# No input



## Guest (Jan 4, 2008)

I have racked my brain and tried everything I can think of and read the posts and help files. I can't get any input. I can get the generator to work. I tried the spl meter (Radio Shack 33-2055 digital) and The EMC 8K and UB802 and no sound at all. :gah:Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> I have racked my brain and tried everything I can think of and read the posts and help files. I can't get any input.


OK Tom, let's see if we can solve your problem. 

You have a few other posts going that I re-read through, so we'll stick to this thread. 

You have the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Audio card. No problem there.

The first thing you want to do is the Soundcard calibration.

Have you connected a stereo cable from line-out to line-in and run the soundcard calibration routine?

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 4, 2008)

OK, I got the sound card calibrated but I had to use "what you hear" for the input. Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> OK, I got the sound card calibrated but I had to use "what you hear" for the input.


No, the 'what you hear' option is a monitor mode that internally loops the output back to the input. This must be shut off before you are actually looking at the line-in port and not simply looping your output back to itself.

Are you using a cable that uses stereo connectors connected from line-out to line-in?

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2008)

The cables I'm using have a mini stereo at one end and two RCA's coming out of it. One red and one white. The cables are connected together with RCA couplers. Will these work? Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

Yep, that sounds good.

You need to be sure the card is in stereo mode with all effects and monitoring mode off before doing the soundcard cal routine.

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2008)

It's in stereo mode with all effects off. Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

Did you get a proper level setting and graph produced when you did the soundcard routine?


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2008)

No. Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

Can you post a picture of your REW settings page and also one of your Windows record and playback mixer screen.

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2008)

Here's the graph with the mixer included.
I'm still tryimg to figure out how to post a pic of the windows control.


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> Here's the graph with the mixer included


You have the C-Weight box checked in REW. It needs to be Un-checked.

What is the graph of? Is this the result of a measurement of the direct loopback of the line-out to line-in plugs on the soundcard after you successfully did a soundcard calibration?



> I'm still tryimg to figure out how to post a pic of the windows control.


Any active screen on the Windows desktop may be captured by pressing ALT and PrtScr keys. Then that can be pasted into Paint or any other graphics program and sized to 800 wide and posted as a jpeg.

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 7, 2008)

It was supposed to be a measurement of the direct loopback of the line-out to line-in plugs of the sound card but since I have no input it's not right. I did confirm the the spl meter is working. I'm still working on posting the windows record/playback. Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

Here's what I'd like to see if possible.

1. REW setup page









2. Windows playback mixer










3. Windows record mixer








brucek


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## Guest (Jan 7, 2008)

If the pics of the Windows control and the set up page show the settings the way they should be , then I have everything set up like the pics. Is that right? Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

Yeah, you want to be sure your card is recognized in REW and that you select line/speaker out and line-in as shown in my pic.
Then in Windows, you want to be sure that Master Volume and Wave are enabled and that line-in is muted in Playback and that line-in is enabled in Record.

Then if you have a proper stereo cable from line-out to line in, it should simply work....... if not, you've got likely got a fault.

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2008)

Ok, I have set everything according to your pics and suggestions, I even uninstalled REW and re installed it and still no input.:wits-end: I noticed that in your pics of the control panel they are with Realtek AC97. I still have this in my computer but Creative is over riding it. Will Realtek work with REW? Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> Will Realtek work with REW?


Yep....... works fine. You'd have to enable it in bios and ensure it's the default card.

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2008)

I enabled Realtek and I have input now.:yay: Thanks. Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

I'm beginning to lose faith in these Creative soundcards, because you aren't the first one to complain for sure. All sorts of strange problems.....

I hope the RealTek gets you going. 

brucek


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## DrWho (Sep 27, 2006)

There is nothing wrong with the Creative cards - you just need to configure them using their actual setup software instead of windows...there is a way to make the Creative software do what you tell Windows to do, but that is a setting inside their configuration utility. (assuming you're not using vista)


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## Guest (Jan 9, 2008)

Sound card calibration. What went wrong?:scratch: Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> Sound card calibration. What went wrong?


Usually cause by a soundfield or effects turned on in the soundcard. Set it to simple stereo with no equalizer. 
Also can be caused by an incorrect level setup in the soundcard routine.

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 10, 2008)

Does this look better? Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> Does this look better?


You have the C-Weight box checked in REW Settings. Uncheck it.

After unchecking it, do the soundcard cal file routine and lets see the full graph....

Save the file and do a test measure and the response should be a perfect flat line....

brucek


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

From the scope plot there's still some kind of EQ curve being applied, i.e. the kind of effect that gets labelled "rock" or "jazz" or some such.


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## Guest (Jan 11, 2008)

How does this look for a sound card calibration? Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

What are the two lines?

Would rather see the graph from 0Hz-20000Hz after you do the calibration with the small axis...

brucek


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2008)

I think I've got it. I was about to call it quits last night so I waited till this morning to try it again. I got a flat line for my sound card calibration and did a measurement of the sub under the desk for the computer. I hope this is what it is supposed to look like. Tom


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## brucek (Apr 11, 2006)

> I got a flat line for my sound card calibration


Good.....



> did a measurement of the sub under the desk for the computer. I hope this is what it is supposed to look like


Yep, except for a couple of suggestions.

Use the standard graph axis we all use here of vertical=45dB-105dB and horizontal=15Hz-200Hz. These values are entered into the Graph Axis button popup and recalled at any time to return the graph to these standard value.

When you measure a sub, you do it with the mains turned off and the crossover turned on so it will match that target line on the graph (hopefully).

Calibrate the REW target to 75dB when you measure.

brucek


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