# REW Sound card compatibility with RME Digi96 PAD



## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

Hello,
I have been using an RME Digi 96 PAD sound card with ETF acoustic for years and have had no issues. I would like to use REW to test my Integra 40.1 to get results and charts exactly as posted in this thread about MultEQ bug in the denon.
Maybe ETF will do it, but I wanted to use REW because of what Larry did in that thread. 
Please see attachment on the bug I get while I try to open REW. The sound card shows up as "emulated" in the device list. Is the RME incompatible with REW or is this a Java or settings issue?
It is an "Output device error" unable to access output device". Please see attachment.
I have another laptop that I am wondering if it can be used. It has a mic in and headphones out. Can the headphone out be used in place of line out?
It is an IBM Thinkpad T61 with Soundmax integrated digital HD audio.
Will this work instead?
Thanks,
-Jai


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

I did some searching around here and looks like the RME sound card uses ASIO drivers whereas REW requires WDM drivers because of Java. My RME Digi 96 PAD is an older card that is no longer supported. So I don't think there are WDM drivers available for the Digi 96 PAD. This is sad because this is such an excellent quality sound card and it is a pity if REW does not support it.
If I have to buy a new external sound card for use with a laptop, will this Turtle beach card work?
If not, can someone recommend an external USB sound card that I can quickly find at a local Best Buy or Radio Shack store? I'd like to get started with my experiment right away rather than waiting for a sound card to arrive by mail. Anything under $50 would be much appreciated. The cheaper the better as long as it works and is consistent and gives accurate results. It will be used only for REW.
Thanks,
-Jai


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

That micro card only appears to have outputs, no inputs. Various USB soundcards are discussed in this thread. You may be able to get the RME to work if you can force it to 48kHz.


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

JohnM said:


> That micro card only appears to have outputs, no inputs. Various USB soundcards are discussed in this thread. You may be able to get the RME to work if you can force it to 48kHz.


Thanks John. It was set to 48Khz.


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

How about this one X fi go?
also in amazon


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

jmcomp124 said:


> How about this one X fi go?
> also in amazon


Probably not. It has no line in that I can see. It has a mic in, but no talk of it's response. No phantom power.


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

glaufman said:


> Probably not. It has no line in that I can see. It has a mic in, but no talk of it's response. No phantom power.


I am ready to buy an external sound card for use with my laptop. The Turtle Beach SRM comes highly recommended but hard to find in stock and also in the $80-$100.
Will the UCA202 work for me. I am ready to order and I guess I have not choice but to wait for it to arrive by mail.
It will be used with a WinXP Pro system and a Galaxy CM-140 Mic (I plan on doing some LFE measurements too for various channels and not just for measuring electrical response of my preamp).
Any other alternatives? I want it to be easy to setup with REW and it should be accurate with no known flaws.
What are the limitations of the UCA202 that may affect my usage scenario?
Thanks,
-Jai


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## glaufman (Nov 25, 2007)

This thread in our Soundcards section has the frequency response of the UCA202 as measured by a member to create their calibration file, and a bunch of other information...
http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...rds/10668-usb-soundcard-vista-compatible.html


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

glaufman said:


> This thread in our Soundcards section has the frequency response of the UCA202 as measured by a member to create their calibration file, and a bunch of other information...
> http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...rds/10668-usb-soundcard-vista-compatible.html


I can't believe I am still not up and running. I tried the on-bard sigmatel audio on the motheboard and ran into a number of issues. Basically the line-in was too low. I then tried an old SB live card and ran into other issues. Rather than messing around with drivers and different sound cards, can someone please suggest a PCI card that I can just go buy locally that would work?

OS is WinXP Pro. 
Will any of these work?
Creative Audigy SE 7.1
Specs don't say it is full duplex
Turtle beach riviera 5.1
Specs here too don't say full duplex

I don't mind ordering on-line either. I just want confirmation on one desktop sound card that will work with REW. This is just for REW usage. Sub $50 preferred.
Thanks guys!


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

You can pretty much ignore the full duplex aspect, I don't think there is a soundcard made nowadays that is not full duplex. Either of those cards should work OK, but so should the on-oard sigmatel and under XP with an on-board card all the settings you need to control are in the Windows playback and record mixers. It would be worth posting images of the mixer settings you have with the on-board sound.


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

JohnM said:


> You can pretty much ignore the full duplex aspect, I don't think there is a soundcard made nowadays that is not full duplex. Either of those cards should work OK, but so should the on-oard sigmatel and under XP with an on-board card all the settings you need to control are in the Windows playback and record mixers. It would be worth posting images of the mixer settings you have with the on-board sound.


