1 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-09 17:27:18)

Topic: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Hello,

Just got myself a BF Pro. Overall - luxurious experience, the hardware, the software, Total Mix FX, DIGICheck - very impressive, everything is customizeable, solved me a lot of issues I was dealing with previously. Here is a list of things I found a bit questionable. I'm posting it not because of 'saltiness' but I would like it to be seeing as a gesture of big appreciation to RME efforts, so maybe you could improve it even further.

1. The the plastic box, the locks. Why they are so tricky to open, was it done on purpose? So, a knife or some sort of tool need to be used every time. Also the size - it is great to have such a box for transportation but it could be much, much smaller and slimmer - making it as small as possible would be more useful.

2. The labeling on the rear (in-out) - it is super obvious what go where and what connectors to use when you already know, but it happen that even not being a noobs in audio equipment, me and my friend made a mistake making a wrong wire with a wrong XLR connectors (judged by pictures, before receiving the unit, following the manual instruction to leave the "cold" wire unconnected).

3. Mouse wheel increments on faders - some times it is 0.3 dB for one step, the other day it is 0.5, and the next one is 03, 04 steps. Would be great to see it at 0.5 or 1 dB by default. Even better would be to have it user defineable in the preferences with acceleration on-off.

4. Rotary encoder on the unit - everything is fine, 0.5 dB increments consistent, but would be great to have the stepsize also user-customizeable with ability to set the acceleration on/off or even to control the amount of it.

5. The driver name. I'm seeing it as a ASIO Fireface USB in the Ableton Live audio setup settings. Not cool.

6. Total Mix FX. Options > Preferences: Level Meters box-area is 1-2 pixels shifted to the right (v1.43, Win)

7. Double clicking on the value boxes in Total Mix FX brings the manual numeric entry boxes - a bit too ugly, Win 95 era style. I can definitely appreciate and enjoy the pro grade 'no fancy' style for the software like what you have with DIGICheck interface, but in this case it is maybe too much.

8. DIGICheck "2 Bar Level Meter" is nearly impossible to move around the workspace (Win 10, default settings at most). There is (almost) no space in the top-bar to drag it around. I was able to find a tiny spot in the most top-left area so I could click-drag it. Or another option is to drag it by sides in several moves.

9. Just some observation. Just very recently I was hearing the nasty loud clicks about once in a minute, like a one-sample error spikes while playing a virtual piano from a controller keyboard. Was solved by replacing the USB cable I was using at that time to the original one (and also unplugging almost all other USB connectors from the rear of the PC).

So here it is, maybe I'll be able to add something more later as I'll use it in a more different situations.

Regards,
Andrei

www.youtube.com/pianopictures

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Just one comment, the BF shares a driver with several Fireface units with USB connection, hence the name. There is no separate Babyface driver.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

3 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-09 17:33:00)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

I see, thank you very much for the reply. But maybe there is a way to program it in such way so it could detect the unit and change self name automatically? I mean, I definitely know very little about it, but how come, say, Nvidia have the same driver for all its GeForce graphic cards and they appear with the correct names afterwards?

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

10. Dim button behavior. It reduces the gain to a given amount, then, if being modified in it's "dim" state, when depressed it jumps back to exactly the state when it was initially pressed. I would rather expect it to jump back the same amount, specified in the settings.

5

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

So you forgot that DIM is active, raised the volume to the prior level by dialing it up, then realize DIM is stil lit, hit the button and BOOOM need new monitors...and ears...

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Sure, I see the logic. I'm not saying that I see it as a big problem but my personal vote still remains, not convinced.

a) I think it is very rare case that a person would significantly rise the volume in a DIM state
b) When depressing the DIM button a person would be in alert state, it is not that different than manually rising the volume, so it would be rather conscious move.

There are still a plenty of ways to blow your monitors still remain though.

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

The best would be to have an option to choose in the settings. The current implementation is definitely very cool, it is like having a temporary recall level.

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

RME Support wrote:

Just one comment, the BF shares a driver with several Fireface units with USB connection, hence the name. There is no separate Babyface driver.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Was thinking about it more. Definitely not cool, no doubt about it. When you install this driver (first time in a life, one of the first impressions), seeing this "Fireface USB" right in the drivers setup dialog is definitely confusing, it make you think if you downloaded the wrong ones, or it is a bug, or it can't recognize your faulty device, etc. At least you could avoid the word "Fireface" here, just say "RME USB Driver" - thats much better.

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

No, that would not make much sense - we have more than one USB driver, there is also the "Madiface USB" driver which covers several devices.
I don't think this is likely to changed, and as far as I can recall, you are the first one to even notice this as an issue.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

10 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-13 16:26:35)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Sure, I see. Still please note that these are different things "not noticing this as an issue" and "did not write about it on the forum". Again, you at RME aim at the perfection in the details, and rather successfully so, so this is just something worth taking notes about. Definitely not a major flaw but still. Ok, maybe just a list of devices supported to be added to some confirmation dialogue windows popping along the way through the setup?

