I’ve done a search (because I thought I’d asked this before) but couldn’t find anything.
Is there any way I can have my Katana as the input source and my Focusrite as the output source?
The reason I ask is, I was recording something through the Katana using USB in to Reaper and then when I played it back I had no sound, so I had to go in to the Reaper settings and change it to Focusrite so that I could hear what I’d recorded. Just seems a bit of a faff if I need to do this each time. I did have a look but it could only be one source or the other.
Hey Stefan, take anything I say with a pinch of salt as I’m not really clued up with all this tech malark… when I’ve recorded electric guitar I’ve just plugged Katana into the Scarlett 2i2.
Generally “pro audio” drivers like ASIO, on Windows, Core Audio on Mac, and ALSA on Linux, limit you to using a single audio device at a time.
This is because independent audio devices will run at slightly different sample rates, which will result in occasional lost samples when recording. This can result in clicks and other noises.
There are ways around this, using on-the-fly sample rate conversion, but this slightly degrades the audio and increases latency so it tends to either be off by default or not even an option.
The “pro audio” way around this is to use audio devices which share a clock, so they are all synchronised, but this “word clock” capability is rare in consumer audio devices.
On Mac I believe there’s a way to enable SRC to support multiple audio devices. I don’t think there is on most ASIO setups, although I believe you can use third-party apps to do this.
I’m not an expert on ASIO though, so others will have to advise.
You can do it Stefan but it’s a bit of a muck around.
ASIO is single device, yes, but you can create virtual devices and merge them.
You can use voicemeeter to do it - it’s from the same people that make vb audio cable. I’ve used it. Feels like a mess around though. I think that ASIO4ALL can do it too but I haven’t used that one.
I don’t do this anymore though, I just use XLR out and Focusrite.
At the risk of sounding completely thick, I thought the Focusrite was an interface to get data into the computer. Do you not just have speakers attached to your pc for playback?
This is from someone who often struggles to choose the right settings in Reaper options just to get the sound in (let alone out!)
Audio interfaces are normally both in and out, so you would connect your speakers to the AI and use that for playback as well as for capture.
That’s different when you are using a device like a Katana which has a built-in AI, although you can also play back out to the Katana. I believe it only works for playback with headphones though (I might be wrong on that).
Yes, the Katana comes up as an option for speakers on my pc, but no sound comes out.
I had to run a cable from the pc headphones socket to the aux in on the Katana to use it for playback.
@jkahn Thanks for that JK but I don’t think I can be bothered fannying around trying to set it up. I’ll just do the switch over in the settings.
@brianlarsen Keith has beat me to the punch on the answer but I don’t have speakers plugged into my PC but use the Focusrite headphones for my audio.
I’ve no clue on many things in this topic so perhaps don’t pay attention to what I’m saying… But what would happen if you ran a cable from scarlet’s monitors out to the aux in of the Katana?
Perhaps break everything so don’t try it. It’s more of a theoretical question.
Stefan, if you only want one input from the Katana and output only through the Focusrite, I think I have stumbled upon software that may work Flexasio, and Flexasio gui. It sets up easily after downloading from GitHub, I got a warning it may be dangerous, but carried on, nothing bad so far…
with the gui bit installed after choosing Flexasio in Reaper preferences when you click asio configuration you get box with a choice of inputs and outputs. I could pick NUX as input and Focusrite as output. It may save you some fiddling.
I didn’t fully solve my need which was, I thought as I have now got a NUX MP3, maybe I had an extra input in addition to my Focusrite. However it only lets me choose 1 or the other as input.
Phil you should be able to input by more than one channel using FlexAsio, which is just another ASIO driver like ASIO4ALL and will function just like the driver that comes with the Focusright.
But you have to manually add in the number of inputs in the GUI.
The default setting is 1. See screenshot bottom left.
To get FlexAsio to see both of my Xenyx channels/inputs I just increased the Channel no to 2 as shown. So if you have an AI with 4 inputs, set the channels to 4. You can then assign each of these as input to the tracks in Reaper or whatever DAW you are using. Same goes for number of outputs.
Also make sure you hit the Save to Default FlexAsio.tomi or it will reload the default settings.
