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User`s Guide Fireface UC

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1. A progress bar will indicate when the flash process is finished Verify Ok New Revision 112 A reboot of the computer is not necessary Programming Status Up to date When the update fails status failure the unit s Safety BIOS will be used from the next boot on the unit stays fully functional The flash process should then or be tried again Abbrechen The Safety BIOS can also be activated manually Push the rotary encoder button while switch ing on the unit This method is also useful to temporarily deactivate a newer firmware With pressed button the older version of the firmware will be loaded User s Guide Fireface UC RME 11 8 Configuring the Fireface 8 1 Settings Dialog General Configuration of the Fireface UC is done via its own settings dialog The panel Settings can be opened e by clicking on the fire symbol in the Task Bar s notification area The mixer of the Fireface UC TotalMix can be opened e by clicking on the mixer icon in the Task Bar s notification area The hardware of the Fireface UC offers a number of helpful well thought of practical functions and options which affect how the card operates it can be configured to suit many different requirements The following is available in the Settings dialog Latency Fireface USB Settings E az Configuration of digital I Os Current sample rate Synchronization behaviour Buffer Size Latency State of input
2. Input level for 0 dBFS Lo Gain 19 dBu Input level for 0 dBFS 4 dBu 13 dBu Input level for 0 dBFS 10 dBV 2 dBV Line In 3 4 front as AD but Signal to Noise ratio SNR 105 dB RMS unweighted 109 dBA Gain range via rotary encoder 0 up to 18 dB Maximum input level Gain 0 dB 19 dBu Maximum input level Gain 18 dB Inst 16 dBu CLIP LED 2 dBFS SIG LED 65 dBFS Microphone Line 1 2 front 78 as AD Line In 5 8 but Input Neutrik XLR TRS Combo jack electronically balanced Input impedance XLR 2 kOhm TRS 8 kOhm balanced Low Roll Off 0 5 dB 18 Hz 1 dB 12 Hz Gain range 0 dB 10 up to 65 dB Maximum input level XLR Gain 0 dB 10 dBu Maximum input level XLR Gain 65 dB 55 dBu Maximum input level TRS Gain 0 dB 21 dBu Maximum input level TRS Gain 65 dB 44 dBu CLIP LED 2 dBFS SIG LED 65 dBFS User s Guide Fireface UC RME DA Line Out 1 6 rear Resolution 24 bit Dynamic range DR 110 dB 113 dBA 44 1 kHz unmuted Frequency response 44 1 kHz 0 1 dB 1 Hz 20 4 kHz Frequency response 96 kHz 0 5 dB 1 Hz 44 8 kHz Frequency response 192 kHz 1 dB 1 Hz 80 kHz THD 100 dB 0 001 96 THD N 96 dB 0 0015 96 Channel separation 110 dB Maximum output level 19 dBu Output 6 3 mm TRS jack servo balanced Output impedance 75 Ohm Output level switchable Hi Gain 4 dBu 10 dBV Output level at 0 dBFS Hi Gain 19 dBu Output level at
3. The dialog Preferences is opened with F3 Alt F4 closes the current window Alt and number 1 to 8 not on the numeric keypad will load the corresponding Snapshot The right mouse button selects a Hardware Output At the same time a context menu is dis played having these options Clear Submix Deletes the whole submix of the selected output All inputs and playbacks of this routing will be set to 9 Copy Submix Copies the whole submix of the selected output into memory All input and play back faders from that routing will be included Paste Submix Writes the previously copied submix on to the now selected output 66 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 26 9 Menu Options Deactivate Screensaver When active checked any activated Windows screensaver will be disabled temporarily Always on Top When active checked the TotalMix window will always be on top of the Win dows desktop Note This function may result in problems with windows containing help text as the TotalMix window will even be on top of those windows so the help text isn t readable Enable MIDI OSC Control Activates external MIDI control of the TotalMix mixer In Mackie Protocol mode the channels which are currently under MIDI control are indicated by a colour change of the name field Submix linked to MIDI OSC control The 8 channel group follows the currently selected sub mix means Hardware Output when a different submix is chosen on the remote as we
4. as these settings refer to Compressor and Expander from other RME devices Snapshots Do not load Main volume balance The values stored in the Snapshot are not loaded for the Main Out so the current setting is not changed Device Handling For the Fireface UC always on When connecting to a computer TotalMix FX will immediately load its settings into the UC overwriting the current ones in the unit Graphics Use D2D Change requires restart Default on Can be deactivated to use a compatible but CPU taxing graphics mode in case graphics problems show up 62 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 26 7 Settings The dialog Settings can be opened via the Options menu or directly via F3 26 7 1 Mixer Page On the mixer page some typical settings for the mixer operation are set like Talkback source Dim amount when Talkback is active the stored main volume or the input used for the External Input function Talkback gt Input Selects the input channel of the Talkback signal microphone in control room Default None gt Dim Amount of attenuation of the signals routed to the Phones in cB Listenback gt Input Selects the input channel of the Listenback signal microphone in recording room Default None gt Dim Amount of attenuation of the signals routed to the Main Out in dB Main Out gt Recall User defined listening volume activated by the Recall button at the unit or in TotalMix gt Dim
5. for monitoring purposes outputs 7 8 have their own 3 stage hardware based reference level circuitry providing perfect pre adjustment for the connected monitor speakers The main vol ume control is then performed via TotalMix either at the computer or directly at the unit rotary encoder PH In case the output should operate as Left line output an adapter TRS plug to RCA phono plugs or TRS plug to TS Right plugs is required rA The pin assignment follows interna tional standards The left channel is connected to the tip the right channel to the ring of the TRS jack plug Shield Shield 42 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 24 Digital Connections 24 1 ADAT The ADAT optical input of the Fireface UC is fully compatible with all ADAT optical outputs RME s unsurpassed Bitclock PLL prevents clicks and drop outs even in extreme varipitch op eration and guarantees a fast and low jitter lock to the digital input signal A usual TOSLINK cable is sufficient for connection More information on Double Speed S MUX can be found in chapter 35 4 ADAT In Interface for a device sending an ADAT signal to the Fireface UC Carries the channels 1 to 8 When receiving a Double Speed signal this input carries the channels 1 to 4 at Quad Speed the channels 1 and 2 ADAT Out Interface for a device receiving an ADAT signal from the Fireface UC Transmits channels 1 to 8 When sending a Double Speed signal this port carries channels
6. of the interface hardware the Fireface UC automatically uses Sample Multiplexing in DS mode One channel s data is distributed to two channels according to the following table Analog In 1 2 5 6 7 8 DS Signal 1 2 3 4 e Port ADAT ADAT ADAT ADAT As the transmission of double rate signals is done at standard sample rate Single Speed the ADAT output still delivers 44 1 kHz or 48 kHz 31 5 QS Quad Speed Due to the small number of available devices that use sample rates up to 192 kHz but even more due to a missing real world application CD Quad Speed has had no broad success so far An implementation of the ADAT format as double S MUX results in only two channels per optical output There are few devices using this method In Quad Speed mode the Fireface UC automatically uses Sample Multiplexing One channel s data is distributed to four channels according to the following table Analog In AARAA DS Signal Eu Port ADAT ADAT As the transmission of quad rate signals is done at standard sample rate Single Speed the ADAT output still delivers 44 1 kHz or 48 kHz The SPDIF AES output of the Fireface UC provides 192 kHz as Single Wire only 84 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 31 6 AES EBU SPDIF The most important electrical properties of AES and SPDIF can be seen in the table below AES EBU is the professional balanced connection using XLR plugs The standard is being s
7. ssss 87 32 2 Connector Pmouts sse 88 gt Miscellaneous 339 NEE 90 34 Warranty midi eese 90 35 ee le EE 91 36 Declaration of Conformity 92 4 User s Guide Fireface UC RME User s Guide RTE INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Fireface UC p General User s Guide Fireface UC RME 1 Thank you for choosing the Fireface UC This unique audio system is capable of transferring analog and digital audio data directly to a computer from practically any source The latest Plug and Play technology guarantees a simple installation even for the inexperienced user The numerous unique features and well thought out configuration dialog puts the Fireface UC at the Introduction very top of the range of computer based audio interfaces The package contains drivers for Windows XP Vista 7 and Mac OS X x86 Intel Our high performance philosophy guarantees maximum system performance by executing as many functions as possible not in the driver i e the CPU but directly within the audio hard ware 2 Package Contents Please check that your Fireface UC package contains each of the following A Fireface UC Cable USB 2 0 1 8 m 6 ft MIDI breakout cable Power supply Manual RME Driver CD 1 optical cable TOSLINK 2 m 6 6 ft System Requirements Windows XP SP or up Intel Mac OS X 10 6 or up 1 USB 2 0 port Computer with at least Pentium Core 2 Duo CPU
8. 0 dBFS 4 dBu 13 dBu Output level at 0 dBFS 10 dBV 2 dBV DA Phones 7 8 front e as DA but e Output 6 3 mm TRS jack unbalanced e Output impedance 30 Ohm 30 2 MIDI 2 x MIDI I O breakout cable with 4 x 5 pin DIN jacks Galvanically isolated by optocoupled input Hi speed mode Jitter and response time typically below 1 ms Separate 128 byte FIFOs for input and output 30 3 Digital Clocks Internal ADAT In SPDIF In word clock in Optional LTC Video in Low Jitter Design 1 ns in PLL mode all inputs Internal clock 800 ps Jitter Random Spread Spectrum Jitter suppression of external clocks 30 dB 2 4 kHz Effective clock jitter influence on AD and DA conversion near zero PLL ensures zero dropout even at more than 100 ns jitter Digital Bitclock PLL for trouble free varispeed ADAT operation Supported sample rates 28 kHz up to 200 kHz 30 4 Digital Inputs Word Clock e BNC not terminated 10 kOhm e Switch for internal termination 75 Ohm e Automatic Double Quad Speed detection and internal conversion to Single Speed e SteadyClock guarantees super low jitter synchronization even in varispeed operation e Not affected by DC offsets within the network e Signal Adaptation Circuit signal refresh through auto center and hysteresis e Overvoltage protection e Level range 1 0 Vpp 5 6 Vpp e Lock Range 27 kHz 200 kHz e Jitter when synced to input signal 1 ns e Jitter suppression gt 30 dB
9. 1 to 4 at Quad Speed the channels 1 and 2 24 2 SPDIF The Fireface UC has two SPDIF inputs and outputs Coaxial and optical can be used simulta neously with different audio signals Note that the sources have to be synchronous as the unit does not have a dedicated sample rate converter The optical input automatically switches to SPDIF operation when such a signal is detected The audio information is then shown in TotalMix on the first two ADAT channels In 11 and In 12 To send out SPDIF from the optical output select the option Optical SPDIF in the Settings dialog The output signal in TotalMix has to be present on the first ADAT channels AS 1 2 The Fireface UC s inputs accept SPDIF as well as AES EBU To receive signals in AES EBU format an adapter cable is required Pins 2 and 3 of a female XLR plug are connected individually to the two pins of a phono plug The cable shielding is connected to pin 1 of the XLR and the ground contact of the phono plug Shield User s Guide Fireface UC RME 43 Special Characteristics of the SPDIF Output Apart from the audio data itself digital signals in SPDIF or AES EBU format have a header con taining channel status information False channel status is a common cause of malfunction The Fireface UC ignores the received header and creates a totally new one for the output signal The Fireface UC s new output header is optimized for largest compatibility with other digital
10. 192 kHz the other ADAT channels are not available anymore The output for the Cue signal which is usually Main can also be set to one of the Phones outputs Main Out B Phones 1 Main Out Phones 2 Phones 3 Phones 4 Cue to 56 User s Guide Fireface UC RME None AN 1 2 AN 3 4 AN 5 6 gt PH 7 8 gt SPDIF gt AS 1 2 26 5 The Control Strip The Control Strip on the right side is a fixed element It combines different functions that are either required globally or constantly used and therefore should not be hidden in a menu Fireface UC Device selection Select the unit to be controlled in case more than one is installed on the computer F Undo Redo With the unlimited Undo and Redo changes of the mix can be undone and redone at any time Undo Redo does not cover graphical ng changes window size position channels wide narrow etc and also no changes to the Presets Undo Redo also operates across Workspaces Therefore a completely differently set up mixer view can be loaded via Workspace and with a single click on Undo the previous internal mixer state is returned but the new mixer view stays Global Mute Solo Fader Mute Global Mute operates in a pre fader style muting all currently activated routings of the channel As soon as any Mute button is pressed the Mute Master button lights up in the Control Strip area With this button all selected mutes can be switched off and on again One can
11. 2 4 kHz User s Guide Fireface UC RME 79 ADAT Optical 1 x TOSLINK Standard 8 channels 24 bit up to 48 kHz Double Speed S MUX 4 channels 24 bit 96 kHz Quad Speed S MUX4 2 channels 24 bit 192 kHz Bitclock PLL ensures perfect synchronisation even in varispeed operation Lock Range 31 5 kHz 50 kHz Jitter when synced to input signal lt 1 ns Jitter suppression gt 30 dB 2 4 kHz AES EBU SPDIF 1 x RCA and 1 x optical according to IEC 60958 High sensitivity input stage lt 0 3 Vpp Accepts Consumer and Professional format copy protection will be ignored Lock Range 27 kHz 200 kHz Jitter when synced to input signal lt 1 ns Jitter suppression gt 30 dB 2 4 kHz 30 5 Digital Outputs Word Clock e BNC e Max output voltage 5 Vpp e Output voltage 75 Ohm termination 4 0 Vpp e Output impedance 10 Ohm e Frequency range 27 kHz 200 kHz ADAT e 1x TOSLINK e Standard 8 channels 24 bit up to 48 kHz e Double Speed S MUX 4 channels 24 bit 96 kHz e Quad Speed S MUXA 2 channels 24 bit 192 kHz AES EBU SPDIF e 1x RCA and 1 x optical according to IEC 60958 Output level Professional 2 0 Vpp Consumer 0 8 Vpp Format Professional according to AES3 1992 Amendment 4 Format Consumer SPDIF according to IEC 60958 Single Wire mode sample rate 28 kHz up to 200 kHz 30 6 General Power supply external power supply Typical power consumption 13 Watts Current at 12 Volt operati
12. 32 D 09648 Mittweida Trademarks All trademarks registered or otherwise are the property of their respective owners RME DIGICheck and Hammerfall are registered trademarks of RME Intelligent Audio Solutions SyncCheck ZLM DIGI96 SyncAlign TMS TotalMix SteadyClock and Fireface are trademarks of RME Intelligent Audio Solutions Alesis and ADAT are registered trademarks of Alesis Corp ADAT optical is a trademark of Alesis Corp Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp Steinberg Cubase and VST are regis tered trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH ASIO is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH Copyright Matthias Carstens 07 2012 Version 1 6 Current driver version W 1 025 Mac OS X 1 76 Firmware 116 Although the contents of this User s Guide have been thoroughly checked for errors RME can not guarantee that it is correct throughout RME does not accept responsibility for any mislead ing or incorrect information within this guide Lending or copying any part of the guide or the RME Driver CD or any commercial exploitation of these media without express written permis sion from RME Intelligent Audio Solutions is prohibited RME reserves the right to change specifications at any time without notice User s Guide Fireface UC RME 91 36 Declaration of Conformity CE This device has been tested and found to comply with the limits of the European
13. Amount of attenuation for the Main Out in dB gt External Input Selects the stereo input that replaces the mix signal on the Main Out when activated The volume of the stereo signal is adjusted by the slider Gain Settings mem E o o Mixer MIDI 1 OSC 1 Talkback Input Mic 1 Dim ken Listenback 20 0 dB None v Input D Main Out 20 0 dB 10 0 dB Recall Dim _ External Input 20 0 dB SPDIF v Gain Abbrechen User s Guide Fireface UC RME 63 26 7 2 MIDI Page The MIDI page has settings for MIDI remote control via CC commands or Mackie Control proto col MIDI Remote Control gt gt gt MIDI In Input where TotalMix receives MIDI Remote data MIDI Out Output where TotalMix sends MIDI Remote data Disable MIDI in background Deactivates MIDI Remote Control as soon as another application is in the focus or when TotalMix has been minimized Mackie Control Options Enable Protocol Support When disabled TM FX will only react on the Control Change commands of chapter 28 5 Map Stereo to 2 Mono Channels One fader controls one mono channel Should be disabled when stereo channels are used Submix Selection in Input Playback Row Enables a selection of the submix when in first row without having to change to the third row first However when using both mono and
14. If so set the system s clock mode to Master Possible causes for a Fireface not working e The USB cable is not or not correctly inserted into the socket e No power After switching the Fireface on at least the red Host error LED has to be lit Driver installation and Settings dialog TotalMix work but a playback or record is not possible e While recognition and control of the device are low bandwidth applications playback record needs the full USB transmission performance Therefore defective USB cables with limited transmission bandwidth can cause such an error scheme After the flash process the Fireface UC does not start correctly e Pushing the rotary encoder while switching on the unit will load the Safety BIOS The flash process should then be repeated maybe even on a different computer 36 User s Guide Fireface UC RME User s Guide NE INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Fireface UC gt Stand Alone Operation and Connections User s Guide Fireface UC RME 37 21 Stand alone Operation The Fireface UC has an internal memory to permanently store all configuration data The data is stored directly after any change and are loaded at power on Saved settings are Settings dialog Sample rate clock mode Master Slave configuration of the channels and the digital I Os TotalMix The complete mixer state This also improves the clock situation immediately after power on avoiding wrong clocking and noise
15. In the digital world all devices must be either Master clock source or Slave clock receiver Whenever several devices are linked there must always be a single master clock A digital system can only have one master If the Fireface s clock mode is set to Internal all other devices must be set to Slave The Fireface UC utilizes a very user friendly intelligent clock control called AutoSync In Auto Sync mode the system constantly scans all digital inputs for a valid signal If any valid signal is found the Fireface switches from the internal quartz Clock Mode Current Internal to a clock extracted from the input signal Clock Mode Current ADAT etc The difference to a usual slave mode is that whenever the clock reference fails the system will automatically use its in ternal clock and operate in Master mode AutoSync guarantees that record and record while play will always work correctly In certain cases however e g when the inputs and outputs of a DAT machine are connected directly to the Fireface UC AutoSync may cause feedback in the digital carrier so synchronization breaks down Remedy switch the Fireface clock mode to Master Clock Source Internal The Fireface UC s ADAT and SPDIF inputs operate simultaneously Because there is no input selector the Fireface UC has to be told which one of the signals is the sync reference a digital device can only be clocked from a single source The Clock Source selec
16. Mute 2C 44 G2 Master Solo 2B 43 G2 Furthermore all faders of all three rows can be controlled via simple Control Change com mands The format for the Control Change command s is Bx yy zz x MIDI channel yy control number zz value The first row in TotalMix is addressed by MIDI channels 1 up to 4 the middle row by channels 5 up to 8 and the bottom row by channels 9 up to 12 16 Controller numbers are used 102 up to 117 hex 66 to 75 With these 16 Controllers faders and 4 MIDI channels each per row up to 64 faders can be controlled per row as re quired by the HDSPe MADI 74 User s Guide Fireface UC RME Examples for sending MIDI strings Set input 1 to 0 dB BO 66 68 Set input 5 to maximum attenuation B1 6A 0 Set playback 1 to maximum B4 66 7F Set Output 3 to 0 dB B8 68 68 Note Sending MIDI strings requires to use programmer s logic for the MIDI channel starting with 0 for channel 1 and ending with 15 for channel 16 Further functions Trim Gains On BC 66 xx BC MIDI channel 13 xx any value Trim Gains Off BC 66 xx or select a submix Select submix fader in third row channel 1 2 BC 68 69 xx channel 3 4 BC 6A 6B xx etc 29 6 Loopback Detection The Mackie Control protocol requires feedback of the received commands back to the hard ware controller So usually TotalMix will be set up with both a MIDI input and MIDI output Un fortunately any small er
