• DrNI
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Topic: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

Hi there,

I've been using the Digi 9636 for some years now and it always was reliable and easy to use. Until recently, when I updated to (K)Ubuntu 12.04. It turns out, that DigiKam (KDE Photo management) does something with the Phonon Sound System of KDE that switches the Digi to 88.2khz. (Probably other KDE apps do so as well.)

After that, jackd can't switch back to 44.1 or 48khz on its startup. I can re-load the driver module and I'm fine, but this has side-effects that are not so great. If I make the card sync to my digital console, it stays in SMUX mode, apparently because 44,1 and 88,2 "look the same" on the byte-wise side. (I can't run jackd on startup because I have projects with 44.1 and others with 48khz, so I start it when I need it.)

Is there any way I can switch back to 44.1 or 48khz once the Digi 9636 has gone to SMUX mode?

Apart from that: Thanks RME, I really love using this sound card. Being somewhere in between of professional and hobbyist, I really enjoy the usually reliable and flawlessly working card that works on Linux so well.

All the best
DrNI

DrNI's Website

  • sonik
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

How do you sync to your console? If your console is the master, you need to open <alsamixer> in a terminal and define the card as slave (AutoSync) and precise the syncmode (adat or spdif). Then you should be able to switch the samplerate in your console.

3 Reply by DrNI (edited by DrNI 2013-05-01 11:31:56)

  • DrNI
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

Well, of course I switch to AutoSync. But when I set the console (a DDX2316) to 48khz, the card switches to 96khz, and 88.2khz for 44.1. When I'm recording, I usually have the card on master and the DDX2316 on slave, distributing clock via WordClock to other devices. All of this works perfectly until the Digi9636 has gone to 88.2khz by accident as described.

Btw, it is definitely not a sync-loopback, in this case the card and the console spin down to 42khz and then the console sometimes goes mad. ;-)

Best
DrNI

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  • sonik
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

Did you try the card being slave and the ddx master via wordclock?

  • DrNI
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

sonik wrote:

Did you try the card being slave and the ddx master via wordclock?

I do not own the WordClock option for the card, so I can't try that. (Was there any? I can't even remember.)

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  • sonik
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

no option, it's built in. 2 BNC-Plugs at the back.

  • DrNI
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

sonik wrote:

no option, it's built in. 2 BNC-Plugs at the back.

http://www.rme-audio.de/old/hammer/d9636.htm

The Digi9636 "Hammerfall Light" misses some features of the well-known HDSP9652. But when I bought it in 2006, Thomann was just dumping the DDX3216 console as well as the Digi cards, and that combination was incredibly affordable.

But Anyways, the issue is that it doesn't get down from SMUX mode any more, even when sync'ed externally.

DrNI's Website

  • Registered: 2010-02-16
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

I'm in a similar situation. I've got a couple of Multiface going in/out of the digi9636/52 via toslink. It was working fine at 96, and fine when I switched to 48, but when I tried to go back to 96 the MF stayed synced at 48 (aka half rate aka normal speed) and doubles up the audio a la smux. I need this to be the master and to be able to set the sample rate. In the future I'll be tracking and mixing at 44.1 or 48, but right now being able to switch back and forth is critical.

I can't unload th emodule because it says it's in use.

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm going to try hooking up word clocks next.

~b

  • Registered: 2010-02-16
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

I wanted to add and clarify a few things.

jackd seems happy when I tell to run at 96 with the digi9636 as master, but everything else reports slaving to 48, and hdspmixer doesn't cut down channels as it should in smux mode.

Also I was wondering how exactly you reloaded the module?

Lastly, it seems like it should be a primary feature to be able to set the sample rate of any piece of hardware that could be run as master, and I'm not convinced jacd telling it what speed to run at is a n alternative or even working how it should. I'm mainly using it as a test system to see if jackd is happy with what it sees. Is there any way to get the sample rate info directly from the digi9636?

Thanks!

