Really nice stuff, guys. Much safer than recording to PC when recording live shows.
Tried with an 8GB Patriot USB drive.

Here is my experience:
- Menus are OK.
- Recording works fine (tried 4 channels for an hour). No audio issues.
  Recording speed shows 400ms in the start, then falls almost linearly down to 280-300 during 10-15 seconds.
- Playback to outputs work fine. Output meters OK.
- Playback to inputs works fine, including input channel fx. Output meters OK.
   Input meters never shows anything, so it's not so easy to see what's going on.
   Not in TM FX, and not in the units LCD. Bug or limitation?
- Playback of music wav file from PC works fine (but still no input meters
- Opening recorded file in Audacity (showing 4 tracks) worked fine.
- Recording stereo inputs still opens as mono files in Audacity. I don't know if the multiple-track-wav format supports
  mix/specifications of stereo/mono tracks. If it does, it would be nice to have the stereo channels opened as stereo tracks in editor.

Minor improvement suggestions:
- Give an error message when drive is not FAT32 formatted, instead of just showing "Initializing..." forever.

- When setting the playback channel (In channel settings, "Play cannel") on a stereo output channel, LCD should show
  1/2, 2/3, 3/4 etc. (alternatively 1+2 or 1,2 or 1-2). Now it shows just 1, but it certainly plays back 1 and 2
  to L and R of the selected stereo output.
  Today there is only stereo outputs, but in the next firmware with configurable stereo/mono outputs,
  I guess you have to look at the channels stereo settings to decide whether to show
  one or two track numbers on the "Play channel" parameter

- Add/fix input meters when playback to input channels.

- Improved playback of music files:
  I'm thinking for playing back background music before/after a show or similar, it would be great if we could do either
  "Play one file" or "Continous play".
  The latter could simply play the files in alphabetical order, starting with the one you select. Then start again from the beginning.
  Typically I would have a separate USB stick for the playback music. Some times I may want a random order (too much to ask for?),
  sometimes just alphabetical order (most important, and very simple to implement, right?)
  Why not narrow the 4 buttons at the bottom of the screen to make space for a new green play button with a loop arrow on it,
  or the two arrows crossing each other (random order). These seems to be almost standardized icons...
  Or maybe the best way would be to change the record button (after playback is started) into a play mode button
  that toggles between "single-play", "continous play", "random play" every time you click it. Perfect or what?

Well, anyways, keep up the god work, guys!

BR, Geir.

Glad to help, Matthias

Where in the chain is the recorded audio taken from? Post gain,  pre fx?  M/S decoding? Phase?

Geir.

Surprisingly limited resonance here... HeadScratch fryingpan

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

I'll try it out when I get home, i just bought a 16 gig USB stick

Mine works...

You switched off the UFX after the firmware update?

Ok, please keep that stick, I might get back to you later. There sure will be a few more that show problems with the UFX.

The active partition trick did not work with an older 80-gig external Samsung drive. Still stops at "initializing".

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Hmmm, I recorded 30 mono channels, I expected to see 30 wav files on the disk. What is actually there is a single multichannel wav file. (30 channels in this case).
Importing it into Nuendo shows one 30 channel wave file. Normally in Nuendo I can split multichannel files to different tracks but the software is confused by these
files somehow and wont let me. In fact it crashed the software. I can see what looks like good waveforms in the multichannel file and Nuendo will play the file but
no sound on the output bus.

Hi Matthias, Thanks for everything.

I record multi-day festivals of music all day long across 3 or 4 stages, usually on the order of 6-10 acts per stage per day of at least one hour performances. The headliners get more time than that. Part of my job is not only to come home with all the data to remix for radio and CD but I also have to archive all the material to give back to the festival owners and artists. I record at 44khz/24 bit for remix and if the film guys are there I do 48khz/24 bit.
So even from one stage I can come home with a huge amount of data. If you are saying that I need to come home and somehow de-interleave 30 channel files then rename and piece together hundreds of segments just so I can remix and get the material back to the artists ...
well at that point it would be much easier to drag a computer out to the show and record directly to pro tools or nuendo. That is what I do now, and part of the reason I chose the UFX to purchase. Also smaller drives are not as cost effective these days so going out and buying small drives is not so hot. My smallest drive
is a 750GB.

