# REW help in Indianapolis needed



## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

I have had the gear to do some REW sweeps for a couple years just haven't had time to do anything about it until now. I am wanting to run some sweeps to help me determine what kind of toe in in should use on my Polk LSi 15's, as well as see my FR across my left/right and sub to see if I need to tweak some crossover settings in my Integra DTR 5.9. I also want to run some sweeps of my office which is using a Sunfire TGP-II, Parasound HCA-700ii and Polk RTA 11TL's. I am again wanting to see if I should place them wider than they are now, as well as just see what my room responses are.

All graphs will help me determine what kind of treatment I may need to do acoustically to the room.

Today I am about 3 hours in and very confused by what I need to do. I am extremely frustrated at trying to intially configure it, run sweeps, and just about everything besides launching the program. What makes it even worse is that I am a IT professional, a pretty good audio installer, but this setup simply alludes me.

I am hoping someone might be near/in the Indianapolis area and possibly willing to walk me through the setup over the phone and/or maybe even drop by to physically help me set it up. I am fairly confident that once I get the initial setup done I can probably figure the rest out.

I have a Sound blaster Live! w all drivers, all the proper cords, SPL meter, REW installed, its simply my screens are not matching up to the tutorial, and the fact I have a 8 month old and its hard to find time to sit down and truly mess with it.

Any offer to help would be truly appreciated.


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Does your PC/laptop have built-in audio? SB Live has various settings oddities depending on OS that can frustrate things, if you have a headphone out and a line in on the computer they will do the job just fine. Which OS are you using?


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## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

JohnM said:


> Does your PC/laptop have built-in audio? SB Live has various settings oddities depending on OS that can frustrate things, if you have a headphone out and a line in on the computer they will do the job just fine. Which OS are you using?


Its a HP dv6-3050us laptop. I have a headphone out and a mic plug on it. Both are obviously 3.5mm jacks. Would those work?

I am using Windows 7 with REW v5 as well.


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

If the mic is a combined mic/line then yes, if it is mic only no - most laptops from the last couple of years or so use combined mic/line inputs, but the info should be in the laptop spec somewhere.


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## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

JohnM said:


> If the mic is a combined mic/line then yes, if it is mic only no - most laptops from the last couple of years or so use combined mic/line inputs, but the info should be in the laptop spec somewhere.


Unless I am missing something its a mic only.


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Probably have to use the SB Live then. Can you post a screenshot of how you have set the REW soundcard preferences and a shot of the SB live mixer controls?

Easiest starting point is getting audio out, can just use the REW signal generator to verify you are getting sound out OK, then can chase down getting the input going.


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## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

Ok, so I took some time off work to play with REW today. Here are a couple things I need some help with.

I cannot get the calibration of the levels (input and output) the same using the Soundblaster live external USB card. I can get it within about 6 db's but thats it. If I increase or decrease the volume on the computer, it decrease the volume on the left and right level's as well. I am using a Windows 7 computer and REW v 5.

Here is how I had it setup in REW.




Here is how I had it physically connected.



Now I changed the physical setup to this






Which resulted in my ability to calibrate it within a MUCH closer tolerance.



However all the calibrations still look wrong.



From what I read its because of the fact the SoundBlaster has a "monitor" setting that needs to be turned off, but I cant find it anywhere..... 

I will have all day on Monday to play with REW as I am home alone with the baby, so whenever she doenst require my attention I will post and hopefully I can get things configured.

I am assuming that once the initial setup is done its fairly easy to take measurements in different rooms?

My plan is to take measurements in my main HT to get my mains and sub integrated right. Then just for giggles I want to look at how bad my 2 channel room is. Its a 11x10 room so I know room modes suck, but I am just curious about things, and if there are any placement things I can do to get it to sound better.

I plan to hopefully get a SMS-1 for my sub, but I have debated if I can get REW to work right getting a mini-dsp to play with integrating my mains and sub together better, since IIRC you can use REW to help you set EQ filters in the mini-dsp....

Anyway I wont ramble further, I am on some heavy pain meds...

And any suggestions on how to fix this would be MUCH appreciated.


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Yes, there is some monitoring active. There was a reasonably straightforward way to access that on XP (per the help), on Win 7 it is only quite recently that Creative produced drivers that work properly with the SB Live! (based on some other posts) so do make sure you have the very latest drivers from them. One location for the monitoring feature in Win 7 is found on the'Listen' tab of the properties for the recording device (right click the volume control icon in the system tray and select recording devices). Make sure 'Listen to his device' is not selected for the input you are using.

On the levels side, it was always very difficult (if not impossible) to get levels matching with with the SB live, but being within 5 or 10 dB is fine. Using the mic input may limit the frequency range somewhat and will have worse noise performance, you should use the line in.


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## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

JohnM said:


> Yes, there is some monitoring active. There was a reasonably straightforward way to access that on XP (per the help), on Win 7 it is only quite recently that Creative produced drivers that work properly with the SB Live! (based on some other posts) so do make sure you have the very latest drivers from them. One location for the monitoring feature in Win 7 is found on the'Listen' tab of the properties for the recording device (right click the volume control icon in the system tray and select recording devices). Make sure 'Listen to his device' is not selected for the input you are using.
> 
> On the levels side, it was always very difficult (if not impossible) to get levels matching with with the SB live, but being within 5 or 10 dB is fine. Using the mic input may limit the frequency range somewhat and will have worse noise performance, you should use the line in.


Thanks John

I just installed the latest Beta version of REW and have downloaded the latest drivers for the SB live.

I was using Creative Sound Blaster Driver 1.02.0000, but I couldnt get the levels close enough to calibrate.

I would get 12db on the output and only 21 to 22 on the input even at 100% volume. If I decreased the output the input decreased as well.

I am now installing these drivers from the Creative site: Creative Sound Blaster Driver 01.02.00


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## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

Ok. I now have the Beta REW version installed and the latest creative drivers. I have ensured "listen to this device" is not checked, and no matter what I do I cant get this error:



This error appears regardless of if I use the Front to Line in or Front to Mic connections. The Front to Mic connection allows me to get the levels correct, but still generate this error.

Any suggestions or should I just pack the Soundblaster up and forget about configuring REW with it?


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Doesn't sound promising, but if you save that soundcard measurement and attach it (the .mdat file) there's a chance it is OK, might just be rolling off early at the very low or high end. Having -22 on the input from the line in is OK though.


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## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

JohnM said:


> Doesn't sound promising, but if you save that soundcard measurement and attach it (the .mdat file) there's a chance it is OK, might just be rolling off early at the very low or high end. Having -22 on the input from the line in is OK though.


It is attached


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

OK, on the plus side, there's no monitoring going on. On the minus side, it rolls off at 15 kHz, which might be due to an incorrect default format setting (possibly set for 32 kHz). Check the Advanced tab of the input properties and set it to 2-channel, 48kHz, 24-bit (assuming that is an option) and select 48 kHz as the sample rate on the REW soundcard preferences.


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## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

JohnM said:


> OK, on the plus side, there's no monitoring going on. On the minus side, it rolls off at 15 kHz, which might be due to an incorrect default format setting (possibly set for 32 kHz). Check the Advanced tab of the input properties and set it to 2-channel, 48kHz, 24-bit (assuming that is an option) and select 48 kHz as the sample rate on the REW soundcard preferences.


You were correct. Here is the second saved measurement with the suggested changes made...


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

That's more like it  Good to go.


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## EndersShadow (Sep 26, 2012)

JohnM said:


> That's more like it  Good to go.


Yeah haw!!! Tomorrow off work, 2 rooms with speakers....

gonna be fun.

then time to post and interpret the data.


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