1 Topic by adamantium (edited by adamantium 2024-08-06 23:00:02)

  • Registered: 2024-08-06
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Topic: Muting active monitors without muting HO AN 1/2

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and recently picked up a Fireface UFX III, and I absolutely love this thing. Thanks to the team for putting together such an outstanding product. Also, TotalMix has a learning curve but at a high level I find the architecture and mental model quite clever and easy to reason about once you internalize the logic.

My question: I'm trying to create a snapshot optimized for taking video calls (Google Meet, Zoom, etc.) and I've combed through the manual, YouTube videos, and posts here on this forum to review the configs that people tend to use for this scenario. Thus far I have almost everything set up correctly for my needs in this way:

  • HO AN 1/2 (Main) has Mic 9 mixed in, and is set to Loopback with the intent of sending my voice over Mic 9 to the video call

  • HO AN 1/2 (Main) has SP AN 1/2 turned off with the intent of not feeding the other video call participant's audio back to them

  • PH 9/10 has both Mic 9 and SP AN 1/2 mixed in so I can monitor the call and my own voice via headphones

This all appears to work exactly as intended, with the one remaining issue that the two near field studio monitors I have connected to the physical HO AN 1/2 ports continue to playback all audio during a call.

It makes logical sense that they would do this, but I'm curious if there's a way in this scenario that I could mute only the output to the active monitors while still being able to send along the signal from Mic 9 (my voice) over HO AN 1/2 and monitor the call via PH 9/10.

I suspect this would be a lot easier if I wasn't using MacOS and could specify different outputs for the mic feed (reserving HO AN 1/2 for my near field monitors), but as it stands I believe I'm forced to send my mic signal mixed into HO AN 1/2 because it's the default port used by all video call applications on MacOS.

Is there something obvious I'm missing here? Or a different routing config that might handle this scenario more elegantly? Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this, cheers!

M1 Max — Sonoma
Fireface UFX III
  • waedi
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Re: Muting active monitors without muting HO AN 1/2

User manual page 86 shows Loopback is post fader, that means if you mute the speakers the Loopback signal is also muted.

You have to connect the speakers to another output, use Line-out 3 to 8

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue
  • ramses
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Re: Muting active monitors without muting HO AN 1/2

waedi wrote:

User manual page 86 shows Loopback is post fader, that means if you mute the speakers the Loopback signal is also muted.

You have to connect the speakers to another output, use Line-out 3 to 8

I would do it the other way around, keep the speaker where they are, otherwise you need a different cable.
Use another free output/submix for loopback.
With an UFX III there might be a lot of channels free .. I would use the last MADI channels for such purposes if they are not in use.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

4 Reply by waedi (edited by waedi 2024-08-07 11:18:16)

  • waedi
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Re: Muting active monitors without muting HO AN 1/2

He has to have Loopback on channels 1/2 because the video conference software works only with channels 1/2, no multichannel options there.
Unfortunately yes, other cables are need.

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue
  • Registered: 2024-08-06
  • Posts: 3

Re: Muting active monitors without muting HO AN 1/2

waedi wrote:

He has to have Loopback on channels 1/2 because the video conference software works only with channels 1/2, no multichannel options there.
Unfortunately yes, other cables are need.

I think you’re right. I hoped to avoid this as my monitors are connected via XLR <> XLR, but ordering some TRS <> XLR cables is not a big deal. Ultimately it’s a workaround for the limitations of the operating system and conference software, but I wanted to first make sure there wasn’t an easier solution I had overlooked.

Thank you both for taking the time to respond, I appreciate it!

M1 Max — Sonoma
Fireface UFX III
  • waedi
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  • From: Swiss Zürich
  • Registered: 2020-12-08
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Re: Muting active monitors without muting HO AN 1/2

You were right asking here before buying stuff.

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue

7 Reply by adamantium (edited by adamantium 2024-08-07 18:29:03)

  • Registered: 2024-08-06
  • Posts: 3

Re: Muting active monitors without muting HO AN 1/2

A quick update for anyone that finds this thread in the future, I have another solution for this problem on MacOS:

1. waedi's solution of using TRS <> XLR cables and switching the physical studio monitor connections to ports other than HO AN 1/2 would work, and is the right direction if you want to solve this with hardware rather than software.

2. If you're like me and would prefer to keep your studio monitors on HO AN 1/2 and wish that MacOS allowed you to address all of the I/O on your RME device instead of rolling them all up into one addressable device, you can use a tool called Loopback (https://rogueamoeba.com/loopback/) by Rogue Amoeba to recognize all of the I/O on your hardware and create a virtual device that MacOS can see and use as an input or output.

This by definition allows any software (e.g. video conferencing software) to select the virtual device as an input or output. In my case I'm now routing HO AN 3/4 to a virtual device that I can select as the input for my video conferencing software and it works perfectly (see screenshots for example).

The tool is paid, but for me it's worth the price to solve this particular deficiency in MacOS audio I/O and in my experience so far is extremely flexible and well made. I hope this helps anyone trying to get this sorted out for themselves!

Loopback tool

Google Meet with virtual device selected

M1 Max — Sonoma
Fireface UFX III