• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Zoom Livetrak L20 plus which DAW?

Bass Motifs

Bass Motifs

Aug 11, 2023
679
1,301
#1
Help me TB, you're my only hope!

Having lots of trouble getting the l20 configured with Cakewalk by Bandlab. Wondering if best to go with another DAW?

Please give me your combined wisdom.

Background: Have finally sorted life priorities and splashed out on some recording gear, including mics, midi keyboard, monitors and the l20. Have drums kits, piano, guitars, bass etc and aiming more at studio / acoustic recording than midi / electronic stuff. My beloved is a great singer, so lots of of vocal layers too.

Went with the l20 cos of its multipurpose uses as mixer, recorder and DI. Went with the 20 over the 12 because more features for not much more money etc.

But have now spent best part of 5 days trying to get the audio drivers to work and sound out of the monitors. Have looked at pretty much every YT video and forums discussion on the issue, and still no joy. Shouldn't be this hard, maybe the l20 and Cakewalk don't like other. Easier to try something else?

What DAW is easy to use for our purposes?
 
#2
I’d start troubleshooting by changing out the cable between the Zoom and your computer to see if that’s the problem.

I don’t want to sound like a dick, but this is a 20-in/4-out interface - do you have your input signals routed properly to any of those 4 outputs? And are you monitoring any of those outputs in your DAW?

Not sure how Cakewalk works these days, but you may need to toggle the the input button, likely near the M (mute) and S (solo) in the input and output channels.

The DAW you use shouldn’t make a difference. Any of them would see the same inputs coming from the Zoom. But each DAW can vary in how it looks on the user interface.
 
#3
Thanks DirtDog, you're not being a dick, it's bound to be something obvious somewhere...

We have managed to record some tracks, and play back through the l20's phones, but not though the master out or monitor out. Apparently the pathway is different.

Yup, we had to get something complicated. Makes gospel fills look simple...
 
#4
So out of frustration I stuck the headphone jack into the L/Mono socket on channel 17/18 and the monitors sprang into life, and stayed working after I took the headphone out.

What's up with that??? I guess I'll just take points on that one.
 
#5
Having used Cakewalk now for a number of years, getting the configuration correct is half the battle. I'm not familiar with the Zoom unit, though at one time was considering it. I remember it took me a bit of time getting my Tascam US 16x08 interface configured properly, once I got the correct driver in place and the preferences set it's been rock solid ever since. I went from Cubase to Cakewalk right when Band Lab took it over and haven't looked back, really like the features, though not sure what the future will hold. I just upgraded to the latest release last week, all good for now ;).

Not sure if you have used Mike's videos on Cakewalk, but I've found them really helpful. You may have to do some digging online for the Zoom unit, Cakewalk config nuggets are sometimes hard to find. For example I just started using UA plugins, and in digging found that you have to increase the buffers to run them (that was in Cakewalk/Sonar forum).

Good luck with your new gear... and you'll get it - Cheers in the New Year

​
 
#6
I've been running an L-20 for a few years, so hopefully I can help. It works pretty easily with Pro Tools, Logic, and Ableton... I haven't used Cakewalk though. I have a hunch that your issue is on the hardware side rather than the DAW. Could you post a photo of the right half of your L-20 to see how it's configured?

Some clarifying/troubleshooting questions:
  • You reference both "master out" and "monitor out"
    • What are you referring to by "monitor out" since this unit doesn't have anything explicitly labeled that? I'm guessing one or more of aux buses A-F?
    • Are you using the XLR Master L/R outputs or are you trying to route the master through one of the A-F aux outputs?
  • Do you get audio from channels 1-16 through the monitor/main or is it just the computer playback that isn't working?
  • If your DAW is configured correctly you should have two stereo out channels that correspond to the red USB return buttons on the board (USB 1-2 is on channel 17/18 and 2-3 on 19/20). Make sure you have the USB return button selected that corresponds to the stereo output channel selected in your DAW; for this screenshot below I'd need the USB 1-2 button on channel 17/28 activated:
    1735585047436.png
 
#8
Bass Motifs said:
The A-F 1/4 outputs are labelled monitor out on ours
Click to expand...
You're right. Mine is too, it's just always hidden by cables. Sorry about that!

The first thing to do (and might solve all your problems) is unsolo everything. The way the signal is routed on this unit, Soloing a channel means it will only ever go to the headphone output. This is more intended for a sound engineer to check a single channel through headphones during a performance.

When you switch between an aux channel using the Fader Mode button (or recall a scene), the LED meters show the position of the faders for the monitor or scene you switched to. You can see this on channels 5 and up in your pic - it's showing that your faders are are almost (but not completely) all the way down. If you move the fader to match where the light is, it should clear and now you're back to the physical position of the fader being where it's truly at.

So try these steps to get sound out of the master outs:
  1. Bring the red master fader all the way down
  2. Unsolo all channels
  3. Press the "Master" button under Fader mode
  4. Move the faders for channels 17/18 and 19/20 all the way down then back up to 0dB
  5. Hit play on your DAW
  6. Bring the red master fader up and you should be getting sound
  7. Now if you switch the headphone dial to Master, you should be hearing the same thing through headphones that's coming out of the master out
Now for the monitors:
  1. Switch the Fader Mode to monitor output B
  2. Repeat step 4 above
  3. You should now be hearing the USB playback through monitor B

Hopefully this works!

And one helpful setting for this unit that I wish I discovered way sooner:
Go to Menu > Rec/Play > Rec Level Meter and change it to ON - now the meters will show the input gain level for each channel. Before finding this setting, I always found it hard to set the input gain properly since you'd only know when it was peaking and the gain knobs are pretty sensitive
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bass Motifs

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back