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Hello all,

I have a brand new Traveler mk3 connected to my iMac. I'm having difficulty setting the master volume out. I have tried setting the monitor group to Stereo out (analog 1-2) so that the volume will control the volume output by 1-2. But no matter what I do, the traveler's master out has no effect (this is both the button on the traveler itself or its equivalent in CueMix). The output is always full volume, which is extremely irritating when say, I start a song in iTunes.

I've managed to sort of get around this by connecting a Toslink from out A to in A, setting my default output as Toslink A, and creating a mix that takes Toslink A to Analog 1-2 out, and can set the volume in the mix. Strangely enough, if I assign Toslink A Out to the monitor group, I CAN control its volume using the master volume (again, the actual button or its software equivalent).

Anyway, seems like a rather convoluted solution for something that should be simple, so...
1- Am I doing something wrong? or
2- Is this a known problem with the Traveler mk3's firmware? (mine says version 1.01 and I can't find an update on the MOTU site so I'm guessing there hasn't been one yet) or
3- Do I have a defective unit?

Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks!

Hi, I'm having exactly the same confusion! The manual says that the master volume controls the analog outs 1 and 2 by default, but it seems not to have any effect. For that matter, nothing that I do whatsoever has any effect on the volume when I play music from iTunes. Irritatingly, the volume control keys on the keyboard do nothing (on my M-Audio Firewire 410 these actually adjust the output volume!?). The iTunes volume slider works, but it lacks the resolution needed to adjust the output of my Mackie monitors to anything below "too loud". I've resorted to pulling them out of their spots and cranking down the rear-panel gain knob to "fleetingly small".

So how do you conveniently adjust the output volume when you're just using the Traveler as an output device?

I've opened a support ticket with MOTU about this last week but have had no response at all so far.
I'd recommend you do the same; this is clearly a defect that needs to be addressed.

You assumed, erroneously, but quite reasonably in my opinion, that Mac OS X audio Firewire audio output is just another input channel to you Traveler. Apparently it is not. It doesn't appear in the inputs, you can't route it to any mix or to an arbitrary output, there are no bars corresponding to it on the meter bridge. It goes to the "Default Stereo" output (which you can change in MOTU Audio Setup) pair irrespective of how the Main Output Assign is set. If the default Output Pair is 12 then the Main Output must be assigned to Pair 12 or the signal will be blocked. In this interesting case the meter bridge shows output from Analog Pair 12 and the output lights appear lit on the unit but the signal path is broken. Obviously, there is nothing about any of this in the manual - my observations are empirical and may be subject to some peculiarity of the way in which I have my unit set up. Or the firmware may need a tweak.

I believe all this is because the OS X driver doesn't know much about the MOTU boxes. When used with DP, for example, one can, of course, send audio back to the Traveler as if coming from another channel. To control the volume when I listen to music through the Traveler I use the volume control on the speaker amp.

[Actually this squirrely behaviour turned out to be because the box needed a reset. Doing that got things seeming much more normal (though there are still things I don't understand). It is possible to use the master volume to control the level of the output when the source is OS X or an analogue signal]

ajdelange wrote:You assumed, erroneously, but quite reasonably in my opinion, that Mac OS X audio Firewire audio output is just another input channel to you Traveler. Apparently it is not. It doesn't appear in the inputs, you can't route it to any mix or to an arbitrary output, there are no bars corresponding to it on the meter bridge. It goes to the "Default Stereo" output (which you can change in MOTU Audio Setup) pair irrespective of how the Main Output Assign is set. If the default Output Pair is 12 then the Main Output must be assigned to Pair 12 or the signal will be blocked. In this interesting case the meter bridge shows output from Analog Pair 12 and the output lights appear lit on the unit but the signal path is broken. Obviously, there is nothing about any of this in the manual - my observations are empirical and may be subject to some peculiarity of the way in which I have my unit set up.

What you are talking about is a different thing, it's the fact that the computer's output is not considered an input by the MOTU hardware. This is a bit annoying, but on once you get that, there are several approaches one can take. Also, the manual isn't very clear on the meaning of Default Output vs. Main Out Assign but it does talk about it some, and if you play around with it a bit, it starts to make sense.

Default Stereo Output is really what basic applications will use for output. Select 3-4 as your default output, and plug speakers to 3-4, and you'll hear the app outputs no matter what.

Main Out Assign on the other hand, really only affects the physical analog 1-2 out, by giving it its own mix (when set to 1-2) or by mirroring another pair. For example, plug speakers to outs 1 and 2, and set Main Out Assign to Analog 1-2, but Default Output to 3-4. Basic applications will not be able to output sound since they'll send to 3-4 which isn't connected to your speakers. However, if you have an audio app running and set its output to 1-2, you'll definitely hear it.

