Intel Fireface 800 - Manual (Page 24)

24 User's Guide Fireface 800 © RME
12. Operation and Usage
12.1 Playback
The Fireface 800 can play back audio data in supported formats only (sample rate, bit resolu-
tion). Otherwise an error message appears (for example at 22 kHz and 8 bit).
In the audio application being used, Fireface must be selected as output device. This can often
be found in the Options, Preferences or Settings menus under Playback Device, Audio Devices,
Audio etc.
We strongly recommend switching all system sounds off (via >Control Panel /Sounds<). Also
Fireface should not be the Preferred Device for playback, as this could cause loss of synchroni-
zation and unwanted noises. If you feel you cannot do without system sounds, you should con-
sider buying a cheap Blaster clone and select this as Preferred Device in >Control Panel
/Multimedia /Audio< or >Control Panel /Sound /Playback<.
The screenshot shows a
typical configuration dia-
log of a (stereo) wave
editor. Audio data is sent
to an analog or digital
(ADAT / SPDIF) port,
depending on which has
been selected as play-
back device.
Increasing the number
and/or size of audio buff-
ers may prevent the au-
dio signal from breaking
up, but also increases
latency i.e. output is de-
layed. For synchronized
playback of audio and
MIDI (or similar), be sure
to activate the checkbox
‘Get position from audio driver’.
Note on Windows Vista/7:
Since Vista the audio application can no longer control the sample rate under WDM. Instead the
user has to work himself through numerous settings, and to set the sample rate to the same
value per stereo device.
Therefore the driver of the Fireface 800 includes a workaround: the sample rate can be set
globally for all WDM devices within the Settings dialog, see chapter 11.1.