KVR Audio

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 4:42 pm

robojam wrote:
Lovi wrote:I installed the ASIO4ALL but in Cubase it says there's no input connected when I select the driver.
Are your headphones plugged in to the interface? If ASIO4ALL isn't recognizing an input device, I would guess that Windows is not recognizing the device.

Check device manager in Windows and see if you can see your interface.

Also ASIO4All can be pretty fussy about other applications being open; on my system Firefox continually gets in its way.

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 4:57 pm

It's definitely strange that ASIO4ALL doesn't recognize the interface. Not sure how the Alpha driver works, but does it show your device by name when you set it up, or does it just show that it has In1 and In2?

Lovi · Post by **Lovi** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 5:02 pm

I tried the Chainer with the ASIO4ALL driver and I only get the very low volume sound, but it does pick up the input. It doesn't add any effects and the plugin volume knobs or anything with it don't work with this driver. Same in Cubase with this driver, ASIO4ALL.

In Cubase with Alpha driver in the VST connections window it's just In1 and In2, no names or anything. Also in Cubase, with the ASIO4ALL driver the input latency is 0 and output latency around 30ms, so this would suggest that nothing is actually going in with it. With Alpha driver it displays both input and output latencies at around 40.

I also tried this all with having my browser closed (I use firefox) but no difference.

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 5:30 pm

Try restarting your machine and don't open any other applications. See if anything changes.

Lovi · Post by **Lovi** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 5:50 pm

I tried that again as I tried it earlier as well but there's no difference. So, in Chainer the plugins are working on the sound but the quality is just horrible and it sounds like the strings don't stop ringing at all and only when I place my hand on them and don't move it at all the static noise ends, then I play a string and it plays is quite clearly but I think the other strings resonate with it slightly to create the noise, or maybe something else.

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 6:20 pm

It sounds to me that you have a very low level signal getting to the interface, and that there's a lot of gain to the point of distorting the signal.

You really need to check the guitar and the lead to be sure that they have no issues, then you can probably starting thinking about there being a problem with the interface.

Lovi · Post by **Lovi** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 6:22 pm

But if I turn the monitor mix knob to Direct, I hear my guitar very clean and as loud as I like from my headphones, so doesn't that mean that the cable and guitar are fine?

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 6:27 pm

That's true, I had forgotten you said that.

So based on what you have said I think we can eliminate the guitar, lead and headphones from the equation.

That leaves the interface and the software on your computer.

While the routing from the guitar through to the headphones seems to be working fine, there could be a problem with the routing from the interface to the computer or the return. Is it USB? Do you have another USB cable you could try?

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 6:34 pm

Lovi wrote:But if I turn the monitor mix knob to Direct, I hear my guitar very clean and as loud as I like from my headphones, so doesn't that mean that the cable and guitar are fine?

Probably. I definitely think the input stage of the Alpha isnt working.

However the only way to be sure is to isolate as many independent factors as possible, one at a time, hence the suggestion of trying it on another system.

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 6:43 pm

Although in the manual it suggests that the RF gain staging occurs before the direct monitoring for headphones:

http://www.performanceaudio.com/media/pdf/114/246_m.pdf

There's still a lot of routing going on before it hits the USB, so there's a lot of places that things could go wrong, including the A/D converters.

I would say that the only way to tell would be to follow Whyterabbyt's advice and set it up on another computer to verify that the problem exists independently of your computer.

Lovi · Post by **Lovi** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 7:08 pm

I can't get a new USB cable to test it out for now, can't really afford to buy one either and I won't have another PC to try this on so I guess I'll have to just leave it and play it without even plugging it in as I can't really play it on my computer chair with the arm rests.

Still, I do think that everything but Cubase is working just fine since I can manipulate the sound with Chainer, the software might just be bad since it's a demo version and the compatible operating systems are windows 98-vista.

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 7:29 pm

I doubt that it's Cubase that is the issue though.

If you can borrow a USB cable, that would eliminate that as an issue and then you should probably look at returning the unit and getting a replacement.

Lovi · Post by **Lovi** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 7:34 pm

I asked my flatmate but he didn't have that kind of cable.

But on a brighter note, I installed Reaper and in about 10 minutes I got it to record my guitar and there even is an input monitoring button and now I can hear the plugin-affected sound of my guitar, aka distortion!

So it should most likely be some minor setting in Cubase that is preventing something since this is working just as intended in Reaper, no hissing noise or anything and the volume is very loud if need be. Thanks for all the help here, though.

robogone · Post by **robogone** » Fri Nov 28, 2014 7:36 pm

OK, sounds like you don't have any issues other than Cubase.

Why don't you try the Steinberg forums and see if anyone has any advice there as they probably know the product better than most people here?

VST plugin not affecting guitar sound