REW doesn't tell me which speaker is/was being tested

[osv]

thx john for all of your hard work on this software, it's really appreciated... can i ask questions, and make suggestions? i'm probably missing some info that is in the manual, but i can't find it.

1)when i finally got around to sweeping all speakers, not just the sub, i found out that every speaker was labeled "HD Audio HDMI out #1 5" in the rew results... the waveforms are different, so i did select a different speaker for every test... how can i tell which one is left front, right front, etc. EDIT: i see now that label is for the acoustic reference output, not the speaker that was swept, so it's still the same issue of not knowing which speaker was tested.

2)speakers are not labeled for what they are, i.e., "HD Audio HDMI out #1 5" doesn't tell me how to select right front, left front, etc., including for the timing reference output.

3)i only have one hdmi audio cable hooked up, does the "HD Audio HDMI out #1" label above represent each hdmi cable, since there is a number "5" for the speaker? can that "HD Audio HDMI out #1" text be hidden? it takes up valuable display space, and it's confusing.

4)i can't figure out how to select all speakers tested simultaneously, nor any combo of speakers simultaneously, nor any way to automatically sequence any combo of single speaker tests, like avr room correction software does individual speakers one after the other, automatically... the waterfall plot apparently needs multiple speaker output, how can i do that?

5)i'm seeing what looks like 8 speakers for a 5.1 system, under "OUTPUT", up thru "HD Audio HDMI out #8", and they all generate a sweep test, which doesn't make sense for a system that doesn't have 8 speakers in it... again, can't figure out what speakers it's talking about, need to see left front, right front, etc... it is also confusing because it appears to conflict with what looked to me like an "HD Audio HDMI out #1" prefix label in the rew results tab, that i indicated above.

i suspect that hdmi audio plugs are going to have the same default wiring, so if there is a way to manually change number labels to right front, left front, etc., in a config text file, i can do that :-)

thx

 

[John Mulcahy]

1)when i finally got around to sweeping all speakers, not just the sub, i found out that every speaker was labeled "HD Audio HDMI out #1 5" in the rew results

Labelled where? The output that was used for a measurement is shown on the Info dialog for the measurement.

2)speakers are not labeled for what they are, i.e., "HD Audio HDMI out #1 5" doesn't tell me how to select right front, left front, etc., including for the timing reference output.

I guess you are on Windows and using ASIO4All? It is ASIO4All (or the ASIO driver if not ASIO4All) which defines the channel names based on those the device driver or OS provides. In the case of ASIO4All the list can also contain channels from multiple devices. REW doesn't know what they are or what they ultimately connect to. The 8 channels of an HDMI interface are usually L, R, C, LFE, SL, SR, SBL, SBR though not always. The assignments can be changed in the Windows audio settings for some interfaces.

3)i only have one hdmi audio cable hooked up, does the "HD Audio HDMI out #1" label above represent each hdmi cable, since there is a number "5" for the speaker? can that "HD Audio HDMI out #1" text be hidden? it takes up valuable display space, and it's confusing.

As above, REW doesn't control the naming. HDMI interfaces sometimes have HDMI in their name and sometimes not.

4)i can't figure out how to select all speakers tested simultaneously, nor any combo of speakers simultaneously, nor any way to automatically sequence any combo of single speaker tests, like avr room correction software does individual speakers one after the other, automatically... the waterfall plot apparently needs multiple speaker output, how can i do that?

When using ASIO there is an option on the Measure dialog to select a secondary output and choose the channel for that output. REW doesn't provide a way to select more than 2 speakers, and it would be completely counter-productive for measurement purposes. The waterfall plot does not need multiple speaker outputs.

5)i'm seeing what looks like 8 speakers for a 5.1 system, under "OUTPUT", up thru "HD Audio HDMI out #8", and they all generate a sweep test, which doesn't make sense for a system that doesn't have 8 speakers in it... again, can't figure out what speakers it's talking about, need to see left front, right front, etc... it is also confusing because it appears to conflict with what looked to me like an "HD Audio HDMI out #1" prefix label in the rew results tab, that i indicated above.

