Calibrate Soundcard

[jjack87]

Hi Guys,

I’m following the “Improve the sound of your home studio – using room eq wizard series” but I’m having some difficulty calibrating my soundcard. The line level loopback connection is too low, even with the gain all the way up. Thought of adjusting the output volume, but that option is greyed out. Any thoughts how to resolve? Many thanks.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

What is the soundcard?

Regards,
Wayne

 

[John Mulcahy]

Do you have a loopback cable from the R output to input channel 2? The screenshot shows an input signal on channel 1. Soundcard calibration calibrates the channel that will be used for measurement, so the mic gets replaced by a loopback cable to do the calibration.

 

[jjack87]

What is the soundcard?

Regards,
Wayne

Just running an apollo twin duo

 

[jjack87]

Do you have a loopback cable from the R output to input channel 2? The screenshot shows an input signal on channel 1. Soundcard calibration calibrates the channel that will be used for measurement, so the mic gets replaced by a loopback cable to do the calibration.

Thanks for the note. Changed to what you've said above. Any thoughts towards getting the output level to match input level? Still quite a big difference.

Many thanks!!

 

[John Mulcahy]

Apollo Twin has the same max levels for outputs and line inputs, so must be a gain setting on output and/or input. Either adjust the gain controls on the interface or the UA console or check to see if there are gain controls for the output and/or input in the OS, shown under Audio Midi Setup.

 

[jjack87]

Apollo Twin has the same max levels for outputs and line inputs, so must be a gain setting on output and/or input. Either adjust the gain controls on the interface or the UA console or check to see if there are gain controls for the output and/or input in the OS, show

n under Audio Midi Setup.

Checked levels within UAD console and the monitor and and output reference levels already set to highest. Trying to configure within Audio midi setup, but not seeing the ability to adjust.

 

[John Mulcahy]

The OS may not offer gain controls if they are managed by the interface hardware. Been a while since I tried the Apollo Twin, but don't recall any difficulty matching levels. Maybe the output ref level should be set to +20 dBu instead of +4, but that wouldn't be enough for the 25 dB difference you are seeing. The difference in levels won't stop the calibration being run though, so you could just go ahead. The main purpose of the cal is to make sure there isn't any input monitoring active, if any of the input signal feeds back to the output the measurements become meaningless.

 

[jjack87]

The OS may not offer gain controls if they are managed by the interface hardware. Been a while since I tried the Apollo Twin, but don't recall any difficulty matching levels. Maybe the output ref level should be set to +20 dBu instead of +4, but that wouldn't be enough for the 25 dB difference you are seeing. The difference in levels won't stop the calibration being run though, so you could just go ahead. The main purpose of the cal is to make sure there isn't any input monitoring active, if any of the input signal feeds back to the output the measurements become meaningless.

Hi John,

Thanks for the reply and notes - very helpful

Figured out that I wasn't seeing ANY loopback signal - just ground noise - from when the line input is turned up that high. I had alternate monitors setup in the routing which was overriding my line outputs. Just fyi.

Many many thanks!

 

[jjack87]

The OS may not offer gain controls if they are managed by the interface hardware. Been a while since I tried the Apollo Twin, but don't recall any difficulty matching levels. Maybe the output ref level should be set to +20 dBu instead of +4, but that wouldn't be enough for the 25 dB difference you are seeing. The difference in levels won't s

top the calibration being run though, so you could just go ahead. The main purpose of the cal is to make sure there isn't any input monitoring active, if any of the input signal feeds back to the output the measurements become meaningless.

Got the loopback levels to match. When I run the measurement for the audio interface though I get this reading which doesn't seem right.

 

[John Mulcahy]

That shows there is some monitoring active, some of the input signal is being mixed back to the output. The output should only get the signal from REW, mute anything else.