Long time listener, first time caller…

I have a Fireface UFX and Octamic XTC that I’m connecting via ADAT to record at 96kHz and am finding some irregularities with TotalMix control of mic. settings, both for the XTC and UFX. I recently added the XTC but UFX has been fine.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a systematic way in which these issues occur so I’ll just try my best to describe what I’m doing and what I’ve seen.

HW: (FYI this configuration is chosen for galvanic isolation – MADI would be best but would need an upgrade to UFX+)
UFX ADAT 1 Out -> XTC ADAT In (for sync only – UFX as master and XTC as slave)
XTC ADAT 1 Out -> UFX ADAT 1 In (SMUX 1-4)
XTC ADAT 2 Out -> UFX ADAT 2 In (SMUX 5-8)
UFX MIDI DIN 1 Out -> XTC MIDI DIN In (TotalMix FX aux device control)
XTC MIDI DIN Out -> UFX MIDI DIN 1 In (TotalMix FX aux device control)
UFX USB -> Win10 HP Elitebook 820 G3 (XTC USB not connected)

SW:
All drivers and FW downloaded and installed/updated 01 Nov 2016. All are Windows USB drivers only.
UFX: Driver 1.095; FW 357/161/344/28, 802: 13/9/7/9 (incl. TotalMix FX v1.31)
XTC: Driver 0.9574; FW 47/25 (XTC driver was installed only to update the firmware but the driver wasn’t uninstalled afterwards)
DIGICheck 5.82 (used for Global Record in parallel to DURECorder)

Settings (for aux device control):
XTC: MIDI Sources / Control (Inp.) = DIN In
XTC: MIDI Sources / MIDI DIN out = Control
XTC: General Settings / MIDI Device ID = 0
XTC: General Settings / MIDI Cont. Thru = Off
UFX: Settings / Aux Devices / Device Settings / Digital Channels = ADAT 1-8
UFX: Settings / Aux Devices / Device Settings / Device = Octamic XTC
UFX: Settings / Aux Devices / MIDI Settings / MIDI In = UFX Midi Port 1
UFX: Settings / Aux Devices / MIDI Settings / MIDI Out = UFX Midi Port 1
UFX: Settings / Aux Devices / MIDI Settings / Device ID = 0

ISSUES
The first one seems somewhat trivial but whenever booting the UFX the STATE LEDs section of the front panel lights blue for the FW LED, not the USB LED.

The main issue is the TotalMix FX control of the preamp settings. If I turn the UFX on first, let it boot, and then turn the XTC on then the CTRL I and CTRL O state on the XTC stay unlit and TotalMix XTC preamp settings do nothing. The same is true for subsequent XTC power-cycles with the UFX constantly on. This isn’t unexpected but the manuals for either device don’t mention a specific startup sequence so I mention here only for reference.

When I power on the XTC first, let it boot, and then turn the UFX on then the XTC CTRL I and CTRL O state come on and I can control the XTC preamps from TotalMix. So far so good. However, after some time both CTRL LEDs will go away and any changes in TotalMix will not take effect (parameter control from the HW interface worked OK sometimes but not all). The time it takes for this to happen after the UFX is booted can be anywhere between 10 seconds and 30 minutes and seems independent of how often changes are made in TotalMix. More confusingly, for some of my tests I found that in rare instances if XTC control was lost in TotalMix then gain parameter changes to “Mic 9” on the UFX (made with TotalMix) would also be ignored. In this case Mic 9 parameter control from the HW interface also didn’t work.

Audio seems to be getting recorded by both DUREC and Global Recorder just fine during the whole time. The last preamp parameters are also kept constant, despite not being able to update them once control is lost. Only a device reboot seems to solve the issue. I set all inputs and outputs as disabled in Windows sound settings just in case.

Any thoughts or suggestions for subsequent tests or logs I could provide? As said, I've only just added the XTC and updated all drivers so can only speak to current functionality, not historical issues.

Cheers
Dave