...BTW, just remembered, it don't mentioned that the restart is needed in the driver setup messages (it is in the manual as far as I remember, can be wrong), would be great to add that too. Like "restart now" or "later".

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Sorry but I disagree. You get already a lot of information on the Download page what driver is for what device.
You download and install the new driver.
For most people this is even the only RME driver on the system.

Tbh, did you really have any problem to identify the proper RME driver inside of your DAW ???

Tastes are different, I personally prefer that RME spends efforts there, where it gives most users a real value.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

It's obvious that it is a very minor flaw, and there is no much "effort" should be used here. Just some cosmetic correction.

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Technically, both Babyfaces are part of the "Fireface USB" family of devices, which share a common driver. This means you can theoretically use a Babyface and a Fireface UCX together in Cubase or other ASIO software. Now what would you expect to happen in that case, the Babyface driver renaming itself according to whether another such device is present, from "ASIO Babyface" to "ASIO Fireface USB"? Because otherwise you'd see two different drivers. Either way, it would create a real mess and much more confusion. Makes no sense at all...

And "ASIO RME Babyface and some Firefaces with USB, but not all"...? No, not much better, is it?

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

14 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-13 17:22:56)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

OK, "ASIO Babyface/Fireface USB" name then?

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

pianopictures wrote:

OK, "ASIO Babyface Fireface USB" name then?

Yes, sure.... You'd be the first one to wonder why it says Babyface if you've only got a UCX or 802... :-)


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

16 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-13 17:25:44)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

OK, I see your correction, then why you did not call them "Asio Babyface USB" for all of them including Firewire ones?

Edit, sorry, I meant Fireface ones.

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Ok, I see what you mean, there is no easy solution. But still some degree of confusion exist. So maybe some more thoughtful naming of the devices should be around I guess. BabyFireFace Pro? :-)

18

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

This is not a lounge. Please don't start to waste our precious time with half-baken proposals for non-existing issues.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

19 (edited by miscend 2018-02-17 00:40:25)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

pianopictures wrote:

I see, thank you very much for the reply. But maybe there is a way to program it in such way so it could detect the unit and change self name automatically? I mean, I definitely know very little about it, but how come, say, Nvidia have the same driver for all its GeForce graphic cards and they appear with the correct names afterwards?

Then what happens when you have a BFP and Fireface 800 connected to the computer at the same time? Fireface is the name of the driver not the hardware and BFP is part of the Fireface family.

20 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-17 01:57:02)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Sure, I did not think about having several RME devices at the same time with one driver. But still holding to my point that some degree of confusion still exists.

21 (edited by ramses 2018-02-17 07:19:52)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

pianopictures wrote:

But still holding to my point that some degree of confusion still exists.

I have 4 RME devices connected to my system

By MADIface driver:
- UFX+
- UFX+
- ADI-2 Pro
By HDSP (Hammerfall DSP) driver:
- RayDAT

And in Cubase the selection of drivers looks like this, I can't see anything confusing:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pj3at0g8bcx3as/Cubase%209.5%20Studio%20Settings.jpg?dl=1

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

22 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-17 09:43:52)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

@ramses

I guess I'd better stop with the drivers names discussion.

Another topic: what amazed me, is how it is possible that I can ran different audio apps simultaneously on ASIO now? I was sure it is just don't suppose to work this way, I definitely was not able to do it with my previous soundcard.

23 (edited by ramses 2018-02-17 09:54:26)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

It depends whether the driver allows for multi-client operation. For some drivers its configurable.
RME driver is designed this way as also DigiCheck uses this to work.

I completely agree to stop the discussion. I only responded as you didn't really stop by telling, that you still hold your point, etc. So if you want to stop something, then you also need to do it on your own side to be fair. Not to use this "phrase" to stop others but still bringing your point through.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

24 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-17 11:04:26)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

"Not to use this "phrase" to stop others but still bringing your point through". So I exactly said that I am stopping this discussion (i.e. my comments) at that point, I definitely did not meant to tell "others" what they should or should not do about it. Definitely not meant to offend anybody.

Regarding the driver, very interesting, never heard about "multi-client" ASIO before.

25

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

RME drivers are both ASIO multiclient as also WDM+ASIO multiclient, on both record and playback side. Which (I have to mention that) is also stated and explained in the manual, chapter 9.5.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

I just saw this thread and im sorry but I cannot even begin to see the confusion in things.


What I will say is this, the box that the fireface came in is a bonus - I don't see other interfaces come with a box.


Secondly if your biggest issue is how cool the name looks in Ableton - well you can't be focusing on making your music!

To be fair though you make another point - you are nitpicking at such fine details that it shows just what a great interface the Babyface Pro is.  There is nothing of significance that is really wrong with the device.


So yes I can nitpick as well but heres the thing, the team at RME are too clever!  They squeezed so much into something only a bit bigger in some ways than a mobile phone.  And the convertors in it are from the top rack units, and its bus powered.  I cant fault it personally.

So its always good to make suggestions - but commenting on the driver name which has a great explanation as to why its called what it is seems like a wasted idea.  There is actually only one thing I would change on this device if I could and thats having built in compression, but I understand the limits.