John,
Thanks for responding. Here are the screenshots of the mixer. The first one shows the mixer settings.
The second picture shows the error/warning (Very low signal level) that pops up at about 80-90% during the measurement phase. The VUmeter however shows good levels during measurement. 
The third picture shows the rew response. Either the audio board is very poor quality or I am doing something wrong for the response to look like that. Checking monitor input in sigmatel in the first picture causes input monitor mute button in the windows mixer to be unchecked. If I uncheck mute andtake the measurement, I get some kind of feedback noise. The VM meter shows high signal levels in the line in. Decreasing trim levels in the output or line in causes this to stabilize. 
I intend to use REW for the purpose indicated in This Thread.
Will this sigmatel still work for me? I would like a card with low noise and something that can handle at least around 1v at the line in. I will be using the subwoofer preout to measure the electrical response. I want to learn how preamp subwoofer line out distortion gets affected as I use various EQ technologies like Audyssey, Dynamic volume, Dynamic EQ etc. 
Am I better off buying a nice card like the Turtle beach SRM to be used with a laptop or just get one of these cards I pointed out earlier. Your inputs in my other thread about electrical response measurement, would be much appreciated.
Thanks a lot!
-Jai


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

On the playback monitor, push the Wave slider to the top. The main issue looks to be input selection though, the levels in the VU meters are typical of an unconnected mic input so I suspect the Line In has not been selected and REW is being fed the mic input signal. Odd that on the windows Volume Control mixer the "Options" menu looks to be greyed out, are you able to select the windows Recording mixer? If not, what does that control in the taskbar do, the one on the right with a mic image stating "Microphone i" -> is that some kind of input selector, and if so can you select the line input from there?


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

JohnM said:


> On the playback monitor, push the Wave slider to the top. The main issue looks to be input selection though, the levels in the VU meters are typical of an unconnected mic input so I suspect the Line In has not been selected and REW is being fed the mic input signal. Odd that on the windows Volume Control mixer the "Options" menu looks to be greyed out, are you able to select the windows Recording mixer? If not, what does that control in the taskbar do, the one on the right with a mic image stating "Microphone i" -> is that some kind of input selector, and if so can you select the line input from there?


John,
The control in the taskbar is for speech recognition. I turnd it off. If the wave slider is pushed to the top and monitor input is checked, then there VUmeter line in shows a full solid signal all the way to red even without any test/measure signal indicating some noise or feedback.
The input 1 line in, should be the one. What else should I try?
I really don't mind buying an external USB sound card. Which one should I get? This question has been beaten to death, but I would like to get your answer for it.

The Turtle beach SRM is mostly out of stock. My intended usage is for this.
Will a UCA 202 do the job?
With XP Pro, exactly what should the settings be for the UCA 202? Some complain about line-in not working due to low-levels. Will windows allow adjusting line-in with a lack of driver?
Some say to use shorter cables, not clear what exactly that means and why impedance is an issue. Is a shorter cable needed for the UCA 202 at line-in or line-out. 
Thanks again John for helping out. A word from the author (You) would be the most reliable regarding this sound card issue.
Thanks,
-Jai


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

*Did it actually work?*



JohnM said:


> On the playback monitor, push the Wave slider to the top. The main issue looks to be input selection though, the levels in the VU meters are typical of an unconnected mic input so I suspect the Line In has not been selected and REW is being fed the mic input signal. Odd that on the windows Volume Control mixer the "Options" menu looks to be greyed out, are you able to select the windows Recording mixer? If not, what does that control in the taskbar do, the one on the right with a mic image stating "Microphone i" -> is that some kind of input selector, and if so can you select the line input from there?


I was playing with various mixer controls systematically trying various combinations, checked stereo mixer and voila, things started looking better.
I am still not sure what the stereo mixer means?
The response looks nice and flat. No errors popped up. Am I on the right track to sound card calibration?
Thanks,
-Jai


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## jmcomp124 (Feb 27, 2007)

In sound card calibration loop back mode, when the left channel is left open and the right channels are looped back, is it ok for the VUMeter to show full signal readings on both the left and right in?
This is what happens when I use stereo mix and measure and I get an unrealistic flat line like above. Problem is, now when I measure the electrical response of the preamp .1 subwoofer output with a manual eq set at 40Hz and a cut of -6dB, it still shows as a flat line indicating something is wrong. Answers to my questiosn about the UCA 202 would be very helpful. I
Thanks,
-Jai


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

Stereo Mix is an internal digital loopback connection in the soundcard, it gives a perfectly flat response, but then it would 

Monitor Input must NOT be checked, as that also creates an internal feedback path from input to output.

You also need to turn off any processing modes, like the "Sonic Focus" shown in ths screen shot.

I have no personal experience of the UCA202, so searching the forums is the best route to finding out how people have got on with it. However, the issue with your on-board sound may have been the speech recognition. that would have required the mic to be active and may have overridden the input selection. 

Set wave back to full, and try selecting "Recording" from the "Options" menu on the Windows volume mixer to see in there what is selected as the input - it seems to be enabled now that speech recognition is off.


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