Daniel,

  Thanks for your quick response. I took the mic and cable back to the shop where I got them, and they both work fine. So the problem is definitely the Babyface, specifically the phantom power, since the SM57 works fine on the same cable and input line. I guess that means I should try an external power supply. Anyone have any other ideas? Advice greatly appreciated. Thanks,

-Caleb

Hi again,

  I've borrowed a voltmeter from work and it seems there is something wrong with the phantom power supply. On the breakout cable XLR analog line ins (no breakout cable extension, no extra XLR cable, just direct to the breakout cable), once phantom power is supplied by clicking the "48V" button in TotalMixFX, I should see a voltage drop of +/-48 V between the ground pin and one of the lines, correct?
  I tried all possible combinations of touching the probes between the three XLR leads. One pair gave a voltage of 0.20 V, another -0.20 V. I tested the voltmeter on a 1.5 V AAA battery to make sure everything is correct (it was, it read ~1.46 V for the battery). These very small measured voltages turn on and off with the TotalMix '48V' button, so it must be the phantom power.
  It's possible that I'm not getting good contact with the XLR leads, giving erroneous measurement. But it seems much more likely that this is exactly the problem, as it fits my symptoms: SM57 mic works fine, condenser doesn't work on same line.
  Since the Babyface gets its power supply through the USB connection to the PC, it would indicate something is wrong with the PC's USB power supply. The obvious solution here is to get an external power supply for the Babyface (wish it came with it now) and see if that fixes it. Or maybe try it on another computer first.
  Thoughts? Suggestions or advice? Does my analysis sound reasonable? Any help appreciated. Thanks,

-Caleb

So, I just installed all the drivers/Totalmix software etc. on another computer at work, and I get a 48V reading when I turn on the phantom power. So no, the Babyface isn't broken. It's absolutely my PC at home. This is kind of ridiculous considering that I bought it in September with pretty new hardware (750 W TX750 Corsair power supply, Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 mobo... one of these must be the problem). So thanks for all the advice, it seems it's not RME's problem. Looks like I'll be buying that Babyface power supply.

Hi.  I'm unfortunately seeing the exact same problem that JoeClapp was talking about.  I just bought a condenser mic and when I tested it, i can't pick up any noise with it.  The only noise I can get out of the thing are the pops/clicks when i plug/unplug it and if i touch the metal body of the sennheiser MK4 mic with my fingers, i get audio feedback.  Besides that, nothing.    Now let me list every single test I did.  Please tell me if I'm missing something.

1 - i plugged the mic into the "LINE L" input without an extension cord to prove that the extension cord wasn't the problem.
2 - i made sure that the AN1 input was routed the headphone out, which was what i'm listening to.
3 - i made sure the AN1 input had the 48V phantom power button on.
4 - i tried plugging in both USB lines to see if having only one plugged in wasn't enough power, but that didn't help.
5 - i tried different USB plugs on the front and back of the computer, but that didn't help.
6 - i made sure the AN1 input gain was set to something high.  the same with it's volume slider, if that's what it is..
7 - i tried adjusting the left/right balance of the AN1 input to make sure that wasn't the problem.
8 - i brought the mic back to the store so they could test if it works and it did just fine.
9 - i tried testing out the voltage of the "LINE L" line and i was getting a reading of about 0.2 - 0.4 volts.  same as him.
10 - i updated the totalmix version to 0.95 and the flash update tool for the babyface and that didn't help.  (cycled power too)
11 - i tried using "Line R" instead of "Line L", (and made sure Line R was using the 48v button) but that didn't help.
12 - i tried using totalmix's "total reset" command, then turned on the AN1 48V button and routed the AN1 input to the headphone output in the mixer, and cranked up the AN1 input gain but it still didn't work.

Is there anything I'm missing?  Oh, and i'm using win7.

thanks in advance. 
-seneca

This may be completely unrelated, but I think I've experienced a bug, twice. A bug that just might be your problem.

Or maybe the bug is all about me, not the Babyface... :-)

Anyway, I just got my BabyFace a couple of days ago and at first, I could only get a very weak signal from my condenser mic, using input 1.

Turning up the input level of input 1 using the 'big knob' on the interface didn't seem to do much, nor did maxing the trim setting in TotalMix.

Also, the leds for channel 1 on the interface barely changed when I changed the input level. I found that odd, since the difference was both very audible and visually clear when I tried input 2 with my guitar, using the Hi-z/instrument setting.

By chance, I turned off the instrument setting of input 2 (in TotalMix) then turned it on and off again. Boom! Suddenly the trim of input 1 kicked in. Also, the leds on the hardware unit suddenly reflected the input level of input 1 and could be adjusted by both the 'big knob' and TotalMix.

At my next session, I hooked up a synth to input 2, using the XLR input, not the Hi-z. Very weak level. Adjusting the input level using the knob of the interface didn't change anything and this time I noticed that turning the knob wasn't reflected in the GUI of TotalMix either.

So, after checking and re-checking all cables, I remembered the incident from the previous session. Now, I didn't have total mix set to Instrument for input 2 this time, but I tried enabling/disabling the Instrument setting a couple of times and - Boom, there she was! Almost blasted my speakers.

This was with OS X Lion 10.7.2 and the latest BabyFace firmware, driver and TotalMix.

So, what I'm saying is maybe there's a bug with the current soft/firmware versions that can prevent both the hardware device and TotalMix from reacting to input level adjustments and maybe other settings (like 48 v on).

Maybe I'm just overlooking something obvious, which is probably in The Fine Manual... fryingpan
But seeing several posts about issues with condenser mics and then looking at my own experiences, well... Just saying.

Love the sound of this little thingy though, as well as its low latency even at high CPU. Not to mention the tight MIDI. Brilliant!

/Jonas

Hi Matthias,

Yes, I'm aware of the states of the big wheel. Could you elaborate what you mean with the initial state? How would I set this correctly?

And let me add that it's great to own a piece of gear from a company that takes an active part in the user forums! This was actually part of my purchasing decision.

Regards
/Jonas

Ok. I haven't used the interface much yet, so I can't say if what I describe is intermittent or repeatable under certain circumstances.
I'll try to repeat the issue and see if I can nail it down. I happen to make my living as a software developer, so I do have some notion of what you'll need to isolate and identify a possible bug.

Regards
/Jonas

Did the OP sort this problem out? I ask because I was doing a mobile vocal recording on my laptop using a Babyface on Friday and the singer had a se2200a  and coincidently I couldn't get the phantom power to work for his microphone either. I ended up using an SM58.

Regards
Kraznet

I was using the 1.3m breakout cable. Maybe that was the problem? I bought my Babyface in Aug 2011. Is that when early cables were around?