• Registered: 2022-01-08
  • Posts: 26

Topic: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

I’ve been trying to use Room EQ Wizard running on a windows laptop and connected to the ADI-2 via USB.

On running a sweep (i.e. REW software sends out a frequency sweep tone to the DAC which then plays through my speakers), most of the time it works fine for, say, 60% of the sweep) but then breaks up / distorts. The sweep is set to cover frequencies from 40 Hz to 10 KHz. This tells me that REW isn’t talking to the DAC entirely properly.

Can anybody direct me to a cause / solution please?

2 Reply by KaiS (edited by KaiS 2023-08-28 23:53:53)

  • KaiS
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2020-02-05
  • Posts: 3,525

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

What if you play music in the same setup?


Maybe try an ADI-2 reset to have it in a defined state:

While powering up, push and hold the VOL button (NOT the VOLUME dial) and Encoder 1, until you see the message: “Reset done“.

User Setups and EQ Presets are not deleted.

KaiS's Website

  • Registered: 2022-01-08
  • Posts: 26

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Sorry for the delay in replying to your reply. I’ve been away.

Playing music from the PC to the RME is fine.

I have since updated the firmware to allow use of the iPadOS remote (which is excellent btw - thank you). Problem is still there.

What does the ‘Defined State’ mean / achieve?

4 Reply by KaiS (edited by KaiS 2023-09-12 06:54:13)

  • KaiS
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2020-02-05
  • Posts: 3,525

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Crunchynut wrote:

What does the ‘Defined State’ mean / achieve?

Achieving a “Defined State“ in this case means wipe out every possible screwed setting by doing a reset, like described.

Firmware update alone doesn‘t do this.

KaiS's Website

  • Registered: 2022-01-08
  • Posts: 26

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Tried resetting to defined state. Still no joy.

6 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,586

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

That error description is too unclear to help. Sample rate? What driver used in REW? Current driver and firmare version? Any USB errors shown in the Settings dialog? What buffer size set in there?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2022-01-08
  • Posts: 26

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Using JAVA driver since if I use ASIO  then I can’t then select the external mic (apparently you can have 2 ASIO devices with MAC OS but only one with Win10).

Have tried with 44.1KHz SR and 48 KHz.

Have tried with buffer sizes ranging from 32 to 512 (44.1 KHz SR) or 32 to 2048 (48 KHz SR).

Same symptoms whatever I try.


Could it be that the laptop just isn’t coping with sending the sweep and reading the mic at the same time? Intel i5 laptop btw so should be up to the task.

I’m not sure where to look for USB errors - I’ll have a read of the manual on that one.

Thanks

  • From: living in Cologne
  • Registered: 2022-01-14
  • Posts: 41

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Flexasio might help. It did when I wanted to measure a USB DAC with a Focusrite device.

Cheers, Ernst

ADI-2 PRO FS R BE / ADI-2 DAC FS / some old multibit treasuers ;-)

9 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,586

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Crunchynut wrote:

Using JAVA driver since if I use ASIO  then I can’t then select the external mic (apparently you can have 2 ASIO devices with MAC OS but only one with Win10).

That info should have been in post #1.

Crunchynut wrote:

Could it be that the laptop just isn’t coping with sending the sweep and reading the mic at the same time? Intel i5 laptop btw so should be up to the task.

Is that a USB mic? You use identical sample rates? Even then, they are not synchronized, so either Windows or REW have to do sample rate conversion. Sounds like a minefield outside the ADI-2 or driver.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2022-01-08
  • Posts: 26

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Ok, thanks for your replies. Seems too complex for my skill level.

I’m surprised the use-case is not more common in this community, either with people expressing similar problems or that it ‘works for them’. Perhaps others will comment in time.

11 Reply by emeissl (edited by emeissl 2023-09-14 10:52:22)

  • From: living in Cologne
  • Registered: 2022-01-14
  • Posts: 41

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Ok, my answer was a bit short and not perfect to the point.

