Cakewalk and 18i20

[David Lentz]

First time posting since the old Sonar forum.

I hope some of you can shed some light on this for me. I have an 18i20 and I am just now trying to take advantage of multiple inputs for recording drums. It seemed as simple as connecting the mics and selecting the input in each track. The problem is the rear inputs 3-8 only show 3, 4, 6, and 8. 5 and 7 do not show in the list of inputs.

How do I go about using them all?

[siordanescu]

 

Hello! this is because there are stereo channels. So 1 means 1 + 2, 3 = 3 + 4 .... etc ...

[msmcleod]

First, make sure you've got "Show Mono Outputs" enabled:

Then the channels are assigned like this:

For drums, I guess you'll probably for the most part be using the mono inputs.

[David Lentz]

When in preferences>devices mine show 1, 3, 5, and 7. Nothing about stereo, 2, 4, 6, or 8. (I was off a bit in my first post) Is there possibly something in Mix Control I'm missing?

[msmcleod]

12 hours ago, David Lentz said:

When in preferences>devices mine show 1, 3, 5, and 7. Nothing about stereo, 2, 4, 6, or 8. (I was off a bit in my first post) Is there possibly something in Mix Control I'm missing?

MixControl doesn't affect what inputs/outputs are available, it only affects what is routed to those inputs/outputs.

For example, I switch between two routing configs within MixControl:

• Config 1: Analog inputs 1-8 to the first 4 stereo devices,  ADAT inputs to the last 4 stereo devices   ( I use this for tracking )
• Config 2: Analog inputs 1-6 to the first 3 stereo devices,  SPDIF to the 4th stereo device , and ADAT inputs to the last 4 stereo devices  ( I use this for mixing, so I can use the SPDIF as an outboard effects return ).

But what you're seeing in preferences is correct. 

The preferences dialog always shows the stereo inputs & output devices.  So stereo input 1 is comprised of inputs 1 & 2,  stereo input 3 is comprised of inputs 3 & 4, and so on.

However, when you're choosing a track's input or output, it's at that point you decide whether you want stereo or mono.

If you're recording mono drum mics (and assuming the default routing within MixControl), then the inputs will be as follows:

Left Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 1        = Channel 1 on 18i20
Right Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 1     = Channel 2 on 18i20
Left Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 3        = Channel 3 on 18i20
Right Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 3     = Channel 4 on 18i20
Left Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 5        = Channel 5 on 18i20
Right Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 5     = Channel 6 on 18i20
Left Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 7        = Channel 7 on 18i20
Right Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 7     = Channel 8 on 18i20

On my rig, my keyboard rack is connected to inputs 3 & 4 as a stereo pair.  So I would pick Stereo Focusrite USB ASIO Mic 3 to record the stereo pair.

[Starship Krupa]

I would love for Cakewalk to be able to accurately list my interface's inputs rather than calling the input to my Firepod that has "4" printed on it "Right Firepod ASIO Input 3L."

And I have actually armed the wrong input because I didn't interpret this gibberish correctly, fortunately it wasn't a critical recording.

I'll settle for making the "friendly names" feature versatile enough to allow me to do it myself.

[David Lentz]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help. It makes sense now! ☺️

[User 905133]

On 5/30/2020 at 2:19 PM, Starship Krupa said:

I'll settle for making the "friendly names" feature versatile enough to allow me to do it myself.

I didn't realize there were limitations to the friendly names.  What can't we do?