User Guide
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English
Troubleshooting
The Black Box has been designed to give you high performance and professional quality audio. It has been tested under a wide range
of systems and operating conditions. In the real world, however, there are a nearly infinite number of possible operating scenarios,
any of which could affect your system’s performance. Much like owning an automobile, “your mileage may vary.” This section cannot
cover all possible issues you may encounter, however we want to give you some basic suggestions on common problems you may
experience.
You should avoid is connecting too many devices on the same bus. The computer’s USB bus is a dependable, high-speed, high-
bandwidth protocol, which is ideally suited for digital audio. Nonetheless, it’s important to remember that audio and multimedia
streaming can place considerable demands on your processor and the available bandwidth of the USB bus. Although it is theoretically
possible to chain multiple USB devices in series, doing so may potentially degrade your audio performance. Please make an effort to
run the Black Box on a dedicated USB port connector (not chained through another device or attached to a USB hub).
Generally, USB devices do not suffer from the IRQ conflicts sometimes encountered with PCI cards. If you are having trouble getting
audio into or out of your Black Box, please check the following.
If you have no sound:
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Be sure your Mix (Input/Playback) knob is set appropriately and that your output level knob is turned up. Also make sure
that you are plugged in to the proper input jack and the input level knob is turned up.
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If you can hear drums, but no guitar—or you can hear guitar but no drums—check the GTR/DRM BAL parameter in the
Utility menu. A setting of G50 will only provide guitar sound. A setting of D50 will only provide drum sounds. Any setting
in between will play a little of both. A middle setting of EQU means that that output of the drums is equal in volume to the
output of the guitar effect. A setting of SEP means the drum signal will come out of one output, while the guitar effect signal
will come out of the other.
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Check to see if the Black Box drivers are properly installed. In Windows XP, go to the Control Panel and double-click the
System icon (under Performance and Maintenance if you’re in Category view). Select the Hardware tab and click the Device
Manager button. Click the plus sign (“+”) next to “Sound, Video and Game Controllers,” and locate the M-Audio Black Box
listing. If you see a question mark or exclamation point next to it, or if you don’t see the M-Audio Black Box listed, you may
need to reinstall the driver software.
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Make sure your audio software has been properly set up to use the Black Box. Open your application’s audio settings page
and check to see if the Black Box’s ASIO or WDM drivers have been correctly selected.
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If you’re certain the Black Box is correctly installed and configured for your audio software but there is still no audio, check
your signal path. Make sure your inputs are routed correctly by verifying that your application is receiving an audio signal.
Make sure your outputs are routed correctly so that your signal is sent to your headphones, amp and/or monitors.
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Check your audio connections and make sure that everything is plugged in correctly.
If you are experiencing clicks and pops in your recordings:
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Make sure your input signal levels are not too hot, as overdriving the inputs can cause distortion and clipping. The red clip light
on the Black Box should only light up on the highest of peaks. Also check the input level meters in your audio application.
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In addition, you may want to try using a larger buffer size. Larger buffer sizes can increase input latency time, but this is only
a problem when overdubbing. If you’re doing a mixdown, for example, this is not an issue. Increasing the buffer size can be
helpful, particularly in the case of older or lower-powered computer systems.
