Hi John, thanks for replying.
I spent about 6 hours total trying to get the issue sorted before I noticed your post, and I
did finally end up with a positive result... but then, after deciding to "start from scratch", I was unable to reproduce the settings ! Aaggghhhhh !!!!
Having said that, 2 more hours was spent checking connections, and changing various settings in various locations (Fortissimo III control panel, XP's sound controls, etc). As is always the way with PCs, any problems that cannot be reproduced are the hardest to solve. But I finally stumbled onto a work-around solution.
Why it works, I have absolutely no idea, but it does, so I guess that's better than nothing. I'll do my best to explain it.
Firstly, the version of the Fortissimo III control panel software/drivers I'm using is "v4101, CPL v1.33". From memory, I do remember trying to upgrade my drivers a couple of years ago, but it caused issues somewhere along the way, so I stuck with these.
I did have all my settings correct, as seen in the screenshots below and in the following 3 posts.
I found that after closing REW and deleting all saved settings, when I returned to the sound card calibration screen/wizard, I could not get the VU meter for INPUT to respond - there was no signal getting through.
Main Tab
Time and again, I tried using different settings for the "Record Source". "Stereo Mix" actually works and at least offers a signal reading on the meter, but for accuracy, "Line In" is obviously more preferable.
The answer was to
change the output for the "Master Volume" (the pull-down menu). For me, this is usually set to "2 speakers" but I often change it to "Headphones" when required. Although I already had it set to "2 speakers", the VU meter in REW did
not report a signal until I had
changed this setting from "2 speakers" to something else (I selected "Headphones"), and then change it back to "2 speakers" again. There is
no obvious reason why this should occur, but it does. Quirky.
Mixer Tab
As per the REW instructions, "Wave" volume should be set to maximum. I also set the "Line In" volume to maximum here. But this tab is also where the other configuration problem occurred regarding "monitoring". In most instances, the "speaker" buttons below each of the volume sliders on this tab act as "mute" buttons (this is confirmed by comparison with XP's own sound control panel), however in the case of the "Line In" control, this is the "monitoring" control that the REW help file refers to. One would think that it should be set the same as the "Wave" setting (ie, active), but this is not the case.
The speaker button below "Line In" should have a red cross over it. Other Tab
Make sure that "Enable Stereo Expansion" is deselected.
I hope this info will prevent some other poor soul wasting numerous hours calibrating their sound card as I did... !
