L/R Monitor Balance Issue with 96k Session

[UpTilDawn]

Not much to go one, but does anyone have a clue why left channel playback is 4dB+ higher than right channel at the soundcard output, even though SAW meters show balanced out when playing back 96k files in a 96k session?

If i change the session (and likewise RME's DSP settings) to 48k (with SAW realtime conversion set to high or highest), then the problem goes away.

I don't recall offhand whether i had the same issue when trying to play a single 96k track file in VLC media player, or if i did try, even.

I'm using SAW64 on a Win10 (LTSC) pc, through RME Hammerfall PCI cards and Digiface boxes with no other sound issues currently. I'm pretty certain this is not a plugin issue, since SAW's output meter displays normally and the imbalance only shows up at the physical output meters and through the speakers. It happens in every case that I do a 96k session w/96k tracks.

Hmmmm, need to check Totalmix meters and headphones for imbalance. I'll update when there's time.

[jmh]

A couple of things to find clues.
buildmix a centerpaned mono signal to 96S.
Try outputting that through another daw or player.
Try another audio out (mobo - if 96 supported).

[UpTilDawn]

AHA!
Got it figured out.

Thanks for the reply jmh.


I got to comparing playback through various players and eventually checked while RME TotalMix was open, where i noticed that the mixer view switched from card 2 to card 1 when in 96k mode (I forget what that's called?).

Then I remembered/realized that somewhere along the line I set things up for the control room monitor outs to come out card 2's Analog 1. When the RME switched in 96k mode to card 1, Analog 1, the physical output jacks had evidently gone wanky over time without me noticing (since I haven't done 96k sessions until now. Cleaned that up and now playback is as it should be.

It was really bugging me that waveforms looked balanced and the rough mix file played balanced in vlc media player, but not in SAW, or Izotope RX.

Got it - another big DUH! moment for the books.

[jmh]

AHA!
Got it - another big DUH! moment for the books.

There is no shame in it. We can't help getting sucked into these technological vortexes - and some of this stuff is kind of complicated.