VB-Cable on Big Sur?

[jacobacci]

I have a 2018 MacMini running Big Sur 11.3.2. I have installed the most recent version of VB-Cable. The Control Panel of VB-Cable opens up correctly.
I would like play back an MQA file (which I purchased) with Roon and then record the unfolded MQA file with Audacity.
I set up all the programs to 88.2kHz, as that is the playback sample rate of the MQA file in question. This is a screenshot of the settings:

Screenshot 2021-03-11 at 17.05.08.jpg (101.33 KiB) Viewed 32585 times

As soon as I start playback on Roon, VB Cable switches to 192kHz. Audacity on record does not receive anything.

Screenshot 2021-03-11 at 17.05.30.jpg (104.68 KiB) Viewed 32585 times

I have used VB-Cable to do this very same thing on my Windows 10 machine, but I got dropouts. That is why I would like to try with my MacMini.
I am grateful for any suggestions.

[Vincent Burel]

assuming you have intel Mac Mini, (not M1).

i don't see any value on your screenshot... but it seems the capture doe no work
did you click on RECORD in Audacity ?

maybe you have to increase VB-CABLE internal latency of the cable to 16K

[jacobacci]

Hi Vincent
Yes, I have a 2018 MacMini (Intel).
The top screenshot shows the configuration BEFORE Roon starts to play. VB-Cable is set to 88.2kHz both on input and output.
As soon as I press play in Roon (and Roon actually starts playing at 88.2kHz), VB-Cable switches to 192kHz both on input and output. This is shown in the second screenshot. And yes, I have clicked on record.

[Vincent Burel]

for 192kHz you may increase internal latency to 16k (by the menu in ControlPanel).

[jacobacci]

Thanks, I have now set the latency to 192k.
However that has not changed anything. I still have Roon (the source) running at 88.2kHz, VB-Cable at 192kHz and Audacity at 88.2kHz. Audacity does not detect any signal from VB-Cable. To me this does not seem surprising, since VB-Cable is expecting a 192kHz signal and Roon is delivering 88.2kHz.
Or am I missing something here?

[Vincent Burel]

please, while running as you expect, could you post a screenshot of the ControlPanel only (in good resolution to let me see what is writen) ?

[jacobacci]

Sorry that my screenshots before were not clear. I had to reduce the size and probably overdid it a bit.
I have now added three jpg's that should be readable.
The first one shows the settings of VB-Cable Control Panel when adjusted do 88.2kHz through Audio MIDI Setup. VB-Cable is set to 88.2kHz, as playback of Roon will be at 88.2
The second one shows the Roon interface during playback. It is playing back at 24/88.2kHz.
The third one shows the VB-Cable Control Panel after Roon playback has started (at 24/88.2kHz). At the instant playback starts, VB-Cable Control Panel changes from 2 Channel 88.2kHz to 1 Channel (!) 192kHz.

[Vincent Burel]

Well, the cable is made to connect 2x applications together (a player to a recorder).
so on the first ControlPanel, i see only one application connected to: the player is sending audio with 4096 sample buffer size.
ok but you have no capture application connected to the output of the cable...

[jacobacci]

I had connected VB-Cable to Audacity at the other end. I have now found out that Audacity was set to 1ch (mono) instead of stereo. That seemed to throw VB-Cable off course.
I have now set Audacity to stereo and everything works fine.
Sorry for the trouble.