Years ago I tried to measure my speakers using REW, a Focusrite 2i2 and a USB microphone. Same as you I just could use Java instead of the Focusrite ASIO and I was facing the same issues you mentioned.

I went on using a non USB microphone, which I plug into the Focusrite interface and used the ASIO driver.  The issue was gone.

Later, when I wanted to measure a DAC with ASIO driver using the Focusrite interface I discovered Flexasio, which allowed me to connect both devices to REW via ASIO (running on a W10 labtop). After my information REW with Java driver is just 16bit and this was not useful in my case. Using Flexasio allowed 24 bit measurements. Up to now I never tried this with my ADiI2Pro.

In your case I guess you would need a preamp and a mic without USB.

Cheers, Ernst

ADI-2 PRO FS R BE / ADI-2 DAC FS / some old multibit treasuers ;-)
  • Registered: 2022-01-08
  • Posts: 26

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Thank you @emeissl. That’s useful. I’ll try using ASIO and just the onboard laptop mic as an interim. If the crackle goes then I’ll know then I need to ditch JAVA and find an ASIO solution - first step being to try FLEXASIO as you suggest.

  • From: living in Cologne
  • Registered: 2022-01-14
  • Posts: 41

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Hi Chrunchnut, to be honest, I would be surprised, if that worked. You might not have a Asio driver for your microphone. Yet sometimes....

Cheers, Ernst

ADI-2 PRO FS R BE / ADI-2 DAC FS / some old multibit treasuers ;-)
  • From: living in Cologne
  • Registered: 2022-01-14
  • Posts: 41

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

To my surprise, if one has got Flexasio installed and chosen as the ASIO device, one can use ADI2DAC (haven't tried with PRO) as the output and the USB microphone (Omnitronic MM-2USB in my case) as input. No stop or distortion :-). If it works as intended, means similar to a USB audio interface with a mic, something like a Dayton Audio EMM-6 Elektret-Microphone, has to be checked. I would rather opt for the latter, yet you will find out for you.

Cheers, Ernst

ADI-2 PRO FS R BE / ADI-2 DAC FS / some old multibit treasuers ;-)
  • Registered: 2022-01-08
  • Posts: 26

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

I’m away for a week now but will try when home again. Thank you.

  • Registered: 2023-10-14
  • Posts: 1

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

I had the same problem with adi-2/4 pro se. Flexasio "fixed" the problem, but I had to set the buffer size (latency) to maximum for both microphone (UMIK-2) and dac + match the sample rates (mic/dac).

What I mean by "fixed" is that I had to play with driver types/exclusive modes and usually when I checked the levels in REW preferences the dac would cut out and I had to power cycle the dac. So I'm not sure if this is stable.

What eventually worked for me:
Driver type: windows direct sound
Buffer size: 4096
Sample rate (UMIK-2 & ADI-2/4 PRO SE): 48000 hz, 24 bit
Sweep lenght: 1M

17 Reply by KaiS (edited by KaiS 2023-10-14 13:13:20)

  • KaiS
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2020-02-05
  • Posts: 3,525

Re: ADI-2 DAC REW sweep breaks up / distorts

Geggenau wrote:

I had the same problem with adi-2/4 pro se.
…
Sample rate (UMIK-2 & ADI-2/4 PRO SE): ..

With ADI-2‘s “Pro” versions it’s much more simple:

No need to combine the DAC and an USB-mic into one virtual USB interface.

Just use ADI-2’s analog input for a regular, non-USB measurement mic, and an external P48 supply, preferably one with battery power option.

The one below are 66 bucks in total:

https://www.thomann.de/de/millenium_pp2b.htm

https://thumbs.static-thomann.de/thumb/padthumb600x600/pics/bdb/_23/235771/6851429_800.jpg


https://www.thomann.de/de/behringer_ecm_8000.htm

https://thumbs.static-thomann.de/thumb/padthumb600x600/pics/bdb/_12/123218/6930927_800.jpg

KaiS's Website