Getting Started with Motu M4 and Audacity

[Skerns]

I've spent a couple days trying to get Audacity to record (or even monitor) Inputs 3&4 from my recently purchased M4. I am running Audacity on a 2017 MacBook Pro with Big Sur and it is connected to the M4 with USB-C cable. I am inputting line-level balanced inputs into Inputs 3&4. I know the signal is getting into the M4, since I can monitor yet (which is shown a 1 & 2 in the M4 monitor display for some reason).

GarageBand works and it allows me to directly select Inputs 3&4. But Audacity, allows selection on one of 8 channels, Channel 2 is labeled as "Stereo". No matter what Channel I select, nothing appears in the Audacity monitor display.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[mikehalloran]

It’s quite possible that none of the regulars around here are at all familiar enough with Audacity — at least on the Mac. With GarageBand ring part of the MacOS and license for MOTU’s Performer Lite being free with the M4, there’s not much interest in it.

Are you using CoreAudio or MOTU’s drivers for the M4?

Have you set up Audacity in Apple’s Audio MIDI Swtup.app? It’s in your Utilities folder.

[stubbsonic]

I haven't tried my M4 in Audacity yet, and could at some point give it a try.

It's weird that Audacity seems to ignore what AudioMIDI Setup sees in terms of inputs and outputs.

One thing you could try is to go to AudioMIDI Setup and create an aggregate device. In the Audio Devices Window click the + in the lower left. You can then choose the input or output tabs above and start enabling ports. I'm no expert on this, in fact, I gave up and got an app called Loopback (Rogue Amoeba) to make the magic happen. But I thought I'd give you some other random thing to tinker with.

[Skerns]

I launched the Mac driver installation from Motu's website and it installed something called "MOTO M Series System Extension" - I assume this means that the Motu driver was installed. The Mac's MIDI settings identify 8 inputs: 1-4 are the 4 M4 inputs and 5-8 are loopbacks. In Audacity, I can only select one input and none of them show a signal on Audacity's monitor. I tried the aggregate device approach, but didn't get anywhere. It likes like I will be using Garage Band (which allows selection of combined inputs 3 and 4), unless someone else has a great idea.

I'm still curious, though, why inputs 3 & 4 appear as 1 & 2 in the M4 monitor display.

[CharlzS]

Something to try: in the device bar, select core audio - then your input device M4 - number of channels 4 - output device M4. Don't create any tracks, just press record and it should record four tracks. For monitoring, try selecting software playthrough in recording preferences. If you create a track and then try to record, it appears it only works with a mono (1) or stereo input (1-2). I'm not a fan of Audacity - gave up a while ago on Mac and PC. Any reason you're not using Performer Lite?

[stubbsonic]

The installer package I see is "MOTU M Series Installer (89383).pkg" and not "System Extension".

Might be the same thing, but I just thought I'd touch on it, since it might not be the right driver installer.

Not sure if this link will work:

https://motu.com/en-us/download-center/download/60

[Skerns]

stubsonic: The link you provided downloads the MOTU M Series Installer (89383).pkg, which, when opened, installs the updated system extension.

mikehalloran: It looks to me like Audacity only sees a Core Audio driver. The only references I can find on the Mac setup to the M4 are in the Sound app and the MIDI Setup. In Audacity->Preferences->Devices, Core Audio is the only available host to select from, but the M4 is available as a device in both the Playback and Recording

CharlsZ: I am having even less luck with Performer Lite. I registered my device and installed PL, but when I launch PL, I get a message saying: "Performer Lite cannot use this CoreAudio driver as it is currently configured because no outputs are available. You must configure the drive so that the MOTO Audio System can use at least one output pair". I click "OK" and a small blank screen appears with a header saying "Configure Hardware Driver" and the entire program freezes. I need to use "Force Quit" to get out the app.

I really appreciate the suggestions, but I'm pretty lost at this point

[stubbsonic]

Look at my post above about creating an aggregate device. It's worth a try.

[CharlzS]

I am having even less luck with Performer Lite. I registered my device and installed PL, but when I launch PL, I get a message saying: "Performer Lite cannot use this CoreAudio driver as it is currently configured because no outputs are available. You must configure the drive so that the MOTO Audio System can use at least one output pair". I click "OK" and a small blank screen appears with a header saying "Configure Hardware Driver" and the entire program freezes. I need to use "Force Quit" to get out the app.

I don't have Performer Lite on the Mac any more, but maybe someone else can locate the MOTU Audio System Prefs and you can try deleting those. Another way to come at it is to start PL in MIDI only mode by holding the shift key while launching. After/if it loads you can go to the setup menu and enable the audio engine. You'll most likely get the same error, but it may not lock up and you can choose the audio interface. OTT, MOTU tech support should be able to help on this one.

[Skerns]

I just learned from MOTU customer service that PL is not yet compatible with Big Sur MacOS. This is pretty frustrating since Big Sur is nearly a year old has been superseded by Monterey. Is PL really that far behind on MacOS compatibility?

Steve