• Registered: 2007-05-17
  • Posts: 44

Topic: VERY strange issue with Fireface UFX. recording on a film set.

Hi,

i got my new toy a week ago. Being a previous ff400 and ff800 owner, and a totalmix addict, i wasn't nervous taking brand new ufx, straight out of the box to my recording rack and off to location recording.
It's a film project where i need 4 mic preamps, 2 line in- and 4 line outs.

THe device is perfect. I cant AB the preamps and Ad/DA from other devices, but so far everything is great.
Except...

HEre is the exact situation...

The 4th day of the shoot, I plugged in my rack and my mac to power outlet. FF UFX turned on, so did my MAcbook pRo 2,4 C2d, running 10.6.4.

I use boom recorder for recording sound.

I got all signals to and form UFX all right, but not into the  BR software. The software however recognized the UFX.
I tried EVERYTHING
Plugging in, out, fw cable, chaning cable, tried USB cable. turning UFX on/off, restarting MBP, updating drivers, reseting... All that while on film set. pretty nervous situation.

I even started PT9 and Reaper to see if other software gets the signal into them.
No.

SO to make a long story short.

I had 4 mic preamps and 2 line ins active in the UFX. I could monitor everything, route every signal to any output, no issues there. TOtalmix, turned out to be a real champ here.

But whatever i do, i could NOT get the signals into the software!

The set was outside 10 degrees Celsius, i though maybe its the mac issue, not the UFX. too cold??
but if everything was running all right, mac would have other problems, ?? i.e not rebooting, slow response...
Not even close.

THe situation started to turn out ridiculous, i was out of options.

THen i tried the last thing.

With everything turned on, BR recorder, UFX and all the signals active, i physically, detached the power-cable from the UFX and plugged it in.
Voila.

i saw the signal in the BR active, and i could hear it monitoring it through the BR software.


We recorded some scenes, and then moved inside.
I closed the laptop, pulled the AC cable from the outlet and moved inside.

After 40 minutes of relocating, i tried to get ready.
SAME THING!!!!

i got all the signals into the UFX, and out, camera guy got the signal, my assistant (boom), got his feed. The BR however didnt.

I replicated the what seemed to help me outside jsut an hour before.
voila.


I would very much like an explanation from the technical support and masterminds, because my knowledge and pure logic fails here!

Otherwise, the thing rocks so far!!!!

Thanks,
Matt

  • cigame
  • S/Mux specialist
  • Offline
  • From: Seevetal
  • Registered: 2007-05-03
  • Posts: 385

Re: VERY strange issue with Fireface UFX. recording on a film set.

We recorded some scenes, and then moved inside.
I closed the laptop, pulled the AC cable from the outlet and moved inside.

Before pulling the AC cable, you should save the recording project and quit it.
On the new location, replug the cable, start the fireface, open your software and begin recording.
afaik the ufx is not bus powered.

UFX+, FireFace 802 FS, Digiface USB
12 Mic, M1610 pro, Micstasy
MacBookPro M1
Logic Pro X

3 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
  • Offline
  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 24,902

Re: VERY strange issue with Fireface UFX. recording on a film set.

It might have been enought to pull the USB/FW cable instead. Did you update the UFX to the latest driver and firmware?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2007-05-17
  • Posts: 44

Re: VERY strange issue with Fireface UFX. recording on a film set.

Thanks for the info, but still.

How come, replugging every cable didn't do the trick, but physically detaching UFX's powercable did.

Matthias, i am a former ff800 and ff400 user. I apologize if i turned out to bve ignorant and not reading the manual about downloading all the driver, but i only used FW cable for connection. I upgraded to the latest driver and firmware, but left USB option out.

Now i have installed it, i will try to recreate the issue, and see if it was a driver issue...
But still, strange issue.

Is there any comparison chart when and where to use USB over FW?
I dont want to bore u with it.

Thanks,

Oh, and i forgot to mention the totalmix rocks too. Coupling and decoupling the channels is a spot on!!!
On thing that i am missing perhaps is, if i dont use all the 30 i/o (limit bandwidth to only analgo channels) it woudl be cool if totalmix would disregard them somehow and leave more space for the active ones.

Just a thought...