REW, M-Audio Fast Trac Pro and Vista 64 Bit

[pcasper]

Hello,

I have been using the combination REW/M-Audio Fast Trac Pro combination with my Windows XP laptop with no problems. However, I have just replaced my old laptop with one running Vista Home 64 bit, and I have encountered a problem I hope someone here can help me with.

The input side of the Fast trac Pro seems to be working fine with the new computer. The REW SPL meter registers what my microphone is picking up and all seems well there. However, I can get no output from the Fast Trac when I enable the generator in REW. I think it is a REW/Fast Trac software interface problem, because the Fast Trac control panel (bandwidth tab) switches from showing "connected" to "streaming at 48 Khz" when REW loads up, even though no output is enabled in REW.

I know the output channels in the Fast Trac Pro are working, because with REW not loaded the Windows sounds are output just fine, and I can play music from Windows Media Player into my theater system via the Fast Trac Pro into my processor's front panel audio inputs. And, everything still works fine with my XP laptop.

So, I would be very grateful if someone could shed some light on this problem. My old laptop is dying fast!

Paul

[brucek]

Are you able to use the Vista Playback Devices tab and operate the levels from there?

brucek

[pcasper]

brucek,

The playback tab for the FasTrack Pro shows line 1 and 2 working with REW loaded, and the Line 1/2 properties/levels tab indicates 100%. This makes sense since I can play sounds from the Media Player through th FasTrac.

Paul

[brucek]

So, when REW is running, does Vista recognize it in the Main Mixer like this:




And then when you select the Fast Trac card as default in the PlayBack devices, does it show the levels are controllable, such as the following pic of my laptop and my external SRM soundcard?



brucek

[pcasper]

Hi Bruce,

My windows mixer shows the device is "Line 1/2", which is the FasTrac Pro. The applications are "Windows Sounds", and when I load REW "Java Platform SE binary" shows up. This is weird, because this morning REW showed up, and when I turned on the generator the "Generator" showed up. All volumes are at max and none of them are muted. When I turn on the generator in REW, the device volume bar in the mixer shows a bouncing green bar, indicating pink noise is being output, but no sound reaches the FasTrac (I looped it back, but no input shows up in REW).

The FasTrac Pro is selected in the PlayBack Devices, and it is indicated as working. The Properties/Levels
tab indicates that the "Line 1/2" volume is at max (it is adjustable), but there is no "Line In" or "Microphone" level control showing as in your case.

The thing that I keep noticing is that the FasTrac Control panel imediately switches to "streaming at 48 Khz" when REW is loaded, when no signal is being generated by REW. This does not happen with my XP computer. It indicates "connected" until I turn on the generator, then it switches to "streaming at 48 Khz", which makes sense.

Thank you very much for taking the time to help me troubleshoot. By the way, how do you insert selected portions of your screen capture into your messages?

Paul

[brucek]

how do you insert selected portions of your screen capture into your messages?

Select picture on screen and then (Alt + PrtScr) and capture to Paint of whatever, and save to jpg and then attach to the post.

[pcasper]

Good News! The problem is solved. I found that the wrong recording channels were selected in the Vista Control Panel/Sounds/Recording tab. Fast-Track Pro channels 3 and 4 were selected as default, rather than channels 1 and 2. All REW functions now seem to work fine. If I notice any other weird behavior I will post again for the benefit of others trying to get the Fast Track up and running.

brucek - thank you for your help. The suggestions you gave me helped me to finally get to the root of the problem.

Paul