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After I have installed Lion (God forbid) and upgraded to the latest version of the MOTU drivers (ver 1.6 48575) the UltraLite produces loud white noise! It shows after 5-20 minutes of use and starts with a couple of digital noise burst as there is something wrong with the sample rate. After 10-30 seconds the only sound that comes from the MOTO interface is loud white noise!

I have recorded the sound of my monitors recorded with a handheld recorder:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3306558/MOTU_Ul ... OSLion.mp3

It is the same issue in all applications. I have experienced it in iTunes, VLC player, Ableton Live and QuickTime player.

I have found out that if I go to the MOTU Audio Setup and change the Sample Rate to 48000 the sound is ok again for a while (approximately 1 minute) and then again turns into white noise.

Any good ideas? Thanks!

Have anyone experienced similar issues?

No.

I use an Ultralite from time to time.

I have the same problem with my Motu Ultralite.
After some minutes there are digital distotion and then high level whitenoise.
If I change the samplerate it dissapear for some minutes and starts again. If I go to the audio-output on my mac in the systempreferences and turn the volume down to about 20% it also disapears.
Have You figured out how to fix it ? The same problems also in other applications. I have the imac i7 with Lion. Tried the Motu on my friends i5 with Lion - no problems ! There have to be a local problem on some machines...I have been in contact with Motu for a while on their support site, and have told them the whole detailed story,but they say there are no known problems with the Ultralite and Lion. Maybe You also should write them a message with the same details, so they know there are not only me having the problem.
Bjorn

rasmoose wrote:After I have installed Lion (God forbid) and upgraded to the latest version of the MOTU drivers (ver 1.6 48575) the UltraLite produces loud white noise! It shows after 5-20 minutes of use and starts with a couple of digital noise burst as there is something wrong with the sample rate. After 10-30 seconds the only sound that comes from the MOTO interface is loud white noise!

I have recorded the sound of my monitors recorded with a handheld recorder:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3306558/MOTU_Ul ... OSLion.mp3

It is the same issue in all applications. I have experienced it in iTunes, VLC player, Ableton Live and QuickTime player.

I have found out that if I go to the MOTU Audio Setup and change the Sample Rate to 48000 the sound is ok again for a while (approximately 1 minute) and then again turns into white noise.

Any good ideas? Thanks!

I have the same problem with my Motu Ultralite.
After some minutes there are digital distotion and then high level whitenoise.
If I change the samplerate it dissapear for some minutes and starts again. If I go to the audio-output on my mac in the systempreferences and turn the volume down to about 20% it also disapears.
Have You figured out how to fix it ? The same problems also in other applications. I have the imac i7 with Lion. Tried the Motu on my friends i5 with Lion - no problems ! There have to be a local problem on some machines...I have been in contact with Motu for a while on their support site, and have told them the whole detailed story,but they say there are no known problems with the Ultralite and Lion. Maybe You also should write them a message with the same details, so they know there are not only me having the problem.
Bjorn
Bjorn

Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 4:39 am

Hi Bjorn

Thank you for posting this!

Unfortunately I have not found a fix for the issue. I have also been discussing the issue for some time now with MOTU technical support giving them the whole story and doing some testing.

The main message from them is that:

1) It is not a symptom of a driver problem (because it's happening after some time has passed) and
2) The driver is tested on Lion without issues ("We have thousands of customers using various MOTU interfaces under OS 10.7 without this symptom".)

I'm a bit stranded for now with the issue. They suggest to send it in for service, but I'm quite sure that the interface is not broken - I have tested it on two other computers (not Lion) without problem and it worked fine on my iMac before upgrading to Lion. All my testing suggests it to be a software problem (see below).

• Which version of the UltraLite do you have? I have the first generation (No Mk)
  Did you test it for several hours on the i5 Lion computer? In my case it may take several hours before the issue shows, but typically it takes about 20 minutes of use.

If anyone else is experiencing the issue please write in this thread and also contact MOTU technical support so they are aware of some kind of general bug.

I have made a summarize of the issue and all my testing here:

1. What is the issue?
I have the following hardware/software combination:
iMac i5 running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)
A first generation MOTU UltraLite firewire device
MOTU drivers version 1.6 48575

The UltraLite produces loud white noise. It shows after 5-20 minutes of use and starts with a couple of digital noise burst as there is something wrong with the sample rate. After 10-30 seconds the only sound that comes from the MOTO interface is loud white noise!