The problem I was talking about is that, in any and all of the above scenarios, and then some, the master volume output of the Traveler mk3 just does not work for analog signals. Even ignoring the audio signal from the computer, if I plug a mic into input 1, and have a mix that takes input 1 to outputs 1-2, I cannot control the output volume using the master volume knob on the unit or in cuemix. Obviously, in this specific case, I have other means of affecting the output volume by using the mic input's gain or fader or the bus's level fader. But the master volume which should really be the final step in there is not working; even if I set it to mute, I can still hear the mic or whatever else I have going through out 1-2.

Sorry, I took your reference to iTunes to mean that you were experiencing this problem with computer feed.
To do what you want with analog input you must enable "monitor" for the output channel pair you wish to listen to. If you don't do this the signal is apparently routed directly (unattenuated) to the output you chose without going through the monitoring circuitry and its level control. If you select "monitor" and get full amplitude out then reset your Traveler and try again. If that doesn't do it you may have a defective unit.

Actually if your Traveler isn't in hyperspace the master volume works on computer output as well. Reset it.

How can I "reset" the unit? Or did you just mean turn if off, then on again? If it's the latter, I've done it many times and it doesn't resolve the problem.

Upon further testing, however, it appears that this is only a problem with Analog Outs 1-2. I tried plugging a second pair of speakers to 3-4, and selecting "Monitor" in Output 3-4 in CueMix and tada... master volume actually works on that. It also works on Optical Out A which I had previously tested.

So it looks like this is really just a bug/defect with Analog Out 1-2. I've added this info in my technical item with MOTU; hopefully, this can be resolved by a firmware update. The good news for me is that this is workable, I'll just use another pair as my main output.


PS: I've tried various combinations of "Monitor" to troubleshoot the issue:
1-2 as Monitor: Master Volume does nothing
3-4 as Monitor: Master Volume controls 3-4 as expected
1-4 as Monitor: Master Volume controls 3-4, but not 1-2
1-4 and TOSLINK A: Master Volume controls 3-4 and TOSLINK A, but not 1-2

'Reset' means return to the factory default settings. To do this press and release the PARAM knob until the display says "Trav Mk3 Setup" and then flashes to "LCD Contrast:" This will probably be the second push. Stop pushing at this point and start rotating the knob clockwise. The 6th detent will get you to "Factory Defaults Push [VALUE]". Push the VALUE knob and the display will say "Are you sure? Push [VALUE]". Push VALUE and the display will show "Initializing..." for a few seconds after which the display will revert to "MIX 1 ASSIGN MASTER AN 1-2". At this point anything you had set up will be gone but I'm guessing that everything should work better now as your experiences seem very similar to mine. Let us know if this works out for you.

Well, that was a helpful troubleshooting tip. A reset did fix the problem. However, after I had changed all the settings to be the way I want, I had once again lost control over the output 1-2 level.

After some more testing, I think I have determined the culprit. And that is the Optical Input types. When both Optical Inputs are set to "ADAT Optical" (their default values), all is working as intended. However, change either or both of these values and *poof*, you lose control of 1-2 using the master volume knob.

Now, in my case, I don't need Optical B, so while I thought "Disabled" would save on the Traveler's processor, I could certainly leave it to "ADAT Optical" if that means it works properly. But I do need to use Optical Input A as a TOSLINK, which means the control is gone.

I have submitted this info to MOTU, but if someone else with a Traveler mk3 could confirm my theory, it would be quite helpful i.e.:
1- Have speakers plugged into Outputs 1-2
2- Lower volume on the speakers because this test means loud stuff will come out of them
3- Have any source (from a program or directly one of the Traveler's inputs) play through outs 1-2
4- Use the master volume knob on the unit and confirm it affects the output volume (press the button to mute and easily confirm this)
5- Now go to MOTU Audio Setup, and change Optical Input Bank A to "TOSLINK"
6- Repeat step 3, and then step 4 should now fail.
7- Revert Optical Input Bank A to "ADAT Optical" to return to normal operation

I can confirm that both Optical Bank A and B must have their inputs set to ADAT Optical for the master volume control to work properly (reset sets them this way). IOW disabling these inputs or setting them to TOSLINK causes the monitor level control to be bypassed. It doesn't seem to matter how the optical outputs are set.

This is, IMO, a discrepancy which should be reported to MOTU and I will do so. It will doubtless require a new firmware download to fix.

So that confirms that it's not my unit that is defective, but there is indeed a bug with the Optical Inputs vs. Monitor Volume.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out, ajdelange!

It kinda sucks that after submitting all this info, I never got any response back from MOTU.

A simple "We've reproduced the problem. We are working on a fix. No ETA yet." would at least be a start.

Mine to them is still marked "unread" but then it's only been 3 weeks.

Gotta wonder if they aren't reading this site. The following appeared in my in box a couple of hours after my last post:

We are aware of the problem that you are reporting. We expect to address it with a future firmware update. For now, you can work around the problem by using analog outputs 3-4 instead of analog outputs 1-2.

Thanks very much to everyone who has chimed in some advice. I found running through the "reset" steps to return to the factory default settings has made my master volume knob control analog outs 1 - 2. Haven't tried poking around to reproduce the problem yet though.

Cheers.