~b

10 Reply by DrNI (edited by DrNI 2013-05-08 07:21:09)

  • DrNI
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

sonicolonic wrote:

Also I was wondering how exactly you reloaded the module?

sudo rmmod snd_rme9652
sudo modprobe  snd_rme9652

But before doing so, I need to
fuser * -av /dev/snd
and kill every process that uses the card, and this gives me undesired side effects, since the KDE daemon is using the mixer of the Digi9636 (which does not feature HDSP, btw.).

sonicolonic wrote:

Is there any way to get the sample rate info directly from the digi9636?

cat /proc/asound/R15/rme9652
gives you what the driver/kernel module reports.

Be aware, that there is a difference between Digi9632/Digi9652 and HDSP9632/HDSP9652. The latter don't have the DSP functions (TotalMix etc.)

I guess from the view of your MultiFace, 48khz and 96khz SMUX look the same. My issue is, that I really should be able to tell the card to get back out of SMUX mode.

Best
DrNI

DrNI's Website

  • Registered: 2010-02-16
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

Update!

After removing the card, trying the hdsp9652 again, and hitting a wall with that (seems like even though hdspmixer only supports 3 cards, it won't initialize the cards it's not taking care of, so I'm getting no audio) I put the digi9636 back in, and now it's stuck at 44.1.

I didn't say it was a good update.

~b

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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

Can't really speak for the Linux drivers, but to make any of these cards switch sample rate range (i.e. 48 to 96), you will need to initiate recording or playback once. They will not switch just following a change from SMUX to non-SMUX ADAT signal at their input.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

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  • Registered: 2010-02-16
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

Hey guys, Thanks for your fast responses. I didn't even see yours DrNI when I updated last night.

cat /proc/asound/R15/rme9652

I had come across before and couldn't recall it exactly. That's perfect. It shows that the digi9652 is running at 96, and sending spdif at 96.

I'm aware of the difference. That's kinda why I have both. I got the hdsp9652 not thinking it would need hdspmixer to initialize the gains. I was going to arrange it so that it would load after the other hdsp cards so that it doesn't take up a space in hdspmixer while still controlling it via hdspconf. Then I thought that the lack of dsp on the digi9652 would be a nice solution but this SMUX issue is a bit troublesome.

So it seems that I'm able to change the sample rate of the digi9652 via qjackctl or Cadence, and get the Multifaces to slave via spdif @ 96, but hdspconf still shows the adat sync signal to be 48.

Daniel, Ok, so I'm not sure the definitive way to try that, but I tried that and hdspconf still shows the ADAT input sync signal at 48 and any sound is crappy.

However, sometimes I can setup jackd settings and if I can't get it to run, a reboot allows me to set the digi9652 sample rate on startup.

So I don't know what's going on here. I'm not the most Linux literate but I'm also not afraid to dig into some code or fix things. I tried an .asoundrc file a few weeks back trying to make a multi device and since then haven't been able to entirely undo whatever I did because I've been getting errors occasionally where I can't switch the sample rate for even just  a single card when I know all of the settings are fine. It says the device already has an audio handler or something. I also have no idea what dbus does, but I suspect that it has something to do with hardware setting management, which might explain why a reboot, and therefore module reload works. So I admit there is a parallel but similar issue I'm dealing with that might be convoluting things a little, but getting in and out of SMUX seems to be specific to these digi cards.

Thanks for the help y'all.

~b

  • sonik
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Re: Good old Digi 9636 can't get down from 88,2 or 96khz

I used to have a hdsp9652 as master and a digi9652 slaved via wordclock to record 24 tracks @ 96khz. I never had a problem to go down from smux to normal mode.
Recently i bought a 2nd hdsp, so i put the digi in my old ubuntu-box and i have the same problem, i can't go down to 44.1 or 48 without rebooting (logout is not enough).
Sometimes, after fiddling 5 minutes in alsamixer, i can get down to 48 without reboot, but there doesn't seem to be a logical step to do as i could never reproduce by repeating what i did just before.
I can force the card to get down by stopping jack and using smplayer with a 48k file.
Thats what Daniel Fuchs said: "you will need to initiate recording or playback once"
The inconvenience is that i can't start jack anymore.
So, still not a help, sorry, but i am interested in the subject.