RME DIGI9652

Snap · Post by **Snap** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:08 am

Just got an old Digi9652 for cheap and learnt the hard way that hdspconf and hdspmixer don't work with this card. They were written for the later non Digi versions. I managed to put it to work (but stuttering) with Pulse audio, but I cannot manage to make it work with Jack at all. Don't know how to set it up in Cadence. Jack crashes every time I lauch the server. I'm stuck at this point. I've surfed the web but there's very little info regarding this card used in Linux. Folks say it works but don't know how to.

Please, any advice to setup jack properly will be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Thad E Ginathom · Post by **Thad E Ginathom** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 12:14 pm

Have you tried rmedigicontrol?

It used to work for me Digi96/8 PST, although I did not try the digital i/o since moving to Linux.

EDIT... no, I think mine is an earlier generation. Probable better information here.

looplog · Post by **looplog** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 2:30 pm

I have had the same card here working fine under JACK for several years. The DIGI 9652 or 9632 cards have had Alsa drivers for a long time and work with no extra setup required. They should work with JACK easily as well. There isn't really a "how to" - these cards are about as plug and play as it gets. The only thing I can think of is that there may be an issue if the card has the Mac compatible firmware chip installed.

Snap · Post by **Snap** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:29 pm

I've tried the card in Ubunbtu 12.10 and it seems to work kinda plug and play. No mixer or anything. It just works under Pulse audio, but it stutters in a weird way. According to these topics:

https://community.ardour.org/node/3426

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=817022

I managed to set it as master clock to sync my dbx Quantum as the DA converter. The Quantum gets locked to it. But it seems the stuttering is related with the priority of the process. For now, trying different recommended priority settings I haven't managed to get rid of it.

In KXS 12.04.1 I haven't got a single sound for it yet...

haven't tried PulseAudio here anyhow, only Jack.

Have you tried rmedigicontrol?

Yes, "No RME Digi soundcard found". Maybe a module is missing? ...But Alsa finds it.

I have had the same card here working fine under JACK for several years. The DIGI 9652 or 9632 cards have had Alsa drivers for a long time and work with no extra setup required. They should work with JACK easily as well. There isn't really a "how to" - these cards are about as plug and play as it gets. The only thing I can think of is that there may be an issue if the card has the Mac compatible firmware chip installed.

Did you ever used it with Jack? Do you remember the settings?

The guy I bought it from used it in a PC loaded with Win XP for years. I don't know if it has Mac firmware, I guess no...

looplog · Post by **looplog** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:09 am

Snap wrote:
Have you tried rmedigicontrol?
Yes, "No RME Digi soundcard found". Maybe a module is missing? ...But Alsa finds it.

Digicontrol is for only one or two specific RME cards. It will not work with the DIGI 9652 or 9632 cards.

Snap wrote:Did you ever used it with Jack? Do you remember the settings?

The guy I bought it from used it in a PC loaded with Win XP for years. I don't know if it has Mac firmware, I guess no...

I use it with Jack exclusively. Assuming you have Jack setup correctly then it should just work, and by setup correctly I mean there are no special settings for this card that don't apply to any other card. It is a standard Jack setup for which there are many guides on the net. About the only thing this card won't do is operate at lower frame rates like 16 or 32 frames per period. Do you have any way to make sure Jack is working in general, perhaps by using it with a different sound card just for testing purposes?

Otherwise, since you can probably rule out the firmware being the cause of an issue, the only other potential cause of stuttering I can think of could be sample rate or bit depth mismatch between your DA unit and the card. Unfortunately these kinds of issues are a real pain to troubleshoot. Maybe try running the RME card as slave to the Quantum instead of the other way round? You should be able to set Preferred Sync Source in Alsamixer.

Thad E Ginathom · Post by **Thad E Ginathom** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 2:51 pm

Snap wrote:Did you ever used it with Jack? Do you remember the settings?

Possibly, but only in passing. In fact I think my once-much-loved card is dead: I did plug it in recently and got only a loud buzz on one channel. Must be over ten years old now.

I only came to Jack because I ended up with a firewire device. Before that, yes my card worked with Linux, plug and play with Ubuntu.

Because I do no more than the most simple and basic recording, I had no need of Jack and studio tools. Now I do use it, I'm going to continue using it even with non-FW devices: it's wonderful. But that's another story

Post by **khz** » Tue Jun 18, 2013 3:50 pm

pls post: