Ultralite MK3 Audio Dropouts followed by High Pitch Noise

[HotShot]

hey guys!

hotshot: use WaveRT is not selected, nor can i select it. the box and option is there although it is faded and cannot be selected. is that normal? using driver 3.6.8.1410

also is it normal when you change the sample rate in the motu audio console should it squeek n squeltch as it changes the frequency?

None of that is normal!

You should make sure no programs that use the audio device are open before you open the MOTU Audio Console. Normally, if you have a program open that uses the audio device, you will get an error when you try to open the MOTU Audio Console. Maybe your not being able to select the " use WaveRT" option is some wacky problem related to some program that uses the MOTU audio device being open, but you not getting the MOTU error when you open the Audio Console.

Are you sure the drivers are installed correctly?

The proper way to install drivers:

1) Turn off the MOTU device and unconnected it from the PC
2) Uninstall the MOTU drivers from windows control panel Add/Remove programs
3) Restart the PC
4) Install the new driver
5) Restart the PC
6) When windows is fully loaded, reconnect the MOTU device, turn it on, and let the drivers install
7) Done

I would uninstall and re-install the driver. If you still see that crazy behavior, I would return the MOTU unit for replacement.

By the way, what operating system are you using? It's a good idea to list your system specs in your signature.
Oh, doh! You do have your specs in your sig. LOL

Sorry, I was in the reply area and didn't see. LOL

A nice system you have there, too!

[Hnau]

The respected DAW builder is Jim Roseberry. Here's a link to his site if you're interested: http://www.studiocat.com/

Awesome, Hot Shot!

With all of the problems that I have been experiencing, I knew that it was simply time to upgrade, I just didn't know where to look. These DAW's look amazing and are already put together! I was thinking about buying a refurbished Mac, but I've always loved the expandability of PC's, and some of the sites to get refurbished computers looked really suspect, to me . Then I thought that I should just build a PC with all of the components of my choosing, but I was afraid of my abilities and at the chance that I might buy incompatible hardware. Looks like this guy puts together just what I need. Good call, man! I will consult them for further assistance. Thanks for the reply!

[HotShot]

You're welcome.

Jim is a knowledgeable person with DAW related 'know how," and his prices are lower than prices at ADK Pro Audio.

[Hnau]

Yeah, I was looking at ADK and a couple of other places, and I feel pretty comfortable at Purrrfect Audio. Another awesome thing about the whole situation is that I live about 30 min from Jim's office, so I have easy access. I think that was the real kicker for me. Looks like we have a winner!

[TheRealRoach]

realroach:
when the ultralite is on, it shows "no audio device" in the volume tab and everything else is already set to motu and i still have the problem. is it normal to say "no audio device" or should it show MOTU something there? also i was told to turn off my mobo sound card in the bios. thats beyond my scope of pc knowledge plus i still want the sound card to work when i have the motu off and not using it.... ahhhh dillemas...

"No Audio Device" Is not normal. You should have your MOTU drivers selected if you want to play back audio properly for Windows. In my previous post I described that in Control Panel -> Sound & Audio you will see a few tabs to check/change properties of Playback, Recording and Hardware for the Windows OS. What options do you have for driver/hardware selections? Again, if you can select something says MOTU in the Playback tab, then do so.

hotshot: use WaveRT is not selected, nor can i select it. the box and option is there although it is faded and cannot be selected. is that normal? using driver 3.6.8.1410

That is unusual, but there are a few things to check: In the MOTU Audio Control panel, you should have WaveRT checked if you are using vista. Let us know what all the options are in this window.

also is it normal when you change the sample rate in the motu audio console should it squeek n squeltch as it changes the frequency?

Yes and no. The process of changing any master clock and/or converter clock's sample rate usually makes any other connected hardware go haywire for a brief moment as it re-synchronizes... this goes for the MOTU itself. This can sometimes be a symptom of some sort of driver problem though. Try this: change the sample rate from within cubase... go to Project -> Project Setup, and change the sample rate. Does it do the same momentary squeal? I would bet that it changes sample rates silently while doing it within cubase.

thanks again fellas. yous are alot more helpfull than the tech guys at motu with there ridiculouse tech link support system.

Word!

[jpetrou]

thanks roach!

so i have taken some screen dumps to show you exactly what shows up on my system. i have installed the drivers properly like you said. i had done it like this last time but left the firewire cable in. still no change...

so here check out the screen shots and tell me what else you think i should try:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/phda7g
http://www.sendspace.com/file/a169by
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ai12l0
http://www.sendspace.com/file/9vwuzs

i was gonna buy a good quality firewire card and see how it goes plugged in to that. i have tried uninstalling the mobo sound card...still no change. its weird like i said, the ultralite works fine in cubase, reason... like a dream not one problem. same when i have cubase running and try audio in windows, no problem what so ever. soon as i close cubase and load an mp3 in windows...bang she starts randomly doing the drop outs....

waiting to hear back from the tech guys at motu. i wonder what those boneheads are gonna ask me to try next.

[TheRealRoach]

Hmm...

Well I really don't get why WavesRT is grayed out like that. Are you sure you installed MOTU's WavesRT drivers during the installation process?

[jpetrou]

Hmm...

Well I really don't get why WavesRT is grayed out like that. Are you sure you installed MOTU's WavesRT drivers during the installation process?

actually i reinstalled the drivers last night again... and i dont think it installs motus wavesRT. it installs motu asio audio, motu MIDI and one other driver, i cant recall it at the moment. i will reinstall it again tonight when i get home from work. if it doenst install the wavesRT driver when it is installing the drivers, what does that mean?

thanks for your help brother,

jp

[jpetrou]

http://www.speedyshare.com/470403344.html

yeah i think it is installed. this is what shows up in device manager. MOTU AUDIO WAVE. is that the WAVERT? or should it actually say MOTU AUDIO WAVERT?

[HotShot]

I figured jp was using Vista. Sorry jp, I didn't notice Win XP 32 in your signature.

Isn't WaveRT just a driver feature in Vista or newer operating systems?

According to those pics posted, jp is on Win XP, so I don't think WaveRT applies.

If you have a firewire controller with a Texas Instrument (TI) chipset. and you've tried reinstalling Windows and the drivers, I'd give up, and either settle for the MOTU unit working good with my DAW software (as you say it is), or return the unit.

[TheRealRoach]

Yeah, wait a minute.... you said earlier that you've been trying this on Vista and XP, but what OS have you been referring to in your past few posts? WavesRT is only a VISTA thing as hotshot mentioned.

[JerrickCrites]

I get this, but only when I have other programs running that update themselves. Like MSN messenger. if I forget to turn that off and im playing back or recording, once someone logs on, ill get a short high pitched noise. If an internet browser is up an a new flash ad reloads or something ill get a beep noise too.

So for me its as simple as just shutting down programs that work in the background. Otherwise those programs are set to use my onboard sound driver, like the beep sound msn makes when someone sneds a message or e-mail, or a click noise from an ad or whatever, and that cuts the asio driver from motu for a quick second, then it comes back.

[casedawg]

Take a good look into your BIOS and disable everything onboard that you aren't using. Disable features like bus spread spectrum unless you're experiencing EMI problems. Make sure the OS is optimized for audios. There are various guides around the net. Control Panel -> System -> Advanced Tab -> Performance Settings -> Advanced Tab -> Select "Adjust for best performance of background services". Make sure you don't have a lot of unnecessary programs running at startup. Autoruns (Sysinternals utility that can be downloaded from MS) is one of the best for showing you EVERYTHING that is run at startup. Be careful though, if you could stop your OS from booting if you uncheck the wrong thing (pain in the ass to fix this). Have it hide MS entries and use the "search online" feature to determine what some of the poorly named files are. Be careful with entries in the Services.

Other than that, I think some hardware is just better designed for this than others. I think the dropouts occur when there's too much activity on the PCI bus or southbridge. This is NOT a problem with MOTUs drivers, BUT MOTU devices seem to respond worse than others to conflicts. When I had this problem with my Ultralite Mk3, I borrowed a friend's Presonus Firebox and it had the same problem, except the dropouts were shorter and didn't include the annoying high pitched noise. Once I got my BIOS and OS settings under control, I only experienced dropouts when there was an excessive amount of internet activity while playing back music. When running DAW software with nothing running in the background, the dropouts were gone.

[Mourning6]

I use a Motu Utralite Mk3 on a Win7 x64 setup and was having the same issue.

I found the solution for my setup on a random Ableton forum (I was looking everywhere and this was the only thing that went beyond reinstalling the drivers). Turns out my issue was that the cores of my quad core processor were "parking" which means turning off if they weren't being used. It was enough of a disruption that it would throw off the connection with the ultralite. This is an issue for Windows setups and by default windows has cores park pretty quickly to conserve power. I had my computer in high performance at all times with 100% usage on the processor but core parking isn't shown in the power settings by default (it's a separate function from processor usage). I used this freeware to turn off core parking and I haven't had the issue in the 48 hours since: https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/

I used to have this issue 3 times per hour...

Hope that solves it for you!

[jaymo99]

do you have a texas Instruments chip set firewire card? without that its always been a pain in the ass

also I've found the latest drivers for that chipset don't work at all had to revert to my older drivers.

Im curious about this core parking thing though. thanks for the tip.