No Mic sound and no connection in control panel

[piecemakuh]

A buddy of mine hooked me up with pro tools M- Powered Essential (8) and I have a dual fold problem.

1. I installed all of the drivers for the M-Audio Fast Track and the corresponding M-Audio Producer USB but the Producer USB will not show as connected in the control panel of windows 7 64 bit. I've un-installed and re-installed both the fast track and the producer usb under windows settings from xp all the way through windows vista and it wont work at all. I've disabled my cpu sound card and scoured the net troubleshooting the past 3 days. The fast track is working as I have my sound isolated to the interface, I can hear music in my programs etc but I can't get the producer usb to connect. I had to use a previous version for the install because neither the fast track nor the producer would install with windows 7.

2. I cant get a microphone signal at all because I cant get the producer usb to show as connected to increase the gain. No matter how much I increase the volume on the actual interface I get no signal at all. I tried using protools as well as adobe audition 3 and the fast track registers but the producer usb will not.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to take this step into protools and leave audition alone but I'm off to a crawl.



I have a HP dv7 notebook- with intel corei5-2430M 2.40ghz - 6 gigs of ram running windows 7 64 bit.

[Darryl Ramm]

Unfortunately you are another USB microphone victim. DUC has quite a few posts by folks also burned by these toys and their limitations. No serious audio company should be selling these things, well except for things like podcast use.

Here is the issue: you don't have a microphone with standard microphone output, You have a microphone that has a built in audio interface. And you can't combine two separate interfaces to work together.

If you want to use the FastTrack with a microphone you need to purchase a standard analog microphone and connect it to a Mic input on the Fast Track. Try to do a bit of research on different mic types, condenser vs. dynamic, etc. to find one suitable for what you want to do. Or describe that here and your budget and folks can make recommendations. you will also need a XLR to XLR mic cable.

[piecemakuh]

Thank you for the response. Actually I do have an mxl 992 condenser mic with an xlr to xlr plugged into the fast track. I said to heck with the usb mic after seeing how many ppl got burned by it. Using the fast track and it reads as connected in the control panel but I get no sound still. Tried it in m powerd essentials pro tools, audition 3, even a free version of audacity. I'm sure it's user error at this point I may just need to uninstall everything, take a few days off and give it a go midweek. Iget sound from the cpu output but I get no mic sound at all with the gain cranked as high as it goes..no decibel readings or even static...even with the mix nob completely muted

[piecemakuh]

I think I figured it out but wont know for sure until I get time to go grab another item. my mxl 992 requires phantom power and with this fast track the tutorial said that's not possible without a power supply. I have a Tascam dp01fx/cd and my mxl 992 worked fine with it.. dunno what kind of power supply I'd need to make it work with a fast track.. it sounds like I just need to upgrade from this fast track to something slightly better. It was a gift I was looking forward to using.

[Darryl Ramm]

The fast track manual will tell you what wall wart type power supply it can operate with. It would hope it should have come with one if it is needed for phantom power.

You can get external phantom boxes that power the mic and pass through the audio signal but the hassle/cost of doing that is probably not worth it.

Pro Tools M-Powered will only work with specific interfaces like your M-Audio interface, if you want to look at a wider range of quality interfaces then you are going to have to move away from Pro Tools M-Powered, either cross-grade up to Pro Tools 12 or look at any number of other great DAWs. If you go to Pro Tools 12 be careful of hardware and OS compatibility requirements and Avid's expectation that you spend $199/year with them for support. Pro Tools | First might be an option when it is eventually available, but it looks pretty limited, and i think you are already seeing some of the issues with dealing with Avid crippleware, I'd tend to go for the core products (Pro Tools or Pro Tools HD) or look at other DAWs (and personally use both Pro Tools and Logic Pro X on Mac).

Interfaces brands frequently liked around here include Focusrite, MOTU, Presonus, UAD and Apogee (Mac only). There is a huge variety of good interfaces out there.

[Park Seward]

You can get an external phantom power adapter but it may cost more than your mic.

As a general rule, all condenser mics require phantom power. They have electronics inside that need power to operate. Some studio mics have internal batteries but they are rare.

A good general purpose mic is the Shure SM-57. Around $100. It is a dynamic so no phantom required.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Park Seward

A good general purpose mic is the Shure SM-57. Around $100. It is a dynamic so no phantom required.

Yes indeed, put a decent popper stopper in front of an SM57 and its shocking how decent it can do on darn near anything