The problem was indeed with the DAW not sending things the way it should have and the manual was no help. Thanks BadMister for taking the time to explain all this. I’m not saying there are not built-in sound cards that can do all of this, but they are not standard. You can play and sing simultaneously - recording everything to its own Tracks. One pair goes to the Main L/R Outputs of the MODX (to the Monitor Speakers), the other pair goes back to the MODX’s internal mixer (as Digital In).Įxternal audio too… Any audio device (synth, CD Player, microphone, etc., etc) you connect to the A/D Input on the back panel of the MODX can be routed to the computer as digital audio, assigned its own discreet audio bus, assigned its own two Insertion Effects and recorded to its own discreet audio track on your DAW. You can send 4 audio outputs back to the MODX. It is written from the computer’s point of view… when you connect via USB your computer will see the MODX as 10 audio bus inputs… when you write audio onto your computer hard drive using DAW software. The MODX has its own 10-input/4-output Audio Interface for your computer.
It will allow you to use the Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO Driver for low latency audio. The Main L/R Outputs of the MODX are always matched in the Phones. Until you get a pair of studio monitors, you can connect your Headphones to the Phones jack on the back panel of the MODX.
This is where the whole external Audio Interface, Studio Monitor section comes in… it’s an entire industry of devices found in almost every modern music store.Ĭomputers are not built to record music…(it’s one of the things you can do if you add the right components)… it is the clever engineers and software folks who figure out how to make the computer into a viable recording device. No time at all to non-musicians - no one sweats that delay, but imagine hearing yourself 200-300ms after you hit the keys, or hearing the music your want to play along with late.Īs a musician 30ms delay is intolerable. When you hit the spacebar to playback an audio file on your computer’s built-in system… it may take between 200-300ms before the audio begins.
But when you want to “overdub”, (as musicians want to, immediately) that’s when an external Audio Interface and good pair of Studio Monitors come in. You can see that a consumer might want to record, a consumer might want to playback. The audio interface must be able to playback some already recorded Tracks while simultaneously adding new tracks. It is the third function where the built-in soundcard/speaker system usually falls apart… it’s when you need to both playback and record simultaneously … commonly called “overdubbing”. Either you can record… or then you can playback. Consumer level record/play functions only.
The reason this is not recommended is because the soundcard is typically designed to do minimal recording and playback. Most sound cards do not feature the kind of connectors you will be using, and they often do not offer much more than stereo in and out - I am generalizing here. And the sound will come out of the computer speakers which are connected to your computer’s soundcard. If you choose to use the built-in computer soundcard and speakers (not recommended), then it is the Audio Interface… analog signals must connect directly to the computer soundcard, so the soundcard can do analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion. (Completely taking the place of the computer’s own soundcard and speaker system). The MODX will then serve as Input and Output device for all computer audio. If you use the MODX as the audio interface, then you need to connect a pair of monitor speakers to the MODX’s Main L/R Outputs.
There are 2 options available - use your computers built in System (soundcard/speakers) or use an external System (MODX/Monitor Speakers). Therefore, it acts as both Input and Output for audio that we can hear. It is the role of the “Audio Interface” to do all analog-to-digital conversion placing audio on the computer, it is also responsible for all digital-to-analog conversion sending audio from the computer to the Speaker System.