Help using a Roland Edirol R-09 with Garageband (kinda bootl

Multitrack recorders, controllers, and other studio equipment
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boxofgeese
Posts: 4
Joined: 17:26, 27 May 2008

Help using a Roland Edirol R-09 with Garageband (kinda bootl

Post by boxofgeese »

Being a career musician, I'm pretty low on funds and I was trying to figure out a cheap way to record music. I used to do this on my old computer (which was a PC) and I never had any problems, and I was wondering if anyone stumbled across anything similar:

I have an Edirol R-09, which is not an A/D converter or an audio interface - its primary use is for recording and storing - i.e. it has two stereo mics built into it and an SD card inside, so I can, for example, record my band's show and later connect it to my computer and it acts as a hard drive. I simply take the files from the SD storage, put them on my computer, and do any audio effecting (EQ, levels, etc) after. However, I got this bright idea which I tried on my old computer:

I wanted to start multi-tracking while recording my own songs (i.e. record drums, then bass, guitar, etc in a program such as ProTools). On my old PC, I had Cool Edit Pro, and I simply connected an 1/8" stereo cable from the headphone jack on my Edirol into the 1/8" stereo input on my computer, and used it as a sort of bootleg A/D converter. It all worked fine, besides being slightly inconvenient. Through Cool Edit, I was simply using my Edirol as a microphone, and then I could multitrack, do bass, vocals, whatever else I needed.

However, now that I got a Mac and am using Garageband, I'm coming across an extremely irritating problem that I just can't figure out how to fix. I'm connecting everything EXACTLY the same as I used to, but now as soon as I have the cable plugged into my Edirol and power it up, the input signal is plagued with static. You can still hear whatever I record, but there's this relatively loud static underneath everything (and it's ONLY int he tracks I use the Edirol with). I've tried different settings and connections, and I only get the static when the Edirol is powered on and connected to the System Input on my Mac.

Has anyone else tried anything like this with different results? I would usually think it's a problem with my Edirol, but I tested it on my stereo, my other computer (PC), and even a guitar amp and the static only seems to appear in Garageband.

Suggestions?
Thanks in advance
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