Another monitoring issue

[Armistice]

I'm suspecting Reaper, since nothing else in the system has changed, but who knows - perhaps I've done something in the interface software (RME Total Mix) instead. I was having monitoring issues a while back.

I use a Kemper as you all know - it's connected to the interface via SPDIF, and the interface is connected to the PC via USB.

It used to be that so long as I had Reaper open and the Kemper on, I can hear what I'm playing through the monitors. Not so anymore. Now I have to have a track armed and the monitoring switched on in order to hear myself.

It's a minor annoyance, but one I'd like to correct.

So where do I start looking - interface or Reaper?

Actually I'm not so sure now that I even needed Reaper open in the past, so perhaps it's the interface software. Hmmm....

[Armistice]

Hold the phone....

Had the damned SPDIF input volume set to - ∞.

While that might seem really obvious, and it was, playing with the slider in the interface did nothing. So I hit the Undo button in Total Mix until there was nothing left to undo, and this time the slider did work. Clearly some setting I'd done since was countermanding that channel. Damned if I know what, however.

Seems I'm paying the price for learning the absolute minimum required to get my set up into Reaper originally, and I should go hunt down some Total Mix tutorials and get across the software a bit better.

[JD01]

That's a quality old man shouting at clouds moment.

[Greg_L]

I had something similar with my Focusrite. I couldn't get a line out signal to outputs 3 and 4. I had to go into the Focusrite control panel, which I never fucking use - ever - and poke around. Somehow those outputs got switched off. It wasn't me as I never even open that thing. But somehow they turned themselves off.

[Tadpui]

TotalMix is definitely a beast unto itself. I only really use a tiny fraction of its functionality, but I do fiddle with it periodically. Once you wrap your head around what the 3 rows of faders represent (Hardware inputs, Software outputs, Hardware outputs), then at least you can reason your way out of a ditch if you ever fall in. I always have to stop and think my way through things with TotalMix, not much comes naturally to me in that app.

Since I've got everything pretty well stationary through a patchbay, I don't have to adjust things very often. TotalMix is basically just a glorified headphone assignment software to me any more, since I've got 3 different pairs that I use for different tasks. And I do use the auto gain level and 48V button quite a bit. But even those simple tasks can take some trial and error if it's been a while since I last tinkered with it.

[Armistice]

That's a quality old man shouting at clouds moment.

Yup!

Weird thing is I spent a good hour watching Total Mix videos yesterday to understand it better, and I still managed to put it in the same state every time I did something that seemed logical.

I'll do some more stuffing around today to try to get the hang of it, but as an interface for all RME AIs it can do some incredibly complex things which I simply don't need. But there are a couple of things it'd be good to get on top of though...

[Armistice]

TotalMix is definitely a beast unto itself. I only really use a tiny fraction of its functionality, but I do fiddle with it periodically. Once you wrap your head around what the 3 rows of faders represent (Hardware inputs, Software outputs, Hardware outputs), then at least you can reason your way out of a ditch if you ever fall in. I always have to stop and think my way through things with TotalMix, not much comes naturally to me in that app.

Since I've got everything pretty well stationary through a patchbay, I don't have to adjust things very often. TotalMix is basically just a glorified headphone assignment software to me any more, since I've got 3 different pairs that I use for different tasks. And I do use the auto gain level and 48V button quite a bit. But even those simple tasks can take some trial and error if it's been a while since I last tinkered with it.

Isn't it though!

It's nice to know I can save my workspace on a USB stick and take it to everyone else's house and instantly configure their Total Mix to my spec, and also record with the internal DSP effects - but the reality is I'm never going to, so it's all just added complications.

I'll dig in a bit more today but even truly understanding the three rows is hard enough. I get it logically. I can see that my Kemper/SPDIF input in the top row is working - it's why, despite apparently being assigned to the the first outputs in the bottom row - the ones the headphone amp and then monitors run from, the signal is showing up in the SPDIF output channel - in which case I probably shouldn't be able to hear it, as there's nothing attached to that output...

Way complex.

[Armistice]

Hey @Tadpui - in case you want to learn more about Total Mix in the future - I struggled through a number of official RME Germany videos - they overwhelmingly seemed to (and I hate this in tutorial stuff) tell you HOW to do things but not WHY you would want to.

Then I found this one - seems to be RME US in origin - and it's way better.



As at last night, I finally "get" the 3 rows of the interface, have managed to hide the channels I've never used so it's a much more stripped back thing, understood how to set up a different headphone mix from main mix, and managed to put reverb on the headphone mix and not the main mix, saved a layout that has everything I need, and understood at least how to use the inbuilt EQ and dynamics - no particular use for the EQ but always missed having a bit of vocal compression on the way in - also understood how to NOT have it record said things if I don't want to.

So many light bulb moments in the last 24 hours. To think I've been using it for almost 10 years and am now only just starting to understand it.

[Tadpui]

I've watched a little bit of that one before, but I never made it all the way through. I should sit down with it at some point. But really I've got the absolute bare minimum functionality going and I hate to spoil it

RME had about a 6 month span where they did weekly tech support livestreams and I started attending (1 of maybe 5 or 10 viewers each week) just out of curiosity. They were good about answering questions until it became apparent that not many people were attending and it was basically just the same questions over and over each week. But I learned a thing or two about TotalMix, and they even answered a few direct questions I had (from myself and from YT comments that I passed along). They may not be the best PR guys in the biz, but they know their stuff. And damn they can write a Windows driver like nobody else.

I think that my final frontier with TotalMix will be to get a good system down for saving and recalling snapshots and presets. I rarely change those things, but I do have a few different use cases built up that would be nice to recall at the click of a button on the ARC. Mainly my ARC is just a volume knob for speakers and headphones. And it's great at being that. But it can be so much more!