editor window. I'm used to seeing a piano layout on the left and timline with bars/beats in this window and using a pencil tool to add notes on the timeline...thus creating a drum track. With LE, I don't get the MIDI editor window to come up by double-clicking on an added MIDI track. How do I do this in LE? Note. I'm not connecting any external MIDI controller. Thanks, again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted October 6, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 With LE, I don't get the MIDI editor window to come up by double-clicking on an added MIDI track. How do I do this in LE? >>Well, I'm mystified. I just loaded Cubase LE, created a MIDI track, and double-clicked in the track...and got the piano layout and bar/beats timeline. So I don't know what could be different in your setup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bwclan Posted October 6, 2006 Members Share Posted October 6, 2006 thanks very much for an excellent review ! being thick n all i am still confused about the "recording 4 tracks at the same time" bit . i bought this (just got it today) thinking i would be able to use it to record something like this setup: mic up a kit into a mixing desk - get a good mix then take a stereo out to two inputs on the inspire (say the rca inputs on the back) and also have say bass and guitar amps di`d into two inputs on the front .... get good levels in cubase for each of these tracks seperately then hit record and record a song - when its finished i would then have four tracks recorded on cubase reday to overdub n mix ... is this not the case then ? can i not record four different inputs at the same time on the inspire ? hmmm knew i should got that 8 track portastudio ! also out of interest - i couldnt get my pc to recognise the the inspire - after loading the drivers i got a message saying the installation had finished but the device was not recognised ! which meant i was not able to add it in cubace using the add device menu .... tried several times to sort this but no joy ! checked the inspire site and saw that there are problems associated with using a firewire card that also has usb ports (combo card) on it ,,,,, have ordered a single firewire 400 card so hopefuly this will resolve the matter , re the recording - i was really hoping that i could have bought four of these units and had a 16 track studio to record 16 tracks at the same time - ie a live band !! am confused ... doh ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lexeverything Posted October 21, 2006 Members Share Posted October 21, 2006 I just recieved a firebox and after getting it up and running (very simple), after playing around in Garage Band, I noticed that the second mic pre on the face panel makes a high pitched buzzing or whine with the gain turned up, whereas mic pre one does not make this sound at all... and sounds clean. Tried all my mics and they all were affected in this input, but not in the first input. And you really have to crank those pres to get a decent level out of them. Is this tyoical of the unit? Sounds good for the dough, but I think mines a lemmon. Any ideas? Btw, I'm using an iMac and was testing with different SM57's and 58's (which it seemed to have trouble getting a decent level to without cranking the pre's all the way up) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted October 21, 2006 Author Members Share Posted October 21, 2006 > I use the first and second inputs interchangeably, no problems...but it's with a Windows machine, which seem less susceptible to whines and firewire issues. Did you see the previous post in this thread (it's also in the Onyx Satellite thread) about downloading the CHUD utility? Fixed several Mac-related firewire problems I had. > Check the +12dB box in the applet and you should be good to go. I need to do that sometimes when recording low-level signals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jbutler1982 Posted November 3, 2006 Members Share Posted November 3, 2006 hello, hopefully this gets read in such an old thread! first id like to thank you for your work. ive been a long time lurker but registered to post up some praise and a question. i purchased an inspire 1394 after reading and i couldnt be happier with the unit. its simplicity and ease of use is great and Cubase is pretty fun. So thank you for the work. My question (kinda involved, but i would really appreciate any help) is that when my band records one instrument at a time (like do drums, then vocals, then keyboard, etc...), we have no problems and get great recordings. Recently the band purchased a Studio Projects Condenser C1 mic to record a live show and it worked great. After that we wanted more control so we got another studio projects C1 (What a fabulous mic for the money by the way) and setup the room with one C1 in the middle to get the general house mix, one C1 by the drums and bass. These mics are plugged into XLR inputs 1 and 2 on the front of the inspire to get more post-production control on the bass and drums volume alone. Then we are going out of the tape out on the PA mixer. Vocals are panned to the left on the tape out (so we get them on their own track) and everything else panned to the right. So we have: Input 1: House mix Condensor Mic. Input 2: Condensor mic for bass cabinet and snare drum. Input 3 on back: Vocals alone (some bleeding from the house mix into the vocal mics but barely noticable) Input 4: Instruments from PA (keyboard, electric guitar, kick drum, snare drum). It sounds *awesome* in the computer, we are really happy with it, with one huge problem that never asserted itself when we were going track-by-track... every so often, the recording "skips"; almost like the computer cant handle all that data coming in. It just "blips" and sounds like a CD skipping on the recording. Very quick but unfrotunately very noticeable and through tests we determined that the noise was not due to playback. Could this be due to the amount of data we are putting through the inspire? Is there anything we can do to try to fix this? I have updated versions of the software, adn my laptop is really new so i hope it isnt a hardware issue (512 MB RAM, fast processer (>2 gig i think). Sorry for the length, i was trying to give you as much detail as possible. I can post up the audio file with the skips in it if that would help. I really appreciate anything you can do to maybe point me in the right direction... