Recording from USB on Mackie ProFX12v3 to Audition

Report · Jun 19, 2020

Hello Adobe Community. Thank you for all the help answering my previous questions. Hopefully you can help out with this as well.

I recently purchased a Mackie ProFX12v3 (https://mackie.com/products/profxv3-professional-effects-mixers-usb) for use with Skype/Discord podcasting. The setup is a XLR microphone in channel1. I've run a cable from the speaker out on the sound card to channel 2. I then have a mono cable going from the Mon Send to the mic in on the sound card for doing a mix minus. I can hear the Skype call testing services through the headphones on the board with Skype's speakers setup as ProFX 1-2(ProFX) and the microphone works when configured in Skype as Microphone Realtek HD Audio. The USB cable is plugged in and I downloaded the latest drivers from Mackie yesterday after unboxing the rig.

In Audition I setup the audio hardware as Device Class: ASIO and Device: Mackie ASIO Driver. Under Audio Channel Mapping (also see attached picture) I have L1 as Analog 1 and R2 as Analog 2. For testing purposes I created a multitrack session and set Track 1 as L1 and Track 2 as R2 as mono inputs. I'm not getting any waveforms or indication that audio is coming in when recording a test track with the microphone. As another test I switched to MME to see if the analog mic input to the sound card was working and it does record and playback.

I believe I have my hardware wired correctly. The next part is figuring out how to get the audio from both channels into Audition. I would prefer to have the local microphone and the Skype input as separate tracks . If that's not possible I'll take a single track or buy a 2 track handheld recorder and plug it into one of the main outs and do any post processing from that recording (extra step and hardware+cables but I can live with that). Any thoughts on getting the audio into Audition as is or with additional hardware/cables?

Report · Jun 19, 2020

Yes, the mic works in Skype, because Skype isn't using the ASIO driver you need to run the mixer - so it can still use something plugged into the mic input on the computer. But there's no way you can record this on Audition - that input simply isn't available, whatever you do, and I don't think that even Virtual Audio Cable would let you do that, as ASIO is protected from the OS. What you have to figure out is how to feed the mic input to skype from the mixer, and then separate out the feeds, bearing in mind that you can only record from the main buses on the mixer via usb - no other options are available on that mixer, which I have to say isn't exactly ideal for this purpose. What would be much better is a mixer that let you record each channel separately, with an option to pick off a bus signal if needed - far more flexible.

Report · Jun 19, 2020

Thank you for the hints. Even taking Skype out of the picture I'm not able to record directly into Audition unless I'm using MME. I was hoping that any USB mixer would be able to pipe the Main Out through the USB cable so any DAW would get all the channels coming from the mixer in real time either separately or as a single track. It looks like I'll be taking a handheld recorder and plugging into the Main Out lines to capture the audio and then doing any processing in Audition. Since I've only got 2 channels to deal with that should be workable. I've seen many YouTube videos on adding an external recorder.

Report · Jun 19, 2020

Past experience setting up a similiar implementation [on a Mac] using a Mackie Onyx Mixer that has a FW Return option ➝ Essentially this assigns the Main Output from the computer to channel(s) 11/12 on the mixer.

You have: "USB input TO mixer - playback" assignable via the "USB 3-4" switch. In essence you can assign the computer Output (e.g. Skype) to channel 11/12 on the mixer.

In a Multitrack Session, add 2 Tracks. Set the Input to Track 1 accordingly (your mic). Set the Input to Track 2 to receive the Skype/Computer Output via USB. That should do it. Of course success would also depend on whether you have your mix-minus implemented correctly in order to pass you mic signal back to Skype.

-paul.

@produceNewMedia

Report · Jun 19, 2020

"You have: "USB input TO mixer - playback" assignable via the "USB 3-4" switch. In essence you can assign the computer Output (e.g. Skype) to channel 11/12 on the mixer."

You could only do that if you could get the Skype output into the mixer somehow, but you won't be able to do that via the USB outputs, because they are only available to Audition via ASIO, which cuts out any input from the computer itself. If you could persuade the Skype output to feed to the external headphone output and feed that into the mixer directly as an audio input, then it might work.

