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Getting around the limitations of JavaSound on OS X

86K views 170 replies 41 participants last post by  mikaelb 
#1 · (Edited)
John Reekie has produced a great blog post about how to work around the problems Java has on OS X with audio input from Firewire cards, multi-input USB cards and 48kHz sources. You can find the cure for these JavaSound ills at Room EQ Wizard on the Mac - An Input Workaround. Great work John, and thank you!

Edit 12th September: Here is a related post on using HDMI output with REW on OS X, thanks to EmagSamurai: 8 channel HDMI output from REW on the Mac.

Edit 29th June 2014: Use V5.01 beta 21 or later (available here) for OS X 10.7.3 onwards, removes the need for workarounds.
 
#148 ·
The basic routing solution seems to be working fine for me with Mac OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) using LineIn and Soundflower applications with UMIK-1. (Thank you John/HifiZine!)

Not tried any proper measurements with REW as yet.

One observation is that I am hearing repeating clicks in generated sweeps / tones.
This does not sound right, sounded a bit like sync slippage clicks.
Is this normal / anything to worry about?
 
#149 ·
hi

i must admit, i feel stupid, having to post here and report that i can't get REW to work after having made literally hundred+ measurements in the past...

i used different hardware that worked using John Reekie's workaround but now, no luck with any of them...

mac OS 10.6.8
interface: fireface800 (or motu traveler MK3 / M-audio transit)
REW 5 beta 20
line in 2.1.1

main problem:
i don't get input into REW from the mic/interface (left & right channel checked)


- i hear REW's output on my speakers
- (i still hear the mic-input on my speakers, will adress that later)
- can't get any input into REW

i see the mic input on the interface LED
i see the mic input on the fireface software mixer
i see the mic input in lineIn when clicking 'pass thru'

lineIn
IN from fireface, channel 1 used
OUT soundflower 2ch

system preferences
OUT fireface
IN soundflower 2cha

REW
default device for IN & OUT selected


help is greatly appreciated!!
 

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#151 ·
You may not need to use any workaround any more. I would try a more recent Beta. In the more recent versions JohnPM has built a version of Java into REW.
Don' t know if it solves all Mac issues, but it certainly does fix the UMIK 1 and presumably other 48K problems.
DD
 
#152 ·
Truly stumped this afternoon. I have used REW many times for many different purposes, but today I can’t get the mic signal to register. I’ve isolated and tested every component in the chain—the mic and preamp work fine into the MacBook mini jack. The Behringer USB card works fine for calibration. Either channel can be looped as a ref. input. When I hook it all up I get no mic signal. No idea.
 
#154 ·
We would need to do a detailed trouble shoot to find the individual reasons.
But I suggest get rid of the obvious first.
The workaround should not be necessary if you download the latest Beta version of REW.
Simplify the setup. No Calibration of any kind. No Loopback Correction.
At base, this is playback and recording. Achieve credible playback and credible input from the mic in the computer using simpler audio software. Then fire up REW and it should just work.

DD
 
#155 ·
Hello everyone. I need some help.

I hooked up my umik-1 and HDMI to macbook pro late 2013 and a HK 5.1 receiver per the following instructions:

minidsp.com/applications/acoustic-measurements/umik-1-hdmi-on-mac

Everything went well, but every time I press measure I get the same curve, regardless of the HDMI number in Channel 1. I did set the Channel 2 to none.

It also resets to sub only (0-200Hz) when I press measure. I set the Generator to Pink Noise Speaker cal before pressing Measure, but it just reverts to Sub Cal.