27 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-19 11:38:41)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Nitpicking? Yes, exactly. So whats wrong about it? It is not that I'm trying to offend somebody here. It is quite sad that I need to explain it here. I got the device, and yes, I LOVE it, so I'm really so excited about it so that I want to participate, give my feedback, so maybe it can become just a tiny little bit more perfect, so do I need to feel sorry about myself, really? Should I just STFU? Maybe you right and I indeed should just stop wasting mine and others time on this forum. Thank you.

Added. The box. OK others don't include the box with their interfaces, so what logic is it here? RME included the box, cool, great, but why the locks are made this way? Then maybe when they decide to release Babyface Pro II there is a chance the locks will be designed in a slightly different way, with some detents - which is not that unrealistic to implement as far as I can understand. Unless it was done on purpose so you could hide your weed from your kids, IDK, then I'm fine about it.

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

pianopictures wrote:

Nitpicking? Yes, exactly. So whats wrong about it? It is not that I'm trying to offend somebody here. It is quite sad that I need to explain it here. I got the device, and yes, I LOVE it, so I'm really so excited about it so that I want to participate, give my feedback, so maybe it can become just a tiny little bit more perfect, so do I need to feel sorry about myself, really? Should I just STFU? Maybe you right and I indeed should just stop wasting mine and others time on this forum. Thank you.

Added. The box. OK others don't include the box with their interfaces, so what logic is it here? RME included the box, cool, great, but why the locks are made this way? Then maybe when they decide to release Babyface Pro II there is a chance the locks will be designed in a slightly different way, with some detents - which is not that unrealistic to implement as far as I can understand. Unless it was done on purpose so you could hide your weed from your kids, IDK, then I'm fine about it.

Im sorry I really didnt think my post was agressive - it was more in support of what the device is - which is great and that the way things are have all been thought out - even if you think the box  isnt great - it was just a nice gesture that they even thought of including one.


I'm not into forum arguments so I will bow out here, appreciate that you wanted to just have a say and leave it there.  I would say though that the minor points aside I don't think you have much to worry about, the device works better than anything else I have seen on the market.   I guess I jumped in becuase I have never found the issue about the naming of the device under audio devices to be an issue.  Its pretty clear what it is.

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Yes, sure smile I'm sorry too, I got the feeling that some people may think I'm trolling around with my comments, while I'm not.

30 (edited by pianopictures 2018-02-22 11:37:27)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

I'm not the first to mention this, but I sure would like to have the standard XLR locks along with the combined XLR/Jack plugs.

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

New PC, quite a while, a couple of months. Playing Pianoteq all days long, often while watching movies, YouTube, two screens, etc., all at 64 samples of latency. The stability is nothing short than INSANE, not a single(!) audio glitch I can recall since ever.

32

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

If the device is so good that you have to resort to 'nitpicking', then it's ok for us smile

Unfortunately one often has to be a manufacturer to understand certain decisions. The box was not allowed to cost much money. Every detail makes its expensive tool even more expensive and the manufacturing of the box as well, including quality control. The size decision (not being able to put the power supply into it) was one of the hardest we ever had to take. Of course we would have liked a litlle bit bigger box. For several reasons the existing size was the maximum, otherwise costs would have exploded. And then you would have said - give me the unit without box, better save that money. So did we. Better have small box that doesn't raise the price of the product substantially, and have at least cables and the BF Pro protected.

Sometimes people just don't think that while making a product you think about every tiny detail - and you have to make a million decisions. Sure one, or better the whole involved team, can overlook something. Shit happens. But it is rare. Most things that users feel are unnecessary limitations have reasons, and are well balanced to being able to deliver a product that in the end convinces as many people as possible.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Yes, the device is (and was) obviously great. However, I don't give up 'nitpicking' smile

Matthias, I have huge respect for what you do at RME, so this 'nitpicking' come from the will to participate in the process even at slightest. For shitty products I would not really care about any of such details.

The complains was about the locks, why they are such? I can't open them with my fingers, only with some tool.
The size is secondary. If it was up to me I would choose the smallest possible plastic box that only the device can fit in, to save space in the carriage. I don't need it to have a space for the cables, there is no chance I could put 3 m. long XLRs inside it. So for mobile use I would keep all the cables, including the PSUs, and all other cables (USB, etc.) in another place all together.

34

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

I can open my box, maybe yours is harder. Put out the Dremel or sandpaper or knife to make them easier to open...

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

35 (edited by pianopictures 2018-07-04 12:57:37)

Re: Babyface Pro, impressions after a couple of days of usage.

Maybe I have some different box? Here is a short video about the issue: https://youtu.be/49mKMAVIkms

UPDATE: just to notice, it is not me who started it about the freakin box again. OK, my friend who happen to be an engineer (non audio) just came to my place . Somehow he was able to open the box, seems he has a stronger nails than mine (I'm a 42 years old dude). I told him about our discussion here. His words was that yes, this box is very rigid, but it is not what he would consider as an everyday-use box, more like one time transporter solution to be stored in the closet for ages later on. I guess it is not how you see it, but I tend to agree with him.