Hi,
Just to confirm what others have said in more detail, unbalanced
prosumer type cards (Tried the Delta 66 and a 1010LT) don't seem to push
out enough volume even when maxed out in alsamixer. There is not much
you can do without putting some sort of gain amp in between the card and
the desk.
I had some success using RED 502 unbalanced to balanced converters
(passive transformer with ground lift). But they're about £30 per
channel so can get expensive if you have 3 stereo outs to the point
where just buying a decent sound card makes more sense.
On 2014-08-09 14:33, Alexander Strauss wrote:
Hi Keith,
I have similar problems with an external USB device. Did you manage
to get
higher output levels in the meantime?
Cheers,
Alex
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] Im Auftrag
von Gavin
Stephens
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 7. August 2014 06:18
An: Rivendell Users Group
Betreff: Re: [RDD] M-Audio Delta 410 low output levels
Rivnedell normalises audio to something like peak -13dBFS if you have
it set
to normalise on import etc... The meters in Rivendell are also more
like a
real(ish) VU meter, not a peak meter like in Cool Edit/Audition
etc... don't
get the two confused. It normalises to this low peak level by default
to
protect those using professional sound cards.
Some cards (not sure about the 410 you'd have to check) if balanced
still
don't have a decent output level, they are prosumer and not a full
+24dBu
output capable card. I have a Terratec Phase 22 with balanced but the
output
is +8dBu max so it's not a real professional level card which should
be
+24dBu max with a norminal of +4dBu.
But on a pro card, you don't normalise audio to within a few dB of
0dBFS on
a PC. You run a reference tone normally 1KHz at about -20dBFS on your
audio
file, to calibrate VU meters (which are an averaging meter not peak)
to 0VU
on analogue equipment. You'll then find when you take away the test
tone and
apply programme audio you'll get peaks of anywhere from say like
-13dBFS to
-6dBFS with some headroom left over. A -20dBFS test tone would give
you a
nice +4dBu norminal (average) output on a professional balanced audio
card,
with 20dB of headroom for peaks which gives you the full +24dBu
output of
the card. (24 - 20 = 4).
If you had an audio file normalised to say -2dBFS on the PC, this
would run
a pro card extremely hot (+22dBu out all the time with an average of
about
+14dBu output) and doing that can end up cooking some outputs or
inputs
+or
add distortion very easily elsewhere.
On a cheap noisey card however with unbalanced outputs built to drive
tiney
sounding speakers an audio file that's peaks are about -9dBFS means
turning
up the stereo and also the noise.
I suggest you go through the archives and google what a real VU meter
is,
and the SMPTE reference for 0VU is. It's been talked about a lot
before in
the past in the mailing list and is one of the hardest things to show
and
explain sometimes to budding audio engineers that have grown up on
domestic
sound cards with ripped CD's near 0dBFS on their computer (in the
consumer
world full of noise).
Cheers,
Gavin.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Thelen" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2014 1:05 PM
Subject: [RDD] M-Audio Delta 410 low output levels
Hello all!
This probably falls into the category of ‘dumb questions normally
asked by
newbies’, but…
Fresh install of RD Appliance. Sound card is a Delta 410 under ALSA
(ice1712/envy24). All the outputs work, but the levels are awkwardly
low.
Had to crank everything in alsamixer all the way up to make it even
mildly
useful. The VU meter in RDAirplay looks fine, with the peaks
occurring right
below 0… but at the console, even with the pot wide open, the peaks
are
around -30.
Is there some trick with this card/software setup that I’m missing?
---------------
Keith Thelen
Kanabec Systems
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