Topic: Fireface 800 Standalone Format Conversion Issue
Hello - I have a strange issue I am hoping someone can assist me with.
My Setup:
I am operating a Fireface 800 both as an interface connected via FireWire to my DAW computer and in Standalone Mode connected via ADAT to my digital mixer. I have used TotalMix to configure the FF800 to act as a format convertor between Analog 1-8 <-> ADAT 9-16. I have ADAT 9-16 connected to my digital mixer and I use these as 4x Stereo Effect send/return pairs for integrating my analog external effects. This format conversion approach works very well, and it is very useful to have this configuration flashed for standalone mode when I do not want to have the computer on and TotalMix controlling the FF800.
My issue is this:
While I am using the computer, I am able to successfully flash settings to the hardware in both manners (from the Fireface Settings driver applet and from TotalMix using Store Current State into Device - Flash Mixer) without problems.
When I turn off the computer (but do not turn off or reboot the FF800 hardware itself) and use the FF800 in Standalone Mode the settings are all still in effect and operating as they were when the computer was on, and the format conversion setup works perfectly for all 8 Analog <-> ADAT channels. Everything continues to work perfectly as long as I do not power off the FF800.
When I reboot the FF800 hardware (with the computer still off) the unit comes back up and remembers **almost** everything with one exception: the format conversion appears as if it has been reset or "forgotten" for one pair of the channels (Analog 7/8 <-> ADAT 15/16). The other Analog 1-6 <-> ADAT 9-14 work perfectly. When I turn the computer back on and TotalMix starts up, this problem goes away and the Analog 7/8 <-> ADAT 15/16 format conversion immediately starts working again.
Things I have tried:
I have set the Analog 7/8 inputs to be Rear Only in the driver settings applet, and nothing is plugged into the front jacks. I have tried adjusting the Analog 7/8 front gain knobs in case that might have something to do with it, but no effect.
Rollback/Reinstall of drivers to previous revisions (3.119, 3.124) and Store Current State into Device - Flash Mixer showed exact same behavior, put back in 3.125 drivers at this point.
Re-flashed the Firmware to 2.77, no effect.
In TotalMix I have done a Reset Mix - Total Reset, then Store Current State into Device - Flash Mixer to ensure that a "default state" could be flashed into the unit and used in Standalone Mode. This appears to have been successful, as a hardware reboot after flashing this "default state" did in fact remove the format conversion for all Analog 1-8 <-> ADAT 9-16. Bring computer/TotalMix back up, built from scratch the format conversion routing again, Store Current State into Device - Flash Mixer, turn off computer, reboot hardware - results in same symptoms as before with the Analog7/8 <-> ADAT 15/16 conversion not working but the Analog 1-6 <-> ADAT 9-14 does work.
Has anyone tried to do something like this before and run into a similar problem? Any suggestions? Any information or advice would be appreciated, and thanks for taking the time to read this!
Thanks!
bax