1224 clicks/pops/noises

[DCRoss]

Hi all,

I've been having a heck of a time trying to figure this out. I've been using my 1224 / PCI324 for about 5 years without any problems until recently. I was using "PCI-324 internal" as the clock source until I just got a Line 6 X3Pro, with which I wanted to use the AES/EBU output. I reset the clock source to "1224 Bank C AES/EBU", which is when I started getting loads of noise. I assumed it was a clock sync issue, so I verified and re-verified all my settings. I disconnected the X3Pro, and the AES/EBU cables, and tried the "1224 Internal" clock source, and I'm still getting the same noise, which says to me that it's not the X3Pro or clock sync issues, but something with the 1224 itself.

Here are the noises I'm referring to:
http://www.rossguitars.com/misc/44.1kaesebunoise.mp3
http://www.rossguitars.com/misc/48kaesebunoise.mp3

Any help you can provide is very, very much appreciated.

Thanks,
DCR

[James Steele]

I couldn't hear your files... some sort of firewall error message came up. On thing might be that your PCI-324 card is going bad. Are you using it in a G4? The 324 is somewhat borderline these days. But since you said it was working it might just be that the card picked this time to go bad. I had a similar issue with noise and it turned out it was a bad card. Same as you, it worked fine for years before it went bad. I think one way to test is to see if you only get this noise when DP is playing back. Try quitting DP and launching only the Cue Mix application and then send some audio into an input or input pair on your 1224... either playing a keyboard live into it, or some other external audio source and then see if you hear any noise when monitoring. If you still hear the noise the I think that means the card is going bad, because there's no driver involved when it's just CueMix and DP is not launched. If there is no noise, then there's a driver issue somewhere... at least that's how I remember it. It's been a long time ago since I had a MOTU person walk me through that, but do this test before you call MOTU Tech Support and they can probably tell you what it means in case I had this wrong somehow.

[DCRoss]

Thanks for the quick reply, James. The sound files are basically about 1/2 a second of white noise ping-ponging back and forth between the L and R speakers. At 44.1k it's slower, at 48k, it's faster.

I'm using Cubase SX3 on a PC, so no G4 or DP, and I just installed it into a new computer which is doing the exact same thing, so that would eliminate any problems w/ the computer itself.
When I monitor through the CueMix app, I'm getting some serious feedback that keeps building and building, as well as the same ping-ponging white noise.

At any rate, I really appreciate the response. I guess I wouldn't be too surprised if it's the card itself.