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Can't hear what I've recorded with M-Audio fast track, plus only records for a few seconds

Asked 1296 day 1 h | Viewed 14541 times | Updated 1295 day 23 h |

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Gravatar photo osirisbunnyfoofoo

i've been thinking about getting into recording music for a while so I bought this M-Audio Fast Track USB device for my Mac Book (running on Mac OS X 10.5.8). It came with Pro Tools M-Powered Essential as well.

I opened Pro Tools, created a track, set the input to M-Audio Input 2 (the standard 1/4" plug), hooked up my electric acoustic guitar to it and strummed a few times to see that it indeed picked up what I was playing. I began to record and then encountered 2 problems.

First, Pro Tools stops recording at exactly 8 seconds every time I try. I found this strange but tried to play it back anyway. Though the sound waves appeared in the track according to what I had played, no sound came out of my computer speakers (and yes, the volume was up). I tried recording multiple times with my acoustic electric and my bass, all with the same results. So I need to know:

  1. Why can I only record 8 seconds of audio? and
  2. Why can't I hear what I've recorded when I can tell that it was recorded?

I have looked all over the internet but couldn't find any answers. I'm really new to recording music so this is probably an easy answer, but help would be appreciated for either of these problems.

2 Answers

  1. Answered: 1295 day 13 h (1) | Permalink

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    Gravatar photoEraproof

    Hey Osiris there can be a couple of things you can do for trouble shooting why audio is not coming out of your speakers.  So first we will have to start with your basic signal flow.  The inputs to your pro tools 8 system seems to be set to the correct input because you are able to see the audio recorded in a wave form.  But the reason you may not be hearing it just may be simpler than you think.

    1st your Fast track only has 2 outputs so It would be hard to choose to bus or send your audio to anyplace the the rca outputs on the back.  On the audio track you will see a gray bar to route your outputs.  Click it and select interface and select the outputs 1/2 on "INTERFACE" not "Bus" if you select bus the audio is being send internally and is not being sent to your monitors.  To be sure you have audio being sent to your outputs, go ahead and create a Master Fader.  If there is no audio coming out of your master your signal is routed wrong.  If there is audio coming out of the master fader and you still don't hear anything, take a pair of headphones to see if hear anything from your headphone jack.  If you hear something then something your speakers are not connected correctly.

    As for your 2nd question.  It sounds like to me you have an area selected to record.  If you select a space in the edit window prior to recording you have created a region with predefined begining and ending points.  Which is why it always stop at 8 seconds exactly.  If you select for 1 minute it will stop at 1 minutes exactly or if you have nothing selected, it wont stop unless you press the stop button.  And don't forget you have 90 days of free tech support with Digidesign, take advantage of it. Call them at the 1-650 number and have them work for their money :)  Hope that helps.

    • thanks a lot eraproof, now I can record as long as i want, but i still can't hear it. the output was initially set at interface output 1/2, stereo. also, i'm just not sure how to create a master fader?

      osirisbunnyfoofoo | Nov 03 at 04:11

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  2. Answered: 625 day 16 h (0) | Permalink

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    Gravatar photoguest

    Hi there, I just got a Fast track pro, and I'm also using a mac- I am recording ok now, but still cant hear my recordings when I play back.....found a videoon you tube

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib2qkYN_VuI&feature=related

    the guy on that says that you can't play any sound through pro tools through your computers speakers--- so you can only listen to your recordings through headphones in the front, or by connecting speakers to the Fast track pro at the back of the device. i think, havent tried it yet but hope this works, cause otherwise i got no clue

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