New Neumann MA 1 - Automatic Monitor Alignment

[audafreak]

@jj-wohlgemuth
I have found the problem.
I have
- RME ADI-2 DAC on USB with MADIFACE driver. It is switched off, not used.
- Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 with driver - this I have used only for calibration. I works also with version 1.3 - just did it.

Last time I bought RME Fireface UCX II with Fireface USB driver. I wanted to use it also for calibration and sell Focusrite. But MA1 doesnot work with it. I dont know where incompatiility is but almost sure on Neumann side. Any other softvare works with it. Only MA1 does not.
Or it has something to do with fact I previously used Focusrite and MA1 remembers it somewhere and tries to find it again but it is not connected so it hangs. If somebody is using the same interface all the time - MA1 works in this case.

Please correct this, it costs me money for Focusrite and really lot of time with buggy MA1. I am a sw developer and see this sw is still not well done after so long time.
And this new saved HW setup - this is only cosmetic change not much usefull, it was always saved, but we need to save mainly RESULT of alignement on hard disk not input values like monitor ID and network card. And restore of course. And possibility to set oher parameters without need for recalibration. This is saving lot of our time.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

@jj-wohlgemuth
I have found the problem.
I have
- RME ADI-2 DAC on USB with MADIFACE driver. It is switched off, not used.
- Focusrite Scarlet 2i2 with driver - this I have used only for calibration. I works also with version 1.3 - just did it.

Last time I bought RME Fireface UCX II with Fireface USB driver. I wanted to use it also for calibration and sell Focusrite. But MA1 doesnot work with it. I dont know where incompatiility is but almost sure on Neumann side. Any other softvare works with it. Only MA1 does not.
Or it has something to do with fact I previously used Focusrite and MA1 remembers it somewhere and tries to find it again but it is not connected so it hangs. If somebody is using the same interface all the time - MA1 works in this case.

Please correct this, it costs me money for Focusrite and really lot of time with buggy MA1. I am a sw developer and see this sw is still not well done after so long time.
And this new saved HW setup - this is only cosmetic change not much usefull, it was always saved, but we need to save mainly RESULT of alignement on hard disk not input values like monitor ID and network card. And restore of course. And possibility to set oher parameters without need for recalibration. This is saving lot of our time.

Just for clarification: The UCX II worked for you with MA1 version 1.2, correct?

 

[audafreak]

I forgot to say it. No it did not worked even with v 1.2 - I tried today. Only Fokusrite works. No RME.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

I forgot to say it. No it did not worked even with v 1.2 - I tried today. Only Fokusrite works. No RME.

I have the UCX II and ADI 2 DAC, too. I use AES to KH750 (with KH310) and Spdif to second KH750. ATM only Fireface driver installed, but i still see both Madiface and Fireface-icon in the taskbar. Win 10, newest version and all updates.
For me, the UCX II worked with MA1 version 1.2.

 

[audafreak]

Had you used any other interface with MA1 before UCXII?Or is it the first one?

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Had you used any other interface with MA1 before UCXII?Or is it the first one?

Yes, Motu M4.

 

[LQL]

Where to download MA1 v1.2？

 

[DJBonoBobo]

By the way, no solution yet for the problem i have with 1.3. I exchanged some mails with Neumann, but we did not find the reason yet. It is not the switch or the repeater, though.

 

[audafreak]

I use AES to KH750 (with KH310) and Spdif to second KH750.

Do you use Neutrik impedance convertor or some kind of direct connection?

 

[audafreak]

Where to download MA1 v1.2？

Officialy probably nowhere. You can ask Neumann support, or somebody will upload it somewhwere. It is big so attachement probably not possible here.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Do you use Neutrik impedance convertor or some kind of direct connection?

Yes, for AES i use a Neutrik NADIT BNC-F, because the manual recommended it. For SPDIF i use a simple RCA to BNC cable.

Edit: Are the UCX II and MA 1 working for you now?

 

[audafreak]

By the way, no solution yet for the problem i have with 1.3. I exchanged some mails with Neumann, but we did not find the reason yet. It is not the switch or the repeater, though.

I also had situation that monitors were not found or each monitor found several times. And this happened in both 1.2 and 1.3.
Main alignment engine is very good but user frontend and parameter setting has long way ahead to be usable...
When comparing with RME - if some problem is found in sw/driver/firmware it is corrected within 1-2 days and released. Fantastic.

 

[audafreak]

Edit: Are the UCX II and MA 1 working for you now?

No, not working, I stopped trying and aligned again with 1.3 and Focusrite. This works for me. I have no time to be a debugger for Neumann. If they would send me some monitor as payment - I would try again.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

No, not working, I stopped trying and aligned again with 1.3 and Focusrite. This works for me. I have no time to be a debugger for Neumann. If they would send me some monitor as payment - I would try again.

Sorry to hear that. My UCX II is still working with MA1 version 1.2 at least. I use the following settings (WDM device is configured as a stereo device), if you want to know:

 

[audafreak]

I have the same, only SPDIF is Professional (KH750 accepts this), but WDM is multichannel. But it looks only for ASIO. But I will not try it in near future because I don't know when MA1 resets monitors and do not want to align it again.
I use this gear for 4.0 video/audio playback from Foobar (audio) and Jriver (video) both via ASIO in and output front via SPDIF back via Analog Out.

 

[badboygolf16v]

@DjBonoBobo and @audafreak, are you using Windows or Mac v1.3?

I was going to try v1.3 but I'm reluctant to do so given your experiences. I set up using v1.2 on Windows originally.

 

[audafreak]

I use windows.

 

[DJBonoBobo]

Me too (Windows).

 

[badboygolf16v]

Thanks. If I have issues with Windows, I will try Mac.

 

[audafreak]

@DjBonoBobo Do you think routing settings in Totalmix can have influence on MA1 finding interface? I don't think so but not sure how it works.

I found all settings are in windows folder C:\Users\User_Name\AppData\Local\Automatic Alignment, next time I will try to remove all files in Preferences subfolder if it will work. Funny thing is each parameter has separate file, nothing like XML. Standby time I have even 3 times with hexa filename.

Monitor ip addresses are stored in Constellations\HW_setup1.json file , maybe removing this file will help in finding monitors.

PakAppDB.sqlite is not important I think, nothing interesting.

Never remove those files completely - create a backup or just rename them for instance to original_filename.bak to have the possibility of rollback..

SW MA1 is installed in C:\ProgramData\Neumann\MA 1 - Automatic Monitor Alignment . Here we have interesting subfolder Firmware