To confirm:

You have two audio tracks both routed to the master bus. You have no other buses or tracks in your project.

You record the channel x of your M20 device to track 1 and the channel y of the M20 to track 2.

You have set the input channel on track 1 to mono->MAudio1814 chan x and the input channel on track 2 to mono->MAudio1814 chan y.

You arm both track 1 and track 2, and hit record. Both tracks are showing/drawing mono wave forms as they record.

When you stop, and playback, the meters on the master bus indicate that the output signal is greater the 0 db, causing clipping and distortion on playback. Lowering the master bus fader has no affect on the output level. Lowering the track volume gains does has not affect.

Is this correct? Is there anything you do that I didn't describe?

Peter

Peter - that's correct.

I updated the driver and same results as before. I am fairly new to Vegas and working my way around on the settings. Seems there has to be a way to adjust the levels so the outputs are not clipping so much. Suggestions?

Good. Knowing the exact scenario is helpful.

Something to look at:

If you want track 1 to go to the left channel of the master bus and track 2 to go to the right channel of the master bus, then this could be a pan related track setting. You are getting a "mix" of the two mono tracks.

Look a the pan model being used on each track. This can affect the gain of the signal sent from a track to the destination bus.

If you Mute track 1, does your level on the master bus become as expected?

Try this:
Add to Sub Busses to the project - Bus A and Bus B.

Route track 1 to Bus A and Track 2 to Bus B.

Do the meters of these busses look as expected?

Peter

Jim,

If you record two tracks of the same thing, peaking at 0dB, then of course the mixed playback will be +3dB !

Even if they are not the same signal recorded but still peaking near 0dB then chances are each individual track will need to be pulled down a degree if multiple tracks are being mixed/added, even if panned differently. This is normal.

geoff

Geoff,

I couldn't have said it any better - and I didn't<g>

Peter

Thanks for the help. You are correct that when both tracks are playing simultaneously the mixed output causes high dB level. However, when each track is played solo it still sound as if heavy clipping is happening even though the max dB is lower than zero. The problem we are experiencing is that the recorded audio is distorted even when levels are well within range. It’s as if the audio is being corrupted as it is being encoded. The pass through is clean and the source is clean but on capture the resulting wave files crackle. Any other ideas?