17. Mute and Solo Input channels and playback channels each have a mute and solo button Numerical level display Shows the current RMS or Peak level updated twice per second OVR means overload The setting Peak RMS is changed in the View Options Level meter The meter shows both peak values zero attack 1 sample is enough for a full scale display by means of a yellow line and mathematically correct RMS values by means of a green bar The RMS display has a relatively slow time con stant so that it shows the average loudness quite well Overs are shown in red at the top of the bar In the Preferences dialog F2 the Peak Hold time the over detection and the RMS reference can be set Fader Determines the gain level of the signal routed to the current routing destination lower label Please note that this fader is not the fader of the channel but only the fader of the cur rent routing Compared to a standard mixing desk TotalMix does not have a channel fader but only Aux Sends as many as there are hardware outputs Therefore TotalMix can create as many different Submixes as there are hardware outputs This concept is understood best in the Submix View but more on that later Below the fader the Gain is shown in a numerical display field according to the current fader position The fader can be gt dragged with the left mouse button pressed gt moved by the mouse wheel gt set to 0 dB and by a double click The same happ
18. Raise the source s output level until the peak level meters in TotalMix reach about 3 dB The analog line inputs of the Fireface UC can be used with 4 dBu and 10 dBV signals The electronic input stage can handle balanced XLR TRS jacks and unbalanced TS jacks input signals correctly The front s inputs signal level can be optimized using the Fireface s rotary encoder A Signal LED and a Clip LED help to find the correct level adjustment The Fireface s digital outputs provide SPDIF AES EBU compatible and ADAT optical signals at the corresponding ports On the analog playback side the DA side a coarse adjustment of the analog output level at the rear jacks is available in the Settings dialog Gain Level Line Out The output signal of channels 7 8 is available on the front Their output level can be set using the rotary encoder This output is a very low impedance type which can also be used to con nect headphones The Fireface UC remembers all settings and loads these automatically when switched on With this the Fireface UC can be used stand alone after setting it up accordingly replacing lots of dedicated devices see chapter 21 8 User s Guide Fireface UC RME User s Guide RM INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Fireface UC r Installation and Operation Windows User s Guide Fireface UC RME 6 Hardware Installation e Connect the power supply to the Fireface and then to any suitable power outlet P
19. be sent out via two different hardware outputs the most elegant way is to use a permanently activated Cue Set up the mixdown on the routing to the Main Out use Copy Sub mix to copy the final mix to the other output then activate Cue on this other output The output signal and with this the complete mixdown will then be played back from two stereo outputs simultaneously the Main Out and the other Hardware Output Even better the faders of both outputs are still active so the signal level can be adjusted individually User s Guide Fireface UC RME 69 28 5 Recording a Submix Loopback TotalMix includes an internal loopback function from the Hardware Outputs to the recording software Instead of the signal at the hardware input the signal at the hardware output is sent to the record software This way complete submixes can be recorded without an external loop back cable Also the playback from a software can be recorded by another software The function is activated by the Loopback button in the Settings panel of the Hardware Out puts In loopback mode the signal at the hardware input of the corresponding channel is no longer sent to the recording software but still passed through to TotalMix Therefore TotalMix can be used to route this input signal to any hardware output Using the subgroup recording the input can still be recorded on a different channel As each of the 9 stereo hardware outputs can be routed to the record sof
20. channels using the Sample Multiplexing technique This reduces the number of available ADAT channels from 8 to 4 or 2 per ADAT port Whenever the Fireface changes into Double Speed 88 2 96 kHz or Quad Speed mode 176 4 192 kHz all devices no longer available vanish automatically WDM Stereo devices Double Speed Quad Speed Fireface UC Analog 1 2 Fireface UC Analog 1 2 Fireface UC Analog 1 2 Fireface UC Analog 3 4 Fireface UC Analog 3 4 Fireface UC Analog 3 4 Fireface UC Analog 5 6 Fireface UC Analog 5 6 Fireface UC Analog 5 6 Fireface UC Analog 7 8 a a aN Fireface UC Analog 7 8 Fireface UC Analog 7 8 Fireface UC SPDIF Fireface UC SPDIF Fireface UC SPDIF Fireface UC AS 1 2 Fireface UC AS 1 2 Fireface UC AS 1 2 Fireface UC ADAT 3 4 Fireface UC ADAT 3 4 Fireface UC ADAT 5 6 Fireface UC ADAT 7 8 Note Under Vista 7 the analog outputs 1 2 show up as Loudspeaker 9 5 Multi client Operation RME audio interfaces support multi client operation Several programs can be used at the same time The formats ASIO and WDM can even be used on the same playback channels simulta neously As WDM uses a real time sample rate conversion ASIO does not all active ASIO software has to use the same sample rate However a better overview is maintained by using the channels exclusively
21. com fortably set up a mute group or activate and deactivate several mute buttons simultaneously Solo As soon as any Solo button is pressed the Solo Master button lights up in the Control Strip area With this button all selected Solos are switched off and on again Solo operates as Solo in Place post fader style as known from common mixing desks A typical limitation for mixing desks Solo working only globally and only for the Main Out does not exist in TotalMix Solo is always activated for the current submix only Fader A Shift click on a fader adds the fader to the temporary fader group All faders now marked yellow are ganged and move simultaneously in a relative way The temporary fader group is deleted by a click on the F symbol User s Guide Fireface UC RME 57 26 5 1 View Options View Options This area combines different functions of routing the level meters and the mi xer view Routing gt Submix The Submix view default is the preferred view and delivers the quickest overview operation and understanding of TotalMix The click on one of the Hardware Output channels selects the respective submix all other outputs are darkened At the same time all routing fields are set to this channel With Submix view it is very easy to generate a submix for any output select the output channel adjust the fader and pans of first and second row finished Free The Free view is for advanced users It is used to edit
22. devices e 32 kHz 44 1 kHz 48 kHz 88 2 kHz 96 kHz 176 4 kHz 192 kHz depending on the current sample rate Audio use Non Audio No Copyright Copy Permitted Format Consumer or Professional Category General Generation not indicated 2 channel No Emphasis Aux bits Audio Use Professional AES EBU equipment can be connected to the Fireface UC thanks to its Profes sional format option and a doubled output voltage Output cables should have the same pinout as those used for input see above but with a male XLR plug instead of a female one Note that most consumer HiFi equipment with optical or phono SPDIF inputs will only accept signals in Consumer format Therefore in SPDIF mode the optical output is set fixed to Consumer 24 3 MIDI Fireface UC offers two MIDI I O via four 5 pin DIN jacks The MIDI ports are added to the sys tem by the driver Using MIDI capable software these ports can be accessed under the name Fireface UC Midi Using more than one Fireface the operating system adds a consecutive num ber to the port name like Fireface UC MIDI 2 etc The MIDI ports support multi client operation A MIDI input signal can be received from several programs at the same time Even the MIDI output can be used by multiple programs simultane ously However due to the limited bandwidth of MIDI this kind of application will often show various problems Note The MIDI input LED displays any kind of MIDI activity
23. dialog or in the application e Try different cables coaxial or optical to rule out any defects here e Check that cables devices have not been connected in a closed loop If so set the system s clock mode to Master e Check the Settings dialog for displayed Errors Driver installation and Settings dialog TotalMix work but a playback or record is not possible e While recognition and control of the device are low bandwidth applications playback record needs the full USB transmission performance Therefore defective USB cables with limited transmission bandwidth can cause such errors After the flash process the Fireface UC does not start correctly e Pushing the rotary encoder while switching on the unit will load the Safety BIOS The flash process should then be repeated maybe even on a different computer User s Guide Fireface UC RME 25 26 User s Guide Fireface UC RME User s Guide INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Fireface UC gt Mac OS X Installation and Operation User s Guide Fireface UC RME 27 14 Hardware Installation e Connect the power supply to the Fireface and then to any suitable power outlet Power on the Fireface with the rear power switch e Check the correct firmware version by a double click on the rotary encoder button The display PC means Windows the display AP means Mac The double click automatically switches between both versions Note a change of state is only possi
24. down Ctrl key will let the fader jump to 0 dB at the next click to Same function Double click of the mouse Clicking on one of the Panorama or Gain knobs with held down Ctrl key lets the knob jump tp center position Same function Double click of the mouse Clicking on the Panorama knob with held down Shift key lets the knob jump to fully left with Shift Ctrl to fully right Clicking on one of the channel settings buttons slim normal settings with held down Shift key lets all channels to the right change their state For example all settings panels can be opened closed simultaneously A double click of the mouse on a knob or its numerical field opens the according nput Value dialog The desired value can then be set by keyboard Dragging the mouse from a parameter field increases move up or decreases move down the value in the field Ctrl N opens the dialog Function Select to open a new TotalMix window Ctrl W opens the dialog File Open of the operating system to load a TotalMix Workspace file The key W starts the dialog Workspace Quick Select for a direct selection or storage of up to 30 Workspaces The key M switches the active window to Mixer view The key X switches the active window to Matrix view Ctrl M opens a new Mixer window Ctrl X opens a new Matrix window Another Ctrl M or Ctrl X closes the new window again F1 opens the online help The Level Meter setup dialog can be opened with F2 same as in DIGICheck
25. individual Fireface UC undergoes comprehensive quality control and a complete test at IMM before shipping The usage of high grade components should guarantee a long and trou ble free operation of the unit If you suspect that your product is faulty please contact your local retailer Audio AG grants a limited manufacturer warranty of 6 months from the day of invoice showing the date of sale The length of the warranty period is different per country Please contact your local distributor for extended warranty information and service Note that each country may have regional specific warranty implications In any case warranty does not cover damage caused by improper installation or maltreatment replacement or repair in such cases can only be carried out at the owner s expense No warranty service is provided when the product is not returned to the local distributor in the region where the product had been originally shipped Audio AG does not accept claims for damages of any kind especially consequential damage Liability is limited to the value of the Fireface UC The general terms of business drawn up by Audio AG apply at all times 90 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 35 Appendix RME news driver updates and further product information are available on our website http www rme audio com Distributor Audio AG Am Pfanderling 60 D 85778 Haimhausen Tel 49 08133 91810 Manufacturer IMM Elektronik GmbH Leipziger Strasse
26. it will switch off when being fed Professional coded data The table shows that a Professional coded signal would lead to malfunctions for copy prohibi tion and emphasis if being read as Consumer coded data Nowadays many devices with SPDIF input can handle Professional subcode Devices with AES3 input almost always accept Consumer SPDIF passive cable adapter necessary User s Guide Fireface UC RME 85 31 7 Noise Level in DS QS Mode The outstanding signal to noise ratio of the Fireface s AD converters can be verified even with out expensive test equipment by using record level meters of various software But when acti vating the DS and QS mode the displayed noise level will rise from 109 dB to 104 dB at 96 kHz and 82 dB at 192 kHz This is not a failure The software measures the noise of the whole frequency range at 96 kHz from 0 Hz to 48 kHz RMS unweighted at 192 kHz from 0 Hz to 96 kHz When limiting the measurement range from 20 Hz to 20 kHz so called audio bandpass the value would be 110 dB again This can be verified with RME s DIGICheck The function Bit Statistic amp Noise measures the noise floor by Limited Bandwidth ignoring DC and ultrasound File Function Options Help E GSM om mc Subframe MSB Audio Data LSB AUX CUV RMS LB dB 3 RMS dBA 3 DC dB 1 Let BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRER 1098 112 6 155 2 2 Right DRRRRRRRERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIR 1098 112 6 184 5 Bits 4 8 12 16 20 24 20Hz 2
27. level User s Guide Fireface UC RME 3e jauUeYD jndino eJewpueH siz S D 10 Sy g BUUBYD jndino suempsey dE m m o 10A E jeuueu K jndino aiempieH 6002 S0 weiberq oolg ON 99ejeJlJ Josi dSQ lejowwey XINIEJOL IWY gL 0 9 TOA NYd 3 4 ve a n eese v pr oO MS 10A ite en A 81401 O OS Luo yoeqhe q A 9JeAgJOS olpny 81 01 S A Lu p10984 10A NYd iie A A i CN A EREMO T D 2 2 4 D En TOA 81 0 4 x SI jauueug gt oos jndu eJewpJyeH 81 01 5 Boon 51 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 26 2 The User Interface The visual design of the TotalMix mixer is a result of its capability to route hardware inputs and software playback channels to any hardware output The Fireface UC provides 18 input chan nels 18 software playback channels and 18 hardware output channels HARDWARE INPUTS SOFTWARE PLAYBACK DEI HARDWARE OUTPUTS TotalMix can be used in the above view View Options 2 Rows However the default is a verti cal alignment in three rows as known from an Inline desk so that the row Software Playback equals the Tape Return of a real mixing desk HARDWARE OUTPUTS e Top row Hardware inputs The level shown is that of the input signal i e fader independ ent Via fader and
28. routing field any input channel can be routed and mixed to any hardware output bottom row e Middle row Playback channels playback tracks of the audio software Via fader and routing field any playback channel can be routed and mixed to any hardware output third row e Bottom row third row Hardware outputs Here the total level of the output can be adjusted This may be the level of connected loudspeakers or the necessity to reduce the level of an overloaded submix Usage in mode Submix View Default simply click on the hardware output channel where you want to have an audio signal This channel turns brighter means it is selected as current submix Now move the faders up from all sources input and playback channels that you want to hear at the submix output The following chapters explain step by step all functions of the user interface 52 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 26 3 The Channels A single channel can be switched between mono and stereo mode The mode is set in the channel settings Hardware Outputs are always stereo Channel name The name field is the preferred place to select a channel by a mouse click A double click opens a dialog to assign a different name The original name will be shown when activating the option O Names in the View Options Panorama Routes the input signal freely to the left and right routing destination lower label see below The level reduction in center position is 3 dB
29. stereo channel Monaural information is sent to the left channel stereo information to the right Phase L Inverts the phase of the left channel by 180 Phase R Inverts the phase of the right channel by 180 Note the functions Width MS Proc Phase L and Phase R affect all routings of the respective channel Besides Stereo Mono Phase L und Phase R the settings of the Hard ware Outputs have one more option Loopback Sends the output data to the driver as record data The cor responding submix can be recorded then This channel s hardware input sends its data only to TotalMix no longer to the recording software Another difference to the input and playback channels is the Cue button instead of Solo A click on Cue sends the respective Hardware Output s audio to the Main Out With this any hardware output can be controlled and listened to through the monitoring output very conveniently Using the option Assign Cue to in the Control Room section Cue can also be used with any of the Phones outputs E Loopback Hardware Outputs User s Guide Fireface UC RME 55 26 4 Section Control Room In the section Control Room the menu Assign is used to define the Main Out which is used for listening in the studio For this output the functions Dim Recall Mono and Talkback are automatically applied Additionally the channel will be shifted from the Hardware Outputs into the Control Room section and renamed Main The sam
30. stereo channels first and third row Settings E Mixer MIDI 1 osc 1 MIDI Remote Control MIDI In Fireface Midi Port 1 E MIDI Qut Fireface Midi Port 1 X Disable MIDI in background Mackie Control Options M Enable Protocol Support M Map Stereo to 2 Mono Channels Submis Selection in Input Playback Row Enable full LCD support Send User defined Names Send Level Messages D Abbrechen usually do not match anymore so the selection often becomes unclear this way Enable full LCD support Activates full Mackie Control LCD support with eight channel names and eight volume pan values Send User defined Names Channel names defined by the user will be sent to the remote device via MIDI and if supported shown in its display Send Level Messages Activates the transmission of the level meter data Peak Hold acti vates the peak hold function as set up for the TotalMix level meters in the preferences Note When MIDI Out is set to NONE then TotalMix FX can still be controlled by Mackie Control MIDI commands but the 8 channel block is not marked as remote target 64 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 26 7 3 OSC Page The OSC page has settings for MIDI remote control via Open Sound Control OSC This is a network based remote protocol that can be used for example by Apple s iPad with the app TouchOSC to wirelessly remote control TotalMix FX running on a Mac or Windows compu
31. to input ADAT The corresponding LED will show LOCK immediately but usually the mixing desk s sample rate is generated internally also Master and thus slightly higher or lower than the Fireface s internal sample rate Result When reading out the data there will frequently be read errors that cause clicks and drop outs Also when using multiple inputs a simple LOCK is not sufficient The above described problem can be solved elegantly by setting the Fireface from Master to AutoSync its internal clock will then be the clock delivered by the mixing desk But in case another un synchronous device is connected there will again be a slight difference in the sample rate and therefore clicks and drop outs In order to display those problems optically at the device the Fireface includes SyncCheck It checks all clocks used for synchronicity If they are not synchronous to each other i e abso lutely identical the SYNC LED of the asynchronous input flashes In case they are completely synchronous all LEDs are constantly lit In example 1 it would have been obvious that the LED ADAT kept on flashing after connecting the mixing desk In practice SyncCheck allows for a quick overview of the correct configuration of all digital de vices So one of the most difficult and error prone topics of the digital studio world finally be comes easy to handle The same information is presented in the Fireface s Settings dialog In the status display npu
32. valid signal Lock No Lock or if there is a valid and synchronous signal Sync The second row shows the sample frequency measured by the hardware In Clock Mode the clock reference is shown Current See also chapter 31 1 Output Format Word The word clock output signal usually equals the current sample rate Selecting Single Speed causes the output signal to always stay within the range of 32 kHz to 48 kHz So at 96 kHz and 192 kHz sample rate the output word clock is 48 kHz Optical The optical TOSLINK output can operate as ADAT or SPDIF output The Channel Status is fixed to Consumer state Note The optical input detects the incoming format automatically SPDIF coax The coaxial SPDIF output can have the Channel Status Consumer or Professional For further details please refer to chapter 24 2 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 31 16 2 Clock Modes Synchronization In the digital world all devices must be either Master clock source or Slave clock receiver Whenever several devices are linked there must always be a single master clock A digital system can only have one master If the Fireface s clock mode is set to Internal all other devices must be set to Slave The Fireface UC utilizes a very user friendly intelligent clock control called AutoSync In Auto Sync mode the system constantly scans all digital inputs for a valid signal If any valid signal is found the Fireface switches from the in
