Beat me, please (re: Kona and audio)

[Jeremy Garchow]

Have you changed the audio sound output in your system preferences to Kona? When you get unsatisfactory results, reread that post carefully.

[Fergus Hammond]

Yes, I did. When I go into the Sound control panel, click on Output, I do see the Kona as being the seleted output device (it’s also the input device). Changing the ouput volume in their (or on the menu bar) has no affect on the volume.

I called a local pro audio store (Leo’s Pro Audio in Berkeley) and the guy there thought adding a mixer between the Kona and the speakers was crazy. Perhaps I didn’t do a good job of explaining the reason but he said that what I needed instead of a mixer was a line-level attenuator. I think he’s wrong (he’d never heard of a Kona card) but it was kind of disturbing.

fh

[Jeremy Garchow]

[fergush] “he said that what I needed instead of a mixer was a line-level attenuator”

That’s fancy speak for a mixer. He’s wrong, but whatever. Please re read that post, it has all the answers you need.

Jeremy

[Fergus Hammond]

Actually, the other thread doesn’t have the answer to my original question: did this change between 3.0 and 3.1 or because of the Mac Pro?

However, I suppose it doesn’t really matter: my wife needs a mixer for a project of hers, so I think I’ll just get a Mackie 1202 and stop wondering. Oh, I called Mackie direct and they, like everyone else here, said the setup would work fine. I’m not sure what the audio store guy was talking about but I’m sure he’ll take my money regardless!

[Jeremy Garchow]

Sorry, read this thread:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=98&postid=860787

Jeremy

[Fergus Hammond]

I did read that thread. Lots of useful info but not an answer to my original question (i.e., “did the ability to change levels in the OS disappear in the 3.1 driver update”).

The Big Knob looks great but it doesn’t help my wife’s requirement, so the 1202 is probably better overall.

[Bob Zelin]

hello fh,
ready for your beating ?
First – a simple answer to your question. You have no money, and you don’t want to start hooking up all kinds of equipment. The Mackie Big Knob is about $299, and the Mackie 1202 is about the same price, but you really don’t want to spend that much money.

So how about this –
https://www.americanmusical.com/item–i-BEH-XENTX502.html
The is the new Behringer Xenyx 502 mixer, which you can use as an audio attenuator, out of the AJA product, and into your speakers, so you can easily change the volume. It’s tiny, and has nice little knobs on it, so you can easily change the speaker volume, take up hardly any room on your desk, and cost you less money than you spend this Saturday for dinner when you and your wife went out to eat. Easy, inexpensive answer, right. (It’s $44.95).

OK, now for your beating –
We are on Creative Cow. Creative Cow makes money from selling advertising to companies that make products that WE BUY. You get this free advice, because Creative Cow exists, because we all BUY EQUIPMENT. If there is no equipment to buy, then there is no AJA, no Creative Cow, and no free advice. So if your dream is “gee, how come I just can’t go out and buy a MAC computer, and have it do everything, so I don’t need to buy anything ever again -no VTR’s, no mixers, no more software, no TV monitors, no hardware encoders – NOTHING !” – then we will all starve, because without all this hardware, from all these forums, most of us won’t make a living, and won’t be able to eat. So here is my advice to you – if you don’t want the people in our industry, and everyone on these forum to turn into Ethopia, START BUYING SOME EQUIPMENT. Because if you get your way, we will all die. Is that what you want ? The analogy of “all a good writer needs is a pen and a pad” comes from people that make as much as a high school student working at McDonnalds. You know where the guy with the Royal typewriter writing his script is right now – in his grave ! Buy that mixer NOW.

bob Zelin

[Fergus Hammond]

Sheesh, Bob, I’d have a lot more respect for you if you hadn’t used “MAC” in your post. What are you: some kind of a Windows IT weenie guy? I thought they were the only ones that used MAC, instead of Mac. Man…

😉

You’ll be glad to hear that I bought a Behringer Xenyx 502 this afternoon. All is now well.

[Dan Brockett]

Bob:

What is your hypothesis of why so many users and posters are all of sudden deciding that they can build Kona based editing systems and not use a mixer? I don’t get it, this is editing 101. How can all of these people even figure out how to use and configure a Kona card and RAID if they cannot figure out that an editing system needs an audio mixer?

And it’s not even a full moon yet…

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Bob Zelin]

the future is no hardware. It’s starting with P2 and HDV with Firewire (and Apple’s push for it), and it’s going to continue with XDCam HD. AJA, Blackmagic, and others won’t be part of the picture. And of course, I will be out of business. Just look at the audio business, with all these Pro Tools systems. “We” are trying to convince everyone about vintage preamps and compressors, but software modeling is becomming more popular than ever.
No young person wants a hardware intensive audio studio – but try convincing “old timers” that they don’t need that UREI compressor anymore. And Pro Tools is doomed too – too many “USB” software packages coming out. The “audio pro’s” don’t like this, and bitch like I do, but what can you do. I am not blind to this – I am just bitching, because I don’t like what the future holds – because it doesn’t involve me. I guess companies like Boris and Sapphire (and Apple of course) will continue to support Creative Cow. Grant Petty tried to get around the whole black generator thing, but this didn’t work out well with the analog VTR’s – but it sure works just dandy in stand alone SDI and HD-SDI systems. With products like XD-Cam HD, and future VTR’s like this, young people will all say “what’s this sync stuff”.

Bob Zelin