Trouble setting up Ableton/Lexicon home studio

September 16, 2012 12:56 PM

I'm trying to set up my new Lexicon Lambda interface with my laptop and my Ableton 8.1 software, and I'm not doing so well. Is anyone familiar with any of this and could help me?

So here's what I have, and the problems I'm experiencing, and first, let me say that I have previously used the simpler Lexicon Alpha interface with basically the same problems. Now I'm trying to record again and would like to figure out how to fix this setup. Okay:

Interface plugged into USB of my Toshiba laptop. Ableton brought up. A mic plugged into Mic1 input of the Lexicon. And a cable going out from the Lexicon to my (feeble) external computer speakers to monitor the sound coming from the mic.

Okay, here are the problems I'm experiencing:

(1) I'm using ASIO4ALL as my driver. It records fine. BUT I cannot play back the audio with this driver. In order to play it back I have to switch drivers to my laptop's built-in driver. This seems really weird.

(2) I cannot play back the sound through the external speakers coming directly from the Lexicon. The only way I can hear what I recorded is to go directly from the laptop's headphone jack out to the external speakers.

(3) In the past, when I used the Lexicon Alpha, and I played back (that time I was using my stereo speakers), I only got the sound coming through one speaker. In other words, mono.

Basically it's clear that, despite reading the manual for the interfaces, I just don't know how to set all of this up properly, in terms of both drivers and the flow of my hardware, and mono/stereo output.

Any ideas here would be much appreciated, but really, should I try to find a live human in my area (NYC) to hook this all up for me?

thanks.
posted by DMelanogaster (12 comments total)

I don't think you use the asio4all drive with an external interface. The main reason you use that is so you can get low latency audio on internal sound cards.

What do you have selected as your output for your master channel in ableton? Make sure you have the correct interface and outputs selected.
posted by empath at 4:03 PM on September 16, 2012


Also, you just have speakers plugged into the headphone jack on the interface? You need to run mono, quarter inch cables to an amp or powered speakers to get audio out.
posted by empath at 4:06 PM on September 16, 2012


(2) I cannot play back the sound through the external speakers coming directly from the Lexicon. The only way I can hear what I recorded is to go directly from the laptop's headphone jack out to the external speakers.


You need to plug your speakers into the LINE OUT L and R 1/4" jacks on the back of the Lambda. These are directly above the MIDI ports. If your computer speaker input is a stereo 1/8" (same size as an ipod headphone), you'll need a Y-shaped cable as adapter, with two 1/4" male connectors and one 1/8" input.

regarding only one speaker working - you're sure both speakers work when plugged into other sources, right?
posted by dubold at 1:14 AM on September 17, 2012


Well upon update I now have the the sound going out to the computer speakers via the proper output on the interface, using an adapter that the tiny speaker plug is plugged into and that has the 1 /4 inch on the other end, and I still can't hear anything.

I don't even know what's selected for master channel or how to do that!

I'm going to call Lexicon customer support today and see if they can help me.
posted by DMelanogaster at 7:46 AM on September 17, 2012


The 1/4 inch outs are mono. They also require an amp. You probably need to buy 1/4 to RCA and an RCA to headphone jack adapter if you're going to try to run computer speakers off of it, but is going to sound like shit.

You need to read your ableton manual to learn how to set the master output.
posted by empath at 7:50 AM on September 17, 2012


I just got off the phone with an amazingly wonderful tech support guy at Lexicon who got me the right Lexicon driver and set me up.

Everything is working now! He even gave me a little tutorial about mono vs. stereo and showed me how to set the outputs in Ableton.

So far, so good!!!
posted by DMelanogaster at 10:51 AM on September 17, 2012


I wanted to say, in case anybody could benefit from this, that one thing that was wrong was that, even when I had a working driver in there, according to the Lexicon guy Windows was "holding it captive" so Ableton couldn't use it. He directed me to "Sounds" in Windows and showed me that the laptop was now using the Lexicon driver. He had me switch back to the laptop's driver and then, Voila!, I was able to hear everything upon playback -- through the external speakers.

So that was kind of interesting.
posted by DMelanogaster at 10:47 AM on September 18, 2012


May I ask one follow-up question about Ableton?

I now have everything set up so that I have each of two outputs on my Lexicon Lambda audio interface going into my old stereo pre-amp and then out to my regular speakers. I have two mic's set up in the inputs. I can record from both channels beautifully,

BUT when I record from one channel the other channel plays back what I've recorded from it. How can I tell Ableton I want to record from one channel and please do not play back the other channel while I do so?

thanks!
posted by DMelanogaster at 2:06 PM on September 20, 2012


Ableton has tutorials included. I'd seriously suggest going through them. You are going to miss a lot of what it can do if you don't.
posted by empath at 2:23 PM on September 20, 2012 [1 favorite]


empath, I've gone through a lot of that! it is hard to pinpoint the answer to one's exact question, though, because there is So Much Information there (because Ableton is so complex).
posted by DMelanogaster at 2:29 PM on September 20, 2012


"Yeah you could press the yellow button with the number OR you could get the clips you don't want to play and right click them and choose "Deactivate Clip(s)" That way you can mute multiple things on multiple channels without completely disabling whole tracks. Then when you want them back simply right click again and choose "Activate Clip(s)" This can be easily done to many clips by holding 'ctrl' or 'cmd' (if your on mac) and selecting all the stuff you want to mute or un-mute in a single right click."

That's just copy from an abelton forum, they are helpful too.
posted by snsranch at 3:58 PM on September 20, 2012


oh thank you SO much.
posted by DMelanogaster at 4:18 PM on September 20, 2012


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