I recently got an RME Babyface Pro FS and while it’s been working great in general (No issues in Ableton or with general audio playback) there’s an issue with it in Dorico. Dorico is not consistently playing audio through the RME-drivers, and I have to either change the output channel or the sample rate to get sound (sometimes even this doesn’t work). When it’s not working there is no audio playing whatsoever with the Dorico mixer also being completely inactive (no audio levels moving). When I get it to work it seems to work consistently until I close the down the project.
The Generic ASIO driver is working consistently as a workaround but has it adds quite a bit of latency, and I cannot export audio (without artifacts) through it. The RME drivers and firmware are up to date and I’m on Windows 11.
I found some people online having very similar issues in Cubase, and I suppose the issues in Dorico are related.
Hi! I’m a happy user of the same RME audio interface and Totalmix FX with Dorico and Nuendo. In Dorico I route to two available software output channels (ADAT 3/4), then send that to hardware channels with loopback enabled in Totalmix. RME has made a series of excellent videos on routing in Totalmix.
Maybe I’m just not understanding Totalmix, but it registers no input to any channel unless I change the sample rate in Dorico (or change the output channel) after which everything works fine until I close down the program. There’s no audio to route anywhere when the issue is occurring.
Hi @gustavspoormaker, The logs show me that you are most often the ASIO Fireface driver, which indeed should be the right choice anyway, because it is made for your audio interface. Generic drivers can never compete with dedicated drivers.
But what I also see in the logs is, that sometimes the samplerate changes, maybe Ableton or other software do that. Those changes could be the fault for Dorico not playing anymore.
That’s why we recommend to stick to one sample ratet throughout all the music software that you have. It doesn’t matter if it’d be 44100Hz or 48000Hz, just stick to one and the same rate in all apps.
I’m changing the sample rate because that seems to be the only thing that makes the audio work (restarting Dorico works around 60% of the time). Changing to from 48 to 44.1 and then back to 48kHz is the only thing that seems to consistently resolve the issue, although temporarily.
But that’s most likely the issue here: Some other application changes the RME to 44.1kHz, but Dorico does not get notified. Then flipping back and forth brings everything in sync and it plays again.
Does Ableton maybe change sample rate of the audio device? Is the sample rate saved in the project data? Please keep an eye out.
I found a program which I had not set to 48kHz, and this seems to have been part of the issue. However, even if there are no other programs running and no sample rates are being reconfigured (Totalmix consistently shows 48kHz) audio only plays in Dorico ~50% of the time when opening a project (seems to be completely random). How can I check whether or not the device setup settings are being saved in the project data?
Okay, thanks for checking.
Well, at this moment I can only say, keep your eyes and ears open. It would be best if you could reproduce the issue in a way that you can say, do this, this and that and the audio is gone. If you manage to come up with such recipe, then we possibly could have a remote screen sharing session where I can see and also try out some things at your end.
How does that sound for you?
I’m having the same problem with Asio fireface usb. It takes several attempts to get it to connect. I do things like unplug, replug, change to a different driver, etc.
there is not much I can say about it, I assume it to be a hardware issue, i.e. the cables or connectors to be faulty or shaky. In the audio engine logs I do see messages popping up from the baios (Basic audio input output system), a Steinberg component that talks to the hardware. I do see log messages of the baios in case of audio devices are going away or arriving (i.e. gotten plugged in ), but this is something that the audio engine can only react on and then tries to connect to whatever driver/device is currently around.
Is it suddenly switching to another driver in the middle of operation with you? Or is it stable for the rest of a session once you’ve booted up Dorico and got finally the Babyface going?
Once it’s working, it stays working, unless I restart, then I’m back to trying to get it to connect again. It’s rock solid with Ableton, haven’t had a single problem. The interface has been flawless until Dorico. I will try another cable and see if that helps.
What’s the best way to get it recognized? I sometimes unplug and replug, or change to another driver, etc. is there one that works best?
Previous poster changed sample rates to get it to connect.
Here’s another diagnostic in case it helps. I changed the cable. It didn’t help. I tried Cubase this time instead of Ableton, it recognized the RME, Dorico did not. I unplugged, replugged, unselected, reselected, eventually got Dorico to recognize it. I saved the file, closed Dorico, reopened Dorico and it was no longer connect to the RME.
Hi @marshtides, well, the log files tell me something different. The Babyface does recognized on every start-up and especially in the very latest run it was chosen as the current audio device.
I don’t know how to proceed on this. Could we have a remote session where we could have a look together?