MOTU Ultralite Driver issues (PC)

djencode · Post by **djencode** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 12:33 pm

so i pinpointed my problem from the previous thread, and it was the buffer size, i had to set the buffer to 1024 in order for it not to crackle using s/pdif. i find this rather puzzling as on the pc, it set to external sync source, so the mac, is doing all the sync and it's set to 256.

in terms of latency, now i have a 5ms latency on the mac at 256 samples, and 25ms latency on my pc at 1024. now one might think im knitpicking at 25ms latency, but i mean thats a 400% gain in latency. just as a reference my mac is a dual 1.25 g4 with 2 gigs of ram, 80 gig internal and 160 gig external, using tiger 10.6. my pc is an athelon xp 64 3500+ with 2 gigs of ram, 80 gig hard drive and a 300 gig external. the mac uses 6 pin bus powered and the pc uses 4 pin power supply powered. both os's are current and fully updated.

im thinking there may be some pc driver issues that need to be sorted out here. i know motu tech support checks this stuff every once in a while so this is a heads up to them that this issue needs to be addressed.

Smokehouse · Post by **Smokehouse** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 2:15 pm

Strongly agree. MOTU really needs to put some energy into the WinXP drivers. They are very twitchy, and updates often cause as many problems as they fix.

djencode · Post by **djencode** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 12:28 pm

gold plated monster cable didn't seem to help the matter either,...

easyman · Post by **easyman** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:19 pm

Not really my area regarding this device, but with a PC make sure you disable all those background services, lan, antivirus and the other stuff that is not needed. This is usually a big reason for poor PC performance.

chorga1 · Post by **chorga1** » Tue May 02, 2006 1:32 pm

Ultralite runs like a champ on my centrino PC. 32 64 128 buffer levels all work fine. tested using Kontakt, battery, atmosphere, and a few other synths. Yup all at the same time...

You def gotta do a lot of tweaking on XP to get em to run right. I saved myself some trouble and got a PC from ADK Audio and it runs like a champ....

djencode · Post by **djencode** » Wed May 03, 2006 2:23 pm

chorga1 wrote:Ultralite runs like a champ on my centrino PC. 32 64 128 buffer levels all work fine. tested using Kontakt, battery, atmosphere, and a few other synths. Yup all at the same time...

You def gotta do a lot of tweaking on XP to get em to run right. I saved myself some trouble and got a PC from ADK Audio and it runs like a champ....

the problem is not output with the drivers and the motu, it's with the s/pdif going between one card to another, there is certain s/pdif handling issues with the driver, as i have no problem with it on the mac.

the s/pdif is whats killing me for buffer size...i need to compensate for loss of sync because of hte poor handling of the digital signal

djencode · Post by **djencode** » Wed May 03, 2006 2:26 pm

easyman wrote:Not really my area regarding this device, but with a PC make sure you disable all those background services, lan, antivirus and the other stuff that is not needed. This is usually a big reason for poor PC performance.

we're not talking about poor pc performance here. i have 2 gigs of ram and 2.2 ghz processor, i don't even touch those specs when im doing my music ••••..

it's a matter of if long periods of audio are used on the motu, because i have digital going from one ultralite to the other, the pc one loses digital sync for no reason and the card resets it's sample rate causing the sound across all teh channels.

bENS · Post by **bENS** » Thu May 04, 2006 4:48 am

As i recall MOTU never really "blessed" AMD computers as far as I know. I wouldn't be surprised if that may be the core of your problem. I'd suggest you send MOTU tech support a note with your full PC spec including motherboard and chipset and see what they have to say.

Best of luck!

bENS

Smokehouse · Post by **Smokehouse** » Thu May 04, 2006 7:04 am

So in order to get support for MOTU products under Windows, they expect you to use a certain manufacturer's CPU? Ouch!

bENS · Post by **bENS** » Thu May 04, 2006 8:58 pm

That's one way to look at it. The other is that there are some many possible configurations available in Windows land that it is impossible for ANY company to test every possible configuration. I'd take a guess that the % of AMD users is far less than Intel and therefore testing/design focus must go where it's economically viable.

Also worth mentioning is companies like Digi have spec'd an actual machine including chipset/motherboard in the past that they say they support. Anything else, you're on your own.

That's probably why Mac's present such a good option because they are much more standardised. I'm not wanting to start flames here as I have/use both platforms for music production.

The best suggestion I can make is that if you're looking to put together a DAW you should check that EVERY component in the chain is compatible regardless of whether it's software or hardware.

bENS