1 (edited by pianogineer 2011-02-02 18:29:24)

Topic: UFX Front Input TRS with Keyboard

Last night I tried to hook up my keyboard (Yamaha Motif ES) to my UFX using the Motif's unbalanced (line level) outputs running into the UFX's front TRS jacks. The manual says these are high impedance, and can handle levels from -34 dBu to +21 dBu, which the Motif certainly falls between. However, something is clearly not working with the signal path. When I crank the gain all the way up to 65 dB on the preamps, and the Motif is at full volume, the Motif can barely be heard (and there is more background noise than keyboard). I tried both setting the inputs to "Instrument" and not, though I'm sure it should not be set when running a line level source into it. What's interesting is that when connecting an instrument level (direct acoustic guitar, for example), and setting the "Instrument" flag in TotalMix, everything works fine... the guitar is audible at relatively low preamp gain settings. The XLR portion of the preamps (with a mic) seem to work fine as well. Driving the Motif into the rear line inputs works fine.

So is there something wrong with my unit? Or, am I missing something in how I'm understanding the functionality of the front TRS jacks?

2 (edited by Eric Bradley 2011-02-03 07:43:17)

Re: UFX Front Input TRS with Keyboard

How do you connect the unit?
Have you tried other cables?

RME Fireface UFX
Mac Mini 2.6 GHz 16 GB Ram Areca RAID | MacBook Pro 2,2 GHz 16 GB Ram | OS 10.10.5

3

Re: UFX Front Input TRS with Keyboard

The TRS jack is activated by setting INST to On in TM FX (see manual). If you change the input to Inst, does the TRS LED on the front light up?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

4 (edited by pianogineer 2011-02-03 18:48:25)

Re: UFX Front Input TRS with Keyboard

Ok, so tried it again last night, and I got it to work when setting the INST setting. I definitely tried this the first time and it didn't work. I have noticed some generally "flakey" behavior of the preamps' gain settings, specifically when trying to operate them in "stereo" mode (analog channels 9/10 together and 11/12 together). I've noticed that often times, when adjusting the preamp gains in stereo mode, only one channel's preamp will change, and it takes some switching/adjusting between mono/stereo mode to get the other channel to start "registering" the desired changes when in stereo mode. I wonder if this bug could have had something to do with what I saw -- was it possible that selecting INST was not properly switching the TRS jack on (I wasn't looking at the lights at that point) because I was in stereo mode.

5

Re: UFX Front Input TRS with Keyboard

That sounds like you are not using the latest driver and firmware.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: UFX Front Input TRS with Keyboard

Hmm... running 342/110/336 firmware and Totalmix FX 0.942. Are those not the latest?