Just a thought, but not all PC USB2 or 3 sockets actually put out the USB specification volts and amps.

Some laptops and motherboards now claim to have e.g. "4 USB sockets including one charging socket". That "charging socket" is the one that'll be putting out the spec. volts and current, the others, who knows?

It's like the televisions being sold as "HD ready". Which actually means they aren't 1900x1080 HD at all, but usually somethingx720. Same kind of thing as the hard-drive marketing speak that claims a Gigabyte is 1000 Megabytes when it's really 1024.

Daniel - I was persuing this thread and I'm curious if you could comment a bit more on the idea of using the windows audio hardware (in my case, integrated sound on my ASUS mobo) alonside the babyface Pro. I read about this being the recommended method in the BFPro user manual but they don't dive into it much. If I'm understanding you, I'm to route audio from the sound card to the BFPro in TotalMix - does that mean I don't have to run any cabling to anything else (eg, it's all in the software) then? 

so, is the rme bfp not a heaping expensive mass of garbage now?
 

say what?!

Todd Page
Daniel - I was persuing this thread and I'm curious if you could comment a bit more on the idea of using the windows audio hardware (in my case, integrated sound on my ASUS mobo) alonside the babyface Pro. I read about this being the recommended method in the BFPro user manual but they don't dive into it much. If I'm understanding you, I'm to route audio from the sound card to the BFPro in TotalMix - does that mean I don't have to run any cabling to anything else (eg, it's all in the software) then? 

The usual way to use an external interface in conjunction with built in sound is to use the interface ASIO drivers for the DAW software and tell Windows to route all other sound to the built-in audio. The idea is that if Windows wants to make a noise it won't grab the recording interface and possibly disrupt the DAW by e.g. changing the sample rate and it not getting reset correctly when the DAW software uses the ASIO driver. This, I think, is what the RME manual is getting at.

An alternative view is to route everything to the external interface. Which is my personal preference on a non-laptop. I never have the Windows system sounds switched on anyway, and run Sonar with thereferences set to share the interface with other applications. Never had a problem in many years.

Totalmix only sees the inputs, outputs and internal routing of the RME interface (unless you have an ADAT or SPFIF unit digitally hooked up to it, in which case it can mix them in) If you insist on using the built-in sound for some purpose you can connect it's output to a pair of the RME line inputs and then route that to your monitors, but you can't use both in the DAW at the same time using ASIO drivers. You also lose a pair of interface inputs. So rather than do that you would be better disabling the internal sound in control panel/device manager or BIOS and just using the RME to handle all audio.

An exception might be if you have a need to ensure that no audio other than that coming from the DAW reached the monitors, which might be the case in a professional studio. Or might not.

tlw thanks for elaborating - that makes perfect sense to me and fits with how I've always done it myself - disabling windows sounds (and disabling, in the bios, the on-board audio). I think what got me wondering about it was there are some times when I've fired up itunes or chrome while Sonar is running and then I have all kinds of issues with not hearing sounds, stuttering and other wierdness until I've shut down everything but sonar (and often rebooting). I was using a Mackie 1220i firewire mixer interface before I got the BabyFacePro, and although I wasn't upgrading because of that specific issue, I was curious to see if perhaps those things quit happening with the RME drivers being so well done. Alas, there is still some weirdness going on, especially if I try to bump up sample rates and/or bit depth. My biggest concern was just what you said - tying up a pair of input to route analog audio from the integrated audio in the PC, and I didn't think there was any other way around it, with hooking up a different set up speakers, I suppose, and then getting a monitor switching unit (like a presonus monitorstation or similar).....

Todd Page
say what?!

Wood67
So I took delivery of a brand new Babyface Pro this morning... and so far I've achieved next to nothing.  Before I wrap it up and send it back as heap of (expensive) junk ..........

the reason i'm interested, 
is because i just bought a rme bfp

batesbrew - you'll be very happy I'm sure - mine installed without a hiccup, and my system doesn't seem to mind at all if I unplug the USB cable from it at all, it just starts right up again. My prior firewire interface was much more finicky. I also am using it over a USB3 hub. Their documentation says to try not to use it on a hub, and ultimately I'm going to dig in and see if I can identify which USB headers on my PC are isolated and the best bus-powered and everything, but I thought I'd just try it that way and it seems to be just fine, at least for me. Worked equally well in USB2 or USB3 port.

so, i have my rme babyface, 
so far, so good.
 
i have a demo of a song that is the first project i used the babyface on....
 
i recorded at 32 bit, and 96k sample rate.
 
not a single glitch.
 
and all of this, on an older version of sonar (6PE) running on a 8 year old pc using win xp.
 
LOL
 
color me impressed.