I have recorded the sound of my monitors recorded with a handheld recorder:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3306558/MOTU_Ul ... OSLion.mp3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The issue shows typically after approximately 20 minutes of use, but I have experienced that the interface worked fine for several hours before the white noise shows.

2. Is the issue also present when not using the UltraLite?
No, it's only the UltraLite causing the issue. The native audio works just fine. I also have a USB audio interface that works fine.

3. Is it a special application causing the issue.
No. It shows in all sound producing applications I have tried: iTunes, Safari, Ableton Live, QuickTime, VLC player, Skype etc

3. Is the UltraLite hardware broken?
No, I don't think so. It worked fine before upgrading to Lion with the exact same setup and cables. I have tested the device on two other computers - a Mac OS Tiger computer and a Mac OS Leopard machine. Here it works just fine.

4. Is the Firewire cable broken?
I have been trying two different firewire cables that worked just fine on the iMac and they both produce the same issue.

5. Is the UltraLite lacking power when only connected getting power from the firewire cable?
No. The issue is the same when the power supply is connected.

6. Is the Mac hardware broken?
No, I don't think so. The UltraLite worked fine under Snow Leopard on my iMac. Until now I have been in contact with two users that reports the same kind of issue.

7. Are other firewire devices causing the issue?
No. The issue is still there with only the UltraLite connected.

8. Is the new driver causing the issue?
Maybe. I tried to downgrade to an earlier driver on the Lion iMac but the issue is the same with older drivers. The MOTU technical report claims that the issue cannot be a driver issue as a driver issue would cause issues right away. The issue stops if I restart the sound interface or restarts Lion or switch the sample rate in the MOTU Audio Setup.

9. Is it a specific issue with my OS installation?
Maybe. A test would be to try the UltraLite on other Lion machines or to re-install Lion. At the moment I don't know other users with a Lion machine to test on. To re-install Lion is a possibility but is a very time consuming test that I cannot find time to do at the moment.

10. Is it a third party application causing the issue?
Not likely. I tried to setup a new user account on the Lion iMac and have only one application running (iTunes). A also did a fresh restart. It caused the same issue and as mentioned it was a completely new mac account with no other applications running than iTunes.

11. Is it a driver/OS combination issue?
Maybe. I can't come up with a test that proves or disproves this.

I have the first generation (not mk2 or mk3). I tested it with my friends i5 for about 60 minutes. I wonder if I should reformat the mac and stick with Leopard Snow. Very very strange that only some macs got the problem. Could it be something with the first generation Ultralite,have You asked the motu support team about that? - or maybe one should get rid of all the former drivers, if it is possible to find them in the finder.
Finaly I will say that my problems are a copy of what you have listed, and I have done the same tests. Exactly the same!!
One thing more : if you turn the output down to 20% in the audio setup on the mac, the distortion disappears.

Thanks for responding so quickly !
Bjorn

Something is telling me that the case is that it's a first generation UltraLite issue as we both are experiencing the issue with this version. Also I have found another user at the Apple community that seem to have the issue - also first generation ultralite/iMac/Lion combination: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/33 ... 0&tstart=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I asked the MOTU technical support about the UltraLite version - if it could only be this version that has the issue? There was no excact answer to this - rather the default answer that there are "thousands of Ultralite users on Lion with no problems". Hmmm.

I think it's a good idea to test a bit longer than 60 minutes as in several cases I have been running with the device for longer before the issue showed. When I tested the device on the other two computers, I did it by running music in iTunes for over two hours before I concluded that it was ok.

But if it's running fine on your friends Lion iMac it's really tricky to find out whats causing the issue, because then it's not like: All first generation ultralites fail with Lion, but rather some strange combination of software, drivers, etc.

I have also thought of a re-install of Snow Leopard - a time consuming fix though and a bit ridiculous that it's not possible to run the interface with Lion! Before I do that I also think it could be a good idea to try to delete all MOTU drivers from the system, restart and then try to re-install the drivers again.

The volume thing is interesting, same behavior here!

Please let me know if you find any fix and I'll let you know if I'm having success my troubleshooting.

Best regards, Rasmus

mikehalloran wrote:No.

I use an Ultralite from time to time.

Thanks for your reply, Mike.

Which version of the UltraLite are you using (First version, Mk2 or Mk3)?

BR

I use the first version belonging to a friend.

