REW Beta Release Problem with output to Benchmark DAC1

[Hugh McCullough]

I have downloaded and installed REW 5.19 beta 6. I am using Linux Debian 8. The installation went well and I can open and run REW. However, when I go into preferences and select the Benchmark DAC1 as output, it doesn't seem to work correctly. If I click on Check Levels and then Next, one of two things happens. Sometimes I hear the noise coming from the speakers but the level indicators remain grey and at -99. After a short while the noise stops and the left level indicator turns to colour but the test has stopped. Other times the noise sounds very briefly and the left indicator shows the level but only for a second or so. Then the noise stops and the indicators go grey again. The log file shows the following error:

Exception in thread "Thread-6" java.lang.NullPointerException
at roomeqwizard.GC.h(Unknown Source)
at roomeqwizard.GC.run(Unknown Source)

I looked at the soundcard_debug file and the DAC seems to be listed correctly as:

B10 [plughw:1,0], ALSA (http://www.alsa-project.org), 3.16.0-4-686-pae, Direct Audio Device: Benchmark 1.0, USB Audio, USB Audio

If I select the internal sound card and perform the check, I get a constant noise coming from the laptop speakers and the left indicator flickers up and down a bit around -12dB which is the level set for the sweep. This continues until I click on Finish. I assume this is the correct behaviour but I need it to work through my DAC.

 

[John Mulcahy]

Which JVM are you running? The Oracle JVM generally seems to behave better for audio.

 

[Hugh McCullough]

OK. I installed the Oracle JVM - not entirely straightforward as it doesn't seem to be in the repositories. At any rate, I got there and set Linux to use it rather than the OpenJRE. I checked in the REW log that it was using the new version. However, the behaviour is still the same. It isn't specific to the Benchmark DAC. I tried my cheap Behringer one and the result was exactly the same. For some reason REW seems to start using the sound output and then give up after a short time.

 

[John Mulcahy]

I'm afraid I can't offer much else by way of suggestions, I don't know anything about configuring audio on a Linux system. REW uses JavaSound, which is fed by a native audio handler for the platform. Does sample rate selection make any difference?

 

[Hugh McCullough]

Sample rate selection didn't change anything. For anyone coming after me, I solved the problem by renaming my asound.conf file (effectively disabling it). This means that JavaSound is picky about the sound configuration settings in Linux. Having read a bit more about this, it seems that the Java developers have a rather arrogant approach to Linux, basically saying that Linux should conform to the JavaSound operating principles rather than the other way round.

Everything seems to be working now but REW is a bit laggy and it can take a long time for something to happen after clicking on a button.

 

[John Mulcahy]

Shouldn't really be laggy unless running on a very constrained device. Worth checking the log files to make sure there aren't errors in there, their location is shown in the About REW dialog.