Topic: Fireface UFX USB recording - public pre-release
A pre-release of the latest UFX features is now available, see links below. News:
- USB recording. See also this thread from the former public alpha:
http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic … 36&p=1
- support for mono (single) output channels (this feature is also added to UC and Babyface when using TM FX 0.94)
- the menus of the UFX no longer show stereo channels as two mono channels. This speeds up configuration at the unit and highly improves the overview in stand-alone mode.
- Dynamics indication. A white point is moving in the I/O graphics and shows where and how the FX works in the audio signal range. This is quite an interesting way to examine the dynamics settings. Note that we are aware that this display only works with an open D-panel. A typical gain reduction display will be added to the normal level meter bar soon.
- lots of small bugfixes
The USB recording comes up when pressing the METERS key left of the display. You get a self-explanatory Record/Playback screen, and turning encoder 1 an additional USB Memory screen.
Plug in a USB stick or USB hard drive to the front USB port. They have to be formatted as FAT32 before. We tested up until 2 TB. Such a big disk needs more than 30 seconds to be read in and intialized. A stick of 4 GB usually initializes within a few seconds.
The channels to be recorded are selected in the unit's CHANNEL menu, you find an entry 'Record' in every input and output channel. Indeed you should be able to record all inputs and outputs at the same time, 60 channels, if your memory is quick enough. Most cheap sticks will only allow around 10 channels.
You will also find an entry 'Play Channel' in every input and output channel. You can play back the recorded data directly to the outputs, but also into the top of the mixer and then apply the whole TM FX to it. 0 means off, 1 and up is the channel number of the recorded signal.
It is also possible to play back wav files that have been copied to the memory.
All this can be set up a lot quicker and easier with the new TotalMix FX 0.94. Hit the Record View in the new Recorder panel and arm the channels. Clicking a play button gives a list of the channels present in the current file and allows to select one. The same dialog is used to disable playback (Off).
When the storage is too slow you will be warned by an error indication, use less channels in such a case. Another good indicator is the HD load, and the Write Time shown on the USB Memory page. A quick stick will stay around or under 200 ms, a bad stick will reach 600 ms and up. HD load should stay below 80% for a reliable recording.
Long time recordings that reach the 2 GB wav format limit will be automatically split. Playback will automatically take those into account later on.
More Info
The audio stream for input and output recording is taken before (pre) the EQ/Dyn. FX can only be recorded from an output when processing an input signal by the input FX. Or by a physical loopback cabling and then recording the input.
Playback signals are shown on the TotalMix level meters when set to 'Post FX', on both inputs and outputs. On the unit's METERS display only signals fed to the outputs are shown during playback.
Limitations:
- when changing the sample rate the recording will stop automatically. A warning dialog is shown as well.
- the sample rate of the played back file does not control the unit's sample rate. So for the correct pitch/speed you have to manually set the unit's sample rate. The unit shows the file's sample rate (and the number of channels) on the Record/Playback screen.
- the Info button of the TM FX Recorder shows the file's sample rate, the length of the recording and the number of channels.
- the USB interface of the UFX is limited to about 10 MByte/s throughput. Therefore recording in Double Speed is limited to 34 channels, in Quad Speed to 16 channels. Typical 2.5" external discs will show about 60% HD load and a Write Time of about 100 ms when recording 60 channels. This doesn't get better, even when using a SSD, as the UFX USB port is the limiting factor then.
Known bugs:
- Windows WDM playback via USB suffers from random clicks and pops when using buffer sizes higher than 256 samples. To get rid of these do not use 512 and up, or exit TM FX completely. This problem is also present in release driver 0.966. We are working on a fix.
Links:
DSP firmware 129:
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/fu … ac_pre.zip
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/fu … in_pre.zip
Latest drivers:
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/usb_win_0979.zip
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/fw_win_3044.zip
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/fireface_x86.zip
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/driver_usb_mac.zip
After driver installation ovwerwrite TM FX with version 0.94:
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/tm … re_094.zip
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/tm … re_094.zip
Matthias Carstens
RME