Ultralite audio popping

karhide · Post by **karhide** » Sat Jun 24, 2006 8:38 pm

Hi thanks for that but I've run both the updates and I've still having problems.

At random points I get distorted audio for a second or two and then goes back to normal. On the mixer on the unit I see all the output channels dance for the period of the dsitortion. This seems to happen at what ever settings I choose.

Any ideas? Is this a firewire chip problem?

arth · Post by **arth** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 8:33 pm

If your Ultralite is like mine, it goes through a short duration of black noise production whenever the sample rate changes. Not only when you change it manually on the device or through the MOTU setup app, but if you feed the device something on a different sample rate (like a "ding" from the OS at 32 or 48 kHz when the device is set to 44 or 88 ), or if a 48 kHz signal is detected on the SPDIF when the device is at a different rate. It's frustrating, yes, but by keeping everything at the same rate, it can be mostly avoided.

I believe this is a buffer problem, where the buffers aren't flushed before the sample rate change, leading to "garbage" being played for the duration of the buffer size. If so, it could probably be fixed either on the driver side (flushing buffers) or on the firmware side (the device zeroing out buffers) whenever it switches rates. I could be wrong, of course, but as a former device driver and kernel level programmer, it's an educated guess.
Any MOTU techs reading this?

[Edited to avoid 8 followed by ) being converted to a smiley]

karhide · Post by **karhide** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 7:51 am

I'm not sure it's the same problem that I'm seeing I get the dancing meters at random points even when there's nothing happening on the laptop. I think it might be due to the firewire chipset problem that people have reported.

I've been looking for a pcmcia firewire card with the TI chipset but I'm finding it hard to work out which cards do and don't.

Can anyone recommend one?

Smokehouse · Post by **Smokehouse** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:08 am

I use the ADS Pyro 1394 Port for Notebooks with good success.
Anyone else? Anyone? Beuhler?

karhide · Post by **karhide** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 9:00 am

I've just had a look and it looks like the local circuit city has them in stock so I might try and pick one up later.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks,

Tim

dburns01854 · Post by **dburns01854** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:45 pm

I just got my Ultralite today, and am having the same problem. Pops, clicks, noise...and suddenly the audio works fine...then it goes to noise again.

I have a MusicXPC 3X laptop running WinXP. It came with a 3-port Cardbus Firewire adapter.

I'll have to get a 6-to-4 pin wire and try running it directly off the laptop. If that fails, I'll try the ADS Firewire adapter mentioned here.

Very frustrating. I just returned an Edirol FA-101 because it didn't do the software monitoring that the Ultralite can. I hope I don't have to send the Ultralite back over this problem.

Please post any news here. Thanks!

Smokehouse · Post by **Smokehouse** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 8:07 am

Let me also strongly suggest the "roll back your two Firewire driver DLLs to SP1" fix described at the RME Audio site. It has been very successful for many MOTU Firewire users on the board.

dburns01854 · Post by **dburns01854** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 8:51 am

Thanks Smokehouse (hello Watertown!).

I looked at the RME info, and they seem to indicate that the MS Hotfix 885222 should be enough. I hate to start messing with Windows files unless absolutely necessary.

I've emailed MOTU, Sweetwater, and MusicXPC about the problem.

Why can't audio hardware work correctly out of the box? I've had nothing but problems with Firewire, an FA-101 and now the Ultralite. Don't they try these things on Windows?

I'll wait for a reply from the companies before doing the RME SP1 fix.

Thanks.

dburns01854 · Post by **dburns01854** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 11:03 am

Well, I tried the RME fix, and it made a little difference. At least now the Ultralite is quiet (no meter dancing) until I try to access it with Sonar or Bandstand.

I'll let you know if I get news from the other sources I've written to. But I think this unit is going back to Sweetwater.

Anybody had any luck with the Emu 1616M Cardbus interface?

Smokehouse · Post by **Smokehouse** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:37 pm

Anytime you want to try my 828 or put heads together on your problem let me know. I have a unit at home in Watertown and a unit at the practice space in Everett.

dburns01854 · Post by **dburns01854** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 5:49 pm

Thanks for the offer, Smoke. I'll keep it in mind.

dburns01854 · Post by **dburns01854** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 7:10 pm

After hours of searching for information, I solved the problem I have been having with noise on my MOTU Ultralite.

My MusicXPC3X laptop came with a NEC based Cardbus Firewire port. I replaced it with a Texas Instruments based card, and it works fine now.

I bought the ADS Pyro 1394DV for Notebooks, available at Circuit City. All is well now.

Thanks for the friendly replies here.

project · Post by **project** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 7:30 pm

I did say that the problem was probably the firewire card on page one of this thread.

I think MOTU really needs to address this problem with a firmware update or something. I don't think that their firewire devices should be so picky about what controller cards are used!

dburns01854 · Post by **dburns01854** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:54 pm

I saw your post, but when I searched the Belkin models you listed, they were all PCI cards. I didn't make the connection to a laptop Cardbus adapter. I was thinking the problem would be on the laptop's mobo or its firewire controller chip, not on the PCMCIA adapter.

I agree with you about manufacturers getting their act together regarding firewire on Windows machines. I sent a note to MusicXPC, suggesting they ship a TI based adapter with their machines, rather than the NEC one that I got. I wasted a lot of time tracking this solution down.

Still, firewire should be firewire. So much for standards.

Jidis · Post by **Jidis** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:41 pm

project wrote:I don't think that their firewire devices should be so picky about what controller cards are used!

I'll second that. I've never thought that "replace your host parts with what we felt like testing our product on" was an appropriate solution. The only catch is, if there really is no way to get the stuff to cooperate 100% with certain (common) controllers. For instance, if there's some bulk of FW parts used in the MOTU's, which is responsible for it. Then, I guess all they can do is stop using the parts or wait for the supply to run out. I doubt that's the case, but even if it were, I've seen others tweak their way out of just about everything. With as many customer's hours of frustration and extra money spent on trial and error replacement controllers, it seems putting the extra energy into finding some of those tweaks would be an honorable gesture on their part.

George