33. will react on MIDI notes after power on and will also send MIDI notes Control is performed via the Mackie Control protocol In stand alone mode not all functions known from TotalMix are available Functions like Talkback DIM Mono Solo relative ganging of the faders Monitor Main and Monitor Phones are realized by complex software code and not present within the hardware Still many functions and especially the most important functions to control the Fireface UC are implemented in hardware thus available also in stand alone mode All faders and pans of the first and third row Mute of the input signal per channel Ganging via Select Choice of the routing destination i e the current submix Sending of LED and display data to the MIDI controller The second row software playback is skipped in stand alone operation The Fireface UC sends display data as brief information enabling an easy navigation through lines and rows Other data like PAN and miscellaneous status LEDs are supported as well In stand alone mode the unit always operates in View Submix mode Only this way the routing destination can be changed and several mixdowns submixes can be set up quickly and easily Note After power on the Fireface UC does not update the connected MIDI controller Therefore the controller s faders will not be set to the values stored within the unit Mackie Control Protocol The stand alone operation supports the following Mackie Contro
34. 0kHz Acweighting OHz Press F1 For help SR 192kHz The reason for this behaviour is the noise shaping technology of the analog to digital convert ers They move all noise and distortion to the in audible higher frequency range above 24 kHz That s how they achieve their outstanding performance and sonic clarity Therefore the noise is slightly increased in the ultrasound area High frequent noise has a high energy Add the dou bled quadrupled bandwidth and a wideband measurement will show a significant drop in SNR while the human ear will notice absolutely no change in the audible noise floor 31 8 SteadyClock The SteadyClock technology of the Fireface UC guarantees an excellent performance in all clock modes Thanks to a highly efficient jitter suppression the AD and DA conversion always operates on highest sonic level being completely independent from the quality of the incoming clock signal SteadyClock has been originally de eee veloped to gain a stable and clean clock from the heavily jittery MADI data signal the embedded MADI clock suffers from about 80 ns jitter Using the Fireface s input signals SPDIF and ADAT you ll most probably never ex perience such high jitter values But SteadyClock is not only ready for them it would handle them just on the fly Common interface jitter values in real world applications are below 10 ns a very good value is less than 2 ns WW 10 0ns The screenshot shows an ext
35. Brief Description and Characteristics Enhanced Mixed Mode Analog ADAT and SPDIF I O simultaneously usable Buffer sizes latencies from 48 up to 8192 samples selectable All settings can be changed in real time 4 channels 96 kHz 24 bit Record Playback via ADAT optical S MUX Clock modes slave and master Automatic and intelligent master slave clock control Unsurpassed Bitclock PLL audio synchronization in ADAT mode SteadyClock Jitter immune super stable digital clock DDS technology for free setting of the sample rate TotalMix for latency free submixes and perfect ASIO Direct Monitoring TotalMix 648 channel mixer with 42 bit internal resolution SyncAlign guarantees sample aligned and never swapping channels SyncCheck tests and reports the synchronization status of input signals Word clock input and output 2 x MIDI I O 32 channels high speed MIDI 1 x Hi power headphone output DIGICheck DSP Level meter in hardware peak and RMS calculation User s Guide Fireface UC RME 5 First Usage Quick Start 5 1 Connectors and Front Panel The front of the Fireface UC features instrument microphone and line inputs a stereo line headphone output a rotary encoder with 7 segment display and several status and MIDI LEDs The Neutrik combo jacks of the Mic Line inputs can be used via XLR and 1 4 TRS plugs Both inputs display overload CLIP signal presence SIG and phan tom power 48V via green red and yellow LEDs Inp
36. Council Direc tive on the approximation of the laws of the member states relating to electromagnetic compati bility according to RL2004 108 EG and European Low Voltage Directive RL2006 95 EG FCC This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protec tion against harmful interference in a residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help RoHS This product has been soldered lead free and fulfils the requirements of the RoHS directive ISO 9001 This product has been manufactured under ISO 9001 quality management The manufactur
37. Next then Have Disk Now point to the driver updates directory Vista 7 Select Browse my computer for driver software then Let me pick from a list of device drivers from my computer then Have Disk Now point to the driver update s direc tory This method also allows for the installation of older drivers than the currently installed ones 7 3 De installing the Drivers A de installation of the driver files is not necessary and not supported by Windows anyway Thanks to full Plug amp Play support the driver files will not be loaded after the hardware has been removed If desired these files can then be deleted manually Unfortunately Windows Plug amp Play methods do not cover the additional autorun entries of To talMix the Settings dialog and the registration of the ASIO driver These entries can be re moved from the registry by a software de installation request This request can be found like all de installation entries in Control Panel Software Click on the entry RME Fireface USB 7 4 Firmware Update The Flash Update Tool updates the firmware of the Fireface UC to the latest version It requires an already installed driver RME USB Flash Update Tool EN Start the program fut usb exe The Flash Update Tool displays the current Fireface UC 2 Babyface 1 revision of the Fireface UC s firmware and whether it needs an update or not If so then simply press the Update button Current Revision 112
38. State also displays the frequency of the current word clock signal measured by the hardware User s Guide Fireface UC RME AT 48 User s Guide Fireface UC RME User s Guide RM INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Fireface UC 5 TotalMix FX User s Guide Fireface UC RME 49 26 TotalMix Routing and Monitoring 26 1 Overview The Fireface UC includes a powerful digital real time mixer the Fireface mixer based on RME s unique sample rate independent TotalMix technology It allows for practically unlimited mixing and routing operations with all inputs and playback channels simultaneously to any hardware out puts Here are some typical applications for TotalMix Setting up delay free submixes headphone mixes The Fireface allows for up to 9 fully in dependent stereo submixes On an analog mixing desk this would equal 18 Aux sends Unlimited routing of inputs and outputs free utilisation patchbay functionality Distributing signals to several outputs at a time TotalMix offers state of the art splitter and distributor functions Simultaneous playback of different programs via a single stereo output The ASIO multi client driver supports the usage of several programs at the same time When done on differ ent playback channels TotalMix provides the means to mix and monitor these on a single stereo output Mixing of the input signal to the playback signal complete ASIO Direct Monitoring RME not on
39. TS capable receiver using the Fireface s SPDIF outputs For this to work the WDM SPDIF device of the Fireface UC has to be selected in gt Control Panel Sounds and Multimedia Audio lt or gt Control Panel Sound Playback Also check use preferred device only The DVD software s audio properties now show the options SPDIF Ou or similar When select ing it the software will transfer the non decoded digital multichannel data stream to the Fire face Note This SPDIF signal sounds like chopped noise at highest level Try to avoid mixing and routing the signal to your loudspeakers as they might get damaged Multichannel PowerDVD and WinDVD can also operate as software decoder sending a DVD s multichannel data stream directly to the analog outputs of the Fireface For this to work select the WDM play back device Loudspeaker of the Fireface in XP gt Control Panel Sounds and Multimedia Audio lt and check Use only default devices Additionally the loudspeaker setup found under gt Volume Speaker Settings Advanced has to be changed from Stereo to 5 1 Surround Vista 7 gt Control Panel Sound Playback lt as Standard Additionally the loudspeaker setup found under gt Configuration lt has to be changed from Stereo to 5 1 Surround PowerDVD s and WinDVD s audio properties now list several multichannel modes If one of these is selected the software sends the decoded analog multichannel data to the Fireface Tot
40. This is no limitation at all because TotalMix allows for any output routing and therefore a playback of multiple soft ware on the same hardware outputs Inputs can be used from an unlimited number of WDM and ASIO software at the same time as the driver simply sends the data to all applications simultaneously RME s sophisticated tool DIGICheck is an exception to this rule It operates like an ASIO host using a special technique to access playback channels directly Therefore DIGICheck is able to analyse and display playback data from any software no matter which format it uses User s Guide Fireface UC RME 19 9 6 Analog Recording For recordings via the analog inputs the corresponding record device has to be chosen Fire face UC Analog x x The input sensitivity of the rear inputs can be changed via the Settings dialog Gain Level in three steps so that the recording is done with optimized levels A further improvement is possi ble by slowly raising the source s output level until the peak level meters in TotalMix reach about 3 dB The input sensitivity of the frontside analog inputs can also be adjusted directly at the Fireface via the rotary encoder knob A Signal LED and a Clip LED help to find the correct level adjust ment More information is found in chapter 22 2 and 22 3 It often makes sense to monitor the input signal or send it directly to the output This can be done at zero latency using TotalMix see ch
41. User s Guide INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Fireface UC Portable USB Audio at its best DVD M TotalMix ASIC 24 Bit 192 kHz wv V TM SyncAlign ZLM SyncCheck G m ada SteadyClock OPTICAL USB 2 0 Digital UO System 8 8 2 Channels Analog ADAT SPDIF Interface 24 Bit 192 kHz Digital Audio 36 x 18 Matrix Router 2 x MIDI I O Stand Alone Operation MIDI Remote Control gt General Introduction EEN Package Contents System Requirements Brief Description and Characteristics First Usage Quick Start 5 1 Connectors and Front Panel 5 2 QUICK Start EE O1 P ND ch gt Installation and Operation Windows 6 Hardware Installatton eeaeee 10 7 Driver and Firmware 7 1 Driver Installation ccccecceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeteees 10 G2 Driver UP ET 11 7 3 De installing the Drivers 11 7 4 Firmware Update 0 0 eccccccccceceeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeteees 11 8 Configuring the Fireface UC 8 1 Settings Dialog Genera 12 8 2 Settings Dialog Pitch eect eeteeeeeeeeteeeeees 14 8 3 Settings Dialog Gamm 15 8 4 Settings Dialog UI 15 9 Operation and Usage 9 1 Playback iiie etat ri eene 16 9 2 DVD Playback AC 3 DTS 17 9 3 Notes on WUDM onirin aniani 18 9 4 Channel Count under WUDM 19 9 5 Multi client Operation 19 9 6 Analog Recordimg 20 9 7 Di
42. a 7 lt Control Panel Sound Playback gt The program Sonar from Cakewalk is unique in many ways Sonar uses the so called WDM Kernel Streaming bypassing the WDM mixer thus achieves a similar performance as ASIO see below Because of the driver s multichannel streaming ability Sonar not only finds the stereo device mentioned above but also the 8 channel interleaved devices and adds the channel number at the end Fireface Analog 1 2 1 2 is the first stereo device Fireface Analog 1 2 3 4 are the channels 3 4 of the first 8 channel interleaved device Fireface Analog 3 4 is the next stereo device It is not recommended to use these special interleaved devices Also it is not possible to use one stereo channel twice the basic and the interleaved device Multi Channel using WDM The WDM Streaming device Loudspeaker Analog 1 2 of the RME driver can operate as usual stereo device or as up to 8 channel device An 8 channel playback using the Windows Media Player requires the speaker setup 7 7 Sur round Configure as follows XP gt Control Panel Sounds and Multimedia Audio Volume Speaker Settings Advanced lt Vista 7 gt Control Panel Sound Playback Loudspeaker Configure lt 18 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 9 4 Channel Count under WDM The Fireface s ADAT optical interface offers sample rates of up to 192 kHz using a standard ADAT recorder For this to work single channel data is spread to two or four ADAT
43. ace UC MME WDM ADAT 3 4 RME Fireface UC MME WDM SPDIF ADAT 1 2 RME Fireface Start streaming at application startup 24 bit Latency 16bit 44 1kHz stereo 278 ms E Convert mono to stereo 24 bit sample format Perform short fade in out when starting stopping playback 32 bit 4 bytes v Z Transport settings are global to all windows Playback cursor Release audio hardware when switching to another V Get position from audio driver de application while playback and recording are not taking Correction samples 0 el place Ee Increasing the number and or size of audio buffers may prevent the audio signal from breaking up but also increases latency Le output is delayed For synchronized playback of audio and MIDI or similar be sure to activate the checkbox Get position from audio driver Note on Windows Vista 7 Since Vista the audio application can no longer control the sample rate under WDM Instead the user has to work himself through numerous settings and to set the sample rate to the same value per stereo device Therefore the driver of the Fireface UC includes a workaround the sample rate can be set glob ally for all WDM devices within the Settings dialog see chapter 8 1 16 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 9 2 DVD Playback AC 3 DTS AC 3 DTS When using popular DVD software players like WinDVD and PowerDVD their audio data stream can be sent to any AC 3 D
44. ages of the audio software Therefore the desired sample rate should be d Changing the sample rate during record playback often results in a loss of audio or brings set at least coarsely before starting the software Coarse EE Coarse modification in steps of 50 Hz is GE done by clicking with the mouse to the left SampleRate 47952Hz x and right of the fader knob Clock Source Internal v Current Internal Fine Pitch Fine modification in steps of 1 Hz is done by ee EC D ET a ne using the left right cursor keys 5 PF fe TED DES 5 Reset Ctrl key plus left mouse click Application examples Pitch allows for a simultaneous change of speed and tune during record and playback From alignment to other sources up to creative effects everything is possible Pitch enables you to intentionally de tune the complete DAW This way the DAW can match instruments which have a wrong or unchangeable tuning Pitch allows for the change of the sample rate of all WDM devices at the same time Since Vista this is no longer possible via the audio program thus requires a manual reconfiguration of all WDM devices Changing the sample rate from the Settings dialog solves this problem As the change within the system requires some time record playback should not be started immedi ately but not before 5 seconds after a change Tip the current CPU load can be used to determine if the audio subsystem has finished the re configuration 14 User s G
45. alMix can then be used to play back via any desired output channels The typical channel assignment for surround playback is 1 Left 2 Right 3 Center 4 LFE Low Frequency Effects 5 SL Surround Left 6 SR Surround Right Note 1 Selecting the Fireface to be used as system playback device is against our recommen dations as professional interfaces should not be disturbed by system events Make sure to re assign the selection after usage or to disable any system sounds tab Sounds scheme No audio Note 2 The DVD player will be synced backwards from the Fireface This means when using AutoSync and or word clock the playback speed and pitch follows the incoming clock signal User s Guide Fireface UC RME 17 9 3 Notes on WDM The driver offers one WDM streaming device per stereo pair like ADAT 1 2 Fireface UC WDM Streaming is Microsoft s current driver and audio system directly embedded into the op erating system WDM Streaming is hardly usable for professional music purposes as all data is processed by the so called Kernel Mixer causing a latency of at least 30 ms Additionally WDM can perform sample rate conversions unnoticed cause offsets between record and playback data block channels unintentionally and much more Several programs do not offer any direct device selection Instead they use the playback device selected in Windows under XP lt Control Panel Sounds and Multimedia Audio gt Vist
46. and output 256 Samples v Errors 0 0 Level of analog I Os Fireface LIC 1 Gain 1 LTC 1 About Dutput Format Any changes made in the Settings Word IV Single Speed dialog are applied immediately Optical ADAT v confirmation e g by clicking on OK or exiting the dialog is not SPDIF coax Consumer x required Options However settings should not be SPDIFIn M TMS changed during playback or record if it can be avoided as this Des can cause unwanted noises Sample Rate 48000Hz x Clock Source Internal v Current Internal Also please note that even in Stop mode several programs punt wat keep the recording and playback Ei EE E EN E devices open which means that kN ar ONES il RE ii any new settings might not be applied immediately Input Status Word No Lock A ADAT Sync 48 kHz The status displays at the bottom ee GE of the dialog box give precise information about the current status of the system and the status of all digital signals LTC No Lock Abbrechen Buffer Size The setting Buffer Size determines the latency between incoming and outgoing ASIO and WDM data as well as affecting system stability see chapter 13 14 The string Errors does not refer to buffer errors but USB transmission errors The display will be reset on any start of a playback record More information can be found in chapter 35 3 12 User s Guide Fireface UC RME Output Fo
47. apter 26 An automated control of real time monitoring can be achieved by Steinberg s ASIO protocol with RME s ASIO drivers and any ASIO 2 0 compatible program When ASIO Direct Monitoring has been switched on the input signal is routed in real time to the output whenever a recording is started punch in 9 7 Digital Recording Unlike analog soundcards which produce empty wave files or noise when no input signal is present digital interfaces always need a valid input signal to start recording Taking this into account RME added a Bete pea comprehensive l O signal status display Sample Rate 410017 E showing sample frequency lock and sync status in the Settings dialog and status LEDs Clock Source Optical In v Current ADAT for each input to the Fireface UC Pitch 0 000 The sample frequency shown in the fields z TRA ML en HER fe S Clock Mode and Input Status is useful as a quick display of the current configuration of the unit and the connected external equipment If Input Status no sample frequency is recognized it will read ADAT Syne 44 1 kHz No Lock E This way configuring any suitable audio application for digital recording is simple After select ing the required input Fireface UC displays the current sample frequency This parameter can then be changed in the application s audio attributes or similar dialog 20 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 9 8 Clock Modes Synchronization
48. be caused by changing the microphone s posi tion by about 12 centimeter 5 inches 21 4 Monitor Mixer TotalMix allows ANY configuration of all I Os of the Fireface For example set up the device as monitor mixer for 8 analog signals 8 digital via ADAT and 2 via SPDIF Additionally TotalMix lets you set up ANY submixes so all existing outputs can be used for different and independent monitorings of the input signals The perfect headphone monitor mixer 21 5 Digital Format Converter As TotalMix allows for any routing of the input signals the Fireface UC can be used as ADAT to SPDIF converter and SPDIF to ADAT converter 21 6 Analog digital Routing Matrix The Matrix in TotalMix enables you to route and link all inputs and outputs completely freely All the above functionalities are even available simultaneously can be mixed and combined in many ways Simply said the Fireface UC is a perfect analog digital routing matrix User s Guide Fireface UC RME 39 22 Analog Inputs 22 1 Line Rear The Fireface has balanced line inputs as 1 4 TRS jacks on the back of the unit The electronic input stage is built in a servo balanced design which handles unbalanced mono jacks and balanced stereo jacks correctly automatically adjusting the level reference When using unbalanced cables with TRS jacks be sure to connect the ing contact of the TRS jack to ground Otherwise noise may occur caused by the unconnected negative input of the ba
