No Input with USB Mic

[electromaticfisch]

I have a USB mic that I am running straight into the USB port on my mac powerbook pro. I am getting an input in the system pref "sound" panel but no input into REW. I've tried every possible setting combination with no results. I've been taking measurements with the built in mic so the software is working. I am running Mac OS X 10.4.11 Kernel Versionarwin 8.11.1. What am I missing??? Do i need to upgrade the software???

[brucek]

What am I missing???

In 10.4 Java applications can only access the built-in audio inputs, regardless of what is set as the default input. In 10.5 inputs from USB soundcards can be selected when it has been set as the default in the Sound preferences.

I suspect this will hold true for a USB mic also (although I don't know anyone that has tried it).

brucek

[electromaticfisch]

So i updated the software to 10.5.5 and was able to get an input by selecting line-in within REW. However the sound generator is now corrupted, producing weird noises. It worked fine on my friends machine with the same setup. Anyone no what causes this problem?

[JohnM]

On PowerPC-based Macs there seems to be a byte-swap problem with audio data, even though REW asks the JRE for a little-endian audio line the JRE appears to treat the data as big-endian. There will be an attempt to work around this in the next release, hopefully before year end.

[electromaticfisch]

I'm sorry, out of habit i had typed "powerbook" (my old computer). I am actually running the software on an Intel MacBook Pro. I'm not sure if that changes your response? I've also tried the different Java versions within the operating system (Java SE 6-64 bit, J2SE 5.0-64 bit, J2SE 5.0-32 bit, J2SE 1.4.2) with no luck. Overall this is a sweet app. Thanks for continuing to support the Mac platform.

[JohnM]

Should be OK on an Intel Mac using J2SE 5 or 6, worth checking through this thread though:
http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...-progress.html

[hifisponge]

I have a MacBook Pro running OSX 10.5.6 connected to an M-Audio Mobile Pre with updated drivers and the latest Java updates and I get no input in REW. I did get input when I first connected the Mobile Pre and once after restarting the Mac, but not since. I've tried all of the tricks in the thread referenced above, with no luck.

Any suggestions?

[hifisponge]

Found the answer here:

http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...tml#post135929

[cbw723]

JohnM wrote:

On PowerPC-based Macs there seems to be a byte-swap problem with audio data, even though REW asks the JRE for a little-endian audio line the JRE appears to treat the data as big-endian. There will be an attempt to work around this in the next release, hopefully before year end.

Hi John,

Can you tell me the status this work around? I've got the same problem that all the other PPC folks have -- overdriven signal that appears to be the result of incorrect byte-swapping. I'm running OSX 10.3.9. I'll upgrade to 10.5.X if that will fix the problem, but you indicated in another thread that it might not.

If you have a beta version of the fix and are looking for a guinea pig, I'm your guy.

Thanks,
Bruce

[JohnM]

Hi Bruce,

I don't think upgrading to 10.5 will fix the byte swap problem. Unfortunately I don't have a build with a fix for that yet, and it will be a while until I can produce one - I'm making some fairly extensive changes in the course of producing REW V5 and it will take some weeks to get to a beta testing state. On the plus side, my wife is away this weekend so I was able to put in a solid 12 hours on the code today, really can make great progress when there are no distractions

[cbw723]

JohnM wrote:

I don't think upgrading to 10.5 will fix the byte swap problem.

It doesn't, however downgrading REW to V3.29 does. The interface isn't as slick as 4.11, but it gets the job done. I didn't see 3.29 mentioned as a workaround for PPC users in any of the docs, so unless I just missed it, you might want to mention it on the download page or the install docs.

Thanks for all of your hard work on REW. It's a very nice, useful tool. I'm looking forward to the next version.

Bruce

P.S. Have you considered open sourcing the code? Then you wouldn't have to do all of the development, platform testing, bug fixing, etc., by yourself.

[JohnM]

Thanks Bruce, that's useful info. I'm not planning to open source the app, doing the dev is my favourite part

[cbw723]

Glad to help. I'd try V4.00, too, but the link to the Mac/Linux files is broken on the downloads page.