Subject:Input/output mapping not working?

Posted by: Etaoin

Date:11/9/2012 1:37:03 AM

I've just this week switched from a 2-in 2-out card to a 10-in 2-out card. Unless I'm reading the manual wrong, it should be possible to map any input from the 10 to channels 1 and 2 in SF. However, I can't get that to work. If I have audio on channels 7 & 8, it stays on 7 & 8, whatever setting I choose in Preferences -> Audio. So I can only record that by doing an 8-channel recording and then dropping the first 6.

The Preferences -> Audio window appears to be buggy in itself too. For Playback it only shows the option "Line 1 R", twice. As I do get stereo output, these are obviously not the same channel. For Record it shouws Line 1 thru 5 twice (no L/R markings). That should probably just be 1 thru 10, but as mention above, these settings seem to be completely ignored anyway.

Screenshots here:
http://dompselaar.org/SF/hb12_out.png
http://dompselaar.org/SF/hb12_in.png

Is input channel mapping working for anyone?

As a comparison, channel selection works absolutely fine in Logic, so it isn't driver related (the card is driverless for OS X anyway).: http://dompselaar.org/SF/logic_channels.png

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: J.

Date:11/9/2012 10:46:47 AM

So this is a Phonic Helix Board 12 connected via Firewire, correct?

J.

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: Etaoin

Date:11/11/2012 10:46:14 AM

Yes, correct. And SF 1.0.20 (latest at time of writing).

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: Etaoin

Date:11/15/2012 1:46:44 PM

I can add that this problem persists in 1.0.21. I still can't map SF channels 1 & 2 to inputs other than 1 & 2.

Also, SF seems thoroughly confused about the names of sound destinations, as it now lists my living room Apple TV and built in sources with the HB12 label.
Check this screenshot: http://dompselaar.org/SF/cardconfusion.png
Neither Logic Pro nor Audacity do this.

By the way, I've also came across something weird were in recording (or even just monitoring in "armed" mode), it just grabs a fraction of a second of sound and then keeps repeating that. Just as if it fills a buffer and never refreshes that. Switching to a different sample rate and back seems to reset that. This might be an issue with the HB12 though, although when it does this, it still works fine in other programs, i.e. when SF gets into the loops, I can switch to audacity and record without problems there, and when I switch back to SF it still only does loops.

As mentioned above, the HB12 is natively supported by OS X, so there is no driver that can be reinstalled.

Specs: iMac mid 2011 quad core i5 2.7 GHz 16GB memory. OS X 10.8.2.

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: pwppch

Date:11/15/2012 6:23:37 PM

"Also, SF seems thoroughly confused about the names of sound destinations, as it now lists my living room Apple TV and built in sources with the HB12 label."

What this is showing is that the airplay device has no input. When a device that has no inputs (or outputs) is discovered on the system, an aggregate device is generated based upon the default input or output device of the system. The [xxxx] is the default paired input device in this case.

For input only devices, the [xxxx] device is the paired output device.

Peter

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: pwppch

Date:11/15/2012 6:24:42 PM

We have identified the cause of the routing problems and will be releasing and update to address this problem.

Peter

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: Etaoin

Date:11/16/2012 9:10:06 AM

Thanks. Also thanks for clarifying the input labeling.

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: Etaoin

Date:11/21/2012 5:12:02 AM

Odd enough I just came across a news post from Phonic dating from September saying that the Helix Board Firewire isn't compatible with Mountain Lion. it doesn't say so on the product page so that's why I wrongly assumed it was fully supported by OS X.

I've asked Phonic support for clarification. Maybe the .1 or .2 Mountain Lion updates actually fixed support (and it does seem to work fine apart from these routing issues). But maybe it remains officially unsupported.

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: Etaoin

Date:11/21/2012 7:39:08 AM

Phonic was quick in replying. It seems the HB usually keeps working if you upgrade from Lion (which I did), as the update process will then retain some CoreAudio from Lion (their words).

For anyone also using the Helix Boards: They also mentioned that contrary to the news release, they are working on an update for the Helix Boards for Mountain Lion. Not sure exactly what that means, but probably a firmware update, as they rely on the standard firewire audio driver from Apple.

Subject:RE: Input/output mapping not working?

Reply by: Etaoin

Date:12/24/2012 4:19:24 AM

I can confirm that this seems to be fixed in 1.0.22.