49. ble control they are skipped The control there fore is no longer bound to consecutive orders For example it will control channels 1 2 and 6 to 11 when channels 3 to 5 are hidden The same can be done for OSC With unnecessary channels made invisible for the OSC re mote the more important channels are available as one block on the remote The dialog can be called 77 directly from TotalMix by Inputs Playbacks Outputs a right mouse click on Channel Name User Active InUse Remote Hide Hide Channel in any channel The cor wn Mic 1 x 1 01 M Mixer Matrix responding channel will Mic 2 x Mm AN 3 x M1 01 then be preselected in For wn E the dialog AN 5 6 x Mm AN 7 8 x MILD E SE Es ee ee er Rows Inputs Playbacks AS 1 2 x M1 01 ADAT 3 4 M1 01 and Outputs are set up ADAT 5 6 x MLO individually by the tabs ADAT 7 8 x M1 01 at the top Active indi cates currently available channels At higher sample rates many ADAT channels are no longer active In Use shows which channels are currently used in the mixing process Abbrechen In the above example the SPDIF input channel has been made invisible When SPDIF is not used this is an easy way to remove it from the mixer completely more complex setup would be to only show all channels of the drum section the horn section or the violins After finishing those settings the whole state can be
50. ble when the unit is not connected to the computer e Connect computer and Fireface using the supplied USB cable e Mac OS X detects the new hardware as Fireface UC Mac serial number 15 Driver and Firmware 15 1 Driver Installation After the Fireface has been connected see 14 Hardware Installation install the drivers from the RME Driver CD The driver files are located in the folder Fireface_USB Installation works automatically by a double click on the file Fireface USB pkg RME recommends downloading the latest driver version from the RME website If done the procedure is as follows A double click onto driver_usb_mac zip expands the archive file to Fireface USB pkg Instal lation works automatically by a double click on this file During driver installation the programs Fireface USB Settings and Fireface USB Mixer To talMix are copied to the Applications folder It is recommended to link these two programs to the Dock so that they are always available A reboot of the computer is not required Possible reasons why a Fireface UC is not found after driver installation e The USB port is not active in the system check in System Profiler USB e The USB cable is not or not correctly inserted into the socket e No power After switching the Fireface on at least the 7 segment display has to be lit 28 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 15 2 Driver Update In case of a driver update it s not necessary to remove the old
51. d Double Speed Quad Speed Fireface UC Analog 1 to 8 Fireface UC Analog 1 to 8 Fireface UC Analog 1 to 8 Fireface UC SPDIFL R Fireface UC SPDIFL R Fireface UC SPDIFL R Fireface UC AS 1 to 2 Fireface UC AS 1 to 2 Fireface UC AS 1to2 Fireface UC ADAT 3 to 4 Fireface UC ADAT 5 to 6 E UC ADAT E Fireface UC A Fireface Ut Fireface UC ADAT 7 to 8 reface A Fireface UC AL 22 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 10 3 Known Problems If a computer does not provide sufficient CPU power and or sufficient USB bus transfer rates then drop outs crackling and noise will appear Such effects can be avoided by using a higher buffer setting latency in the Settings dialog of the Fireface UC Furthermore Plugins should be deactivated temporarily to make sure they do not cause these problems More information can be found in chapter 31 3 Another common source of trouble is incorrect synchronization ASIO does not support asyn chronous operation which means that the input and output signals not only have to use the same sample frequency but also have to be in sync All devices connected to the Fireface UC must be properly configured for Full Duplex operation As long as SyncCheck in the Settings dialog only displays Lock instead of Sync the devices have not been set up properly The same applies when using more than one Fireface UC They all have to be in sync Else a periodically repeate
52. d automatically when the horizontal size of the TotalMix FX window is smaller than the channel display requires Shown on the right side of the scrollbar of each row they have four elements gt Arrow to the left A left mouse click let the channels scroll to the very first one or most left gt 1 Marker number 1 Scroll to the desired position and perform a right mouse click on 1 A dialog comes up with precise information Once stored a left mouse click will scroll the channels to the stored position gt 2 Marker number 2 See 1 for Do you want to set Locator 1 to Mic 2 details gt Arrow to the right A left mouse click let the channels scroll the last Nein one or most right Location markers are stored in the PH 7 8 PH 7 8 Workspace Hardware Inputs Application Examples While originally added to improve navigation in the HDSPe MADI FX having 196 channels that never fit on any screen the scroll location markers are also helpful with units having much less channels e When the TotalMix FX window is intentionally made small in width so only a few channels are shown e When some or all EQ or Dynamics panels are open Then all relevant settings are always visible but require a lot of space horizontally User s Guide Fireface UC RME 61 26 6 Preferences The dialog Preferences can be opened via the Options menu or directly via F2 Level Meters gt Full scale samples for OVR Number of consecutive
53. d noise will be heard Fireface UC supports AS O Direct Monitoring ADM Please note that not every program sup ports ADM completely or error free The most often reported problem is the wrong behaviour of panorama in a stereo channel In case of a drift between audio and MIDI or in case of a fixed deviation MIDI notes placed close before or behind the correct position the settings in Cubase Nuendo have to be changed At the time of print the option Use System Timestamp should be activated The Fire face UC supports both MME MIDI and DirectMusic MIDI It depends on the used application which one will work better 11 Using more than one Fireface The current driver supports up to three Fireface UC All units have to be in sync i e have to receive valid sync information either via word clock or by using AutoSync and feeding synchro nized signals e f one of the Firefaces is set to clock mode Master all others have to be set to clock mode Slave and have to be synced from the master for example by feeding word clock The clock modes of all units have to be set up correctly in the Fireface Settings dialog e Ifall units are fed with a synchronous clock i e all units show Sync in their Settings dialog all channels can be used at once This is especially easy to handle under ASIO as the ASIO driver presents all units as one The driver takes care of the numbering of all Firefaces so that it doesn t change The unit with the
54. d reflections both the cable itself and the terminating resistor at the end of the chain should have an impedance of 75 Ohm If the voltage is too low synchronization will fail High frequency reflection effects can cause both jitter and sync failure Unfortunately there are still many devices on the market even newer digital mixing consoles which are supplied with a word clock output that can only be called unsatisfactory If the output breaks down to 3 Volts when terminating with 75 Ohms you have to take into account that a device of which the input only works from 2 8 Volts and above does not function correctly al ready after 3 meter cable length So it is not astonishing that because of the higher voltage word clock networks are in some cases more stable and reliable if cables are not terminated at all Ideally all outputs of word clock delivering devices are designed as low impedance types but all word clock inputs as high impedance types in order to not weaken the signal on the chain But there are also negative examples when the 75 Ohms are built into the device and cannot be switched off In this case the network load is often 2 x 75 Ohms and the user is forced to buy a special word clock distributor Note that such a device is generally recommended for bigger studios The Fireface s word clock input can be high impedance or terminated internally ensuring maxi mum flexibility If termination is necessary e g because the Firefac
55. disturbances in a complex setup caused by wrong synchronization Usually the unit will be configured by the Windows or Mac driver so for the time between power on of the computer up to the loading of the driver its state might be wrong This total configuration feature in stand alone operation without any connected computer turns the Fireface into lots of dedicated devices see examples in chapter 24 Furthermore To talMix and with this all application examples can be MIDI controlled even in stand alone op eration see chapter 32 7 Stand Alone MIDI Control 21 1 Front Panel Operation The knob on the front a so called rotary encoder serves to set the input gains and output vol umes directly at the unit The encoder operates either in CHANNEL or in LEVEL mode Pushing the knob changes between these modes The currently active mode is indicated by a green LED In CHANNEL mode selection of the desired channel is done by turning the knob The following strings will be shown in the display i 1 bis i 4 Mic input 1 up to instrument line input 4 L 1 bis L 6 Line output 1 up to line output 6 PH Phones line output 7 8 SP SPDIF output A 1 bis A 8 ADAT output 1 up to 8 i 1 i 2 The gain of the two microphone inputs 1 2 can be defined in the range of 10 dB up to 65 dB in steps of 1 dB Additionally the setting O dB is available The gain change is performed in analog domain in hardware i 3 i 4 The gain of the two instrument
56. driver first it will be overwritten during the installation In case of problems the driver files can be deleted manually by dragging them to the trash bin Applications Fireface USB Mixer Applications Fireface USB Settings System Library Extensions FirefaceUSB kext Users username Library Preferences Fireface USB folder Users username Library Preferences de rme audio FirefaceUSBMixer plist Users username Library Preferences de rme audio TotalmixF X plist Users username Library Preferences de rme audio Fireface USB Settings plist Library LaunchAgents de rme audio firefaceUSBAgent plist 15 3 Firmware Update The Flash Update Tool updates the firmware of the Fireface UC to the latest version It requires an already installed driver Start the program Fireface USB Flash The Flash Update Tool displays the current revision of the Fireface UC s firmware and whether it needs an update or not If so simply press the Up date button A progress bar will indicate when the flash process is finished Verify Ok If more than one Fireface is installed all units can be flashed by changing to the next tab and repeating the process After the update the unit needs to be reset This is done by powering down the Fireface for a few seconds A reboot of the computer is not necessary When the update fails status failure the unit s second BIOS will be used from the next cold boot on Secure BIOS Technology Therefore the unit stays fully f
57. e Hardware Level Meter for Input Playback and Output Reference Level Meter freely con figurable causing near zero CPU load because calculated from the Fireface hardware e Vector Audio Scope World wide unique Goniometer showing the typical afterglow of a oscilloscope tube Includes Correlation meter and level meter e Spectral Analyser World wide unique 10 20 or 30 band display in analog bandpass filter technology 192 kHz capable e Totalyser Spectral Analyser Level Meter and Vector Audio Scope in a single window e Surround Audio Scope Professional Surround Level Meter with extended correlation analysis ITU weighting and ITU summing meter e ITU1770 EBU R128 Meter For standardized loudness measurements e Bit Statistics amp Noise Shows the true resolution of audio signals as well as errors and DC offset Includes Signal to Noise measurement in dB and dBA plus DC measurement e Completely multi client Open as many measurement windows as you like on any chan nels and inputs or outputs To install DIGICheck go to the DIGICheck directory on the RME Driver CD and run setup exe Follow the instructions prompted on the screen DIGICheck is constantly updated The latest version is always available on our website www rme audio com section Downloads DIGICheck User s Guide Fireface UC RME 35 20 Hotline Troubleshooting The newest information can always be found on our website www rme audio com section FAQ late
58. e Settings panel of the Hard ware Input and Software Playback channels via the MS Proc button The M S Processing automatically operates as M S encoder or decoder depending on the source signal format When processing a usual stereo signal all monaural information will be shifted into the left channel all stereo information into the right channel Thus the stereo signal is M S encoded This yields some interesting insights into the mono stereo contents of modern music productions Additionally some very interesting methods of manipulating the stereo base and generating stereo effects come up as it is then very easy to process the side channel with Low Cut Expander Compressor or Delay The most basic application is the manipulation of the stereo width a change of the level of the side channel allows to manipulate the stereo width from mono to stereo up to extended User s Guide Fireface UC RME 71 29 MIDI Remote Control 29 1 Overview TotalMix can be remote controlled via MIDI It is compatible to the widely spread Mackie Control protocol so TotalMix can be controlled with all hardware controllers supporting this standard Examples are the Mackie Control Tascam US 2400 or Behringer BCF 2000 Additionally the stereo output faders lowest row which are set up as Main Out in the Control Room section can also be controlled by the standard Control Change Volume via MIDI chan nel 1 With this the main volume of the Fireface UC is contro
59. e happens when assigning Main Out B or the Phones The original name can be displayed by the function O Names in the View Options at any time Phones 1 to 4 will have dim set in Settings and a special routing applied when Talkback is activated Also putting them beside the Main Out increases the overview within the output section greatly Dim The volume will be reduced by the amount set in the Settings dialog F3 Phones 1 Main Mono Talkback Control Room Recall Sets the gain value defined in the Settings dialog Can also be set at the unit by holding the key Recall down for two seconds Speak B Switches playback from Main Out to Main Out B The faders of the channels Main and Speaker B can be ganged via Link Mono Mixes left and right channel Useful to check for mono compatibility and phase problems Talkback A click on this button will dim all signals on the Phones outputs by an amount set up in the Preferences dialog At the same time the control room s microphone signal source de fined in Preferences is sent to the Phones The microphone level is adjusted with the channel s input fader External Input Switches Main monitoring from the mix bus to the stereo input defined in the Settings dialog F3 The relative volume of the stereo signal is adjusted there as well Assign Allows to define the Main Out Main Out B and up to two Phones outs The choice is limited to AN 1 to 8 SPDIF and AS 1 2 as at
60. e is the last device in the chain push the switch at the back beside the BNC socket see chapter 28 1 In case the Fireface UC resides within a chain of devices receiving word clock plug a T adapter into its BNC input jack and the cable supplying the word clock signal to one end of the adapter Connect the free end to the next device in the chain via a further BNC cable The last device in the chain should be terminated using another T adapter and a 75 Ohm resistor available as short BNC plug Of course devices with internal termination do not need T adaptor and termi nator plug Due to the outstanding SteadyClock technology of the Fireface UC we recommend not to pass the input signal via T adapter but to use the Fireface s word clock output instead Thanks to SteadyClock the input signal will both be freed from jitter and in case of loss or drop out be reset to a valid frequency 25 4 Operation The green Lock LED on the front STATE will light up as soon as a word clock signal is de tected To change to word clock as clock source activate clock mode AutoSync and switch Pref Sync Ref to Word Clock within the Settings dialog The status display AutoSync Ref changes to Word as soon as a valid signal is present at the BNC jack This message has the same meaning as the green Lock LED but appears on the monitor i e the user can check immediately whether a valid word clock signal is present and is currently being used The nput
61. e mixer window of TotalMix looks and operates similar to mixing desks as it is based on a conventional stereo design The matrix display presents a different method of assigning and routing channels based on a single channel or monaural design The matrix view of the Fire face UC has the look and works like a conventional patchbay adding functionality way beyond comparable hardware and software solutions While most patchbays will allow you to connect inputs to outputs with just the original level 1 1 or 0 dB as known from mechanical patchbays TotalMix allows you to use a freely definable gain value per crosspoint Matrix and TotalMix are different ways of displaying the same processes Because of this both views are always fully synchronized Each change in one view is immediately reflected in the other view as well 27 2 Elements of the Matrix View The visual design of the TotalMix Matrix is mainly determined by the architecture of the Fireface UC Horizontal labels All hardware outputs Vertical labels All hardware inputs Below are RME Totalmix PX Fireface UC 1 48 0k all playback channels File Function Options Help gt Green 0 0 dB field Standard 1 1 routing Qut 1 Out 2 Out 3 Out 4 Dut 5 Black field with number Shows the current gain value as dB Blue field This routing is muted gt Brown field Phase 180 inverted Dark grey field No routing To maintain overview when
62. eck to which one of the two controllers the Fireface is connected to And with two units if they use the same controller or not This information can also be used to makes sure that an external USB hard drive will not inter fere with the Fireface UC by ensuring its connection to a different bus controller Especially with laptops it can be seen that all internal devices and all sockets are connected to the same controller and that the second controller is not used at all Then all units operate on the same bus and fight against each other for bandwidth 12 DIGICheck Windows The DIGICheck software is a unique utility developed for testing measuring and analysing digi tal audio streams Although this Windows software is fairly self explanatory it still includes a comprehensive online help DIGICheck 5 5 operates as multi client ASIO host therefore can be used in parallel to any software with both inputs and outputs The following is a short sum mary of the currently available functions e Level Meter High precision 24 bit resolution 2 10 28 channels Application examples Peak level measurement RMS level measurement over detection phase correlation measure ment dynamic range and signal to noise ratios RMS to peak difference loudness long term peak measurement input check Oversampling mode for levels higher than 0 dBFS Vertical and horizontal mode Slow RMS and RLB weighting filter Supports visualization ac cording to
63. eeneees 67 27 The Matrix ZEA OVervieW cud eege 68 27 2 The User Interface snneeneeeeeeeeeeennne neneeese ne 68 2163 USAGE TEE 68 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 28 Tips and Tricks 28 1 ASIO Direct Monitoring Windows 69 28 2 Copy a Gubmi eee cece KEE 69 28 3 Delete a Submix edens 69 28 4 Doubling the Output Signal 69 28 5 Recording a Submix Loopback 70 28 6 MS Processing 71 29 MIDI Remote Control SC De dE 72 29 2 Mapping EE 72 29 3 SGlUP TTT 73 29 4 Operation TE 73 29 5 MIDI Control imt tea cime 74 29 6 Loopback Detection ssssnssseesseeestnnneneeeeerrrr ren 74 29 7 OSC Open Sound Control 75 29 8 Stand Alone MIDI Control 76 gt Technical Reference 30 Technical Specifications 30 1 Analog 78 30 2 MIDI iecur t en tx manie 79 30 3 Digital 79 30 4 Digital Inputs sssm 79 30 5 Digital Outpute eee ee eeeeeeeeeeeneeeeeeaeees 80 30 6 General 80 31 Technical Background 31 1 Lock and SyncCheck sss 81 31 2 Latency and Monttormg 82 31 9 USB elle EE 83 31 4 DS Double Speed sss 84 31 5 QS Quad Speed 84 31 6 AES EBU SPDIF seem 85 31 7 Noise Level in DS QS Mode 86 31 6 Steady Clock sweet iie te eeu 86 32 Diagrams 32 1 Block Diagram Fireface UC
64. eface must be selected as output device This can often be found in the Options Preferences or Settings menus as Playback Device Audio Devices Audio etc We recommend switching all system sounds off via gt Control Panel Sound lt Also Fireface should not be the Preferred Device for playback as this could cause loss of synchronization and unwanted noises If you feel you cannot do without system sounds you should consider using the on board sound device or buying a cheap Blaster clone and select this as Preferred Device in gt Control Panel Multimedia Audio lt or gt Control Panel Sound Playback lt The screenshot shows a typical configuration dialog After selecting a device audio data is sent to an analog or digital ADAT SPDIF port depending on which has been selected as playback device c es Pe Audio Database e CD Burning Kul Sync m General fz ver G Audio device B Fie Te Environment be Wave edit Playback device Recording device MME WDM Lautsprecher RME Fireface UC MME ADM Microsoft S 3 Tr MME ADM Microsoft S PHARES r MME WDM ADAT 7 8 RME Fireface UC Buffer Size 16 384 E MME ADM Mikrofon 2 High Definition Au m h D d oundmappe oundmapper MME WDM ADAT 5 6 RME Fireface UC MME WDM SPDIF coax RME Fireface UC MME WDM Analog 1 2 RME Fireface UC MME WDM Analog 7 8 RME Fireface UC ASIO MME WDM Analog 3 4 RME Fireface UC MME WDM Analog 5 6 RME Firef
65. el AD DA Converter ssessenene nesena 39 21 3 2 channel Mic breamp 39 21 4 Monitor Mixer 39 21 5 Digital Format Converter 39 21 6 Analog digital Routing Matrix 39 22 Analog Inputs 22 1 Line Rear ssnassnenenseeeseeerrnnrrererrrrrnnrnesteertnnn ne 40 22 2 Microphone Line Front 40 22 3 Instrument Line Front 41 23 Analog Outputs 23 1 LING m 42 23 2 Phones 7 8 42 24 Digital Connections 241 ADAT W 43 24 2 SPDIE tnter tbi etm sedata 43 2453 RI 44 25 Word Clock 25 1 Word Clock Input and Output 45 25 2 Technical Description and Background 46 25 3 Cables and Temmimaton ereenn 47 25 4 General Operation 47 gt TotalMix FX 26 TotalMix Routing and Monitoring Ke 50 26 2 The User Interface seseeeee 52 26 3 The Channels spiderman 53 ti Le EE 55 26 4 Section Control Room 56 26 5 The Control Strip 57 26 5 1 View Options cccccceceeeeeeeeseeceeeeeeeeeeeeees 58 26 5 2 Snapshots Groups 59 26 5 3 Channel Layout Layout bresets 59 26 5 4 Scroll Location Marker 61 26 6 Preferences 62 En le TEE 63 20 1 1 le EE 63 26 7 2 MIDI Page ete nte 64 26 53 OSC Page eorr teda 65 26 8 Hotkeys and Usage ccccceseeeeeeeeeeeeetteeeeeeas 66 26 9 Menu Options ceceeeeceececeeeeeeeeeeeaeeeeee
66. ens with a single click plus held down Ctrl key gt adjusted in fine mode by mouse drag and mouse wheel when holding the Shift key down A Shift click on a fader adds the fader to the temporary fader group All faders now marked yellow are ganged and move simultaneously in a relative way The temporary fader group is deleted by a click on the F symbol in the upper right of the window The arrow symbol at the bottom minimizes the channel width to that of the level meters An other click maximizes it again A mouse click with held Ctrl key causes all channels to the right to enlarge and minimize at once User s Guide Fireface UC RME 53 The lowest field shows the current routing target A mouse click opens the routing window to select a routing target The list shows all activated routings of the current channel by arrows in front of the listed entries the current one is shown in bold letters gt AN1 2 gt AN3 4 AN 5 6 N AN 7 8 SPDIF An arrow is only shown with an activated routing A routing is seen as activated when audio data is sent As long as the fader is set to the current routing will be shown in bold letters but not have an AS 1 2 arrow in the front ADAT 3 4 ANAT Sifi Trim Gain After a click on the double arrow one channel s faders are all synchronized Instead of changing only a single routing the fader affects all the channel s active routings For a better overview the faders currently not vi
67. er IMM Elektronik GmbH is also certified for ISO 14001 Environment and ISO 13485 medical devices Note on Disposal According to the guide line RL2002 96 EG WEEE Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment valid for all european countries this product has to be recycled at the end of its lifetime In case a disposal of electronic waste is not possible the recycling can also be done by IMM Elektronik GmbH the manufacturer of the Fireface UC For this the device has to be sent free to the door to Laas IMM Elektronik GmbH Leipziger StraRe 32 D 09648 Mittweida Germany Shipments not prepaid will be rejected and returned on the original sender s costs 92 User s Guide Fireface UC RME
68. er than the global mute exclusively for the current routing This way you can not mute signals on all outputs unintentionally Instead signals can be muted on specific submixes by the push of a button A solo group operates exactly like the global solo signals outside the current routing are not affected 26 5 3 Channel Layout Layout Presets To maintain overview within TotalMix FX channels can be hidden Channels can also be ex cluded from being remoted Under Options Channel Layout a dialog lists all I Os with their current state Selecting one or several channels enables the options to the right Hide Channel in Mixer Matrix The selected channels are no longer shown in TotalMix FX nor are they available via MIDI or OSC remote control Hide Channel in MIDI Remote 1 The selected channels are hidden for MIDI remote CC and Mackie Protocol Hide Channel in OSC Remote 1 The selected channels are hidden for OSC remote con trol User s Guide Fireface UC RME 59 Hidden channels in Mixer Matrix are still fully functional An existing routing mixing FX process ing stays active But as the channel is no longer visible it can not be edited anymore At the same time the hidden channels are removed from the list of remote controllable channels to prevent them from being edited unnoticed Hidden channels in MIDI Remote 1 are removed from the list of remote controllable channels Within an 8 channel block of a Mackie compati
69. et by the Audio Engineering Society based on the AES3 1992 For the home user SONY and Philips have omitted the balanced connection and use either Phono plugs or optical cables TOSLINK The format called S P DIF SONY Philips Digital Interface is described by IEC 60958 Type AE IEC60958 Connection XLR RCA Optical Mode Balanced Un balanced Impedance 110 Ohm 75 Ohm Level 0 2 V up to 5 Vss 0 2 V up to 0 5 Vss Clock accuracy not specified I 50ppm Il 0 196 Ill Variable Pitch Jitter lt 0 025 UI 4 4 ns 44 1 kHz not specified Besides the electrical differences both formats also have a slightly different setup The two formats are compatible in principle because the audio information is stored in the same place in the data stream However there are blocks of additional information which are different for both standards In the table the meaning of the first byte 0 is shown for both formats The first bit already determines whether the following bits should be read as Professional or Consumer information Byte Mode Bito 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 Pro P C Audio Emphasis Locke Sample Freq 0 Con PIC Audio Copy Emphasis Mode It becomes obvious that the meaning of the following bits differs quite substantially between the two formats If a device like a common DAT recorder only has an SPDIF input it usually under stands only this format In most cases
70. evices are equipped with a word clock or sync input thus being able to work as slave some professional CD players indeed have a word clock input Then all devices get the same clock and will work in every possible combination with each other d Remember that a digital system can only have one master But word clock is not only the great problem solver it also has some disadvantages The word clock is based on a fraction of the really needed clock For example SPDIF 44 1 kHz word clock a simple square wave signal has to be multiplied by 256 inside the device using a spe cial PLL to about 11 2 MHz This signal then replaces the one from the quartz crystal Big disadvantage because of the high multiplication factor the reconstructed clock will have great deviations called jitter The jitter of a word clock is typically 15 times higher as when using a quartz based clock The end of these problems should have been the so called Superclock which uses 256 times the word clock frequency This equals the internal quartz frequency so no PLL for multiplying is needed and the clock can be used directly But reality was different the Superclock proved to be much more critical than word clock A square wave signal of 11 MHz distributed to several devices this simply means to fight with high frequency technology Reflections cable quality capacitive loads at 44 1 kHz these factors may be ignored at 11 MHz they are the end of the clock netwo
71. for the system wide usage Programs that don t support card or channel selection will use the device selected as Standard Input and Standard Output Soundstudio Mplayer Amplitube etc In the lower part of the window the audio hardware s capabilities are shown and can be changed in some cases On the record side no changes are possible Programs that don t sup port channel selection will always use channels 1 2 the first stereo pair To access other inputs use the following workaround with TotalMix route the desired input signal to output channels 1 2 In the channel settings of outputs 1 2 activate Loopback Result the desired input signal is now available at input channel 1 2 without further delay latency Use Speaker Setup to freely configure the playback to all available channels Even multichan nel playback Surround DVD Player can be set up this way 34 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 18 Using more than one Fireface OS X supports the usage of more than one audio device within an audio software This is done via the Core Audio function Aggregate Devices which allows to combine several devices into one The current driver supports up to three Fireface UC All units have to be in sync i e have to receive valid sync information either via word clock or by using AutoSync and feeding synchro nized signals e f one of the Firefaces is set to clock mode Master all others have to be set to clock mode Slave and have to be
72. ghest CPU loads Furthermore the fixed buffer does not add to the latency jitter see Tech Info the subjective timing is extraordinary Core Audio s Safety Offset Under OS X every audio interface has to use a so called Safety Offset otherwise Core Audio won t operate click free The Fireface UC uses a safety offset of 16 samples This offset is sig nalled to the system and the software can calculate and display the total latency of buffer size plus AD DA offset plus 2 x Safety Offset plus Safety Buffer for the current sample rate 31 3 USB Audio USB audio is in several ways different from PCI based audio interfaces A Fireface UC can achieve a performance similar to a PCI or PCI Express card when used with an optimal PC Low CPU load and click free operation even at 48 samples buffer size are in deed possible on current computers However using older computers a simple stereo playback will already cause a CPU load of more than 30 A computer blocked for a short time no matter if ASIO or WDM will loose one or more data packets Such problems can only be solved by increasing the buffer size and with this the la tency The Fireface UC features a unique data checking gn LTC About detecting errors during transmission via USB and displaying them in the Settings dialog Additionally the tency Fireface provides a special mechanism to continue 64 Samples v Errors 8 35 recording and playback in spite of drop outs and to co
73. gital Recordmg esececrcesncnenarnmacmenniis 20 9 8 Clock Modes Synchronization 21 10 Operation under ASIO 10 1 General aa 22 10 2 Channel Count under ASIO cecceeeeeeeee 22 10 3 Known Problems 23 11 Using more than one Fireface 23 12 DIGICheck Windows sees 24 13 Hotline Troubleshooting 25 CG Installation and Operation Mac OS X 14 Hardware Installation 28 15 Driver and Firmware 15 1 Driver Installation 28 15 2 Driver Update e tenens 29 15 3 Firmware Update 29 16 Configuring the Fireface 16 1 Settings Dialog General 30 16 2 Clock Modes Synchronization 32 17 Mac OS X FAQ 17 1 Round about Driver Installaton ee 33 17 2 MIDI doesn t work 33 17 3 Repairing Disk Permissions 33 17 4 Supported Sample Hates eenen 33 17 5 Channel Count under Core Audio 34 17 6 Various Information 34 2 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 18 Using more than one Fireface 35 19 DIGICheck Mac 35 20 Hotline Troubleshooting 36 gt Stand Alone Operation Connections 21 Stand alone Operation 21 1 Front Panel Operation ssssssususe 38 21 2 8 chann
74. hanged during playback or Word Single Speed Word No Lock record if it can be avoided as this Optical SPDIF F SPDIF opt Sync 44 1 kitz can cause unwanted noises SPDIF Professional SPDIF coax Sync 44 1 kHz Use the drop down menu Properties For to select the unit to be configured On the right of it the current firmware and driver version is shown 30 User s Guide Fireface UC RME Level Line In Defines the reference level of the rear analog inputs 5 8 The available settings are 10 dBV 4 dBu and LoGain Line Out Defines the reference level of the rear analog outputs 1 6 The available settings are 10 dBV 4 dBu and HiGain Phones Defines the reference level of the analog outputs 7 8 The available settings are 10 dBV 4 dBu and HiGain Clock Mode Sample Rate Used to set the current sample rate This is the same setting as in the Audio MIDI Setup just added here for your convenience At ongoing record playback the selection is greyed out so no change is possible Clock Source The unit can be configured to use its own clock Internal Master or one of the input signals Word Optical SPDIF coax Slave If the selected source isn t available the unit will change to the next available one AutoSync If none is available then the internal clock is used The current clock source is displayed to the right Input Status Indicates for each input Word optical SPDIF coax whether there is a
75. he delays of digital interfaces can be disregarded altogether the analog inputs and out puts do cause a significant delay Modern converter chips operate with 64 or 128 times over sampling plus digital filtering in order to move the error prone analog filters away from the au dible frequency range as far as possible This typically generates a delay of one millisecond A playback and re record of the same signal via DA and AD loopback then causes an offset of the newly recorded track of about 2 ms The exact delays of the Fireface UC are Sampietequencys r 441 e Tech 1764 wr E 48 AD 43 2 x 1 fs ms 0 98 109 0 49 0 45 Es EL Ces e DA 28 x 1 fs ms 0 63 0 58 0 32 0 29 0 15 Buffer Size Latency Windows This option found in the Settings dialog defines the size of the buffers for the audio data used in ASIO and WDM see chapter 13 Mac OS X The buffer size is defined within the application Only some do not offer any setting For example iTunes is fixed to 512 samples General A setting of 64 samples at 44 1 kHz causes a latency of 1 5 ms for record and play back each But when performing a digital loopback test no latency offset can be detected The reason is that the software naturally knows the size of the buffers therefore is able to position the newly recorded data at a place equalling a latency free system AD DA Offset under ASIO and OS X ASIO Windows and Core Audio Mac OS X allow for the signa
76. he mixer That s how this function got its name In the View Options Routing the function Trim Gains can be globally switched on and off for all channels The global Trim mode is recommended when using TotalMix FX as live mixing desk 54 User s Guide Fireface UC RME A click on the tool symbol opens the channel s Settings panel with differing elements For ex ample the Option Inst exists only in input channel 2 and the ADAT channels do not offer the phantom power option Stereo Switches the channel to mono or stereo mode 48V Activates phantom power at the inputs 1 2 Serves as power supply for high quality condenser mics This option should stay off with other sources to prevent failure by spikes Inst Activate the option Instrument to use inputs 3 and 4 with instruments The input impedance is raised to 470 kOhm the input sensitivity increases by 10 dB Width Pad Pad decrease the sensitivity of input channels 3 and 4 by 12 dB Gain Sets the gain for analog inputs 1 to 4 The knob can be adjusted Phasel by dragging the mouse or by the mouse wheel This also works when the mouse has been moved over the two gain displays Then the gain can be changed separately for left and right channel even when the channel is in stereo mode 14 Phaser AN 12 Hardware Inputs Width Setting the stereo width 1 00 equals full stereo 0 00 mono 1 00 swapped channels MS Proc Activates M S processing within the
77. ilar and carefully push the blue switch so that it snaps into its lock position The yellow LED will be lit when termination is active An other push will release it again and de activate the termination Output The word clock output of the Fireface is constantly active providing the current sample fre quency as word clock signal As a result in Master mode the provided word clock is defined by the currently used software In Slave mode the provided frequency is identical to the one pre sent at the currently chosen clock input When the current clock signal fails the Fireface UC switches to Master mode and adjusts itself to the next best matching frequency 44 1 kHz 48 kHz etc Selecting Single Speed in the Settings dialog causes the output signal to always stay within the range of 32 kHz to 48 kHz So at 96 kHz and 192 kHz sample rate the output word clock is 48 kHz The received word clock signal can be distributed to other devices by using the word clock out put With this the usual T adapter can be avoided and the Fireface UC operates as Signal Re fresher This kind of operation is highly recommended because e input and output are phase locked and in phase 0 to each other e SteadyClock removes nearly all jitter from the input signal e the exceptional input 1 Vpp sensitivity instead of the usual 2 5 Vpp dc cut Signal Adapta tion Circuit plus SteadyClock guarantee a secure function even with highly critical word cl
78. including MIDI Clock MTC and Active Sensing The latter is sent by most keyboards every 0 3 seconds 44 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 25 Word Clock 25 1 Word Clock Input and Output SteadyClock guarantees an excellent performance in all clock modes Based on the highly effi cient jitter suppression the Fireface refreshes and cleans up any clock signal and provides it as reference clock at the BNC output see section 35 8 Input The Fireface s word clock input is active when Word has been selected as Clock Source in the Settings dialog and a valid word clock signal is present The signal at the BNC input can be Single Double or Quad Speed the Fireface UC automatically adapts to it As soon as a valid signal is detected the WC LED is lit and the Settings dialog shows either Lock or Sync see chapter 35 1 Thanks to RME s Signal Adaptation Circuit the word clock input still works correctly even with heavily mis shaped dc prone too small or overshoot prone signals Thanks to automatic signal centering 300 mV 0 3V input level is sufficient in principle An additional hysteresis reduces sensitivity to 1 0 V so that over and undershoots and high frequency disturbances don t cause a wrong trigger The Fireface s word clock input is shipped as high impedance type not terminated A push switch acti vates internal termination 75 Ohms The switch is found on the back beside the word clock input socket Use a small pencil or sim
79. individual names in the Snapshot section A click on any of the 8 buttons loads the corresponding Snapshot A double click on the name field opens the dialog nput Name to edit the name As soon as the mixer state is changed the button starts flashing A click on Store lets all buttons flash whereby the last loaded one the base of the current state flashes inversely The storage finishes by clicking the desired button means storage place The storage process is exited by another click on the flashing Store button The area Snapshots can be minimized by a click on the arrow in the title bar Groups The area Groups provides 4 storage places each for fader mute and solo groups The groups are valid per Workspace being active and usable in all 8 Snapshots But with this they are also lost when loading a new workspace in case they have not been saved before in a different Workspace Note The Undo function will help in case of an accidental overwrite or deletion of the groups Edit Clear TotalMix uses flashing signals to guide you through the group setup After a click on Edit and click on the desired storage place all desired functions for this group have to be activated or selected The storage process is finished by another click on Edit When setting up a fader group make sure to not add faders that are at the most top or most lowest position except all faders of that group have this position The Mute groups operate oth
80. ireface UC operates at double sample rate The internal clock 44 1 kHz turns to 88 2 kHz 48 kHz to 96 kHz The internal resolution is still 24 bit Sample rates above 48 kHz were not always taken for granted and are still not widely used because of the CD format 44 1 kHz dominating everything Before 1998 there were no re ceiver transmitter circuits available that could receive or transmit more than 48 kHz Therefore a work around was used instead of two channels one AES line only carries one channel with its odd and even samples being distributed to the former left and right channels By this you get the double amount of data i e also double sample rate Of course in order to transmit a stereo signal two AES EBU ports are necessary then This transmission mode is called Double Wire in the professional studio world and is also known as S MUX Sample Multiplexing in connection with the ADAT format Not before February 1998 Crystal shipped the first single wire receiver transmitters that could also work with double sample rate It was then possible to transmit two channels of 96 kHz data via one AES EBU port But Double Wire is still far from being dead On one hand there are still many devices which can t handle more than 48 kHz e g digital tape recorders But also other common interfaces like ADAT or TDIF are still using this technique Because the ADAT interface does not allow for sampling frequencies above 48 kHz a limitation
81. l surface elements Tested with Behringer BCF2000 Firmware v1 07 in Mackie Control emulation for Steinberg mode Element Channel faders 1 8 SEL 1 8 DYNAMICS V Pots 1 8 pressing V Pot knobs CHANNEL LEFT or REWIND CHANNEL RIGHT or FAST FORWARD BANK LEFT or ARROW LEFT BANK RIGHT or ARROW RIGHT ARROW UP or Assignable1 PAGE ARROW DOWN or Assignable2 PAGE EQ MUTE Ch 1 8 SELECT Ch 1 8 REC Ch 1 8 Meaning in Fireface volume reset fader to Unity Gain pan pan center move one channel left move one channel right move eight channels left move eight channels right move one row up move one row down Master Mute Mute Select select output bus current submix 76 User s Guide Fireface UC RME User s Guide RTE INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Fireface UC Technical Reference User s Guide Fireface UC RME 77 30 Technical Specifications 30 1 Analog AD Line In 5 8 rear Resolution AD 24 bit Signal to Noise ratio SNR 110 dB RMS unweighted 113 dBA Frequency response 44 1 kHz 0 1 dB 5 Hz 20 6 kHz Frequency response 96 kHz 0 5 dB 5 Hz 45 3 kHz Frequency response 192 kHz 1 dB 5 Hz 90 kHz THD lt 100 dB lt 0 001 THD N lt 98 dB lt 0 0012 Channel separation gt 110 dB Maximum input level 19 dBu Input 6 3 mm TRS jack electronically balanced Input impedance 10 kOhm Input sensitivity switchable to Lo Gain 4 dBu 10 dBV
82. lMix and the application automatically when switching between both applications TotalMix also supports the 9th fader of the Mackie Control This fader labelled Master will con trol the stereo output fader lowest row which is set up as Main Out in the Control Room sec tion User s Guide Fireface UC RME 73 29 5 MIDI Control The hardware output set up as Main Out can be controlled by the standard Control Change Volume via MIDI channel 1 With this the main volume of the Fireface UC is controllable from nearly any MIDI equipped hardware device Even if you don t want to control all faders and pans some buttons are highly desirable to be available in hardware These are mainly the Talkback and the Dim button and the monitoring options listen to Phones submixes Fortunately a Mackie Control compatible controller is not required to control these buttons as they are steered by simple Note On Off commands on MIDI channel 1 The notes are hex decimal keys Dim 5D 93 A6 Mono 2A 42 F 2 Talkback 5E 94 A 6 Recall 5F 95 H 6 Speaker B 32 50 D3 Cue Main Out 3E 62 D 4 Cue Phones 1 3F 63 D 4 Cue Phones 2 40 64 E 4 Cue Phones 3 41 65 F 4 Cue Phones 4 42 66 F 4 Snapshot 1 36 54 F 3 Snapshot 2 37 55 G3 Snapshot 3 38 56 G 3 Snapshot 4 39 57 A3 Snapshot 5 3A 58 A 3 Snapshot 6 3B 59 B3 Snapshot 7 3C 60 C 4 Snapshot 8 3D 61 C 4 Trim Gains 2D 45 A2 Master
83. lanced input One of the main issues when working with an AD converter is to maintain the full dynamic range within the best operating level Therefore the Fireface UC internally uses hi quality elec tronic switches which allow for a perfect adaptation of all rear inputs to the three most often used studio levels The standardized studio levels do not result in a often desired full scale level but take some additional digital headroom into consideration The amount of headroom is different in different standards and again differently implemented by different manufacturers Because of this we decided to define the levels of the Fireface in the most compatible way Reference 0 dBFS Headroom Lo Gain 19 dBu 15 dB 4 dBu 13 dBu 9 dB 10 dBV 2 dBV 12 dB With 4 dBu selected the according headroom meets the latest EBU recommendations for Broadcast usage At 10 dBV a headroom of 12 dB is common practice each mixing desk op erating at 10 dBV is able to send and receive much higher levels Lo Gain is best suited for professional users who prefer to work balanced and at highest levels Lo Gain provides 15 dB headroom at 4 dBu nominal level The above levels are also found in our ADI 8 series of AD DA converters the Multiface and even in our Mic Preamps QuadMic and OctaMic Therefore all RME devices are fully compati ble to each other 22 2 Microphone Line Front The balanced microphone inputs of the Fireface UC offer an adjustab
84. le gain of 10 dB up to 65 dB The soft switching hi current Phantom power 48 Volt provides a professional handling of condensor mics The usage of a hi end integrated circuit PGA 2500 guarantees outstanding sound quality stunning low THD and maximum Signal to Noise ratio in any gain setting The two combo jacks also allow for the usage of mono and stereo TRS jacks The TRS jacks have a fixed level attenuation of 11 dB Based on the adjustable amplification from 0 dB up to 65 dB the sensitivity is 21 dBu down to 44 dBu referenced to full scale of the AD converter Therefore the TRS inputs are true full level Line inputs and the unit can also be used as Line amplifier The TRS jacks are free of phantom power Two LEDs display a present signal from 65 dBFS on and warn against overload 2 dBFS 40 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 22 3 Instrument Line Front The instrument inputs 3 4 of the Fireface UC are exceptionally flexible Several gain and im pedance options make them the ideal receivers for both line and instrument signals Line Inputs 3 4 have balanced line inputs as 1 4 TRS jacks The electronic input stage is built in a servo balanced design which handles unbalanced mono jacks and balanced stereo jacks correctly automatically adjusting the level reference When using unbalanced cables with TRS jacks be sure to connect the ring contact of the TRS jack to ground Otherwise noise may occur caused by the
85. line inputs 3 4 can be defined in the range of 0 dB up to 18 dB in steps of 0 5 dB The x 5 dB values are signalled by a dot to the right The gain change is per formed in analog domain in hardware L 1 bis L 6 PH SP A 1 bis A 8 The output levels of these outputs can be defined in the range 6 dB down to 58 dB in steps of 1 dB Additionally the setting maximum attenuation Mute is available The gain change is per formed digitally by TotalMix Stereo Mode Pushing the knob for more than a second activates the Link Gang mode The display will show off or on In stereo on mode the display only presents the left channels of a stereo pair L1 L3 L5 The gain and volume setting is then valid for both channels 38 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 21 2 8 Channel ADIDA Converter When loading TotalMix factory default 1 into the unit the Fireface becomes a high quality 8 channel AD DA converter which also provides a monitoring of all 8 DA channels via channels 7 8 Preset 2 also monitoring all 8 inputs A small modification allows for a monitoring of all I Os via the SPDIF I O 21 3 2 Channel Mic Preamp Use TotalMix to route the two microphone inputs directly to the analog outputs This turns the Fireface UC into a 2 channel microphone preamp The AD and DA conversion will cause a small delay of the signals of around 0 35 ms at 192 kHz see chapter 35 2 But this is not really relevant as it is the same delay that would
86. ll as when doing this in TotalMix When using multiple windows it can be useful to deactivate this feature for specific windows The view will not change then Preferences Opens a dialog box to configure several functions of the level meters and the mixer See chapter 26 6 Settings Opens a dialog box to configure several functions like Talkback Listenback Main Out and the MIDI Remote Control See chapter 26 7 Channel Layout Opens a dialog to hide channels visually and from remote See chapter 26 5 3 Key Commands Opens a dialog box to configure the computer s keyboard keys F4 to F8 Reset Mix Offers several options to reset the mixer state gt Straight playback with all to Main Out All Playback channels are routed 1 1 to the Hard ware Outputs Simultaneously all playbacks are mixed down to the Main Out The faders in the third row are not changed gt Straight Playback All Playback channels are routed 1 1 to the Hardware outputs The faders in the third row are not changed gt Clear all submixes Deletes all submixes gt Clear channel effects Not valid for the Fireface UC gt Reset output volumes All faders of the third row will be set to O dB Main and Speaker B to 10 dB Reset channel names Removes all names assigned by the user Total Reset Playback routing 1 1 with mixdown to Main Out Switches off all other func tions User s Guide Fireface UC RME 67 27 The Matrix 27 1 Overview Th
87. llable from nearly any MIDI equipped hardware device MIDI Remote Control always operates in View Submix mode even when the View Option Free is currently selected in TotalMix FX 29 2 Mapping TotalMix supports the following Mackie Control surface elements Element Channel faders 1 8 Master fader SEL 1 8 DYNAMICS V Pots 1 8 pressing V Pot knobs CHANNEL LEFT or REWIND CHANNEL RIGHT or FAST FORWARD BANK LEFT or ARROW LEFT BANK RIGHT or ARROW RIGHT ARROW UP or Assignable1 PAGE ARROW DOWN or Assignable2 PAGE EQ PLUGINS INSERT STOP PLAY PAN FLIP DYN MUTE Ch 1 8 SOLO Ch 1 8 SELECT Ch 1 8 REC Ch 1 8 RECORD F1 F8 F9 F10 F12 Meaning in TotalMix volume Main Monitor channel s faders Activate Trim mode pan pan center move one channel left move one channel right move eight channels left move eight channels right move one row up move one row down Master Mute Master Solo Dim Main Out Talkback Mono Main Out Speaker B TrimGains Mute Solo Select select output bus Submix Recall load Snapshot 1 8 select Main Out select Cue Phones 1 3 Tested with Behringer BCF2000 Firmware v1 07 in Mackie Control emulation for Steinberg mode and with Mackie Control under Mac OS X 72 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 29 3 Setup Open the Preferences dialog menu Options or F3 Select the MIDI Input and MIDI Output port where your controller is connected to When
88. lling of an offset value to correct buffer independent delays like AD and DA conversion or the Safety Buffer described below An analog loopback test will then show no offset because the application shifts the recorded data accordingly Because in real world operation analog record and playback is unavoidable the drivers include an offset value matching the Fireface s converter delays Therefore in a digital loopback test a negative offset of about 3 ms occurs This is no real problem because this way of working is more than rare and usually the offset can be compen sated manually within the application Additionally keep in mind that even when using the digital I Os usually at some place an AD and DA conversion is involved no sound without 82 User s Guide Fireface UC RME Note Cubase and Nuendo display the latency values signalled from the driver separately for record and playback While with our former cards these values equalled exactly the buffer size for example 3 ms at 128 samples the Fireface displays an additional millisecond the time needed for the AD DA conversion Playback even shows another millisecond added see Safety Buffer Safety Buffer An additional small Safety Buffer on the playback side only has proven to be very efficient and useful The Fireface UC uses a fixed additional buffer of 32 samples which is added to the cur rent buffer size The main advantage is the ability to use lowest latency at hi
89. loads DIGICheck 24 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 13 Hotline Troubleshooting 13 1 General The newest information can always be found on our website www rme audio com section FAQ Latest Additions Important Check that the correct PC Windows AP Mac firmware is loaded by a double click on the rotary encoder The input signal cannot be monitored in real time e ASIO Direct Monitoring has not been enabled within the DAW and or monitoring has been disabled globally TotalMix Options The 8 ADAT channels don t seem to work e The optical output has been switched to SPDIF As can be seen in the block diagram all channels and their assignments still exist but the optical transmitter has been disconnected from ADAT The ADAT playback devices are still usable by routing and mixing them in To talMix to other outputs Playback works but record doesn t e Check that there is a valid signal at the input If so the current sample frequency is dis played in the Settings dialog e Check whether the Fireface UC has been selected as recording device in the audio applica tion e Check whether the sample frequency set in the audio application Recording properties or similar matches the input signal e Check that cables devices have not been connected in a closed loop If so set the system s clock mode to Master Crackle during record or playback e Increase the number and size of buffers in the Settings
90. lowest serial number is always Fireface 1 Please note e fthe Fireface 1 is switched off Fireface 2 logically turns to the first and only Fireface If Fireface 1 is switched on later the numbering changes and the unit becomes Fireface 2 immediately e The driver has no control on the numbering of the WDM devices Therefore it might happen that the WDM devices 2 are mapped to unit 1 especially when switching on more Fire faces during a Windows session A reboot with all Firefaces already operational should solve this problem Note TotalMix is part of the hardware of each Fireface Up to three mixers are available but these are separated and can t interchange data Therefore a global mixer for all units is not possible User s Guide Fireface UC RME 23 When using more than one Fireface UC the USB bus might get overloaded To prevent this connect all units to different USB busses This should be possible without further hardware as many popular USB 2 0 interfaces come as twins which can be checked in the Device Manager as follows e Connect the Fireface UC to a USB port e Start the Device Manager View set to Devices by Connection e Expand ACPI x86 based PC Microsoft ACPI compatible System PCI bus Here you usually find two entries of a USB2 Enhanced Host Controller All USB devices are connected via a Root Hub the Fireface UC will show up here too By a simple reconnection to other ports this view lets you ch
91. ly is the pioneer of ADM but also offers the most complete implementation of the ADM functions Integration of external devices Use TotalMix to insert external effects devices be it in the playback or in the record path Depending on the current application the functionality equals insert or effects send and effects return for example as used during real time monitoring when adding some reverb to the vocals Every single input channel playback channel and hardware output features a Peak and RMS level meter calculated in hardware These level displays are very useful to determine the pres ence and routing destinations of the audio signals For a better understanding of the TotalMix mixer you should know the following 50 As shown in the block diagram next page the record signal usually stays un altered To talMix does not reside within the record path and does not change the record level or the audio data to be recorded exception loopback mode The hardware input signal can be passed on as often as desired even with different levels This is a big difference to conventional mixing desks where the channel fader always con trols the level for all routing destinations simultaneously The level meter of inputs and playback channels are connected pre fader to be able to visu ally monitor where a signal is currently present The level meters of the hardware s outputs are connected post fader thus displaying the actual output
92. n are met not using the same record playback channels in both programs Then route the play back signal via TotalMix to a hardware output in the range of the record software and activate Loopback for recording Mixing several input signals into one record channel In some cases it is useful to record several sources into only one track For example when us ing two microphones recording instruments and loudspeakers TotalMix Loopback mode saves an external mixing desk Simply route mix the input signals to the same output third row then redefine this output into a record channel via Loopback This way any number of input channels from different sources can be recorded into one single track 28 6 MS Processing The mid side principle is a special positioning technique for microphones which results in a mid signal on one channel and a side signal on the other channel D RME TotalMix FX Fireface UC File Function Options Help Out 1 Out 2 Out 31 These information can be transformed back into a stereo signal quite easily The process sends the monaural mid channel to left and right the side channel too but phase inverted 180 to the right channel For a better understanding the mid channel represents the function L R while the side channel represents L R During record the monitoring needs to be done in conventional stereo Therefore TotalMix also offers the functionality of a M S decoder Activation is done in th
93. name is FirefaceUSB kext It is visible in the Finder allowing you to verify date and driver version Yet in fact this again is a folder containing subdirectories and files Nonetheless this driver file can be removed by simply dragging it to the trash bin This can be helpful in case a driver installation fails 17 2 MIDI doesn t work In some cases the applications do not show the MIDI port The reason for this is usually visible within the Audio MIDI Setup It displays no RME MIDI device or the device is greyed out and therefore inactive Mostly removing the greyed out device and searching for MIDI devices again will solve the problem The Fireface UC is class compliant Therefore it comes without a driver OS X recognizes it as MIDI device and will be using it with the driver included in the operating system 17 3 Repairing Disk Permissions Repairing permission can solve problems with the installation process plus many others To do this launch Disk Utility located in Utilities Select your system drive in the drive volume list to the left The First Aid tab to the right now allows you to check and repair disk permissions 17 4 Supported Sample Rates RME s Mac OS X driver supports all sampling frequencies provided by the hardware This in cludes 32 kHz and 64 kHz and even 128 kHz 176 4 kHz and 192 kHz for the analog and SPDIF I Os But not any software will support all the hardware s sample rates The hardware s capabili
94. ndition and prompts 5 GE PO EE DES 15 the user to set 32000 Hz manually as sample J 0 4 8 4 T rate Under ASIO the audio software sets the sample rate so that such an error can not Input Status happen If the input sample rate is different ei S Ed then there will be no Sync indication Sample Rate 44100 Hz v Current 32000 Hz Pitch 0 000 v With RME s AutoSync and SyncCheck finally anyone can master this common source of error previously one of the most complex issues in the digital studio world User s Guide Fireface UC RME 21 10 Operation under ASIO 10 1 General Start the ASIO software and select ASIO Fireface USB as the audio I O device or the audio driver Fireface UC supports ASIO Direct Monitoring ADM The Fireface UC supports both MME MIDI and DirectMusic MIDI ASIO Fireface USB 0 Samples E He OK Abbrechen 10 2 Channel Count under ASIO At a sample rate of 88 2 or 96 kHz the ADAT optical input and outputs operate in S MUX mode so the number of available channels is reduced from 8 to 4 At a sample rate of 176 4 and 192 kHz the ADAT optical input and outputs operate in S MUX4 mode so the number of available channels is limited to 2 Note when changing the sample rate range between Single Double and Quad Speed the num ber of channels presented from the ASIO driver will change too This may require a reset of the I O list in the audio software Single Spee
95. ng voltage 910 mA 11 Watts Dimensions including rack ears WxHxD 265 x 44 x 165 mm 10 5 x 1 73 x 6 5 Dimensions without rack ears handles WxHxD 218 x 44 x 155 mm 8 6 x 1 73 x 6 1 Weight 1 5 kg 3 3 Ibs Temperature range 5 up to 50 Celsius 41 F up to 122 F Relative humidity 7596 non condensing Included power supply Internal switching PSU 100 240 V AC 2 A 24 Watts 80 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 31 Technical Background 31 1 Lock and SyncCheck Digital signals consist of a carrier and the data If a digital signal is applied to an input the re ceiver has to synchronize to the carrier clock in order to read the data correctly To achieve this the receiver uses a PLL Phase Locked Loop As soon as the receiver meets the exact fre quency of the incoming signal it is locked This Lock state remains even with small changes of the frequency because the PLL tracks the receiver s frequency If an ADAT or SPDIF signal is applied to the Fireface UC the corresponding input LED starts flashing The unit indicates LOCK i e a valid input signal in case the signal is also in sync the LED is constantly lit see below Unfortunately LOCK does not necessarily mean that the received signal is correct with respect to the clock which processes the read out of the embedded data Example 1 The Fireface is set to 44 1 kHz internally clock mode Master and a mixing desk with ADAT output is con nected
96. no feedback is needed select NONE as MIDI Output Check Enable MIDI Control in the Options menu 29 4 Operation The channels being under Mackie MIDI control are indicated by a colour change of the name field black turns to brown The 8 fader block can be moved horizontally and vertically in steps of one or eight channels In Submix View mode the current routing destination output bus can be selected via REC Ch 1 8 This equals the selection of a different output channel in the lowest row by a mouse click when in Submix View In MIDI operation it is not necessary to jump to the lowest row to perform this selection This way even the routing can be easily changed via MIDI Full LC Display Support This option in Preferences F3 activates complete Mackie Control LCD support with eight channel names and eight volume pan values When Full LC Display Support is turned off a brief information about the first fader of the block channel and row is sent This brief information is also available on the LED display of the Behringer BCF2000 Disable MIDI in Background menu Options Settings disables the MIDI control as soon as another application is in the focus or in case TotalMix has been minimized This way the hard ware controller will control the main DAW application only except when TotalMix is in the fore ground Often the DAW application can be set to become inactive in background too so that MIDI control is switched between Tota
97. ock signals Thanks to a low impedance but short circuit proof output the Fireface delivers 4 Vpp to 75 Ohms For wrong termination with 2 x 75 Ohms 37 5 Ohms there are still 3 3 Vpp at the out put User s Guide Fireface UC RME 45 25 2 Technical Description and Usage In the analog domain one can connect any device to another device synchronization is not necessary Digital audio is different It uses a clock the sample frequency The signal can only be processed and transmitted when all participating devices share the same clock If not the signal will suffer from wrong samples distortion crackle sounds and drop outs AES EBU SPDIF and ADAT are self clocking an additional word clock connection in principle isn t necessary But when using more than one device simultaneously problems are likely to happen For example any self clocking will not work in a loop cabling when there is no master main clock inside the loop Additionally the clock of all participating devices has to be syn chronous This is often impossible with devices limited to playback for example CD players as these have no SPDIF input thus can t use the self clocking technique as clock reference In a digital studio synchronisation is maintained by connecting all devices to a central sync source For example the mixing desk works as master and sends a reference signal the word clock to all other devices Of course this will only work as long as all other d
98. ower on the Fireface with the rear power switch e Check the correct firmware version by a double click on the rotary encoder button The display PC means Windows the display AP means Mac The double click automatically switches between both versions Note a change of state is only possible when the unit is not connected to the computer e Connect computer and Fireface using the supplied USB cable e Windows detects the new hardware as Fireface UC Win serial number and asks for drivers 7 Driver and Firmware 7 1 Driver Installation After the Fireface has been recognized see 6 Hardware Installation the hardware assistant finds a Fireface UC Win serial number Please note the Win If Mac is displayed the unit has to be disconnected from the computer and its firmware has to be changed to Win see above prior to installing the drivers Insert the RME Driver CD into your CD ROM drive and follow further instructions which appear on your computer screen The driver files are located in the directory Fireface_USB on the RME Driver CD Windows now installs the driver of the Fireface UC and registers it as a new audio device in the system After a reboot the symbols of mixer and Settings dialog will appear in the task bar The red Host error LED extinguishes In case the Hardware Wizard does not show up automatically after connecting the Fireface do not attempt to install the drivers manually An installation of drivers for non
99. pointed few CD players can be synchronized The samples will inevitably be Input Status corrupted because the signal from the CD player is read with the wrong clock from the ADAT Le out of ADAT Sync 44 1 kHz sync In this case the Clock Source should be set temporarily to SPDIF RME s exclusive SyncCheck technology first implemented in the Hammerfall enables an easy to use check and display of the current clock status Inout Status indicates whether there is a valid signal Lock No Lock for each input Word Clock ADAT SPDIF and LTC or if there is a valid and synchronous signal Sync In the field Clock Mode the clock reference is shown Cur rent See chapter 31 1 In practice SyncCheck provides the user with an easy way of checking whether all digital de vices connected to the system are properly configured With SyncCheck finally anyone can master this common source of error previously one of the most complex issues in the digital studio world 32 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 17 Mac OS X FAQ 17 1 Round about Driver Installation The driver with the file suffix zip provided by RME is a compressed archive Zip is directly sup ported by OS X a double click on the file is all one needs to do The driver consists of a package file pkg A double click will start the OS X installer The actual audio driver appears as a kernel extension file The installer copies it to gt System Library Extensions lt Its
100. recognized hardware will cause a blue screen when booting Windows In Windows 7 Microsoft removed the automatic start of the Driver Software Update dialog The refore this dialog has to be started manually after the failed driver installation Hit the Win key type Device Manager start the Device Manager by selecting it from the list and hit Enter The device is shown with a yellow warning symbol Usually it is already found in the correct category Sound Video and Game Controller Plug amp Play detects a multimedia device Right click on the device and select Update Driver Software from the context menu The dialog Update Driver Software appears Now follow the instructions given below Possible reasons why a Fireface is not found automatically e The USB port is not active in the system check the Device Manager e The USB cable is not or not correctly inserted into the socket e No power After switching the Fireface on at least the 7 segment display has to be lit 10 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 7 2 Driver Update When facing problems with the automatic driver update the user driven way of driver installa tion will work Under gt Control Panel System Device Manager Sound Video and Game Controllers RME Fireface UC Properties Driver lt you ll find the Update Driver button XP Select Install from a list or specific location advanced click Next select Don t search will choose the driver to install click
101. remely jittery SPDIF signal of about 50 ns jitter top graph yellow SteadyClock turns this signal into a clock with less than 2 ns jitter lower graph blue The sig nal processed by SteadyClock is of course not only used internally but also used to clock the digital outputs Therefore the refreshed and jitter cleaned signal can be used as reference clock without hesitation 86 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 32 Diagrams 32 1 Block Diagram Fireface UC g L ut IAIN seuoud sO sO O SO eur ES amp L 3n0 IAIN 49 dno2 oado OL b uR9 H Tj fo eI o 8 4 ova OL b uI29 1H 9 L ova eO LO Sul 32012 AYOM 990 o z asn esepieaqu asn oipny asn Buissea2oA4g 2320 xHAIEIOL A90194Pe83S OA 184610 BL LL 0 Q Gei Pei ui ano ano ul eo Allge alddsS 1VOv 8 S 90v v E Dav S L 9av OL t uie amp 07 e eur Su B a 99a sal Ho Jasul H H 990 ped Su TH JasuI 990 ueg 34u02 2460 Ped Leg Cales sur O a O ax sul Q L O um 87 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 32 2 Connector Pinouts TRS jacks of analog input output The stereo 1 4 TRS jacks of the analog inputs and outputs are wired according to international standards Tip hot Ring cold Sleeve GND The servo balanced input and output circuitry allows to use monaural TS jacks unbalanced with no loss in level This is the
102. rk Additionally it was found that a PLL not only generates jitter but also rejects disturbances The slow PLL works like a filter for induced and modulated frequencies above several kHz As the Superclock is used without any filtering such a kind of jitter and noise sup pression is missing The actual end of these problems is offered by the SteadyClock technology of the Fireface UC Combining the advantages of modern and fastest digital technology with analog filter tech niques re gaining a low jitter clock signal of 22 MHz from a slow word clock of 44 1 kHz is no problem anymore Additionally jitter on the input signal is highly rejected so that even in real world usage the re gained clock signal is of highest quality 46 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 25 3 Cabling and Termination Word clock signals are usually distributed in the form of a network split with BNC T adapters and terminated with resistors We recommend using off the shelf BNC cables to connect all devices as this type of cable is used for most computer networks You will find all the neces sary components T adapters terminators cables in most electronics and or computer stores The latter usually carries 50 Ohms components The 75 Ohms components used for word clock are part of video technology RG59 Ideally the word clock signal is a 5 Volt square wave with the frequency of the sample rate of which the harmonics go up to far above 500 kHz To avoid voltage loss an
103. rmat Word The word clock output signal usually equals the current sample rate Selecting Single Speed causes the output signal to always stay within the range of 32 kHz to 48 kHz So at 96 kHz and 192 kHz sample rate the output word clock is 48 kHz Optical The optical TOSLINK output can operate as ADAT or SPDIF output The Channel Status is fixed to Consumer state Note The optical input detects the incoming format automatically SPDIF coax The coaxial SPDIF output can have the Channel Status Consumer or Professional For further details please refer to chapter 24 2 Options SPDIF In TMS TMS activates the transmission of Channel Status data and Track Marker information from the SPDIF input signal Clock Mode Sample Rate Sets the currently used sample rate Offers a central and comfortable way of configuring the sample rate of all WDM devices to the same value as since Vista this is no longer supported to be done by the audio program However an ASIO program can still set the sample rate by it self At ongoing record playback the selection is greyed out so no change is possible Clock Source The unit can be configured to use its own clock Internal Master or one of the input signals Word Optical SPDIF coax LTC Slave If the selected source isn t available the unit will change to the next available one AutoSync If none is available then the internal clock is used The current clock source is displayed to
104. ror in wiring and setup will cause a MIDI feedback loop here which then completely blocks the computer the CPU To prevent the computer from freezing TotalMix sends a special MIDI note every 0 5 seconds to its MIDI output As soon as it detects this special note at the input the MIDI functionality is disabled After fixing the loopback check Enable MIDI Control under Options to reactivate the TotalMix MIDI 29 7 OSC Open Sound Control Besides simple MIDI notes the Mackie Protocol and Control Change commands TotalMix FX can also be controlled by the Open Sound Control OSC For details on setup and usage see chapter 27 8 3 An OSC implementation chart can be downloaded from the RME website http www rme audio de download osc_table_totalmix zip RME offers a free iPad template for the iOS app TouchOSC by Hexler available in the Apple App Store http www rme audio de download tosc tm ipad template zip The RME forum hosts further information more templates iPhone and lots of useful user feedback User s Guide Fireface UC RME 75 29 8 Stand Alone MIDI Control When not connected to a computer the Fireface UC can be controlled directly via MIDI To unlock the special stand alone MIDI control mode first activate MIDI control in TotalMix menu Options Enable MIDI Control Turning this mode off is done with MIDI control deactivated Note When not needed the stand alone MIDI operation should not be active as the unit
105. rrect the sample position in real time Like any audio interface the Fireface UC should have a data transmission to the computer as undisturbed as possible The easiest way to guarantee this is to connect it to its own bus which should be no big problem as most USB 2 0 interfaces are a double bus design A check in the Device Manager can be done as follows gt Connect the Fireface UC to a USB port gt Start the Device Manager choose View Devices by Connection gt Select ACPI x86 based PC Microsoft ACPI Compliant System expand PCI Bus This branch normally includes two entries of a USB2 Enhanced Host Controller A USB Root Hub can be seen which then connects all USB devices including the Fireface UC By recon necting to a different port this view now allows for a check at which of the two controllers the Fireface is connected With multiple devices it can also be checked if they are connected to the same controller Furthermore this information can be used to operate an external USB drive without disturbing the Fireface UC by simply connecting the drive to the other controller User s Guide Fireface UC RME 83 Especially with notebooks it can happen that all internal devices and all the sockets ports are connected to the same controller with the second controller not used at all In that case all de vices have to use the same bus and interfere with each other 31 4 DS Double Speed When activating the Double Speed mode the F
106. same as when using a TRS jack with ring connected to ground XLR jacks of analog inputs The XLR jacks are wired according to international standards 1 GND shield 2 hot 3 cold The inner TRS jack is free of phantom power and wired like the other TRS jacks TRS Phones jack The analog monitor output on the Left front is accessible through a stereo TRS jack This allows a direct Right connection of headphones In case the output should operate as Line output an adapter TRS plug to RCA phono plugs or TRS plug to TS plugs is required Shield The pin assignment follows interna tional standards The left channel is connected to the tip the right chan nel to the ring of the TRS jack plug 88 User s Guide Fireface UC RME User s Guide RTE INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Fireface UC gt Miscellaneous User s Guide Fireface UC RME 89 33 Accessories RME offers several optional components for the Fireface UC Part Number Description Optical cable for SPDIF and ADAT operation OK0050 Optical cable TOSLINK 0 5 m 1 6 ft OK0100 Optical cable TOSLINK 1 m 3 3 ft OK0200 Optical cable TOSLINK 2 m 6 6 ft OK0300 Optical cable TOSLINK 3 m 9 9 ft OK0500 Optical cable TOSLINK 5 m 16 4 ft OK1000 Optical cable TOSLINK 10 m 33 ft NTCARDBUS Power supply for Fireface UC Robust and light weight switching power sup ply 100 V 240 V AC 12 V2 A DC 34 Warranty Each
107. samples to trigger an over detection 1 to 10 gt Peak Hold Time Hold time of the peak value Adjustable from 0 1 up to 9 9 s gt RMS 3 dB Shifts the RMS value by 3 dB so that full scale level is identical for Peak and RMS at 0 dBFS Mixer Views FX Send follows highest Submix Locks the FX Send knob to the channel fader As TotalMix supports multiple routings per channel a definition is needed which fader only one is visible is the one that FX Send will follow This is always the one with the highest fader position means the highest gain Center Balance Pan when changing Mono Stereo When switching a stereo channel into two mono channels the pan pots are set fully left and right This option will set them to center instead gt Disable double click fader action Prevents unintentional gain settings for example when using sensitive touchpads Dynamic Meters Preferences Cancel Help Level Meters 1 Full scale samples For OVR 1 0 Peak Hold Time s M RMS 3dB Mixer Views v Fx Send Follows highest submix Center Balance Pan when changing Mono Stereo Disable double click Fader actions Dynamic Meters Iw Compressor Expander M Include Gain setting M Auto Level Snapshots M Do not load Main volume balance Device Handling Always init DSP devices with TotalMix FX settings Graphics M Use D2D Change requires restart Not supported by the Fireface UC
108. several submixes simultaneously without the need to change between them Here one works with the routings fields of the input and playback channels only which then show different routing destinations Trim Gains Activates all Trim buttons on all channels TotalMix thus behaves like a conventional simple mixing desk Each fader affects all active routings of the channel simultaneously as if the fader were a trim pot in the hardware input Level Meter Fireface UC F gt RMS Level The numerical level display in the channels displays peak or RMS Mixer Setup gt 2 Rows Switches the mixer view to 2 rows Hardware Inputs and Software Playbacks are placed side by side This view saves a lot of space especially in height gt O Names Display of the original names of channels when they had been renamed by the 58 user User s Guide Fireface UC RME 26 5 2 Snapshots Groups Snapshots Snapshots include all mixer settings but no graphical elements like window posi tions window size number of windows visible settings scroll states etc Only the state wide narrow of the channels is registered Moreover the Snapshot is only temporarily stored Loading a Workspace causes the loss of all stored Snapshots when these all had not been saved before in a Workspace or separately via File Save Snapshot as Via File Load Snap shot the mixer states can be loaded individually 8 different mixes can be stored under
109. sible are indicated by orange triangles beside the fader path When moving the fader the triangles also move to a new position equalling the faders new settings Note that the fader button is set to the highest routing gain of all routings so that best control is offered The gain fader knob position of the currently active routing the submix selected in the third row is shown as white triangle Background TotalMix has no fixed channel fader In case of the Fireface UC there are 9 stereo Aux sends shown alternately as single fader within the channel strip The high number of Aux sends enables multiple and fully independent routings In some cases it is necessary to synchronize the gain changes of these routings An example is the Post fader function where a change of the singer s volume shall be performed identical to the volume change of the signal sent to the reverb device so that the reverb level keeps its relation to the original signal Another example is the signal of a guitar that is routed to different submixes means hardware outputs which gets much too loud during the solo part and therefore needs to be reduced in volume on all outputs simultaneously After a click on the Trim button this can be done easily and with a perfect overview As all channel s routings change simultaneously when Trim is active this mode basically causes the same behaviour as a trim pot within the input channel affecting the signal already before t
110. st Additions Important Check that the correct PC Windows AP Mac firmware is loaded by a double click on the rotary encoder The unit and drivers have been installed correctly but playback does not work e ls Fireface UC listed in the System Profiler Vendor ID 2613 e Has Fireface been selected as current playback device in the audio application The 8 ADAT channels dont seem to work e The optical output has been switched to SPDIF As can be seen in the block diagram all channels and their assignments still exist but the optical transmitter has been disconnected from ADAT The ADAT playback devices are still usable by routing and mixing them in To talMix to other outputs Playback works but record doesn t e Check that there is a valid signal at the input If so the current sample frequency is dis played in the Settings dialog e Check whether the Fireface UC has been selected as recording device in the audio applica tion e Check whether the sample frequency set in the audio application Recording properties or similar matches the input signal e Check that cables devices have not been connected in a closed loop If so set the system s clock mode to Master Crackle during record or playback e Increase the number and size of buffers in the application e Try different cables coaxial or optical to rule out any defects here e Check that cables devices have not been connected in a closed loop
111. stored as Layout Preset EEPE A click on Store and the desired memory slot makes the current channel layout recallable anytime The button All makes all channels temporarily ae visible again Analog Digital Drums Vocals With a simple click on a button it will then be possible to easily switch views of only the channels involved with the mixing of the drum section the horn section the violins or any other useful view An optimized remote layout can be activated here as well with or without visible changes Double click the default slot name to enter any other name Layout Presets are stored within the Workspace so make sure to save the current state before loading a different Workspace The button Sub activates another useful special view When in Submix view Sub will cause all channels to disappear that are not part of the currently selected Submix Hardware Output Sub temporarily shows the mix based on all channels from Inputs and Playback row independent from the current Layout Preset That makes it very easy to see and to verify which channels are mixed routed to the current output Sub makes checking and verifying of mixes but also the mix editing itself a lot easier and maintains perfect overview even with lots of channels 60 User s Guide Fireface UC RME 26 5 4 Scroll Location Markers Another feature to improve overview and working with TotalMix FX are scroll location markers TotalMix view only These are displaye
112. synced from the master for example by feeding word clock The clock modes of all units have to be set up correctly in the Fireface Settings dialog e Ifall units are fed with a synchronous clock i e all units show Sync in their Settings dialog all channels can be used at once When using more than one Fireface UC the USB bus might get overloaded To prevent this connect all units to different USB busses Note TotalMix is part of the hardware of each Fireface Up to three mixers are available but these are separated and can t interchange data Therefore a global mixer for all units is not possible 19 DIGICheck Mac The DIGICheck software is a unique utility developed for testing measuring and analysing digi tal audio streams Although this Windows software is fairly self explanatory it still includes a comprehensive online help DIGICheck 0 66 operates in parallel to any software showing all input data The following is a short summary of the currently available functions e Level Meter High precision 24 bit resolution 2 10 28 channels Application examples Peak level measurement RMS level measurement over detection phase correlation measure ment dynamic range and signal to noise ratios RMS to peak difference loudness long term peak measurement input check Oversampling mode for levels higher than O dBFS Vertical and horizontal mode Slow RMS and RLB weighting filter Supports visualization ac cording to the K System
113. t State the state of all clocks is decoded and shown as simple text No Lock Lock Sync User s Guide Fireface UC RME 81 31 2 Latency and Monitoring The term Zero Latency Monitoring has been introduced by RME in 1998 for the DIGI96 series of audio cards It stands for the ability to pass through the computer s input signal at the inter face directly to the output Since then the idea behind has become one of the most important features of modern hard disk recording In the year 2000 RME published two ground breaking Tech Infos on the topics Low Latency Background which are still up to date Monitoring ZLM and ASIO and Buffer and Latency Jitter both found on the RME website How much Zero is Zero From a technical view there is no zero Even the analog pass through is subject to phase er rors equalling a delay between input and output However delays below certain values can subjectively be claimed to be a zero latency This applies to analog routing and mixing and in our opinion also to RME s Zero Latency Monitoring The term describes the digital path of the audio data from the input of the interface to its output The digital receiver of the Fireface UC can t operate un buffered and together with TotalMix and the output via the transmitter it causes a typical delay of 3 samples At 44 1 kHz this equals about 68 us 0 000068 s at 192 kHz only 15 us The delay is valid for ADAT and SPDIF in the same way Oversampling While t
114. ter TotalMix FX OSC Service gt IP Shows the network address of the computer running TotalMix FX local host This address must be entered on the remote side gt Host Name Local computer name gt Port incoming Must match the remote entry Port outgoing Typical values are 7001 or 8000 gt Port outgoing Must match the remote entry Port incoming Typical values are 9001 or 9000 Remote Control gt IP or Host name Enter the IP or host name of the remote control Please note that the IP number usually works better than the host name Options gt Send Peak Level Activates the transmission of the peak level meter data Peak Hold activates the peak hold function as set up for the TotalMix level meters in the preferences User s Guide Fireface UC RME Settings mem P Mixer MIDI1 OSC1 Totalmi FX OSC Service IP 192 168 178 22 Host Name Studio1537 Port incoming 8000 Port outgoing 3000 Remote Control IP or Host Name 192 168 178 25 Options M Send Peak Level Data Peak Hold Abbrechen 65 26 8 Hotkeys and Usage TotalMix FX has many hotkeys and mouse hotkey combinations to speed up and simplify the usage The Shift key enables a fine tuning of the gain with all faders and in the Matrix On all knobs it will speed up the setting A click on a fader with held down Shift key adds the fader to the temporary fader group A click in the fader path with held
115. ternal quartz Clock Mode Current Internal to a clock extracted from the input signal Clock Mode Current ADAT etc The difference to a usual slave mode is that whenever the clock reference fails the system will automatically use its in ternal clock and operate in Master mode AutoSync guarantees that record and record while play will always work correctly In certain cases however e g when the inputs and outputs of a DAT machine are connected directly to the Fireface UC AutoSync may cause feedback in the digital carrier so synchronization breaks down Remedy switch the Fireface clock mode over to Master Clock Source Internal The Fireface UC s ADAT and SPDIF inputs operate simultaneously Because there is no input selector the Fireface UC has to be told which one of the signals is the sync reference a digital device can only be clocked from a single source The Clock Source selection is used to define a preferred input for the automatic clock system This input will stay active as long as a valid signal is found To cope with some situations which may arise in Clock Mode studio practice defining a sync reference is essential One example An ADAT recorder is connected to the Sample Rate 44100 Hz H ADAT input ADAT immediately becomes the AutoSync source and a CD player is connected to Clock Source Optical In B the SPDIF input Try recording a few samples from Current Clock ADAT In the CD and you will be disap
116. the K System e Hardware Level Meter for Input Playback and Output Reference Level Meter freely con figurable causing near zero CPU load because calculated from the Fireface hardware e Vector Audio Scope World wide unique Goniometer showing the typical afterglow of a oscilloscope tube Includes Correlation meter and level meter e analysis ITU weighting and ITU summing meter Spectral Analyser World wide unique 10 20 or 30 band display in analog bandpass filter technology 192 kHz capable Totalyser Spectral Analyser Level Meter and Vector Audio Scope in a single window Surround Audio Scope Professional Surround Level Meter with extended correlation ITU1770 EBU R128 Meter For standardized loudness measurements Bit Statistics amp Noise Shows the true resolution of audio signals as well as errors and DC offset Includes Signal to Noise measurement in dB and dBA plus DC measurement e Channel Status Display Detailed analysis and display of SPDIF and AES EBU Channel Status data e Global Record Long term recording of all channels at lowest system load e Completely multi client Open as many measurement windows as you like on any chan nels and inputs or outputs To install DIGICheck go to the DIGICheck directory on the RME Driver CD and run setup exe Follow the instructions prompted on the screen DIGICheck is constantly updated The latest version is always available on our website www rme audio com section Down
117. the right Pitch More information on Pitch is available in chapter 8 2 Input Status Indicates for each input Word optical SPDIF coax whether there is a valid signal Lock No Lock or if there is a valid and synchronous signal Sync The second row shows the sample frequency measured by the hardware In Clock Mode the clock reference is shown See also chapter 31 1 The About tab includes information about the current driver version as well as the current firm ware version of the Fireface UC User s Guide Fireface UC RME 13 8 2 Settings Dialog Pitch Usually soundcards and audio interfaces generate their internal clock master mode by a quartz Therefore the internal clock can be set to 44 1 kHz or 48 kHz but not to a value in be tween SteadyClock RME s sensational Low Jitter Clock System is based on a Direct Digital Synthesizer DDS This superior circuitry can generate nearly any frequency with highest pre cision DDS has been implemented into the Fireface with regard to the needs of professional video applications as well as to maximum flexibility The section Pitch includes both a list of typical video frequencies so called pull up pull down at 0 1 and 4 and a fader to freely change the basic sample rate in steps of 1 Hz over a range of 5 The Pitch function requires the Fireface to be in clock mode Master The frequency setting d will only be applied to this one specific Fireface up warning mess
118. the window size has been reduced the labels are floating They won t leave the visible area when scrolling 27 3 Operation Using the Matrix is a breeze It is very easy to indentify the current crosspoint because the outer labels light up in orange according to the mouse position gt If input 1 is to be routed to output 1 use the mouse and click one time on crosspoint In 1 AN 1 with held down Ctrl key Two green 0 0 dB field pop in another click removes them To change the gain equals the use of a different fader position see simultaneous display of the mixer view drag the mouse up or down starting from the gain field The value within the field changes accordingly The corresponding fader in the mixer view is moving simulta neously in case the currently modified routing is visible gt On the right side is the Control Strip from the mixer window adapted to the Matrix The but ton for the temporary fader group is missing as well as all View options as they don t make sense here Instead the button Mono Mode lets you decide whether all the actions per formed in the Matrix are valid for two channels or just one 68 User s Guide Fireface UC RME The Matrix not always replaces the mixer view but it significantly enhances the routing capabili ties and more important is a brilliant way to get a fast overview of all active routings It shows you in a glance what s going on And since the Matrix operates monaural it is ver
119. ties can easily be verified in the Audio MIDI Setup Select Audio devices under Properties of and choose the Fireface UC A click on Format will list the supported sample frequencies User s Guide Fireface UC RME 33 17 5 Channel Count under Core Audio The Fireface s ADAT optical interface offers sample rates of up to 192 kHz using a standard ADAT recorder For this to work single channel data is spread to two or four ADAT channels using the Sample Multiplexing technique This reduces the number of available ADAT channels from 8 to 4 or 2 It is not possible to change the number of Core Audio devices without a reboot of the computer Therefore whenever the Fireface UC changes into Double Speed 88 2 96 kHz or Quad Speed mode 176 4 192 kHz all devices stay present but become partly inactive Single Speed Double Speed Quad Speed Fireface UC Analog 1 to 8 Fireface UC Analog 1 to 8 Fireface UC Analog 1 to 8 Fireface UC SPDIF L R Fireface UC SPDIF L R Fireface UC SPDIF L R Fireface UC ADAT 1 to 2 Fireface UC ADAT 1 to 2 Fireface UC ADAT 1 to 2 Fireface UC ADAT 3 to 4 Fireface UC ADAT 3 to 4 Fireface UC ADAT 5 to 6 Fireface UC ADAT 7 to 8 17 6 Various Information The driver of the Fireface UC requires at least Mac OS 10 5 as special USB functions are used that are not available in older versions of the operating system Via gt System Preferences Audio MIDI Setup lt the hardware can be configured
120. tion is used to define a preferred input for the automatic clock system This input will stay active as long as a valid signal is found To cope with some situations which may arise in studio practice defining a sync reference is essential One example An ADAT recorder is connected to the ADAT input ADAT immediately becomes the AutoSync source and a CD player is connected to the SPDIF input Try recording a few samples from the CD and you will be disappointed few CD players can be synchronized The samples will inevitably be corrupted because the signal from the CD player is read with the wrong clock from the ADAT i e out of sync In this case the Clock Source should be set tem porarily to SPDIF RME s exclusive SyncCheck technology first implemented in the Hammerfall enables an easy to use check and display of the current clock status nput Status indicates whether there is a valid signal Lock No Lock for each input Word Clock ADAT SPDIF and LTC or if there is a valid and synchronous signal Sync In the field Clock Mode the clock reference is shown Cur rent See chapter 35 1 Under WDM the Fireface will has to set the Clock Mode sample rate Therefore the error shown to the right can occur A stable signal with a sample rate of 32 kHz is detected at the ADAT input Clock Source Optical In v Current ADAT Sync but Windows audio had been set to 44100 Hz before The red color of the text label signals the error co
121. ts and outputs SPDIF UO coaxial RCA AES EBU compatible The Fireface UC accepts the commonly used digital audio formats SPDIF as well as AES EBU ADAT I O TOSLINK The unit automatically detects SPDIF or ADAT input signals The optical output can operate as ADAT or SPDIF output depending on the current setting in the Settings dialog User s Guide Fireface UC RME 7 Word Clock 1 0 BNC A push switch activates internal termination 75 Ohms When termina tion is activated the yellow LED beside the switch lights up MIDI 1 0 Provides two MIDI inputs and outputs via the included breakout cable USB 2 0 USB socket for connection to the computer POWER switch Turns the Fireface UC on and off Socket for power connection The included hi performance switch EE B USB mode power supply makes the 5 2 0 Fireface operate in the range of POWER 100V to 240V AC It is short ATA Bim send circuit proof has an_ integrated Sa mera line filter is fully regulated against ef Q GO _ voltage fluctuations and suppresses mains interference Vede in Sermeny BALANCED LI 5 2 Quick Start After the driver installation chapter 7 15 connect the TRS jacks or the XLR jacks with the analog signal source The input sensitivity of the rear inputs can be changed in the Settings dialog Gain Level assuring the highest signal to noise ratio will be achieved Try to achieve an optimum input level by adjusting the source itself
122. tware and none of these hardware inputs get lost TotalMix offers an overall flexibility and performance not rivalled by any other solution The risk of feedbacks a basic problem of loopback methods is low because the feedback can not happen within the mixer only when the audio software is switched into monitoring mode 3 to 18 RME TotalMix Hardware Input Fireface UC HDSP Mixer Channel 1 af Le Loopback Mode Cr ji v H PAN Block Diagram 05 2009 1 of 18 A Solo i VOL Am Mute gt 4 ze c Le 8 to 18 Loopback y s Record Ch 1 Y Hardware Output UE EVITE Channel 1 Audio Software N D gt Mix gt Z Playback Ch 1 pet VOL gt 2 E 10f18 SE ao cm cme s PAN Solo VOL 4 a x D H 2 i S Mute cgo 8 to 18 The block diagram shows how the software s input signal is played back and fed back from the hardware output to the software input 70 User s Guide Fireface UC RME Recording a Software s playback In real world application recording a software s output with another software will show the fol lowing problem The record software tries to open the same playback channel as the playback software already active or the playback one has already opened the input channel which should be used by the record software This problem can easily be solved First make sure that all rules for proper multi client operatio
123. uide Fireface UC RME 8 3 Settings Dialog Gain The tab Gain has options to change the reference level of some channels The gain of channels 1 to 4 is adjustable per channel within the TotalMix FX settings panel click the wrench symbol Level Line In Defines the reference level of the rear analog inputs 5 8 The available settings are 10 dBV 4 dBu and LoGain Line Out Defines the reference level of the rear analog outputs 1 6 The available settings are 10 dBV 4 dBu and HiGain Phones Defines the reference level of the analog outputs 7 8 The available settings are 10 dBV 4 dBu and HiGain 8 4 Settings Dialog LTC The Fireface UC can extract position information as APP ASIO Positioning Protocol from Timecode LTC SMPTE received at the analog input 4 A detected Timecode is shown as time information in the LTC In field The analog input signal needs a specific level slowly reduce the level until the display stumbles or completely fails Then increase the level by 10 dB The field Input State will show further details of the Timecode Basically Timecode can also be used as clock source However the calculation of the position information is less precise then Recommended is a clocking of the Fireface UC with a clock signal for example Word directly from the device that sends the Timecode User s Guide Fireface UC RME 15 9 Operation and Usage 9 1 Playback In the audio application being used Fir
124. unconnected negative input of the balanced input Inputs 3 4 operate in perfect harmony with the rear inputs 5 to 8 as they use the same level references Reference 5 8 0 dBFS o Setting 3 4 Input Gain 3 4 Lo Gain 19 dBu Pad 6 dB 4 dBu 13 dBu No Pad 0 dB 10 dBV 2 dBV Inst 0 dB 15 dBu Inst Pad 0 dB Instrument The main difference between a line and instrument input is the input s impedance Via the op tion Inst 3 and Inst 4 in the Settings dialog the input impedance changes from 10 kOhm to 470 kOhm At the same time the input sensitivity rises by 10 dB Using active instruments this set ting can already cause overload Therefore the option Pad is still available reducing the sensi tivity by 12 dB The instrument input operates servo balanced thus handles balanced signals correctly as well Input Gain Via Input Gain in the Settings dialog or using the rotary encoder on the front an additional gain can be applied to the input signals of channels 3 4 The gain range is 0 dB up to 18 dB in steps of 0 5 dB This option not only allows for the use of sources with low level output signals but for example also to adjust the balance between channel 3 and 4 precisely already before the re cording takes place Overall the inputs 3 4 can work with levels from 16 dBu up to 25 dBu Two LEDs display a present signal from 65 dBFS on and warn against overload 2 dBFS User s Guide Fireface UC RME 41 23 Analog O
125. unctional The flash process should then be tried again on a different computer The Safety BIOS can also be activated manually Push the rotary encoder button while switch ing on the unit This method is also useful to temporarily deactivate a newer firmware With pressed button the older version of the firmware will be loaded User s Guide Fireface UC RME 29 16 Configuring the Fireface 16 1 Settings Dialog Configuring the Fireface UC is done via its own settings dialog Start the program Fireface USB Settings The mixer of the Fireface TotalMix can be configured by starting the program Fire face USB Mixer The Fireface s hardware offers a number of helpful well thought of practical functions and op tions which affect how the card operates it can be configured to suit many different require ments The following is available in the Settings dialog Level of analog I Os emo Fireface USB Settings Configuration of digital I Os Synchronization behaviour Current sample rate State of input and output Properties For Fireface UC Mac 22930806 1 Firmware v112 Driver v1 50 Any changes performed in the Level Clock Mode Settings dialog are applied Linen 4dBu H SampleRate 44100Hz F immediately confirmation e g SCH Line Out 4 dBu DI Clock Source Internal by exiting the dialog is not required Phones 10 dBV rey Current Clock Internal However settings should not be ar reien SE c
126. utputs 23 1 Line The eight short circuit protected low impedance line outputs are available as 1 4 TRS jacks on the back of the unit The electronic output stage is built in a servo balanced design which han dles unbalanced mono jacks and balanced stereo jacks correctly To maintain an optimum level for devices connected to the analog outputs the Fireface UC internally uses hi quality electronic switches which allow for a perfect adaptation of all outputs to the three most often used studio levels As with the analog inputs the analog output levels are defined to maintain a problem free op eration with most other devices The headroom of the Fireface UC lies between 9 and 15 dB according to the chosen reference level Reference 0 dBFS Headroom Hi Gain 19 dBu 15 dB 4 dBu 13 dBu 9 dB 10 dBV 2 dBV 12 dB The above levels are also found in our ADI 8 series of AD DA converters the Multiface and even in our Mic Preamps QuadMic and OctaMic Therefore all RME devices are fully compati ble to each other 23 2 Phones 7 8 Channels 7 8 of the Fireface are available on the front via one 1 4 unbalanced TRS jack ste reo output These channels use the same converters as the other line outputs therefore offer the same technical specifications These outputs are special low impedance types ready to be used with headphones But they can also be used as high quality yet unbalanced line outputs To optimize this stereo output
127. uts 3 4 INST LINE accept both a balanced line signal as well as an unbalanced instrument signal via 1 4 TRS plug The rotary encoder serves to set the input and output levels directly at the unit This is not only useful in stand alone operation but for example also when setting up the monitor volume Pushing the knob changes the encoder from CHANNEL to LEVEL mode and back Pushing the knob for more than a second activates either the single channel or stereo setup mode The State LEDs WC SPDIF ADAT indicate a valid input signal separately for each digital input Additionally RME s exclusive SyncCheck indicates if one of these inputs is locked but not synchronous to the others in which case the LED will flash See also chapter 9 8 16 2 Clock Modes Synchronization The red HOST LED lights up when the Fireface UC has been switched on It operates as error LED in case the USB connection hasn t been initialised yet or has VS MA MONITOR been interrupted error cable not connected s Ch 7 8 SPDIF IN 2 etc ADAT OUT 1 The yellow MIDI LEDs indicate MIDI data DA sh HOST OUTE received or sent separately for both inputs select srarE MIDI PHONES and outputs Phones is a low impedance line output of highest quality It provides a sufficient and undis torted volume even when used with headphones The rear panel of the Fireface UC features four analog inputs six analog outputs the power socket and all digital inpu
128. y easy to set up specific routings with specific gains 28 Tips and Tricks 28 1 ASIO Direct Monitoring Windows Programs that support ADM ASIO Direct Monitoring Samplitude Sequoia Cubase Nuendo etc send control commands to TotalMix This is directly shown by TotalMix When a fader is moved in the ASIO host the corresponding fader in TotalMix will move too TotalMix reflects all ADM gain and pan changes in real time But the faders only move when the currently activated routing the selected submix corre sponds to the routing in the ASIO host The Matrix on the other hand will show any change as it shows all possible routings in one view 28 2 Copy a Submix TotalMix allows you to copy complete submixes to other outputs In case a complex submix is need with only a few changes on a different output the whole submix can be copied to that output Right click with the mouse on the original submix output means Hardware Output In the context menu select Copy Submix Then right click on the new submix output choose Paste Submix in the context menu Now fine tune the submix 28 3 Delete a Submix The easiest and quickest way to delete complex routings is by selection of the according output channel in the mixer view by a right mouse click and selection of the menu entry Clear Submix As TotalMix FX includes an unlimited undo the delete process can be undone without any prob lem 28 4 Doubling the Output Signal If a mix should

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