Lets try this soundcard cal thing again.

[Chrisbee]

Hi

I hate to bring this up again but something is still broken.

I'm not complaining because it is almost certainly something I am doing wrong.

I have just checked my soundcard calibration yet again after seeing the parallel thread.

I have been through the USB SB C Live! controls dozens of times and everything is set to default (no effects, no monitoring, no nothing)

I have tried default, wave, C-media etc. Now I'm using the default "emulated SB Live 24 bit" option. Sampling rate 48kHz.

I have tried all the input and output options without any improvement.

Here I'm using Line in and Front Speakers (out) sockets.

My cables are phono coax with solid RCA/jack adaptors. Only one side of the cable is being used.

The surround console is set to 2/2.1 and Line in. It looks exactly like the help files.

I cancelled the soundcard cal and meter cal files and have the following to show for it:

20 meters of cables:



I thought that awful result may have been my long test cables. So I tried a two foot long cable:



I have about 5dB of headroom during the final test sweep after manually adjusting levels to avoid earlier clipping.

Computer AMD 1600+ XPSP2 with auto updates set.

Help!

[JohnM]

What does the impulse response look like? If you look on the scope plot and zoom in on parts of it are there any odd features? Spikes, discontinuities, ...

[Chrisbee]

Thankyou for your patience.

I am not really sure what I'm looking for. So if I post an impulse and a scope graph perhaps you would be kind enough to suggest areas for closer inspection.

Impulse



Scope

[JohnM]

Looks like something fairly drastic is being done to the sweep before it gets captured, which has some similarities with an audio effect of some kind. Can you confirm exactly which soundcard you have? I'm curious about the "Emulated SB Live 24 bit" you mention, is this the device you see in the devices list? An SB Live 24-bit external card normally appears in the list as "SB Live 24-bit External". I'm also curious about your need to change the levels, please post a screen capture of the soundcard settings tab.

[Chrisbee]

Soundcard is Creative Soundblaster Live!24 Bit. External.

[Chrisbee]

All effects shown in EAX console are NOT enabled.

[JohnM]

Do the volume settings in the Soundcard tab normally read 0? What other devices appear in the device list?

[Chrisbee]

JohnM wrote:

Do the volume settings in the Soundcard tab normally read 0? What other devices appear in the device list?

The volume settings are manual only. If I try to adjust Line in Volume or Output volume they immediately return to 1.000.

If I set Sweep level to -10 the sweep has headroom of around 5dB.

Devices: in this order:

Output.

Default device
Primary sound driver
SB Live! 24-bit External (emulated)
Java sound audio engine

Input:

Default device
Primary sound capture driver
SB Live! 24-bit External (emulated)

It has now reached 1.30am here so I've got to go to bed.

[brucek]

SB Live! 24-bit External (emulated)

Something is not right here. I have read that creative has some drivers that allow better compatability with DOS. Can you download the latest driver software and then reload the soundcard software and see if you can clear that (emulation) notation..

brucek

[Chrisbee]

Hi

I have reinstalled the Creative software.

But REW now locks up repeatedly on the soundcard "Measure" 1kHz signal.

I am getting a good input signal but output remains steady at-129.4dB and nothing happens no matter how long I wait!

I have had to switch off the computer at the wall several times now!

Then I thought I'd reinstall REW in case it was corrupted but I still have exactly the same total lockup problem.

I have got rid of the "emulated" in the process but REW is waking up each time showing "default" (input and output devices) rather than "Live! 24bit External".

It makes no difference to the total lock up whether I use "default" or "Live 24 bit external".

Bwah!