Multiple sound systems with Cubase?

[burtbick]

Hi,

I've been trying to help a friend who has Cubase 5 for the Mac (on a brand new iMac). I have Cubase LE 4 on Windoze, so I'm not sure if the problem we are hitting is a basic limitation of Cubase, or just being unable to ferret the answer out of the Cubase docs.

My friend bought a USB microphone and we are able to get Cubase to record using the mic on the iMac. But he wants to be able to play back the recorded audio using the iMac's internal sound system.

We have not been able to find a way to do this. We can only select one driver for the sound system, and I read one thread on this forum where a comment was made that Cubase only supports a single sound system at a time.

When the driver for the USB mic is selected the output that is presented is the USB mic.. obviously this doesn't work

What he would like to do is to use the USB mic for input, and the internal sound system for audio output.

In my case I use conventional mics with a mixer, so I can use the single sound system on the PC just fine for my own recording.

So can someone confirm that Cubase 5 (at least on the iMac) only supports a single sound system? Or can you point me to where to configure Cubase 5 two use two separate sound systems for recording and playback?

Thanks,
Burt

[tacman7]

I don't know how you're supposed to use a usb microphone, other than as a toy.

My interface doesn't have anyway to use it.

There's just one place to select what audio system/driver you want to use on any sequencer I've ever used.

Does the people who made the mic have any suggestions? I would look in that direction, if they can't make it work, return it.

[Audio~Geek]

You might be able to get it working if you create an "aggregate device" in the Audio MIDI setup of OSX. kind of an advanced topic.
Basically lets you combine the inputs and/or outputs of multiple devices and have the software see it as one uber device.
I've seen someone combine two different USB XLR interfaces to successfully record in stereo.

There are a few USB mics that actually make sense as an audio interface (Samson G-track is one), but for the most part they're too limited in design to be worth the effort.

[burtbick]

Thanks,

We'll look at the aggregate approach, but it's probably more effort than it is worth. Since he just bought the USB mic without knowing if he could get it working he's probably going to wind up having to keep it and either make it work, or get a conventional mic and use it with a mixer and the Mac's internal sound system for the near term. The mic he got is an Audio-Technica USB mic, and seems to be pretty decent sound quality, etc.

Regards,
Burt