Report · Jun 19, 2020

I just remembered - back in the Dark Ages, I produced a .pdf of at least one way to get this working - it's here.

Report · Jun 19, 2020

Thanks for the PDF, that's almost exactly what I have so I can modify my setup a bit. If I'm understanding correctly I would run ouput from the mixer Main Out, so that everything in the mixer is carried out those cables to the Line In (not Mic In) on the soundcard, and then tell Audition to record from Line In. Is that conceptually what the drawing is saying? Would I use MME in this case or ASIO? Forgetting Skype for a moment, I can't even get Audition to hear any audio just testing the microphone and the mixer if I have ASIO selected.

Report · Jun 20, 2020

No, you should be able to use ASIO and the USB inputs, as they are connected to the Main bus. The cable marked as Line Output has to come from your internal sound device, and that's the Skype feed - you pan the caller to one side of the main output, and you pan your mic (Ch.1) to the other side. Headphone monitoring has to be on the mixer. The whole idea is that what Skype is doing using your internal sound device is completely separate from what the mixer's doing. The thing that needs to be different in your case is that you won't be able to get Skype to connect to the Ch1 mic, which it needs to in order for the caller to hear you. What you do about this is to take a separate audio feed from Ch.1 (like an Aux send) and feed that to your internal sound device's line input and tell Skype to use that. All you need to do then is sort out the levels, and you should be good to go.

ASIO is generally a better bet, as the latency is lower. The only snag, as I mentioned, is that Skype won't see it as an available input option, which is why you need the separate connection from the mixer.

Report · Jun 20, 2020

Steve,

There is nothing in the Mackie documentation that states you cannot pass (and/or monitor) an interfaced Windows PC's Main Output back to the mixer via USB. I don't know anything about ASIO. Can you elaborate?

dearestleader - can you confirm it's not possible? Try it when you have time.

-paul.

@produceNewMedia

Report · Jun 20, 2020

Hi Everyone. I made some progress on testing this out. I've typed up a "preflight checklist" so I can repeat what I'm doing and hopefully to also help everyone else out if you buy one of these. I'm close to what I wanted to get. Close enough to wait for Mackie or Adobe tech support to tell me if there are any other options I can try to get this into separate tracks. I am able to get everything into a single track now which is better than placing a mic infront of some USB speakers. We were doing that previously to have a record to make typed transcripts. Now that we can route into a single track we have the option of posting an audio transcript in addition to a written one. Separate tracks are the next step but we can take a breather for now.

paulfigg-- I was able to get USB in and out. See my OBS Test Scenario below.

Here are all of the steps I went through to validate I had everything hooked up and working.

Test case

Attempt to use XLR microphone while music is playing on PC and record both in Audition. We will assume Skype and Discord audio will be set to the Speaker Line Out on the sound card if a remote guest is on so it will be like playing music.

Inputs to Mixer:

XLR Mic on Channel 1

Speaker Out from Sound Card to Channel 3 on mixer. Red cable only plugged in (volume gets cut by half with both. will need to research this more later. how to videos on YouTube only plug in one end of the Y cable. Close enough for now)

Outputs from Mixer

Mono Send to Mic In on Sound Card

Main Out L/R on top of board to Stereo Line In on Sound Card

Mixer settings

Channel 1

Gain: 3 o clock

Aux Mon: 3 o clock

FX Mon: 7 o clock (barely on)

Channel 3

Gain: 12 o clock

Aux Mon: Off

FX Mon: Off

Windows Sound Setup (not that important since Audition will override)

Speakers Realtek High Definition Audio Default Playback and Communication Device

Line ProFX as default recording device and communication device.

First attempt

In Adobe Audition set

Device Class: MME

Default Input: Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio)

Default Output: Speakers (USB Audio)

This attempt is to demonstrate that basic wiring is setup properly. XLR Microphone records host's audio in Audition with no problems. Records music played on PC if Aux Mon on channel 3 is turned up. This demonstrates that mix minus is working as expected.