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted November 3, 2006 Author Members Share Posted November 3, 2006 2 gig i think).>> I would guess that your laptop is using a 5400 RPM drive; most desktops use 7200 or 10000 RPM. First of all, defragment your hard disk and see if that helps. If not, you may need to get a higher-speed external drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jbutler1982 Posted November 3, 2006 Members Share Posted November 3, 2006 You are the man. It just so happens i had a high-speed external drive on my desktop. I used it and it works perfectly. Thanks so much! -john b. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted November 4, 2006 Author Members Share Posted November 4, 2006 But defragment your C: drive anyway! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fandiaditya Posted November 19, 2006 Members Share Posted November 19, 2006 whoa this is the most comprehensive review about Inspire i reallllllyyyyy thank you a lot but i still have one question: > how to make the Inspire's mic pre stop working when another mic pre is feed to its instrument inputs or 3-4 line level inputs? is it possible by just turn the gain to zero? im planning to buy a universal audio mic pre, so i need to be sure that we can 'turn off' the Inspire's mic pre so the audio signal from the external mic pre unaffected. im planning to use the Inspire only for converting audio signal while i use the universal audio for the mic pre. thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted November 20, 2006 Author Members Share Posted November 20, 2006 > You can do that within the applet, no problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members formatk Posted November 30, 2006 Members Share Posted November 30, 2006 Originally posted by Anderton Well, it's been a long time between posts, but that's because I've been convinced I could find a solution to the motorboating/noise issues happening with the Inspire and my Mac. AND I DID! Keep reading...I read Paul White's review in Sound on Sound about the Inspire (he liked it too, by the way) and he also referenced a FireWire whine - but unlike my situation, this one happened when monitoring, and wasn't recorded on to the track. Well, aside from being a great guy he's very knowledgeable about Macs, and mentioned downloading a set of the "CHUD" developer tools from Apple. When he turned off processor cycling, that solved his problem. Cool! So I downloaded CHUD, turned off processor cycling, got out my mic, plugged in the Inspire, started recording in Cubase LE and...nope, the low-level motorboating was still there, and was still there on playback.So I closed the Inspire applet, and...hey, what's this?!?!? The motorboating went away! I put the applet back on screen, and the motorboating came back. Closed it again, and the preamps became clean and happy, and of course, because everything had been set in the Inspire, it was still sending signal to Cubase LE. I recorded a vocal track, and played it back, and...THE NOISE WAS GONE!!!!!!So if you have one of those weirdo Mac situations where you hear artifacts being recorded on your tracks with the mic ins, just get everything set the way you want, and close down the applet while recording, and all will be well.Amazingly simple. If I'd only known this a few months ago... I bought the inspire as it was one of the only interfaces at the time of purchasing my MacBook that was compatable with the intel chip. I find the noise of the unit makes the unit un usable. The rear channels 3/4 seem ok as long as you don't push the gain too high, and the guitar inputs are ok, but there's definately noise and interferences going on there. But, if I plug an SM58 into a mic channel, I need to wack the gain on full with boost enabled to get a loud enough signal, and the background noise makes it unusable. I tried DL'ing the CHUD tools, but they don't have an option to turn off processor cycling on the intel chip. I'm really dissapointed, and feel like I need to buy another interface now. Anyone else experiencing similar problems or know what I could do? btw, I'm using Ableton Live 6, but problem is the same with Logic Express too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted November 30, 2006 Author Members Share Posted November 30, 2006 Try closing the applet after you've made your adjustments. There was a graphics issue on my Mac that greatly increased noise when the applet was open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members formatk Posted December 1, 2006 Members Share Posted December 1, 2006 yeah, I've tried that... unfortunately doesn't affect the noise when the control panel app is not open. I'm not sure whether I should sell it on, or invest in a channel strip and record through the rear inputs.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members formatk Posted December 4, 2006 Members Share Posted December 4, 2006 I've just tried using a mic cable with a 1/4" adaptor into the front line sockets, and although I still have to crank up the volume and there's still noise... it's not as annoyingly loud... I might see if I can borrow a different XLR cable and see if my one is just a dud. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lategr8bon Posted December 30, 2006 Members Share Posted December 30, 2006 I was wondering if anybody here uses this product to import vinyl to their computers. Although I will be using this box for recording, converting my vinyl to digital is my primary reason for purchase. If anybody here has used it for that purpose, I would really appreciate any input, insight, opinions, etc. Cheers! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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