Are you guys booted in 64bit or 32bit - curious to see if it makes a difference. I am still in 32 but occasionally boot in 64 to see what happens.

rasmoose wrote:Something is telling me that the case is that it's a first generation UltraLite issue as we both are experiencing the issue with this version. Also I have found another user at the Apple community that seem to have the issue - also first generation ultralite/iMac/Lion combination: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/33 ... 0&tstart=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I asked the MOTU technical support about the UltraLite version - if it could only be this version that has the issue? There was no excact answer to this - rather the default answer that there are "thousands of Ultralite users on Lion with no problems". Hmmm.

I think it's a good idea to test a bit longer than 60 minutes as in several cases I have been running with the device for longer before the issue showed. When I tested the device on the other two computers, I did it by running music in iTunes for over two hours before I concluded that it was ok.





But if it's running fine on your friends Lion iMac it's really tricky to find out whats causing the issue, because then it's not like: All first generation ultralites fail with Lion, but rather some strange combination of software, drivers, etc.

I have also thought of a re-install of Snow Leopard - a time consuming fix though and a bit ridiculous that it's not possible to run the interface with Lion! Before I do that I also think it could be a good idea to try to delete all MOTU drivers from the system, restart and then try to re-install the drivers again.

The volume thing is interesting, same behavior here!

Please let me know if you find any fix and I'll let you know if I'm having success my troubleshooting.

Best regards, Rasmus

Hi Rasmoose

One question : if you turn the balance control in the audio preferences on your mac fully to the right, does it then say "no output" ? I have must chosen Ultralite in the same window to get this to happen. Im just curious of the similarity of our problem.

Best regards, Bjorn

Hi Rasmoose

One question : if you turn the balance control in the audio preferences on your mac fully to the right, does it then say "no output" ? I have must chosen Ultralite in the same window to get this to happen. Im just curious of the similarity of our problem.

Best regards, Bjorn

Hi Bjorn

Yes, it's the same behavior here: The checkbooks in the "No output" gets selected if I slide the balance 100 percent to the right.

BTW: The MOTU technical support has now suggested a few more things in order to troubleshoot: To run disc repair, unistall drivers, restart and install drivers again. If that doesn't work, install a completely new Lion installation on an external hard disk. Now I just need the time to run those tests...

BR, Rasmus

Hi,

First of all, I want to apologize for my poor English...

I just want to let you know that I'm encountering the exact same problems with my MOTU Ultralite (first generation) on my iMac (2.8GHz Intel Core i5) since OSX Lion installation (now running 10.7.2), even after drivers update (version 1.6 48575).

This sound card still works fine with my MacBook Pro (2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, OS X 10.7.2) with the same fire wire cable but with the driver version 1.5 41560. (I didn't update because I'm afraid of encountering the same problems on this computer which is a professional tool, so I prefer keep using a configuration that works fine on it!)

After troubleshooting, I guess the problem comes from the new ability to control the volume of the main outputs using the shortcuts on apple's keyboard (F10, F11, F12) because:
- this function is not implemented with driver 1.5 which is bug free even with 10.7.
- when white noise occurs, turning down volume with these keys is the only way to make it stop on the iMac with driver v1.6.
BTW:
- when I set the volume to 20%, I encounter no more white noise but cracks and pops from time to time.
- this volume setting doesn't affect main volume setting on the Ultralite itself.

I wrote to MOTU tech support, they sent me an email (09/07/2011, 2 months ago!) with a Tech-Link number (66320) but it's now neither possible to find it on the MOTU website nor any tech-link recorded in my customer account...

BTW: The MOTU technical support has now suggested a few more things in order to troubleshoot: To run disc repair, uninstall drivers, restart and install drivers again. If that doesn't work, install a completely new Lion installation on an external hard disk. Now I just need the time to run those tests...

Neither do I, but I will tell you the results when I will and I'm very interested in knowing about your results too...

It's good to know that I'm not alone!

Best regards

SynopticAce

Bjorn here
I have found out some more details about what can trigger the white noise. I have done a clean install of Lion. I downloaded the newest driver and started iTunes. Every thing was normal for a while. Even the balance control fully to the right did not result in "no output". After a while the white noise started as before and the "no output " situation came back. But now to the point : it seems like it have something to do with activating wifi or bluetooth. Things can be normal for quite a while, but if you start wifi or bluetooth, the crackle and distortion slowly starts to develop and after a while result in whitenoise. It could of course be a coincidences but probably not because I have tried it several times. Could you guys try the same procedure just to see if you got the same result?

BR Bjorn