E-MU 0404 USB & Audacity setup help

[doctorjuggles]

Not sure if I’m misunderstanding how USB soundcards work, but let me paint the picture of (a) my setup and (b) what I’m trying to do first.

Setup:
2 x Technics 1210; Pioneer DJM-800 mixer; Dell Studio15 laptop; E-MU 0404 USB

Now, the Pioneer DJM-800 has an onboard Analogue to Digital Conversion and outputs a SPDIF coax digital signal. I know that this signal is working because I’ve tested it on my AV receiver and also because I can hear it outputting just fine in the E-MU 0404 USB.
What I’m trying to do is set up Audacity to be able to record my mixes through the digital stream on the souncard (in other words I don’t want to record through the microphone and I don’t want to record through my laptop’s awful ‘line-in’ jack, trying to keep the signal as clean as possible into the laptop.) However, I cannot for the life of me set the software up to record the digital stream.
Surely I should be able to pass the digital signal that I know the soundcard is receiving via USB into the laptop and set Audacity up to record this signal, or am I misunderstanding the capabilities of this soundcard?
Thanks for reading. Any help gratefully accepted!

 

[RonaldDumsfeld]

I haven't got an E-MU so I cannot help with your specific question. Hope someone turns up for you soon. In the meanwhile..

I do have a very similar set up. Except subsitute a Soundcrft Spirit M4 for your mixer and a MOTU Ultralite for your E-MU.

I tried to do the same as you initially but I found I had to drive the mixer too hot to get a decent signal on the digital out and the MOTU only has +12 digital gain.

I was much happier feeding the analogue output from the mixer into a pair of balanced line ins on the MOTU and letting it deal with all the AD/DA conversion malarkey. More gain if I needed it and it's dead easy to get optimum levels into Audacity. I can see your point about doing the conversion as soon as possible but 1 metre of balanced cable isn't going to do much harm and I suspect that the DACs on the E-MU might even be better than those on the Pioneer.

Surprised Audacity does not list all your inputs from a the E-MU in the Audacity edit> preferences > devices > recording tab if you have installed the s/w correctly. You usually get all the inputs and at least one return assignable to any output for monitoring.

 

[jiiteepee]

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorjuggles /img/forum/go_quote.gif Not sure if I’m misunderstanding how USB soundcards work, but let me paint the picture of (a) my setup and (b) what I’m trying to do first. Setup: 2 x Technics 1210; Pioneer DJM-800 mixer; Dell Studio15 laptop; E-MU 0404 USB Now, the Pioneer DJM-800 has an onboard Analogue to Digital Conversion and outputs a SPDIF coax digital signal. I know that this signal is working because I’ve tested it on my AV receiver and also because I can hear it outputting just fine in the E-MU 0404 USB. What I’m trying to do is set up Audacity to be able to record my mixes through the digital stream on the souncard (in other words I don’t want to record through the microphone and I don’t want to record through my laptop’s awful ‘line-in’ jack, trying to keep the signal as clean as possible into the laptop.) However, I cannot for the life of me set the software up to record the digital stream. Surely I should be able to pass the digital signal that I know the soundcard is receiving via USB into the laptop and set Audacity up to record this signal, or am I misunderstanding the capabilities of this soundcard? Thanks for reading. Any help gratefully accepted!

Quote from E-MU 0404 USB Owner's Manual:

Quote:

"NOTE to PC Users: S/PDIF is only available for recording via ASIO and Kernal Streaming, you cannot record S/PDIF with MME applications."

So, you just need to use ASIO compatible software (if you have the older software package bundled with 0404, there's wavelab, sonar, cubase you can use for recording) ... otherwise, Hermann Seib's VSTHost, Cockos Reaper, etc.).

jiitee

 

[doctorjuggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jiiteepee /img/forum/go_quote.gif So, you just need to use ASIO compatible software (if you have the older software package bundled with 0404, there's wavelab, sonar, cubase you can use for recording) ... otherwise, Hermann Seib's VSTHost, Cockos Reaper, etc.). jiitee

Ah, excellent. Sorry, didn't realise that's how Audacity is setup (can you tell I'm not sure what I'm doing here? Heheheh.)

Thanks jiitee, really helpful!