Loving my new Br-80 , but can't use the audio interface with plug ins

[jegtar]

Thanks,  I'm not able to run test on it tonight but will soon.

What I think is happening is its letting me monitor the signal straight from the BR and then sending to the computer and back wet.  When I change my daw latency settings it doesn't effect the dry sound but delays the wet signal.  The Behringer interfaces have a hard 'monitor' switch that let you toggle this, the line 6 stuff does it with it software and the new Zooms have a soft knob that mixes the sounds like a balance knob.

Basically it's just an option to mute the audio of the device but still send the digital data through the usb.

[64Guitars]

Have you tried monitoring from the computer instead of the BR? If you get a mix of wet and dry when monitoring from your computer's headphone jack, then the BR obviously isn't the problem. In that case, you'd know it has to be something in REAPER. But, if the sound from your computer's headphone jack is wet only, then it may be the BR that's mixing the dry signal with it.

[jegtar]

Wow, great call 64.  I set Mixcraft up to have the BR-80 as my input soundcard and then set my computer's card as the output and it works great.  Not sure if there is a downside to running dual cards but so far it works good enough to use.
I have a friend that willing to trade a new Zoom R8 for it and I may bite, just to make things easier.  But I really beginning to like this little thing a lot.  And besides, I bought it to break away from the computer.... 
Thanks again for everyone's help.

[Flash Harry]

Ah! Bingo, I hadn't realised you were listening to the output on the BR, latency should have given it away. I hope you're sorted

[64Guitars]

Okay, I've done a bit of research and found the answer to this question.

Unfortunately, the BR-80 mixes its input signals with the USB audio coming from the computer and routes this composite signal to the Line Out and headphones jack. There is no way to separate the signals or control their relative levels.

The diagram on page 53 of the BR-80 manual shows that GUITAR/MIC IN, the built-in microphones, LINE IN, and USB audio are all hard-wired together with no switches or controls to separate them.



Additionally, the text below the diagram says...

The signal from LINE IN jack and USB connector is mixed with the input from GUITAR/MIC IN jack or the built-in microphones, and then input to the recorder. Use the controls of the connected devices to adjust the volume balance.

I checked with Roland US support and they confirmed this. "There is not a function to turn off hardware monitoring on the BR-80 (i.e. the guitar signal being sent to your computer via USB will always also be sent out to the LINE OUT of the BR-80). This apparently a hardware issue, so it can't be changed."


I also checked the BR-800 manual to see if it has the same problem. Fortunately, it does not. The BR-800 has a USB SETTING screen with parameters for Direct Monitoring (on/off), Input Mix (on/off), and separate parameters for USB Input Level and Output Level. So the BR-800 user has full control over USB monitoring.

Here's a diagram from the BR-800 manual which shows the DIR MONITOR switch. I modified it to show the INPUT MIX switch as well.




I also modified that diagram to show how it works in the BR-80.



The BR-80's inputs are hard-wired to the USB in and the LineOut/headphone out. So there's no way to separate the signal being sent to the computer via USB from the signal coming back from the computer via USB. They will always be mixed and appear at the Line/headphone outputs.

[Flash Harry]

Nice one 64Guitars, that's the definitive answer.

You would have to listen to the computer out signal - get the buffer sizes down low to reduce latency.

[jegtar]

Thanks again.  I may move up to the 800 or R8 but right now using the computer's output is a good enough work around.