# ASIO w/ HDMI and non-USB Mic



## Lumen (May 17, 2014)

If this issue has been raised before, I couldn't find it. Please point me in the right direction if it has.

My bottom-line question: "Is it possible to use REW in ASIO/HDMI mode with a preamp/mic instead of a USB mic?

I'm now able to send test signals to each speaker without switching cables, or so I thought. I was really excited to get HDMI capability up and running in support of multi-channel REW measurements. That is, until I tried to set up REW Preferences per the instructions starting on pg.34 of the REW Step-by-Step Guide. Only 2 channels are available under the OUTPUT section! What happened to the other 4 channels of my 5.1 system that show up in my Windows audio configuration?


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Output and input selection are independent, ASIO4All can wrap whatever devices you enable and present them to REW. For the channels to be offered the HDMI cable needs to be plugged into something that will accept multi-channel PCM over HDMI. That guide you reference has a lot of setup troubleshooting in it.


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## Lumen (May 17, 2014)

Most of those references apply to a USB mic with HDMI, but it does contain some useful info for a USB mic with non-HDMI connection. I would like to use my non-USB mic with my external soundcard and HDMI connection between the laptop and AVR. 

After setting up Windows Audio Playback and Recording devices, the AVR shows up as the default HDMI output device and the Scarlett 2i2 shows up as the default input. The supported number of channels is eight, and I/O sample rates are both set to 48kHz. The windows test tones for my six channels are played on all the correct speakers. And the Windows Configuration test allowed recorded sound to played through the left speaker. But when REW is invoked, only two channels show up in the OUTPUT selector as shown below. The guide mentions that only two channels may be available, but does not offer advice or a solution. What happens when only two channels are available on HDMI? Revert to non-HDMI connections?








I spent about two hours last night trying to track down the source of the problem with no luck, so moved on to the soundcard issue. The Scarlett 2i2 shows up under ASIO's audio subsystems, but cannot be made ACTIVE by clicking its icon. The guide unfortunately states: _"If the devices are not active, our current knowledge of how to troubleshoot is limited, but a non-active device is a show-stopper."_ Is it microphone shopping time?


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## Lumen (May 17, 2014)

Giving up is hard to do! My other recourse is to follow AudiocRaver's Guide along with some creative debug of my own using ideas gleaned from Posts #7, 12, 25, 35, 42, 51 in this thread.


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## Lumen (May 17, 2014)

:yay: *Thank you AudiocRaver and EarlK* :yay2:

From this thread, the following tips were instrumental in getting my config up and running. Yesterday, the display appeared in the list, but was not powered-on. Turning on the display and powering up the system in order were two of three fixes that needed to be applied for full HDMI functionality in REW.



AudiocRaver said:


> *General Observations*
> 
> You will be able to configure audio for surround in the PC only after being properly connected through an AVR to an HDMI screen or display and appropriate audio outputs and speakers. That step comes first. The Display Devices (AMD or Nvidia) and Playback Devices (Win 7 Audio) panels must show the AVR as the output device before you will be able to continue with configuration and setup. The video display must be on for audio to be sent through the HDMI system (this really threw me for awhile).
> 
> ...



The last fix needed for full HDMI functionality in REW came from Post #5 of this thread. That tip (listed below) led me to check the number of channels, which led me back to Windows Audio Manager where the:
I/O bit depths were not the same as REW 
Display was listed as the default device

Once I changed all bit depths to 24 and made the external soundcard the default device, everything fell into place!



EarlK said:


> It's fairly rare ( though more common on older PCs ), but not every HDMI equipped PC is able to output multi-channel sound through the HDMI connector .
> 
> One quick way to determine if the card ( graphics card actually ) will output more than 2 channels is to _*hover *the mouse pointer_ over the appropriate output description ( as found within the ASIO4ALL control panel ) .
> 
> ...


*
!! NO PHOTOS WERE AIRBRUSHED IN THE MAKING OF THIS DOCUMENTARY !!*


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