TR5 - Uncontrollable Volume

[Swisstony10]

I've been using TR5 for quite a while, with few problems and pretty good results. However, a recent drive issue caused me to replace one of my hard drives - not the system one with Windows etc on it, a purely data drive on which all my music projects were stored. When I attempted to continue with a remastering project that I'd been halfway through, I hit a problem - neither Cubase nor T-Racks would output any sound. A week of driver updating, uninstalling and reinstalling of the audio interface (MOTU Ultralite Mk3 Hybrid) and trial & error, and I discovered that the problem was the ARC2 plug-in, which was reducing all the volume to zero. Having solved this issue, I'm back to the remastering project.

However - before I had the issue I could vary the volume of the output from T-Racks while mastering using the standard Windows volume slider. This was great - it meant I could continue working without upsetting neighbours. Since I got everything working again, I have absolutely no control over the volume of the output from TR5. It takes no notice of anything - INCLUDING the master volume control on the audio interface! What the heck am I missing?

[garfy]

Hello Swisstony10 and welcome to the forums.

Since I got everything working again, I have absolutely no control over the volume of the output from TR5. It takes no notice of anything - INCLUDING the master volume control on the audio interface! What the heck am I missing?

That sounds like the weirdest problem! Is it the only piece of software you use that doesn't get turned down using the master volume? I mean, if you use Cubase or watch YouTube does the master volume work as expected?

Could it be something to do with the CueMix software running in the background? I'm not sure this is directly a T-RackS issue though, as it won't have direct access to the hardware outputs on the interface as it must go through either Windows or MOTU drivers to get to the hardware.

[Swisstony10]

Yeah - T-Racks is the only thing that's weirded out since the change. All the windows-produced noises (media player, browser/Youtube etc) are controlled by the main volume control on the windows task bar. Cubase bypasses this control and goes through the audio interface directly, so that works fine (aside from a possibly-related issue with ARC2*). I just checked the audio settings in TR5, and they're as follows:

Technology - Windows Audio (Exclusive Mode)
Output Device - MOTU Main Out 1-2 (MOTU Audio Wave for 64-bit)

These are the only settings which will work anyway - if I try to switch to the ASIO option, I get an error message "Could not initialize Audio Device of type "ASIO". This is fine anyway - I'm assuming that using the Windows Audio version is the one which would cause it to be affected by the windows master volume control.


* The issue with ARC2 is also weird. It's always been active in TR5 with no problem, and has also always been a plug-in on the monitor channel in Cubase (the master output is obviously left alone) - as per the original post. However, since I "fixed" the no audio issue, I find that the instance of ARC2 which sits in Cubase is nearly silent, and I have to go into the "Monitor" tab in ARC2 and turn the master volume up to balance the overall gain on the Cubase monitor channel. When I then close Cubase and switch to TR5 to master a track, the audio is utterly deafening, and I have to remember to go back into the ARC2 monitor tab and turn the master volume back down again.

I never had to do this until now - I can only assume both issues are somehow linked.

[Swisstony10]

Something else I just spotted - the audio interface is set to work at 48kHz sample rate, and all my projects are recorded at that rate too. Every time I fire up TR5, it changes the audio interface back to 44.1kHz, and I can't find a setting anywhere inside TR5 to change it back. As long as TR5 is running, it won't let me open the MOTU audio console to change it back.

I'm assuming that if I had the output technology set to ASIO in TR5, that would enable the "settings" button in the Audio Settings menu, and I'd be able to control the interface from that, but since it won't initialise an ASIO device (see previous post), then I'm a bit pooched.

[garfy]

WOW!

That just sounds like a complete bunch of crazy!

I would suggest opening a ticket with IK Official Support for some one-to-one help. https://www.ikmultimedia.com/contact-support/mi/

Someone may pop up here with a suggestion, but that is such a specific issue I would find it unlikely.

Post back when you get the solution as I'm genuinely interested in what was causing that sort of problem.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Swisstony10]

The only thing I hadn't tried - switching the audio output technology to "DirectSound".

Now I have control over the volume through Windows, I can set the monitor level in ARC2 to 0dB, and the audio interface has stopped having a sample-rate identity crisis every time I fire up TR5...