# Soundcard Calibration



## fuzz092888 (Mar 8, 2012)

So I've read a few threads trying to figure this out and I'm still having trouble. 

I'm using an M-Audio Fast Track Pro and a MacBook Pro laptop. When I go to do the sound card calibration I get this crazy looking graph and am not sure how to fix it.

The Macbook Pro is running Lion 10.7.4 and the M-Audio is version 1.8.

The audio in is set to 48K 2CH 24 bit and the audio out is set to 48K 4CH 24 bit

The sample rate on REW is set to 48K

I have the fast track pro connected from the mic in 1 XLR to RCA out on the back.

Below is the graph I get when I try to run sound card calibration. Thanks for any help.


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## Barleywater (Dec 11, 2011)

Looks like input monitoring. Either setting on sound card, software mixer, or even both.

Quick look at picture of device indicates a mix knob. Is this turned down to 0?

Andrew


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## fuzz092888 (Mar 8, 2012)

Barleywater said:


> Looks like input monitoring. Either setting on sound card, software mixer, or even both.
> 
> Quick look at picture of device indicates a mix knob. Is this turned down to 0?
> 
> Andrew


The mix knob says IN when turned all the way counterclockwise and says PB for clockwise. 

When the mix knob is turned to IN then it outputs whatever is coming in through the mic and when it is turned to PB it outputs whatever signal is coming from the computer.

Currently I have it set to PB


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## aackthpt (Jan 24, 2011)

On M-Audio's MobilePre, in the software there is a "Monitor Mix" that must be on mute as shown in this post. There are also some windows 7 settings that are important shown further down in that thread. Also some more from some good Shacksters right here and below.


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## fuzz092888 (Mar 8, 2012)

aackthpt said:


> On M-Audio's MobilePre, in the software there is a "Monitor Mix" that must be on mute as shown in this post. There are also some windows 7 settings that are important shown further down in that thread. Also some more from some good Shacksters right here and below.


Thanks but I don't have the mobile pre, I have the fast track pro and I'm using a Mac so I don't have any of those options that the pictures show in that first thread, that I know of. Most of the stuff you linked is for windows or another version of an M-audio USB sound card. As far as I can tell after looking it all over, none of it is applicable to me and what I have, except the one thread where the guy advises to just keep rebooting and trying things until it works eventually.

Thanks though, I appreciate the help. I'll keep searching.


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## aackthpt (Jan 24, 2011)

Rebooting won't help understand the system, or the problem. Interesting approach though.


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## fuzz092888 (Mar 8, 2012)

aackthpt said:


> Rebooting won't help understand the system, or the problem. Interesting approach though.


I'm not saying it will, or that I'm even going to go that route, but it's the only suggestion that's applicable to my situation in the links you provided. Thanks.


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Unfortunately Apple's Java runtime has a bug that prevents Java applications accessing the inputs of multichannel soundcards. They show no signs of planning to fix it, a fix may come when Oracle start providing a Java runtime for OS X. If your Macbook has on-board audio with line in and out you could use those, otherwise it might be possible to access the input using soundflower.


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## fuzz092888 (Mar 8, 2012)

JohnM said:


> Unfortunately Apple's Java runtime has a bug that prevents Java applications accessing the inputs of multichannel soundcards. They show no signs of planning to fix it, a fix may come when Oracle start providing a Java runtime for OS X. If your Macbook has on-board audio with line in and out you could use those, otherwise it might be possible to access the input using soundflower.


Thanks John, I'll give sound flower a try. So far everything seems to be working and I'm getting measurements that don't seem too far removed from what they should be. I guess if soundflower doesn't work I'll just live with a little margin of error. Thanks.

Edit: Hmm sound flower not working on OS X 10.8. Download won't start, says the package file is damaged. Anyone else having this problem?


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## lukeh182 (Jul 31, 2012)

fuzz092888 said:


> Edit: Hmm sound flower not working on OS X 10.8. Download won't start, says the package file is damaged. Anyone else having this problem?


v1.6.5 of soundflower say it supports 10.8. Which version are you trying to use?

Also, did you have it working with REW in Lion? If so I could use some help getting that working with 10.7. How did you have it set up/get it to communicate properly with REW? What version of Soundflower were you running?


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## fuzz092888 (Mar 8, 2012)

lukeh182 said:


> v1.6.5 of soundflower say it supports 10.8. Which version are you trying to use?
> 
> Also, did you have it working with REW in Lion? If so I could use some help getting that working with 10.7. How did you have it set up/get it to communicate properly with REW? What version of Soundflower were you running?


Currently I'm using 1.6.4, I haven't even tried to upgrade to the .5 version because I got it to work with mountain lion. I had it working with lion as well. It wasn't so much, getting it to communicate with REW that I was having trouble with, I was having trouble getting it to behave with my M-audio fast track pro.

