FW 828 MK2 Displays random firing of analog outs!!!

[migranpedal]

Hi,

Using:

VAIO Laptop 2.80-GHz Pentium 4, 1 G RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive. (old, but it was a very good option when I got the 828MKII). Still works great!!

OS Win XP SP3, Cubase 5. Latest Motu Driver Installed.

I´ve never had serious issues with the Motu Audio Interface until now that I´m trying to record at maximum resolution (24 bit 96khz). It has behaved like this previoulsy, even under SP1, Cubase 3 and old motu driver using 16 bit configurations, but they were very spaced issues that caused no major concern until now that its repeated and therefore very annoying.

During recording or playback of a project set for high performace, the display goes nuts and starts lightning all the analog out leds at random, freezes spdif MIDI out, spikes main outs and the audio glitching, crackling, high pitched squeels etc. that occurs inbetween. Sometimes returns to normal or at its worst, crashes Cubase and PC needs to be restarted.

My budget is running very low, so I must discard the first and possibly best solution to the problem. That would be to buy a Mac.

Lets look at the Vaio instead. I recently installed software to monitor the overall performance of the laptop.
All I can say is that I´m on the green so I discard system resources issues.
I´m only having one reference track while recording to another in Cubase and it should be OK to run the test.

I read in one of the threads that it could be a firewire ieee 1394 driver that needs to be updated, or better said, backdated to the SP1 firewire drivers. My laptop already did this nusance when It was running under SP1.
Another option is to change to a third party Firewire card.

I´ve also read somewhere that it could be the cable, sony uses i-link (small pin) to the TI firewire type imput of the Motu.


Well, I could go on and on, I just hope someone can assist me.

Thanks for reading.

[HCMarkus]

I'm going to chime in with a possible solution that you may, entirety appropriately, disregard completely, and that would be this: record at 24 bit 44.1k or 48k. Unless the conditions and equipment are perfect, I sincerely doubt you will notice any audible difference in your recordings. In all honesty, I doubt you will notice any difference even if conditions and equipment are perfect. Besides, unless you are recording for SACD, you will almost certainly be SRCing down to 44.1 or 48 in the end anyway. Just a thought.

[migranpedal]

Thanks for the reply, you do have a point there.
Fact is that the recording engineer at the studio I´m recording at has these requirements for the project.
I was hoping to put some bass tracks down at home to impress him. I´ll have to go and do my act at the studio.
Still working on a solution anyway.
Thanks!!

[HCMarkus]

Record at 48k and SRC within DP or other software up to 96k. If you record the tracks well, they'll never know the difference.

[migranpedal]

Sounds reasonable, I´ll take a shot, see if I can fool them.
Many Thanks.

[HCMarkus]

Sounds reasonable, I´ll take a shot, see if I can fool them.
Many Thanks.

Remember sound quality is the issue. They ask for 96k to be delivered, you deliver 96k. The tracks sound great. Fin.

No guilt.