When I press the green test button on Speaker Cal in the Generator (Pink Noise) it outputs to the correct Left front channel, but when I press the Measurement button it sounds like it only outputs to the sub. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Nick
 
#156 ·
Nick, did you check the following:

1. EQ and bass management on your receiver and make sure they are disabled?

2. Went to Midi setup on your Mac and make sure the output set to Soundflower 62Ch

3. On your AVR, when measuring individual speaker, make sure they are set to large. Otherwise when you measure bass mgmt will kick in the sub

4. Remember to copy the first line of your UMIK-1 cal from minidsp and paste it to the cal file you havgot from CSL
 
#160 ·
I have successfully used REW 5.11 on my Macbook Pro Retina (10.10.3) using HDMI, Soundflower, and a Cross-Spectrum calibrated UMIK-1 to measure my main sound system.

Emboldened by this experience, I installed REW on my home office Mac Mini (10.10.3) to likewise measure my Prodipe speaker setup. However, here I am stumped – I cannot get REW to emit any sound.

I have connected the Mac Mini using an optical cable to an Emotiva XDA-2, which drives the Prodipes. I have set Digital Out as the output in System Preferences - Sound, and verified that it works as expected using other programs. Yet, regardless of which output device I select in Output Device and Output, no sound is generated when I try to Check Levels, and if I try to make a measurement, I am told “Signal Generator audio output not available”, which is unsurprising, I suppose. I have tried both 48 and 44.1 kHz output.

I have repeated the above after having installed SoundFlower on this machine with the same results.

Any suggestions?
 

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#163 · (Edited)
Hi there!
Please let me know what to read here to get an answer to my stupid question ))
The question is: while measuring REW by itself i had obtained a strange result. "Measuring by itself" means that i put a Soundflower2ch as an Output and Input device in REW's Preferences. Thus the sweep goes from REW's output to REW's input directly. Then I start measurement and received following (find .mdat attached).
The surprise is (at least): (i) the ringing IR, (ii) the SPL drop after 17 kHz. MacbookAir + MacOS 10.10.3 serve as a platform.
We try to find an answer in our domestic forum discussion, but failed. Where is my mistake hidden?
Thanks in advance.
Boris, St.Petersburg, Russia


Ups!! Bug fixed, problem solved. Sorry.
 

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#164 ·
Thanks for the pointers in this discussion. Unfortunately I've been prevented to go any further from the fact that Soundflower seems incompatible with OS X Mavericks.
Since OS X Mavericks 10.9 was released I have never got Soundflower to work at all. 1.6.6b seem to be completely incompatible as far as I can tell. I've just now tried the 1.6.7 and 2.0b2 builds available from fellow Github users discussed in the Github issue discussion Could someone please post a compliled binary for 1.6.7? (Issue #24) and none of the binaries that users have been kind enough to compile does work for me.

I've tried on different MacBook Pros, new installations, new disks and with new audio interfaces present, with 1.6.6b for years, but the results are always that if I send output from any source to soundflower I can't get it routed further to anywhere. The same with these new builds.

At the moment I have the 2.0b2 from above installed, which is recognized by SoundlfowerBed from 1.6.6b (No-one seems to have been able to compile that so far), but I can't do anything with it. Any source routed to soundflower seem to end there. On 10.6 Soundflower was very easy to use.

I can't move past this issue, so REW seems to be out of my reach as does FuzzMeasure as the current version 4 requires Yosemite, so for my home studio at least that's not working out. I bought the Dayton EMM6, but it doesn't seem I will be able to use it for any analysis with OS X.

I did manage to get sound into REW 5.1.13 without soundflower with my RME Babyface, but I got the same error messages as have been discussed both here and elsewhere likely due to the multiple inputs this audio interface has.

I'm open for suggestions if anyone has them. Thank you
 
#167 ·
Thank you for your response, Bouvin. That's interesting. What specific version did you use and from what source? Did you at all use LineIn or something else or was it straightforward to route audio from the input of your audio interface to soundflower?

I'll try this on an external Yosemite installation, as I want to try the FuzzMeasure demo anyway. I've only heard about REW before, but for regular use I might be interested in that. I really would like REW to work though. I've been needing Soundflower for other applications for a very long time, so to get it to work would be very welcome.
 
#171 ·
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