Second Attempt

In Adobe Audition set

Device Class: MME

Default Input: Line In (Realtek High Definition Audio)

Default Output: Speakers (USB Audio)

This attempt is to demonstrate we can get all audio from the mixer out to another device such as a DAW or handheld recorder. Need to turn up AUX FX dial on mixer for this to work. Microphone works in Adobe audition. Music playing on PC is recorded in Audition. Can clearly hear both in headphones on mixer.

Third Attempt

In Adobe Audition set

Device Class: MME

Default Input: Line ProFX

Default Output: Speakers (USB Audio)

This attempt is to demonstrate we can get audio from the mixer into a DAW using the USB interface. XLR microphone works well. Channel 3 from the mixer also works in Audition. Volume levels for this test are very dependent on the Gain and Aux FX level set on each channel. This will record as a single track in Audition.

Fourth Attempt

Device Class: ASIO

Device: Mackie ASIO Driver

In Audition there are Analog 1 and Analog 2 for Mono inputs. There are outputs Analog 1-4 listed individually. In Audition under Audio Channel Mapping Input File Channels are Analog 1 and Analog 2. Analog 1-4 are listed individually under the outputs. These are the only devices available. Attempted different combinations of Analog 1 and Analog 2 on separate tracks. Both tracks record all audio from the mixer. Microphone Channel1 works and audio from PC on Channel 3 is also recorded. There does not appear to be a way to separate Channel 1 and Channel 3 into separate tracks. This appears to be identical in end result to the 2nd and 3rd attempt except it's using ASIO instead of MME.

OBS Live Stream Setup Test Scenario

Device Class: MME

Default Input: Line ProFX 1-2

Default Output: ProFX 3-4 (ProFX) 1

This attempt is to demonstrate running audio from the mixer into Audition then out of Audition into OBS Studio for live streaming processed audio via USB interface only. Audio levels appear to be coming into Audition from the XLR mic with no issues. In OBS Studio configure Properties for Desktop Audio (one of the default sound profiles) as ProFX 3-4 (ProFX). Getting sound levels into OBS Studio with this configuration. Added a different sound profile to OBS Studo with Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio) as the source. When speaking into microphone audio appears on levels first on the Microphone input to the sound card and after a short delay again from the USB interface as expected after being processed by Audition.

Report · Jun 22, 2020

Hi Everyone,

Mackie tech support responded and said

"The USB capabilities of the ProFX mixers only allows for the Main Mix to be sent over to the computer. There is unfortunately no way to get multitrack outputs out of this mixer over USB."

It's going to cover the basic functionality and based on my testing it's going to work for single track recording and also for coming out of the PC back into the mixer then OBS. Hope this helps someone in the future.

Report · Jun 22, 2020

Have you tried what I documented in my initial reply re: Skype? You should have the capability to assign the computer output (Skype via USB) to a discrete track and your mic to a second discrete track thus creating a discrete 2-track recording session.

-paul.

@produceNewMedia

Report · Jun 22, 2020

Not seeing a clear way of doing that. According to Mackie support if you set USB as your input you get the Main Out audio into one track. If you select MME in Audition you can select a default input source, but you can't select any other input sources on other tracks. So if I set my Mic using Realtek HD Audio as the default input I'm not able to select any other device such as USB on additional tracks. It doesn't appear to be possible in auditon to get this into separate tracks if we ignore USB or use a mixer that doesn't have it. For that I would set one track as Mic in on the sound card for the host and Speaker out for the guests. Unfortunately Audition only lets you have one input so I believe I'm stuck with either Main Out from the board to Stereo Line In on the soundcard as an input device to Audition or the USB connection which are essentially the same thing, just a different set of cables.

Report · Jun 22, 2020

The deal with ASIO is that it bypasses almost all of the OS and communicates directly between the app and the hardware abstraction layer. As far as I'm aware, you can't tap into that, even with Virtual Audio Cable. Effectively it takes over, and isolates, the USB connection to the mixer.