# Help with UMM-6 mic



## PEB (Feb 11, 2013)

Please help an acoustic engineer from feeling so dumb. Without spending the time needed to fully learn REW, I simply want to get the UMM-6 mic up and running. Can you outline the procedure? 

Here is what I tried:
1. Preferences/Soundcard/Input=UMM-6
2. Preferences/Mic/mic-or-Z-meter/Browse for UMM-6 cal file. 
3. Play pink noise from my CD player. 
4. Set up a Radio Shack meter next to the UMM-6. 
5. Adjust sound to display 70dB on the RS meter. 
6. Start REW SPL Meter. Click record button. 
Upper (large) meter reads 68dB(C). Lower (slider) meter reads -65dBFS

No matter how I change the soundcard settings, I always get the error message "The soundcard does not provide any input data, please check that it is connected"

Why should I care about the soundcard settings with an external sound source and a USB mic? What am I missing?


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

A USB mic is a soundcard as far as the operating system is concerned, albeit one that only has inputs. 

Are you using the ASIO or Java driver setting?
What sample rate setting are you using and have you tried changing it?


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## PEB (Feb 11, 2013)

Java, 44.1k


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Try 48k.


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## mark_anderson_us (Aug 20, 2012)

Did you ever get this to work? I have same issue too


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## PEB (Feb 11, 2013)

Sorry, no. 

It just didn't quite rise up the priority list. So I sold both my UMM-6 mics while at Lone Star Audio Fest. 

I will be glad to hear if anyone else has this combo working. Or without offending REW, perhaps if this mic works with Holm, Arta, or others. 

OmniMic is a great product because it works so quickly and effortlessly. But it does not have the ultimate control over measurements that these other SW do. And as an engineer, "I like to be in control".


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## mark_anderson_us (Aug 20, 2012)

PEB said:


> Sorry, no.
> 
> It just didn't quite rise up the priority list. So I sold both my UMM-6 mics while at Lone Star Audio Fest.
> 
> ...


Beginning to wish I'd sprung for OmniMic given the time and money wasted so far with REW ($ for soundcards, mics)


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## PEB (Feb 11, 2013)

OmniMic is like Praxis Lite. Great for room & equipment adjustments. And portability. 

Not enough for my loudspeaker R&D purposes, but useful when I demo at shows, visit customers, etc. 

If the MiniDSP mic works REW without issues then perhaps you should get that. It appears that REW offers more power than OmniMic.


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## EarlK (Jan 1, 2010)

I'm truly surprised that the UMM-6 is giving people trouble ( with REW ) / ( not that I have one though ) . 

I would set the default soundcard ( for whatever OS you're using ) to whatever audio driver the UMM-6 is using ( likely the builtin/generic USB driver for either a Windows or Mac machine ) .

- Then simply set REW's input ( from within its' preferences window ) to "default" .

- Depending on the OS , one may need to create a composite driver ("Aggregate Device", if using some older versions of OSX ) to set the default output to be the machines builtin soundcard . 
- See this *"STICKY THREAD" !*

:sn:


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## PEB (Feb 11, 2013)

Yeah, well I was surprised, too. It will surely turn to be "Oh, that was a simple fix" revelation eventually. 

But when one gets busy, little niggling troubleshooting problems seem insurmountable!


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## Phillips (Aug 12, 2011)

I have used the Omnimic with REW with success (though took me awhile).

I have had problems transferring to other Windows OS systems though.

Windows sound can and does cause problems.

What OS are you two using?

Maybe screenshots of your settings in Preferences etc would help?

Lately with REW updates the program asks for 
1. Do you want to use (what ever mic is plugged in) click yes.
2. Do you have a calibration file click yes and load the calibration file.


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## mark_anderson_us (Aug 20, 2012)

EarlK said:


> I'm truly surprised that the UMM-6 is giving people trouble ( with REW ) / ( not that I have one though ) .
> 
> I would set the default soundcard ( for whatever OS you're using ) to whatever audio driver the UMM-6 is using ( likely the builtin/generic USB driver for either a Windows or Mac machine ) .
> 
> ...


Thanks Earl!


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## EarlK (Jan 1, 2010)

mark_anderson_us said:


> Thanks Earl!


You're Welcome !

:sn:


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## adauphin (Feb 26, 2012)

I was having similar issues with the UMM-6 as well and had many error messages until I went into the playback & recording devices. Note that this is using my internal sound card or just plugging the mic into the laptop.

Right click on the speaker in the lower right of the screen and select "Playback Devices"

Once the Playback tab is open, your working speakers should be displayed, move your cursor to the speakers description and it will highlight, then either right click and select "Properties" or just left click and select "Properties" at the lower right











Go into "Enhancements" and check the box "Disable all Enhancements" This will also disable "Dolby"












Then go into the "Properties" for the Recording device and select the "Levels" tab. I had to bring the mic boost down to 24 and this moves in steps and not infinitely variable.










I also brought the mic level to around 44 but this isn't exact, you will need to adjust.


Once I did this I would not get anymore error messages mainly with 'Excessive variation in measurement", when I set the volume I just used the main speaker volume to get my preamp to be as close as possible to 0 or about 11 O'clock on the dial to get the required 75db at me SPL meter.

Hope this helps.


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## kerkula (Aug 27, 2013)

Hi, fairly new here myself. I also had problems with the UMM-6 mic until I discovered I was running the wrong version of REW. Have you tried v5.01beta17? This version recognized the mic immediately and prompted for the calibration file. Measurements were a snap after that.

(To those who know more about this is there a non-beta version of this now? )

good luck,

Kerkula


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## adauphin (Feb 26, 2012)

kerkula said:


> Hi, fairly new here myself. I also had problems with the UMM-6 mic until I discovered I was running the wrong version of REW. Have you tried v5.01beta17? This version recognized the mic immediately and prompted for the calibration file. Measurements were a snap after that.
> 
> (To those who know more about this is there a non-beta version of this now? )
> 
> ...


I downloaded the 5.1 version on top of my 5.0 and when completed REW displayed that it had been updated....I assume it's using the updates.

Thanks for the tip.


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