Recording woes...little help?

[somata]

Ok, working on a new recording with my band and am running into problems. Here's my set-up:

Axe FX 2 (fw 8.0...I know, I know)
Mackie Onyx Blackjack usb interface
Reaper
A slightly older Macbook (2.4ghz Intel Core 2 duo, OS 10.5)

First issue that I ran into is bad crackling/noise when trying to run the XLRs of the Axe to record through the Mackie. That's definitely happening in Reaper, seems like the Blackjack doesn't play well with Reaper. Fine...so I set it up to track with the Axe's USB. Setting the i/o in Reaper was a bit confusing, but I ended up making an aggregate device with the Axe as input, Mackie as output. This worked fine, but when I listen back to my guitar tracks, they're filled with little snaps and crackles. I'm hoping that I maybe just tracked them too hot (I'm new to Reaper so I have a lot in the air getting oriented), but was wondering if it might be some other issue?

Anyone using Reaper have a better way to set this up? I'd like to be able to record a dry track for reamping, but I'm not seeing how to do that in Reaper's audio preferences.

[nightflameauto]

What level are you targetting when you record a track? You can record at a LOT lower levels than you think at first with digital. In fact, you sort of want to so you leave yourself some room for post processing. I'm not familiar with Reaper, but I would assume it gives you individual track levels when you set up to record.

Myself, I tend to record these days with individual tracks pegging around negative 12 to negative 20, depending on what it is I'm tracking and how big I want it in the mix. I try to aim for an overall mix clocking at around negative six or so before mastering or compression.

[Cirrus]

Good man, Nightflameauto.

Follow that advice.

If the crackling isn't down to too high a level overloading something, you've just got to use your noggin to try to track down the source of the problem - listen to the signal at each stage and find out where the snaps and crackles (and pops?) are coming from.

[somata]

Turns out its the Mackie Onyx Blackjack. It just doesn't work with Reaper as I can tell. The actual tracks are fine...I unplugged the Onyx and just listened through the laptop's headphone outs, and the noise was gone. Now I'm just using the Axe FX 2 as my interface, and it's working fine. Still not sure why the noise on the Mackie would only show up on the guitar tracks and not the drum track I imported...but at least I'm up and running.

[nightflameauto]

If that's the case you may want to check for updated drivers. It may or may not fix the problem, but I know some hardware can be fussy with OS X if the drivers don't stay up to date with the OS updates. Core Audio doesn't change much, but every once in a while you'll hear of a hiccup that needs fixed after an update.

[Nixerx]

Why aren't you using the builtin USB IO in the AxeFX?

[Ostinato Rubato]

Why aren't you using the builtin USB IO in the AxeFX?

you missed his updated post. He is now.

[Nixerx]

Why aren't you using the builtin USB IO in the AxeFX?

you missed his updated post. He is now.

damn it.....