First attempts at REW'ing

[badbunny]

Hi, I'm trying to setup REW on a laptop, with a Behringer UCA202 USB soundcard for line-in and line-out. I've wired a phono lead between the line-out and line-in R channels, and am trying to follow the instructions for generating a soundcard calibration, but it's not working as described in the guide. Pretty sure its something I've done wrong or not done, but I can't work out what.

Firstly on the Settings screen instructions it says:
"Adjust the Input Volume using the REW control (if enabled) or your soundcard's mixer or your OS audio level controls so that the input level is close to the output level, ideally within 3dB, and the peak level (shown at the top of the level meter) is lower than -1dB."

The settings screen I see is in attachment "001a.jpg". There are three VU meters, the left hand one says Out, so I am assuming that the other two are In ? I am assuming that I should be seeing some volume level on the two right hand side meters, but i don't. When I click next to get REW to run the calibration, the graph I get is in attachment "001b.jpg" which doesn't look like the flat responses it talks about in the guide.

Not sure what to try next. Any pointers will be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Pete.

[brucek]

so I am assuming that the other two are In ?

Correct. They are left and right line-in.

I am assuming that I should be seeing some volume level on the two right hand side meters

You should be seeing volume level on the right meter since your loopback is on the right channel only (not the left, as you are not using it).

Any pointers will be much appreciated!

Tell me about this statement:
I've wired a phono lead between the line-out and line-in R channels
Do you have a stereo adapter on the line-in and line-out jacks to break out the left and right channel?

brucek

[badbunny]

Hi Bruce, its a USB soundcard with individual phono connections for L and R, in and out so no splitter needed. After your question I was wondering how I could check if the sound out is working, and whether the audio in is working. So, I plugged the out into my amp, and verified that was working.

Then I plugged one of the audio outputs from my bluray player into the soundcard in, played a CD, and tried recording a sound sample. Nothing. Hmm.. then I was wondering if the soundcard is faulty, so I tried hooking it up to the L channel instead. Bingo, now recording sound. Further investigation of the soundcard settings found that the soundcard defaults to mono, and as per murphy's law, to the left channel Might be worth adding that as a troubleshooting step to the guide ?

So, tried running the calibration again, and still not a flat response curve Further head scratching, and realised that the soundcard is defaulting to zero output volume! Doh! Set that to 0.5, and voila! A flat curve like in the guide...

Tomorrow I will have a go at running REW on my subwoofer... watch this space

Thanks,
Pete.

[Nuance]

Well done badbunny. I've been playing with REW all weekend and finally made some headway.

Regarding the meter, I believe you are suppose to adjust whichever channel you are using (left or right) to within 3dB of the output volume (which is -12 in your picture above). So, ideally you'd set the channel you are using to -12dB as well using the slider in your soundcard's mixer (mine was the "speaker" slider).

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

Good luck!