Timeline for Ableton Live: Using a USB microphone and Audio Kontrol 1 at the same time
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 30, 2022 at 14:49 | vote | accept | Max Williams | ||
| Dec 29, 2022 at 18:35 | answer | added | piiperi Reinstate Monica | timeline score: 2 | |
| Dec 29, 2022 at 16:46 | comment | added | ojs | @piiperiReinstateMonica my issue is smugly telling newbies who have a honest question that "It's not an Ableton problem, it's how digital audio and computer audio works" when it's really an Ableton and Windows problem. | |
| Dec 29, 2022 at 15:33 | comment | added | piiperi Reinstate Monica | @ojs Ok, your issue seems to be about what is what in theory. Or finding someone to blame i.e. Microsoft? In theory everything can be solved, and in theory, Microsoft could do something to ease the situation. So could Steinberg, Ableton and many other DAW vendors. But the OP has an actual problem with an actual USB microphone he's trying to use in today's Windows. If you think that it can be made to work, the box below is waiting for your answer. My advice is to sell the USB mic and buy a regular mic and a cable. | |
| Dec 29, 2022 at 12:45 | comment | added | ojs | @piiperiReinstateMonica I know that clock drift can be a theoretical problem, but is it an actual problem? The last time I saw noticeable clock drift was on a built in PC sound card more than ten years ago and even then it happened only with 44.1 kHz and 48kHz was in perfect sync. Anyway, the composite device on MacOS has option for adaptive clock syncing and I haven't noticed any audible artifacts from it. So it's doable, but Windows makes it difficult. | |
| Dec 29, 2022 at 12:08 | comment | added | piiperi Reinstate Monica | @ojs The USB microphone, that's the bad idea. There will be multiple audio clocks in a system like that. Something somewhere has to negotiate clock drift between the devices. It's complicated, and not well supported by currently available software and hardware. Use a conventional mic and connect it to the audio interface's mic input. | |
| Dec 29, 2022 at 8:05 | comment | added | ojs | @piiperiReinstateMonica I don't really understand the concept of why having a headphone output in USB microphone is a bad idea. As you wrote, they are really all-in-one packages with audio interface and microphone, and it seems that all audio interfaces have an headphone output. Some of them sound quite bad. For quality, "audio interface" is not better than "usb microphone" by rule. Try a Behringer if you haven't already. Or the headphone output on Focusrite Scarletts. | |
| Dec 29, 2022 at 8:01 | comment | added | ojs | @piiperiReinstateMonica ok, let's start from the inability to use different devices at the same time. It's a problem with the poor design of Windows audio subsystem and the tradition of using ASIO drivers to work around it. ASIO itself is another poor design from the 90s that doesn't have any concept of multiple audio devices (an ASIO driver itself can implement one but apps that use it won't know a thing). You're correct that Core Audio on MacOS can handle it quite smoothly and on Windows hacks like ASIO4All or FlexASIO can work around it | |
| Dec 28, 2022 at 21:30 | comment | added | ojs | @piiperiReinstateMonica since your comments got upvoted I feel oblicated to inform you that you're more or less misinformed about how digital audio in general works. But it's always great to put down the newbie. | |
| Dec 28, 2022 at 18:21 | comment | added | ojs | Can other apps see the AK1 as MME/DirectX/WASAPI/WDM/whatever device? Or in more general terms, can apps that don't support ASIO see the AK1? | |
| Dec 28, 2022 at 18:08 | comment | added | piiperi Reinstate Monica | "USB microphones" are really audio interfaces. They contain: (1) microphone, (2) mic preamp, (3) A/D converter, (4) USB audio interface which talks with a USB host computer. Many "USB microphones" also contain an audio output, so you can connect headphones to the audio interface that's inside the "microphone". This is a bad idea. Don't buy. | |
| Dec 28, 2022 at 17:30 | comment | added | piiperi Reinstate Monica | It's not an Ableton problem, it's how digital audio and computer audio works. Sell the USB mic and buy a regular analog XLR-connected microphone to use with the NI interface. On the Mac you can create "aggregate" audio devices, which might work to some extent. On Windows, I don't know. Maybe you'll find some kind of a workaround kludge. Search for "aggregate" and "multiple audio interfaces". But really, just don't buy USB microphones. There are multiple questions about this issue on this site at well. | |
| Dec 28, 2022 at 15:23 | history | asked | Max Williams | CC BY-SA 4.0 |