Behringer X32 X_UF

[howartp]

Hi.

I've got two X32's - one at Church and one in the school theatre.

I've no problem with the Church one, connecting via X_UF to SCS and playing 6 channels into the X32 desk.

At the theatre the sound feed from the USB connection is stuttering every few seconds, whilst the audio line-out from the same PC is spotless (but noisy).

It stutters outside of SCS as well, but I'm wondering if anyone here knows more about sound cards/settings than I do that could advise?

Theatre PC is Core2Duo 3Ghz, 4GB RAM, 64bit.

Running with DirectSound in SCS, which I think is what I use at Church. If I choose ASIO, it doesn't let me use the audio lineout as an output, which I like to keep enabled (but muted on the mixer) for the less techie users in case the USB doesn't appear - it depends what order you power up etc - even when I was testing ASIO it suddenly disappeared 10 minutes into rehearsal.

Help...??

Peter

[jmgordon]

Perhaps Windows power management is turning off the power to the USB ports on one of your computers. To change this follow the directions Mike found in the 'Help Desk Geek' website Prevent Windows from Turning Off USB Devices.

[Mike Daniell]

If you're sending 6 channels to the X32 then you must be using ASIO as the X32 DirectSound driver only supports 2 channels (unless they've increased it since the last time I installed the driver).

Regarding the stuttering with the theatre computer and X32, could you email me a diagnostic file? You can create this file by selecting 'Create Diagnostic File' from the drop-down menu displayed when you click the Help button in the main window. The file will be saved in a folder named "SCS Diagnostics" under "Documents" or "My Documents".

Check the USB power management settings as suggested by Malcolm. Also, make sure your USB connections are firmly attached at both ends.

[howartp]

Thanks Mike.

Just sent diag file.

USB power management was turned on but it's not made a difference turning it off.

FYI I checked it's not in a USB3 port the other day, which it isn't, but moved it to another USB2 anyway just to check.

Peter

[Eric Snodgrass]

Make sure Windows is not turning off any of the USB ports to save power. The computer you are using should have the power settings such that the computer, hard drive, display and USB ports NEVER go to sleep or shut down to save energy.
Have you tried different USB cables? Sometimes it's as simple as changing a bad cable.
The breaking up of the audio you are experiencing could be due to a sample rate difference between the Behringer board and the ASIO settings of the computer. Make sure that both the computer and the console are using the same sample rate.
The audio breaking up over USB could also be a symptom of an issue that happens to Allen&Heath Qu consoles. The USB 3.0 drivers on new motherboards using Intel chipsets have changed and aren't completely backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports. I've posted this in October but it's worth posting again - it's a response to a user from Allen&Heath concerning this noise issue when connecting a computer using its USB 3.0 port to the Allen&Heath Qu console USB-B 2.0 port:

The issue you are experiencing is actually down to Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller (xHCI) on your computer or laptop. The QU mixer has a USB 2 interface and Intel ‘broke’ compatibility with the real time streaming protocol when they implemented this driver that deals with USB 3.0 ports.

We have been in contact with Intel, but they currently have no interest in fixing it. Our software team have been looking into this to see if there is any permanent solution we can create at our end, but this is currently ongoing.

Depending on which platform you are using there are some workarounds that work for some customers.

With a Mac, the only way to update or change this driver is with a full system update, and I have had feedback from a couple of users who found that updating to macOS Sierra resolved the issue.

With PC’s, you are able to update or change these host drivers independently. Some manufacturers have more recent USB host controller drivers available which ‘improve compatibility’ with USB devices. I would recommend seeing if there are any more recent drivers available for any system where you see this problem.

However, if that doesn’t work, another workaround at the moment is to disable the xHCI driver using ‘Uninstall a program’ in the control panel.

This has been found to solve the issue, though it also removes USB 3.0 functionality.

This might not be your particular problem but it is worth knowing.

[howartp]

Disable all USB power management - no luck.

Replaced USB cable with brand new cable - no luck.

Changed Sample Rate in SCS to 44100 to match the X23 - no luck

Updated X32 to 2.16 from 2.14 - no luck

(Daren't upgrade it to 3.x yet as we've a show next week!)

I think I'll grab another PC and throw X32 driver on that and test it.

Peter

[howartp]

Just found an old Win7 laptop behind me that I forgot was even in the theatre!

Stuck X_UF on that and it's playing the same audio tracks fine with no stuttering.

I've posted a thread on Behringer (Music Group) forum to seek advice there.

Will report back.

[CHP]

It's almost certainly USB dropout. It can be for any number of reasons. I use LatencyMon to try and find the root cause of dropouts and have had pretty good success in the past. It has a free version you can try.