Soundblaster Live! 24-bit USB External Setup

Please help, I have been tring to get REW calibrated with no success. First off let me try and explain what I have done so far. I have started off with the Room EQ index getting started. I have a radio shack meter, Soundblaster live 24 card (external). I purchased all the necessary cables needed to hook it up.I have an Outlaw 990 reciever.I hooked the line in (not mic in) of the SB live to my sound meter with the Y cable .I hooked my Aux in of my reciever to the SB live front speaker plug with Y cable on the right side as stated. I read the thread on how to set up the sound card that JohnM posted. Now when I try and SET INPUT VOLUME I get a message saying (Input volume control is at its maximum) and it will not calibrate.I have tried changing the CHOSE INPUT to Microphone and what U hear and this makes no difference.I have played with the volume level starting it at zero when I click the SET INPUT VOLUME and I still get the same message. I know I probably didn't explain myself very well but hope someone can help me figure this out.
Thanks for any information you can provide me.

Ciscokid,

You are likely setting an internal loopback monitor in the soundcard itself and so the input line is not functioning.

When REW can't see an input it will increase the level to max to try and correct the situation and the end result is the error you are getting.

This is the standard error people make with the soundblaster cards.

Did you read this thread over and also this thread over?

Perhaps best not to post in this Sticky thread. Perhaps start your own thread if you still have problems..

brucek

I am using almost the same setup as Ciscokid. (I mean the RS digital SPL meter and SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit USB, but not same AVR, I have a Marantz SR5500.) I went through the same steps with the same results. My interpretation of what's happening is different from the interpretation of Brucek. I think that the error message you are getting at the "Set Input Volume" step is unimportant, and you should go on to the next steps and take measurements.

Here is what I mean:

(1) When you "Set Measurement Level" (the first step, after connecting all the cables and turning everything on) you set the volume control on the AVR to get a reading of 75 dB on the 80 dB scale on the SPL meter. During this step, you either leave the Master Volume Control on the SoundBlaster card at 50% of full scale, where the program automatically sets it, or manually raise the SoundBlaster volume control to 100% in the Surround Mixer panel, as suggested in this thread.

Note that 75 dB on the SPL meter is also "-20 dB relative to full scale" in REW, in other words 95 dB on the SPL meter would be equivalent to "full scale" or "reference level" or "0 dB relative level" in REW. I found this concept confusing at first, but I from what I've read, I think this is standard practice for audio and recording engineers (I mean, defining a "full scale" or "reference level" and then giving SPL levels in dB relative to that reference level).

(2) Then the next step (before any other calibrations or measurements) is Set Input Volume. In this step, for some reason that I can't understand scratchhead: ), REW tries to raise the volume of the pink noise tone to get a reading of -18 dB relative (or 77 dB absolute) from the SPL meter, rather than -20 dB relative where you just set it in the step before.

But maybe REW cannot raise the volume from -20 dB to -18 dB relative, either because the SoundBlaster volume control is already at 100% and can't go higher, or because, even if the SoundBlaster volume control is less than 100%, REW cannot adjust this control ("some soundcards do not provide programmatic access to their input volume control").

So you get an error message which is effectively saying "I'm unhappy because I couldn't automatically adjust the volume control to raise the volume from -20 dB to -18 dB, but that doesn't really matter much, so ignore my complaint and keep going".

(Let me know if my interpretation is wrong, I just did 30 separate measurements, 5 speakers * 6 positions of SPL in room, and I think the results are good in spite of always getting the "Set Input Volume" error message.)

so can you explain the exact wire and connectors that I will need to connect the CM 140 to the soundblaster and then to the Pre Amp, in my case a Stereo system. The output on the CM 140 say's it has a 1/8 in output. Do I use a 1/8 in stereo plug or mono plug to the sound card from the CM 140. From the output of the sound card do I use a 1/8 in. stereo plug to with RCA's to the pre amp?

Click to expand...

The CM-140 uses a standard 3.5mm (1/8") mono plug.

The SoundBlaster 24bit external uses standard 3.5mm (1/8") stereo jacks that must be broken out with a stereo Y adapter to two mono like this:

brucek

You need two 'stereo to mono' adapters like this:

To plug into both the LINE-OUT and LINE-IN stereo jacks as shown with the red arrows in this picture:

Now you have 'broken out' the right channel of the soundcard.

Then you need a mono to mono 3.5mm (1/8") male to male cable to go from the Galaxy to the red mono right channel LINE-IN.

Then you need a mono 3.5mm (1/8") male to RCA male cable to go from the red right channel LINE-OUT to your receiver AUX input...

brucek

I am at the point trying to calibrate my sound card, and keep getting this message.

The highest level in the measurement is just -36.8 dbfs. I am not sure what I have set wrong, any ideas.

The following are my notes from the measurement.

Sample rate: 48000Hz
-3dB points: 4.0Hz, 21.798kHz
Input device: SB Live! 24-bit External
Input: MICROPHONE (Line-In/Mic-In)
Channel: Right
Input volume: 1.000
Input RMS target: -40.0dB
Actual RMS at 1kHz: -40.0dB
Output device: SB Live! 24-bit External
Output: SPEAKER
Sweep level: -40.0dB
20Hz .. 20kHz flatness: +0.3, -1.3dB
1kHz 2nd harmonic: 0.012%
1kHz 3rd harmonic: <0.001%

Any ideas if I have a problem?

I have been trying to calibrate this sound card for a couple of days. I am obviously doing something (or a lot of somethings) wrong. I have attempted to set up the sound card like it was explained earlier in this thread. I have made sure that "Enable Monitoring" is not checked. I am not sure that the mic in/line in setting is correct but I have tried it both ways. The legend beside the line is always mic-in/line-in. The caption "What U Hear" only appears in the information bubble and I am not sure if seeing that in the bubble means that it is selected or is available for selection. The calibration graph is shown below.

The red line in the card calibration. It dosn't look anything like examples given in other threads. Any ideas where I am going wrong?:help:

Thanks
Ray