• From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Topic: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

Like a few others here - I have finally installed my new UCX II and powered it up for the first time yesterday.

Firstly - unlike several others with current threads - so far I have not seen any bootloader issues or any other nonsense like that - which really makes me wonder what is going on. RME interfaces are universally recognized as rock solid "forever" type interfaces - but reading about loose soldier joints and boot up errors is really making me wonder how they can justify this type of pricing and let this kind of crap get out into the real world?

No interface that costs 2K should ever have a "bootloader" issues etc. Here's hoping my unit is part of a better build lot.

Secondly - if you have one of these - what is your "power on/power off" process like?

Reason I ask is the color display. Did RME really not give any thought as to how this unit could sit in a rack (Like my Multiface II did) for potentially 13 years and this color display would be on the entire time? I would have though for sure there would be some option to turn OFF the display (either by a timing event or by clicking the encoder knob) if one is using Total Mix to basically run the thing.  Or am I overthinking this - is this display really designed to be on and lit up for years at a time?

Or maybe folks are powering the unit off after use? Just trying to get a feel for what's is best practice for the longevity of the unit.

Other that these observations - my experience has been rock solid as usual.

Would love to hear from others if they either leave their interfaces on all the time or turn them off/on for use.

Cheers!

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

  • Registered: 2017-05-18
  • Posts: 28

Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

Vocalpoint wrote:

Would love to hear from others if they either leave their interfaces on all the time or turn them off/on for use.

Cheers!

VP

Usually I turn my interface off. So I did with my new UCX II yesterday. Today it didn’t turn on, only a short flicker of the display and then darkness …

3 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

Look around how many people complain about screen issues with the UFX. 12 years and still running.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

MC wrote:

Look around how many people complain about screen issues with the UFX. 12 years and still running.

Matthias

I am a little confused by your post - are you saying that the UFX is actually designed to stay on for 12 straight years (just because people complain) OR are you saying that people have been complaining for the past 12 years because the screen is problematic?

There is a huge difference here smile

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

5 Reply by MC

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Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

I say the display has no problem to stay on and on and on...

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

6 Reply by Vocalpoint (edited by Vocalpoint 2022-01-30 18:09:56)

  • From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

MC wrote:

I say the display has no problem to stay on and on and on...

MC

Thank you for the confirmation! I appreciate it.

Next question has to do with Clock Mode (found in the Fireface USB Settings dialog). In my case I have my Line 6 POD HD Pro X coming into the UCX II via SPDIF.

When I was testing this yesterday - I had the Clock Mode setting set to Internal and noticed that when the POD was powered up and passing signal vai SPDIF - within the Input Status area (Bottom of the dialog) - I noticed the SPDIF Coax status kept shifting between Sync and Lock. The SPDIF light on the front panel kept flashing as well.

I dug into the forums here to see if anyone else has experienced this and a few people did - so I followed the advice in those posts and changed the Clock Source to SPDIF Coax (instead of Internal) and the flashing stopped and the Input Status then changed to "Sync 44.1 Khz" and stayed like that.

Are these the correct settings? I guess I would have expected the Input Status to say "Lock" once the connection was correct and "locked" in. Or is Lock bad and Sync - good?

I mention this because with my Multiface II - interfacing to the same POD HD - I was able to get a perfect locked signal on that card via SPDIF without ever changing the Clock Source (left it on Internal for years) and I could have swore that SyncCheck status area on the Multiface DSP Settings displayed the word "Lock" (as opposed to Sync)

Appreciate any input on this USB dialog and the suggested "correct" settings for using SPDIF.

Cheers

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

7 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2022-01-30 18:38:54)

  • ramses
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Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

Most of such sound modellers
- don't have the flexibility to be configured as either clock master or clock slave
- can only be clock master, in such a case you have to configure your recording interface as clock slave

See RME manual chapters 8.7 and also 40.1, they contain useful information in regards to this topic.

The basic question is whether the Line 6 POD HD Pro X can be configured as clock slave to get it's clock from one of it's digotal ports (be it SPDIF or AES or whatever)... You bought this device, you have the manual, pls check.

As the blinking stopped when you configured the UCX II as clock slave, then it's much likely, that the POD is currently clock master. But then you always need to power the POD on when using the UCX II and be it only for audio playback.

The manual 7.1 contains information about lock vs sync.
"Input Status - Indicates for each input (Word, SPDIF coaxial, AES, ADAT) whether there is a valid signal (Lock, No Lock), or if there is a valid and synchronous signal (Sync). The third column shows the sample frequency detected by the hardware (coarse recognition, 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz etc.)."
Only if you see "sync" then the devices are clock synched which is the goal.

BTW, we just had the topic clocking last recently ..
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 83#p182683

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • From: Calgary, AB Canada
  • Registered: 2009-07-28
  • Posts: 50

Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

ramses wrote:

The basic question is whether the Line 6 POD HD Pro X can be configured as clock slave to get it's clock from one of it's digotal ports (be it SPDIF or AES or whatever). You bought this device, you have the manual, pls check.

Ramses

Just checked the manual - looks like the POD HD Pro X must be configured as Master - and this conforms to what I was seeing - Sync = Good and Lock (not so much).

Looks like this one is solved.

Thanks!

VP

Vocalpoint's Website

9 Reply by MC

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Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

ramses wrote:

As the blinking stopped when you configured the UCX II as clock slave, then it's much likely, that the POD is currently clock master. But then you always need to power the POD on when using the UCX II and be it only for audio playback

Not true. No external clock - internal is used automatically.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

10 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2022-01-31 10:03:46)

  • ramses
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Re: New Fireface UCX II - Up and running - but I have questions

MC wrote:
ramses wrote:

As the blinking stopped when you configured the UCX II as clock slave, then it's much likely, that the POD is currently clock master. But then you always need to power the POD on when using the UCX II and be it only for audio playback

Not true. No external clock - internal is used automatically.

I tried to deduce this from my setup in the following steps:
- UFx+ clock master
- ADI-2 Pro FS R BE as clock slave (from AES)

Turned off UFX+, then clock in the ADI-2 Pro's display turned orange and number was changing (increasing or decreasing).
Ok, and now I repeated it and clock on the ADI-2 Pro changes to internal as you say.
Hmm, I can't tell what happened yesterday that this didn't work.
If I remember right, then I had no other changes in the setup.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13