[SOLVED] Mac and USB microphone

Cubase
1

Dear forum,

I’ve recently acquired both a Mac and Cubase 7 and although I must say that I’m extremely satisfied with the overall performance, there is something I have not yet got round to figuring out how to do.

You see, I use this USB microphone from EditorsKeys, the SL300 mic, and normally I’d install the device on a machine, it’d install the necessary drivers itself and I’d load up Cubase. From there, I’d select it as an input device in the Device Setup dialog inside the ASIO driver control panel.

However, Macs do not use ASIO drivers as far as I could find. I’m having considerable trouble activating my microphone for use inside Cubase because of this. I’ll provide some screenshots.

I already found the Audio MIDI setup window and set up my microphone as an input device. It’s also the selected Input device in my Sound settings in my System Preferences pane.

Now, my problem is the drivers section in Cubase. I need to be able to select my microphone as an input, but the Built-in System driver won’t allow it. See the first screenshot, here:

I can select the SL300 as its own driver in the VST Audio System dialog tree entry:

Now, the microphone records fine doing this. However, as can also be seen in the second screenshot, I now have no audio output routes, nor have I any discernable way to add these. I am now using the microphone driver as my audio driver and, naturally, that driver only supports recording, not speaker playback.

I ask you what I should do. I need to be able to both record my audio and listen back to it at the same time. It’s no use if I have to switch over between either recording or listening back and forth, not only because it’s a cumbersome task to switch all the settings on and off every time, but also is it impractical, because then I could have no musical backing track which I can sing over. I’d be singing blind, if you were.

Do I need some sort of audio driver (I’ve tried looking - they’re hard to find for Macs!)? Do I need to enable some setting in Cubase?

Please help me. I really want to get back to singing and recording songs in Cubase. It’s one of my life passions.

Thanks a lot,
Shrooblord

2

It took me a while, but I got it figured out!

To set this up correctly, connect your USB microphone to your Mac. Then, go to your Applications>Utilities>Audio MIDI setup.

There, create an Aggregate Device by clicking on the + in the bottom left-hand corner. Choose a name for the Aggregate by double clicking its name. In the field on the right-hand side, you can specify what inputs and outputs this Aggregate should have. Choose your USB microphone as an input, your speakers as an output and add any other in- or outputs as you so choose.

Now, when you relaunch Cubase, it will say it detected a new Audio Driver. Select the name of your Aggregate. In the Device Manager, go to the VST Audio section and select your Aggregate. Inactivate and active any inputs and outputs as you so wish.

You can now use your USB microphone and speakers output together!
Happy singing! ^-^

3

Would this help the problem im having with my mic and the scratching noise im hearinh when i record? Please help

4

Hello, you think this will help me out aswell? Im having problema when i record i hear like scratching noise when i rap on the mic. Like it forces the volume at some point.

5

This works perfectly! Thank you!