Soundflower only controls my outputs, so once I got soundflower to cooperate with the M-audio, then it just automatically worked with REW. It just involved downloading sound flower, then restarting my computer after the download, but it took a few times for the download to "stick" 

I don't know what the problem was, but I ran the download, waited until the download was completed then restarted my computer (without every trying to start soundflower mind you). Then you have to open sound flower. If it opens then you need to go into the audio MIDI settings and make sure sound flower is selected for output. Then you go into the soundflower menu (usually it's a little icon on your very top bar by the date/battery/time) and select which device you want soundflower to use as the output.

Hope that helps.


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## lukeh182 (Jul 31, 2012)

fuzz092888 said:


> Soundflower only controls my outputs, so once I got soundflower to cooperate with the M-audio, then it just automatically worked with REW. It just involved downloading sound flower, then restarting my computer after the download, but it took a few times for the download to "stick"
> 
> I don't know what the problem was, but I ran the download, waited until the download was completed then restarted my computer (without every trying to start soundflower mind you). Then you have to open sound flower. If it opens then you need to go into the audio MIDI settings and make sure sound flower is selected for output. Then you go into the soundflower menu (usually it's a little icon on your very top bar by the date/battery/time) and select which device you want soundflower to use as the output.


Maybe I'm stupid but I'm still not quite following. Could you be more specific about your setup. i.e. what inputs and outputs do you have selected on your Mac? What are your soundflower settings? What settings are you using in REW? 

It seems like I've tried every configuration possible with no solution. I've tried Jack OSX as well. For some reason my Mac is upset and won't allow me to install BootCamp without a complete format of the hard drive which I don't feel like dealing with. And Parallels doesn't support FireWire so it won't recognize my Presonus Firestudio Mobile. I've successfully used the internal card with a Radio Shack SPL meter but I need to do full range sweeps with a mic. 

Any help would be great.


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## fuzz092888 (Mar 8, 2012)

lukeh182 said:


> Maybe I'm stupid but I'm still not quite following. Could you be more specific about your setup. i.e. what inputs and outputs do you have selected on your Mac? What are your soundflower settings? What settings are you using in REW?
> 
> It seems like I've tried every configuration possible with no solution. I've tried Jack OSX as well. For some reason my Mac is upset and won't allow me to install BootCamp without a complete format of the hard drive which I don't feel like dealing with. And Parallels doesn't support FireWire so it won't recognize my Presonus Firestudio Mobile. I've successfully used the internal card with a Radio Shack SPL meter but I need to do full range sweeps with a mic.
> 
> Any help would be great.


Once soundflower was successfully installed I opened up the MIDI setup and selected soundflower two channel, 48kHz. Under the soundflower settings I selected M-audio fast track pro. The fast track pro has 4 output channels so I just choose which channels I'm using and route the audio to the appropriate output on the M-audio.

I don't need to do anything with the settings on REW, if I can get the outputs and inputs working correctly on the computer (which sometimes takes a little exiting out of soundflower and restarting, or even restarting the computer, or powering off the M-audio and powering back on) then everything automatically works with REW. However sometimes when everything is working input output wise I then have to exit out of REW and then reopen the application.

What issue are you having exactly? REW isn't recognizing your mic? REW isn't outputting tones or sweeps?


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## maniac0r (Oct 31, 2012)

May I ask if this problem still persists with OSX 10.8.2 and Oracle Java v7 update10 ?

I'm considering buying RME BabyFace mainly for usage with REW, and maybe some vinyl/tape transfer in the future, I do not need specifically multichannel device, but like to have high quality ADC in case I will do the transfers in future..
Would like to avoid soundflower as it seems not to be 100% without the hassle 
Thank you!


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## EarlK (Jan 1, 2010)

maniac0r said:


> May I ask if this problem still persists with OSX 10.8.2 and Oracle Java v7 update10 ?
> 
> I'm considering buying RME BabyFace mainly for usage with REW, and maybe some vinyl/tape transfer in the future, I do not need specifically multichannel device, but like to have high quality ADC in case I will do the transfers in future..
> Would like to avoid soundflower as it seems not to be 100% without the hassle
> Thank you!


- I doubt that there is an authoritative answer to your question, since the author of REW ( JohnM ) does not ( currently ) have a computer capable of running the most recent OSX flavors . 

- Interpret that info as you may .

- Personally, I think you're better moving towards Windows ( via Bootcamp/Parallels, etc. ) for all audio testing needs, since that seems to be the focus of REW updates ( along with others ) .

- The "KISS" approach is to buy a USB-based test microphone from either miniDSP or  *Cross-Spectrum Labs .* 

:sn:


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