M-Audio 2626 manual Output Source Routing, Active Input Ports, ProFire, User Guide

Why are hardware inputs and outputs disabled?

When the interface operates at higher sample rates (i.e., 88.2/96 kHz or 176.4/192 kHz), certain hardware input and output ports become disabled due to the design of the S/MUX II and S/MUX IV protocols. When this happens, the Control Panel automatically scales back the number of software return channels to match the number of hardware outputs.

Additionally, you can choose to disable unused hardware input ports and/or software return channels to minimize the amount of system resources used by ProFire 2626. Both of these occurrences may result in Router output sources appearing grayed-out and italicized.

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Output Source Routing

This section lets you select the audio source for each hardware output pair on the interface.

The Router has four columns of drop down menus: These columns (from left to right) represent the Analog Outputs, the first set of ADAT Outputs, the second set of ADAT outputs, and finally the the coaxial S/PDIF output.

To use the Router, first locate the pair of hardware outputs to which you’d like to send audio. Next, click the downward arrow to open the drop-down menu and select the audio source you’d like to connect to your chosen output. ProFire 2626 will now route that audio source to your selected output.

In the drop-down menu, the analog, ADAT, and S/PDIF inputs correspond to the analog, ADAT and S/PDIF hardware inputs found on the interface. The “SW Return” selections correspond to the outputs

of your audio software, while the “Aux Send” selections correspond to the stereo Auxiliary Send outputs of the DSP Mixer described in the previous section. “Mixer Out” is the master output of the ProFire 2626 DSP Mixer.

Note that if any of the drop-down selections appear grayed-out and italicized, this means that the stream is inactive (see the “Why are hardware inputs and outputs disabled?” box on this page for additional information). Select

a stream that is not italicized or grayed-out from the drop down menu to route an active stream to your chosen output.

Active Input Ports

These checkboxes determine which groups of hardware inputs are currently active on the interface. If a box is checked, its corresponding inputs are active; if a box is left unchecked, the corresponding ports are not active and the audio software will not receive any signal from this input until it is made active again. Be sure to deactivate any ports that are not being used as this will reduce the demands placed on the FireWire bus and decrease

the amount of system resources used by ProFire 2626. Deactivated inputs and outputs will be grayed-out and italicized in the Control Panel.

Note that at least one group of inputs must be active; the Control Panel will not allow you to disable any more than three of the four available check boxes.

Windows users: Note that inputs and outputs will always appear in your audio software, regardless of how these checkboxes are set. However, signals associated with deactivated ports will not be received by the software.

NOTE: Audio signals received at disabled input ports are not transmitted to the computer through the FireWire cable. However, signals present at the hardware inputs are always audible through the DSP Mixer/Router even if its corresponding ports have been disabled in the Router. Furthermore, the interface can still receive digital clocking information through the S/PDIF or ADAT ports even if they have been disabled from this menu.