Topic: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

I have recently setup Fireface UC + drivers & software on my Windows XP PC SP3 computer.

Everything has been configured using the standard settings as per the manual.

I cannot get any playback.

I have tried using the following apps:

Audacity 1.2.6
Quicktime player
Windows Media Player

I have set the playback device as Fireface UC Analog (1+2)

When I attempt to play on Audacity I get the following error message:

"Error while opening sound device. Please check the output device settings and the project sample rate."

I have checked the sample rate and made sure that the settings are identical (44100KHZ).

Hope someone can help - thanks!

(: Hereward.

2

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Does the FF UC work at all? Settings dialog, TotalMix (also showing input signals)? Tried DIGICheck?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

3 (edited by hereward 2009-11-21 05:57:47)

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Thanks for your reply.

It seems there was a conflict because I had Reaper open at the same time. When I closed reaper I was able to playback using Audacity.

Still trying to work out how to do the routing so I can record from the playback channel - can you give any guidance there?

cheers

4

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Use TotalMix to send it to a different output, then activate internal loopback to have that signal on the same inputs. Chapter 31.5 in the manual.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Thanks - however I am still having audio problems on playback. There is popping and crackling in the audio.

I currently have my audio editing program, Reaper, running and I also have the quicktime player open. The quicktime player is using Fireface UC Analog (1 & 2) for playback.

Reaper is configured using ASIO Fireface USB drivers.

I am getting this crackling whenever I play the audio with Reaper also open. The crackling becomes less when I close Reaper but it is still there.

I am Running Windows XP  on an intel iMac using bootcamp.

I am going to try using the Fireface on the Mac instead but I am feeling pretty disappointed with these issues so far. I was hoping that I would be able to use this reliably on Windows.

There definitely seems to be come conflict going on in my system.

Any help appreciated.

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Bootcamp is a bad idea for hardware intensive applications.

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Bootcamp is a bad idea for hardware intensive applications.

please elaborate more on this, does it mean bad drivers in general for BootCamp !?

regards S-EH

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4320

9 (edited by titirom 2009-12-21 13:59:11)

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Hi guys,
I have some problems with my FF but with the advices of Timur, win xp bootcamp works better than snow l?o.
So i think bootcamp seems to not be a problem.
In other hand, most of advices seems to be for macbook, i don't know with imac...

10 (edited by Timur 2009-12-21 14:07:55)

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

With Windows 7 the new Imac 21 uses the Nvidia 9400 and doesn't need any tuning for the graphic-card driver (forced performance mode).

Furthermore the BOOTCAMP.EXE driver does *not* need to be turned off, which is not a fix of the driver, but is connected to the Imac (same driver produces dropouts on Macbook Pro).

You need to turn off the inbuild Athero WLan though, because by default it bursts a broadcast every minute that can lead to dropouts (DPCs) and the maximum time you can select is 10 minutes.

I did not get my hands on the 27" Imacs with ATI graphic yet (but will).

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Hello again!

Since I last posted on this forum I have bought a brand new laptopp with 4 GB RAM running Windows 7 x64.

Guess what - same problems as before!

When I play audio via a media player (using the RME interface) everything is fine UNTIL the reaper window becomes active. When the Reaper window becomes active a horrible stuttering/crackling occurs in the audio.

The stuttering/crackling immediately disappears if I switch to another appication window or even just open a dialog box within Reaper.

My installation of Reaper is using all default settings - except for the DEVICE which is set to ASIO.

This problem has nothing to do with recording or playback within reaper, it occurs when the reaper window becomes the active window even when there are NO TRACKS present.

12

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Well, you have a WDM playback running and then start ASIO on the same channels (or even worse: with a different sample rate). It doesn't matter if you have tracks or not, the stuttering clearly shows that Reaper starts ASIO then and stops it when you open a dialog or put Reaper in the background (I am sure there is a setting to let it stay active all time).

This kind of usage is simply not supported.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

13 (edited by hereward 2010-08-24 08:03:31)

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

MC wrote:

Well, you have a WDM playback running and then start ASIO on the same channels (or even worse: with a different sample rate). It doesn't matter if you have tracks or not, the stuttering clearly shows that Reaper starts ASIO then and stops it when you open a dialog or put Reaper in the background (I am sure there is a setting to let it stay active all time).

This kind of usage is simply not supported.

Sorry,  can you explain what you mean by "This kind of usage is simply not supported"?

I do this all the time on MacOS! I use my audio interface to record a radio podcast which often involves playing youtube videos etc... So (for example) I will open a web page and start playing a youtube clip and the playback channel gets recorded to a track and voila - we have a recording!

This is not supported?

I don't understand your statement and can only assume there is a misunderstanding. As I said - it works perfectly well on MacOSX.

Let me describe a typical work flow. I record my show using a number of tracks in Reaper.

I have one track set aside for my microphone.
I have another track set aside for my skype input (which is fed in via another computer)
I Have one track set aside for my "playback" channel, so I can play clips from youtube or a DVD, etc... and have that audio recorded on the fly as part of the show.

The problem centers around the usage of the playback channel, but this problem DOES NOT occur on Mac OSX - only on Windows.

To reiterate - the audio goes into the horrible stuttering mode only when the reaper window is active.

Typically I would be talking on my podcast  - "blah blah blah ... now I'm going to play you a clip from youtube.... here we go" ... the clip starts, I reactivate the reaper window and YUCK the horrible sound appears again.

Hope that explains it (:

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

What inputs are you using for each thing? Is youtube set to an input that is also set aside by Reaper? OSX is a completely different operating system from Windows. Why would you expect them to behave the same?

I suggest you read up on ASIO and WDM, the RME manual is a good place to start. Also there are a lot of videos on youtube about totalmix as well.

Isaac.

15 (edited by hereward 2010-08-24 11:50:56)

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

isaac wrote:

What inputs are you using for each thing? Is youtube set to an input that is also set aside by Reaper? OSX is a completely different operating system from Windows. Why would you expect them to behave the same?

I suggest you read up on ASIO and WDM, the RME manual is a good place to start. Also there are a lot of videos on youtube about totalmix as well.

Isaac.

With all due respect Isaac, I find your reply a little haughty and a little rude and totally unhelpful.

I think I explained my problem pretty clearly, so I'll wait for someone who really wants to help to respond, cheers (:

16

Re: Playback problem on Windows XP (Fireface UC)

Core Audio supports multiclient by nature. ASIO does not. Covered in detail in the manual.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME