Static noise, failed calibration using REW with Behringer UMC202HD Audio Interface

I have recently purchased a Berhinger UMC202HD Audio Interface that I intend to use to analyze and tune audio hardware and speaker systems. I have used REW many years ago for speaker measurements using the internal sound card of a laptop.

With the appearance of high quality audio interfaces I thought they would make a much better tool for this kind of work. Unfortunately unlike in the past with my internal audio card, I am unable to calibrate the Behringer. All sweep measurements fail due to distortion. I have listened to the level calibration tone and I notice there is a random static on it. Some describe it as a the static you get from a gramophone record.

This problem is not limited to the ASIO drivers, it also happens with the JAVA drivers. I downloaded the drivers for the Behringer device from their website. I am using a Lenovo S540 laptop running Windows 11 (specs attaced).

I have tried all kinds of settings, but I haven't found a solution. Since the problem occurs both with JAVA and ASIO, changing the ASIO doesn't make sense, the problem must be somewhere else.

Initially I thought the interface was defective so I collected some measurements and sent these to the vendor, but search further on internet and this forum I realized it is not the interface, but the REW software that outputs static / noise that messes up the calibration (and any other measurement). I have attached these measurements as a .pdf. I have included the settings page so it's clear what's happening.

I have read that some people have been able to resolve their issues in various ways, but so far I haven't found a solution. Of course this is quite a bummer because REW is a great tool for my intended purposes. See for instance this video series.

Hope someone can help me out.

EDIT: I had to remove all links from my post because I am not trusted as a new poster.

Perhaps you are experiencing the Windows 11 USB audio bug, there is a fix available.

John Mulcahy said:

Perhaps you are experiencing the Windows 11 USB audio bug, there is a fix available.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback!

Installed the patch, restarted the PC. Checked windows audio settings. Ran some tests. Same random timed static noise chirps when running level calibration or sweeps. Both on ASIO and Java.

See results attached.

Set your ASIO buffer to its maximum value.

To add: when I send the level calibration tome to the built in speakers of the laptop, there is no static noise in the test tone. It is nice and continuous with no static, noise or interruptions.

John Mulcahy said:

Set your ASIO buffer to its maximum value.

Click to expand...

Done.

Two lucky? shots, then back to errors. I repeated the 48 kHz measurement at the end. Now with the errors

Latencymon can show what stops your PC managing to maintain continuous audio data transfer. The higher the sample rate, the more likely whatever is causing the problems will intrude. For reference, I don't have any problems running at 768 kHz with the one interface I have which supports that, there isn't an REW issue.

I have no experience with this, but got curious about it. The Behringer site for this one has a comment similar to yours with a recommendation to use an older driver (very old). A second one says to use ASIO4ALL. I use that for special cases. FlexASIO GUI makes it easier to set up. Worth looking into that.

I see that it has a Line/Instrument switch. Which way are you testing it? I assume that the loopback should be set for Line.

John Mulcahy said:

Latencymon can show what stops your PC managing to maintain continuous audio data transfer. The higher the sample rate, the more likely whatever is causing the problems will intrude. For reference, I don't have any problems running at 768 kHz with the one interface I have which supports that, there isn't an REW issue.

Click to expand...

Attached the results. These were run without running REW at the same time.

dlr said:

I have no experience with this, but got curious about it. The Behringer site for this one has a comment similar to yours with a recommendation to use an older driver (very old). A second one says to use ASIO4ALL. I use that for special cases. FlexASIO GUI makes it easier to set up. Worth looking into that.

I see that it has a Line/Instrument switch. Which way are you testing it? I assume that the loopback should be set for Line.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. It's not all that clear, but the suggestion of different drivers for the device I have forwarded to the vendor (Thomann) and asked if they can propose an alternative (legacy) driver.

Since I have these problems irrespective of ASIO or JAVA, changing ASIO for ASIO4ALL should not matter.

I can use either line or instrument. Instrument is mores sensitive, so I need to dial down the input level more. I am using the line input.

Note that the crackling sound disturbances also occur without loopback. Even running the continuous test tone for level setting causes these distortions in the headphone out of the Behringer.

SOLVED

I searched on YouTube for Latencymon uses and followed a guide to remove any latency problems. Since I am not allowed to include any links, search for "How to FIX High DPC and ISR Latency in 60 Seconds". I changed from Balanced Mode to High Performance mode and applied all suggested settings in the video.

I did not use the app that is linked in the video, instead I used another site Google for "Hidden Power Settings" and you will get a Microsoft site that provides two command lines to enter in Command / Terminal mode to give access to Idle Promote and Idle Demote settings (attached).

Attached are the new Latencymon screens. I Guess I can't get any faster than this.

Then I reran some sweeps and now there is no more static. All sweeps work, both in ASIO and JAVA (last sweep). All results attached.

Conclusion removing all possible latencies in the PC provides a clean sweep.

When using Java drivers choose the device entries that start "EXCL", those will go via WASAPI Exclusive drivers and will allow REW to control the device sample rate.