• tomi
  • New member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2018-03-18
  • Posts: 1

Topic: My gear is failing the bit test

Hi guys,

I have been enjoying my ADI-2 Pro very much for a few months now and only today have I decided to try the bit test. Much to my surprise, not a single file went through. I am no audio pro at all, just an enthusiast, and I have little to no idea how to troubleshoot this. Would anyone be willing to take a look at my configuration for us to see if I am overlooking something please?


ADI-2 Pro 174/86
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.3
HQPlayer Desktop 3.20.2 (EVALUATION)


Audio MIDI Setup in MacOS and HQPlayer preferences

https://ulozto.sk/tam/_VP6OrYUy62h2 (a file sharing service, two .png images, 340kB both)


HQPlayer log

start player...

* 2018/03/18 21:03:58 Starting...
  2018/03/18 21:03:58 Signalyst HQPlayer Desktop v3.20.2
  2018/03/18 21:03:58 Engine selected: 
* 2018/03/18 21:03:59 Control server started
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Restore GUI state
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 libDSP version 19.1.2
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Number of processor cores: 2
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 DSP thread pools disabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Pipelined DSP disabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Audio engine: coreaudio
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set channels: 2 (2)
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio default device id: 48
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio devices: 3
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio device: Built-in Microphone (41) - Apple Inc. 
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio device: Built-in Output (48) - Apple Inc. 
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio device: ADI-2 Pro (56382175) (58) - RME 
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio selected device: 58
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 44100 - 44100
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 48000 - 48000
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 88200 - 88200
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 96000 - 96000
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 176400 - 176400
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 192000 - 192000
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 352800 - 352800
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 384000 - 384000
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 705600 - 705600
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio nominal rate: 768000 - 768000
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio number of streams: 2
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio number of output streams: 1
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio virtual formats:
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     768000/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     705600/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     384000/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     352800/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     192000/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     176400/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     96000/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     88200/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     48000/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     44100/32/2 [ Float ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     768000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     705600/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     384000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     352800/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     192000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     176400/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     96000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     88200/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     48000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     44100/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio physical formats:
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     768000/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     705600/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     384000/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     352800/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     192000/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     176400/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     96000/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     88200/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     48000/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     44100/32/2 [ SignedInteger ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     768000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     705600/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     384000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     352800/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     192000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     176400/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     96000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     88200/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     48000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04     44100/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 CoreAudio device bits: 32
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Volume limit: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Automatic rate family disabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 DirectSDM disabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 SDM conversion parameters (0, 0)
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 DSD 6 dB gain disabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Initial parallel threads: 4
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Number of logical cores: 4
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 SDM conversion parameters (0, 0)
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 DSD 6 dB gain disabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Audio engine PCM mode enabled
& 2018/03/18 21:04:04 Stop...
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set filter: 6
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set dither: 5
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set filter: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set oversampling: 6
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set filter: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Automatic output rate switching enabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set dither: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set modulator: 6
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set dither: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Automatic output rate switching enabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Automatic output rate switching enabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set filter: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set oversampling: 6
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set dither: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set modulator: 6
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Automatic output rate switching enabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 SDM conversion parameters (0, 0)
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 DSD 6 dB gain disabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Audio engine PCM mode enabled
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set filter: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set oversampling: 6
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set dither: 0
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Set modulator: 6
  2018/03/18 21:04:04 Automatic output rate switching enabled

play 192_24_adi2pro_bittest 4s.wav...

& 2018/03/18 21:05:28 Playlist clear
& 2018/03/18 21:05:28 Stop...
& 2018/03/18 21:05:28 Set transport (240): 
& 2018/03/18 21:05:28 Playlist add URI: file:///Users/jogobella/Desktop/music/bit_test_wavs/192_24_adi2pro_bittest 4s.wav
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 Set convolution: 1
& 2018/03/18 21:05:34 GoTo 1
& 2018/03/18 21:05:34 Play
+ 2018/03/18 21:05:34 Playback engine running
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 Set sampling rate: 192000 (192000)
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 Rate or blocksize change triggered
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 Rate: 192000, block size: 20480, frame size: 2560
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 Block size: 20480 (sample: 4)
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 Playback engine ratio: 1
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 Dither: none for 32-bit
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 Initialization complete, starting audio engine
+ 2018/03/18 21:05:34 CoreAudio engine starting...
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 CoreAudio using integer mode
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 CoreAudio virtual format: 192000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 CoreAudio using non-mixable mode
  2018/03/18 21:05:34 CoreAudio physical format: 192000/32/2 [ SignedInteger NonMixable ]
+ 2018/03/18 21:05:35 CoreAudio engine started at: 192000 (192000)
  2018/03/18 21:05:35 Parallel threads: 4
  2018/03/18 21:05:35 Nested parallelism: 0
  2018/03/18 21:05:35 Parallel pipelines: 2
  2018/03/18 21:05:36 CoreAudio allocate buffers of size 512
  2018/03/18 21:05:40 End of track
& 2018/03/18 21:05:40 Next
  2018/03/18 21:05:40 Stop request (tail)
& 2018/03/18 21:05:41 Stop...
- 2018/03/18 21:05:41 CoreAudio engine stopping...
- 2018/03/18 21:05:42 CoreAudio engine stopped
- 2018/03/18 21:05:42 Playback engine stopped
& 2018/03/18 21:05:42 ...stopped

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,582

Re: My gear is failing the bit test

Check the simple ones: dither is active. Volume is not set to unity gain.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2018-03-20
  • Posts: 23

Re: My gear is failing the bit test

My bittest passed from Reaper
but not from

Samplitude (famous for it's sound)

/Göran

  • Ulrich
  • S/Mux specialist
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2008-05-31
  • Posts: 316

Re: My gear is failing the bit test

Göran, may I ask what kind of background or education you have in pro audio, and how long have you been working in Pro audio?

Ulrich

  • Registered: 2018-03-20
  • Posts: 23

Re: My gear is failing the bit test

No background or education  in (pro) audio !

/Göran

  • Ulrich
  • S/Mux specialist
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2008-05-31
  • Posts: 316

Re: My gear is failing the bit test

Thanks for that honest statement.

Please recognize that guys like MC belong to the top top people in audio gear design and it is not their task to educate beginners with the very basics of audio technology. We need him for the real problems.

I am afraid there is no other way for you than doing some kind of homework in order to get things sorted out by yourself.

Reaper and Samplitude are both advanced software products, and if you fail to make a bit test with one of them it is most probable you should start searching the mistake at yourself. (If you are an experienced user with deep knowledge, things may be different.) For understanding bit tests it is necessary to have knowledge on basic digital audio theory, wordlength, interface and driver specifications, dither and how to use it, DAW settings on dealing with all these subjects, etc... I am pretty sure at the moment it is completely impossible for you to make a valid statement on such subjects. And the same implies for advanced subjects like measuring audio devices for their specifications (like in the other thread you started).

There are great resources in the internet for all of these subjects, but internet forums (like GS) don't nesessarily belong to them... And yes, also books are still a great source of knowledge.

Thanks for your understanding.
Ulrich