As above, REW doesn't control the channel naming of your interface and has no way of knowing what the interface or any of its channels are connected to.

If you are using ASIO4All there are suggestions for that in AustinJerry's guide.

 

[osv]

Labelled where? The output that was used for a measurement is shown on the Info dialog for the measurement.

thx, that helped, i figured out that you have to hit the "info" button, because the tab doesn't include speaker info... so i'll have to hit the "info" button, and manually type that speaker number info into the header of every tab box, can't copy and paste it.

but even that still doesn't tell me which speaker it actually is, because it's only a number, so i guess that i'll have to re-run the entire set of sweeps again, and manually name each sweep result right after i do it, with the "L" or "R" or whatever it is... i could then also put that # vs. actual speaker info on a sticky note, attached to my monitor.

what you are saying here is that every person who uses rew has to write down what specific speaker is tested with which # label, because there is no way to figure it out.

I guess you are on Windows and using ASIO4All? It is ASIO4All (or the ASIO driver if not ASIO4All) which defines the channel names based on those the device driver or OS provides. In the case of ASIO4All the list can also contain channels from multiple devices. REW doesn't know what they are or what they ultimately connect to. The 8 channels of an HDMI interface are usually L, R, C, LFE, SL, SR, SBL, SBR though not always. The assignments can be changed in the Windows audio settings for some interfaces.

the windows interface doesn't tell us that "R" might be "HD Audio HDMI out #1 3", as it's labeled in rew, but if the windows interface is able to accurately translate "HD Audio HDMI out #1 3" into a specific speaker, and label it correctly in the windows speaker setup, it can indeed be done.

rew just doesn't know where to locate that info in windows, and neither do i :-)

As above, REW doesn't control the naming. HDMI interfaces sometimes have HDMI in their name and sometimes not.

part of my problem was assuming that the hdmi audio interface used parallel data, when in fact it's apparently using serial audio data, so there isn't a dedicated wire for every audio channel... that would actually be too limiting.

When using ASIO there is an option on the Measure dialog to select a secondary output and choose the channel for that output.

and hopefully you were able to figure out which speaker is what, before actually running that combined sweep... now what about sequential sweeps of individual speakers, like the avr does? is that a rew option?

REW doesn't provide a way to select more than 2 speakers, and it would be completely counter-productive for measurement purposes. The waterfall plot does not need multiple speaker outputs.

the austinjerry pdf indicates otherwise: "For the Waterfall graph, generate a measurement with left+right+subs (Quote from User Jevansoh: “This is the only measurement where you do actually want to measure both the Left and Right speakers along with all subwoofers, together. You’re looking at the combined response in the modal region on this graph, so you need every speaker playing that will be playing frequencies below 300hz at the same time, which is the Left, Right, and Subs”.)"

now how do i do that in rew?

As above, REW doesn't control the channel naming of your interface and has no way of knowing what the interface or any of its channels are connected to.

windows knows what speaker the hdmi number is connected to, because that's how the o.s. labels each speaker as L or R or whatever.

thanks again for taking the time to explain this, really appreciate it.

 

[John Mulcahy]

what about sequential sweeps of individual speakers, like the avr does? is that a rew option?

No

the austinjerry pdf indicates otherwise: "For the Waterfall graph, generate a measurement with left+right+subs (Quote from User Jevansoh: “This is the only measurement where you do actually want to measure both the Left and Right speakers along with all subwoofers, together. You’re looking at the combined response in the modal region on this graph, so you need every speaker playing that will be playing frequencies below 300hz at the same time, which is the Left, Right, and Subs”.)"

now how do i do that in rew?

Put the measurement signal on left and right, the receiver's bass management generates the sub output. Similarly "centre+sub" tests just send the signal to the centre channel.