So I guess what I am saying is that I would like this to be a feature request to allow the UFX to record separate mono files from the start. I understand that FAT32 has its file size limit and I can understand why you went with FAT32 but if the files were recorded in mono from the start, that would be much time saved for me.

I love my UFX and everyday I am amazed at how cool it is. I appreciate your help as well.

Thanks again,
Chip Borton

P.S. I will follow your advice and try on a 128 GB partition and will look at the utility you linked me sometime within the next couple days.

Hi,

If you are running OSX the default partition format is "GUID partition table".
Default for old DOS and Windows (FAT16 and FAT32) is "Master Boot Record".
Without knowing I guess the UFX demands this partition type.
Have a look at my video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkzfOipSTPA
To see how you partition and format a true FAT32 partition from OSX.

Pål

Absolutely, I cull out any useless tracks and hand the tracks to the clients. Many times they remix it themselves
and I need to have the tracks clearly labeled and be as simple as possible for them to import into whatever software
they choose.

I haven't had time to revisit loading into Nuendo or do any testing today (I have N4/N5) but if you guys say you have tried it
I believe you, maybe just a bit of a learning curve on my end loading these interleaved files. maybe not ... HeadScratch

Yeah, most USB sticks suck at writing more than one file at the same time ...

@Psvennevig, thanks it works now, i have formatted properly right now

I have another question, when i recorded yesterday with different sample rate like 44100, 48000, 192000 with rme ufx and replay it, it sounds very good and clean but when i hook up my usb stick to my macbook and play the wav file it dont sound very good is not as loud on the rme ufx (btw testing the wav file with the macbook soundcard) anyone know how to improve the quality sound of the wav file? do i need software like logic or wavlab to make it sound proffesional or as good like i hear on the rme ufx?

Thanks!

btw: tested with spectralis2, i dont hear the phat sound on macbook but on rme ufx i hear very good, sorry my english.

@Daniel, what do you mean playback side of the setup? you mean the fireface usb settings like sample rate etc.? btw i was listening with my headphone...

But to make the story short...i play the wave file with itunes bitrate: 2304kbps, sample rate: 48.000khz, stereo, sample size: 24 bit. compared with a mp3 bitrate: 320kpbs, sample rate: 44.100khz, stereo, what i dont understand is why does the mp3 sound better then the wave file, its louder, clearer, etc.

Btw is it possible to change the sample size of the wave file?

Sorry this is my first RME product and my english is not very good so please help. Thanks!

Are you referring to the same music? What did you record with the UFX and from which source?

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Can you all please return to the topic. Sound changes by playing back processed material or by using different players are totally unrelated to this thread. Thank you.

@MC, Sorry i thought after the update the UFX wasnt working properly cause sound quality is for me very important.
@Admin Knut, ok i understand now i think i just need to mix and mastering till i like it how it sound.

Regards,

Loopback - Input aufnehmen?

Hello Matthias,

just did a very first check of the very promising new feature, using my currently available USB sticks:

1) 16GB Sony USB-Stick Microvault, formatted under Windows 7 as FAT32: UFX doesn't even recognize the device.
    Usually the USB-Stick flashes a LED when working, at the UFX it's completely dark.
   
    update: tried again with newly formatted stick as described below: still doesn't work.

2) 16GB CnMemory airy, formatted under Windows 7 as FAT32: UFX recognize the device, but hangs during initialization

=> Has anyone a description available, how to format usb sticks for correct testing under Windows 7, 32 Bit ?
=> Any ideas, what's wrong with my SONY 16GByte?
=> Do you think, you can provide a formatting function within the UFX in the future, in order to make sure, that my USB-stick is formatted correctly ?

     update: After some internet research, I newly formatted the stick using diskpart (called from cmd-window).
                (list disk -> select disk <x> -> clean -> create partition primary -> active -> format fs=fat32 quick -> exit)
                Stick is now recogized and has 40 to 50% HD-usage for a 44.1 kHz/4channel recording.

3) SANDisk ExtremeIV UDMA with 8GB via vivance High Speed USB 2.0 works fine, formatting has been done in a Digital SLR.
   First test with 4 mic-channels 9-12 worked out fine.
   I'm impressed by this new feature.

   update: HD-usage is around 10%, starting at ~50%.

=> A final question: why are all mic channels put into one multichannel wave file ?
     Doesn't this reduces the maximum recording time quite a lot when recording a high number of channels ?
     My understanding is, that FAT32 has a 4GByte limit, which would be ~4h recording time for a 24bit 44.1kHz mono signal.
     Having more channels in the wave file would reduce the ~4h limit to much less.
     For live recording, I would appreciate to have that 4h minimum, i.e. one single file per channel.
     Am I wrong here ?

Best Regards
Udo Rein

Der USB-Port bekommt sein Audio bei Input wie Output von vor den Effekten. Allerdings kann man ein Eingangssignal mit Effekt bearbeiten, auf einen Ausgang routen, und dann diesen Ausgang aufnehmen.

Um den Master Out mitsamt den Out-FX aufzunehmen (sehr ungewöhnlich, da diese Effekte eher für Raumkorrektur eingesetzt werden, man die also nicht auf der Aufnahme haben will), muss man also diesen Ausgang per Kabelschleife an einen Eingang zurückführen und dort aufnehmen. Da der (Main-) Ausgang aber für die Lautsprecher schon mit Kabeln belegt ist, doppelt man ihn einfach - siehe Handbuch Seite 72, 29.4 Duplizieren des Ausgangssignals.

English:

The USB port receives its audio for both input and output from before (pre) the effects. Of course you can process an input signal with FX, route it to an output, and record that output, FX included then.

To record the Master/Main out including the output FX (quite unusual, as these will mostly be used for room correction, so are not desired on the recording), that output has to be looped back by a cable to an input and recorded there. Because the (Main) outputs are already occupied by the speaker connectors the solution here is to mirror the output signal - see manual page 72, 29.4 Doubling the Output Signal.

Hallo Matthias,

vielen Dank für die schnelle Info.

Ich hatte schon geahnt das ein Routing innerhalb des Ufx mit Effekt auf der Summe nicht ohne zusätzliche Verkabelung möglich ist. Ich verstehe allerdings nicht warum du der Meinung bist das diese Anwendung der Effekte ungewöhnlich sei. Es ist doch völlig normal das man nach dem Zusammenführen der einzelnen Spuren am Ende das Signal noch mal mit EQ und Kompressor bearbeitet.

Vielleicht habe ich ja Glück und diese Funktion wird in einem späteren Update noch nachgereicht. Ansonsten bin ich nämlich super zufrieden mit dem Gerät.

MfG.
Frank Kleinwächter

Macbook Black
UFX, "My Passport essential external USB hard disc 320 GB", 48Hz

Bought the hard disc today, formatted to FAT32, the UFX recognized it with no problems.
Played a song in itunes, through the UFX, I recorded ALL the outputs to see if the hard drive could handle it... It couldn't...after 2 minutes stopped, with around 60 errors and 60%HD...
After unplugging the Hard drive, schowed in my computer a file recorded, emty though...o bytes in it...

If I want to try this with my new UFX, can I flash the firmware to this release, do my testing and then flash back to the latest production version of the firmware for my critical projects?  I don't have the luxery of having multiple units, one for test and one for production, but I would be interested in testing this feature and providing some feedback.  Thanks.