# Help please. Can't get a signal out from REW to RME Fireface 800



## Yfoiler (Feb 4, 2010)

I am running a RME Fireface 800 "firewire" interface to my Windows Vista 64 machine. For some reason no matter how I try to configure REW I cannot get a test signal out of it. I have tried all the default settings for Speaker, Sound Driver, Default, etc. but when the I try a check levels there is nothing. I can get my RS SPL meter to give me a good level on the input side of things, but I cannot get a sweep signal produced from REW. Am I wrong in assuming that I should hear some pink noise or some signal coming out of my speakers that I can adjust the level to 75 db on the RS SPL meter? I have not gotten as far as anyone else with their RME Fireface 800s. I have searched the forum and seen where others have had problems, but it's after they already have signal. I have silence. Can anyone please offer any suggestions. Thanks in advance...


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## Yfoiler (Feb 4, 2010)

brucek said:


> I note that the Terratec Phase 22 allows ASIO support. Hopefully you're not using that, Java (which REW uses) only supports WDM drivers for audio under Windows, not ASIO. So you have to ensure the card uses WDM drivers.
> 
> brucek


Well, I guess I'll answer my own question. From many searches, FINALLY, from the above quote it looks as though the ASIO drivers for the hi-end RME Fireface 800 are incompatible with REW & JAVA. I must have missed that in the documentation somewhere. I will look into seeing if I can boot the RME interface with the basic WDM drivers or see if there is another workaround. I've got to admit it's kind of funny that I may end up having to dump a $50 sound card into this machine to get a room reading where I will ultimately be using the $1,800 RME for recording/playback.


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Sorry about that, it's a limitation of JavaSound. I'm looking at ASIO support for the future but because ASIO ties into the underlying platform at quite a low level it means I probably won't be able to have a common build for Windows, OS X and Linux, which ups the hassle factor of adding new features somewhat. I may end up having to do that anyway though as OS X only provides very basic audio support for JavaSound, preferring to steer developers to using the (platform-specific) CoreAudio classes.


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## Yfoiler (Feb 4, 2010)

John,
I've been informed by tech support that my RME Fireface 800 has always supported the WDM Windows drivers. I am able to get music to play from my Internet browsers through the RME Fireface 800 no problem. So... why won't REW send a calibration signal to the Fireface mixer? REW does recognize it, and I've set it's inputs and outputs as defeaults and they show up just fine in the REW's settings boxes. But no matter if I set them in/outs as "Default" or the specific RME in/outs I still get NO signal. If it helps, I tried the new Beta version. I am able to use the RTA function fine. My Barringer RTA mic goes into my Fireface and the signals show up in the RTA window fine....so at least REW can see my mic, but I can't get REW to send a generated signal out. Any ideas what I am doing wrong??? Thanks in advance.


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

There is a chance that the REW output is being muted on startup, I've seen this occur under Vista and Win 7 with USB-connected cards, so the same issue may affect Firewire cards. To check for that, start REW then right click the volume control icon in the Vista system tray and select "open volume mixer", check that the volume slider for REW is not muted (the mute button is at the bottom of the slider). If that isn't the issue, please post a screenshot of the REW soundcard settings page, may spot something else from that. A final thing to try would be installing the 32-bit Java Runtime Environment (assuming you have the 64-bit installed at the moment).


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## EarlK (Jan 1, 2010)

These soundcards which have multiple inputs & outputs ( like yours ), typically ship with some PC utility ( software program ) that allows one to manage all the complex signal routing that is possible .

In your case the default program appears to be called "TotalMix" ( & I'm assuming you've installed it ) .
*RME DownLoads, Tools* for those wanting to take the software for a test drive .
This program is there to controll the signal flow for everything going in & out of your RME sound card .

Here's a shot ( of one available "mixing" skin ) .










FWIW, ( even after plus 30 years in the biz ) , I don't find that this mixers' interface is very intuitive ( IME, my multi-channel M-Audio FAST TRACK ULTRA was easier to understand, right out of the box ). 

Anyways ( my griping aside ) , your problem may be a very simple one of having no ( REW ) signal routed into a viable output ( which ever pair that's suppposed to be, for simple a stereo out ?? ) . 

- Open up your TotalMix software and see what you can do about routing REW through it & into your soundcards" LR outputs ( hardware outputs 1 & 2 , I'm guessing ) . 
- Use REWs signal generator to output a constant 1K sinewave while you go searching for signal within TotalMix .
- As mentioned by JohnM, look for all the places a signal could be muted ( this mixer has a few ) & unmute them . 


<> cheers


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## Yfoiler (Feb 4, 2010)

*Re: REW signal out through RME Fireface 800 SOLVED!*

John and Earl,
Thanks for all your help and suggestions. The problem is solved! It was due to the fact that the Windows Mixer had the Java engine's sound level turned down. Also, listed in one of my ins and outs was something called the "internal aux". I had never seen that before. Anyway, once I turned up the level of the Java fader in the Windows mixer, I could then see level in RME's mixer (called TotalMix). Then when I ran REW and clicked on [check levels] THERE IT WAS! SIGNAL AT LAST!! Thanks again for all your help. I was able now to sweep the room and I'm not sure what I am doing with all this yet, or what I am supposed to be seeing, but I have already been able to flatten out my lower frequencies as my sub was crossed over way to low and also it's level was way to high. With respect to my Waterfall curve, I see I have some ringing at about three points (58Hz, 140Hz, and 160Hz, the latter being the bigger bump). As for frequency response I see I'm falling off pretty severly above 10 KHz, not sure why yet. Anyway, my room is a problem as it's nearly a cube, and I have already installed 19...yes, 19 bass trap absorbers! (including a cloud over the mix position, corner tri-traps, first reflection points, and all celing intersections. My goal now is to read more and try and understand all that I am seeing on the REW graphs---especially phase. I'm curious why/how my phase can reverse 180 degrees every one hundred Hertz or so on the low end! Seems strange to me why this is taking place, so I need to educate myself more.

Thanks again for your help... ~Marty


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## laser188139 (Sep 19, 2009)

*Re: REW signal out through RME Fireface 800 SOLVED!*



Yfoiler said:


> ... I'm curious why/how my phase can reverse 180 degrees every one hundred Hertz or so on the low end! Seems strange to me why this is taking place, so I need to educate myself more. ...


Marty, you want to read about group delay. The phase is not reversing so much as constantly changing. With the phase wrapped, it appears as a reversal. But if you looked at it unwrapped with a linear frequency scale, it would look much more like a straight line, or a series of line segments. Ignoring room reflections, etc., the slope of the line segments reflects the distance of the speaker from the microphone. If you use the left channel for timing, REW can calculate real timing through the entire system. But even with it off, it is common for the bass driver to be farther away than the tweeter driver. With the bass driver being deeper, you see group delay between it and the tweeter, and this extra distance will appear as a constantly changing phase. 

Once you see the picture in your mind, it's really neat.
Bill


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