Digital Audio Interfaces

kkissinger

I purchased a Laptop (Windows XP, 3.2Ghz, 2gig ram) and a Presonus Firepod. The Firepod comes with a 6-pin to 6-pin cable however I am using another 6-pin to 4-pin cable due to my Laptop's 4-pin Firewire port. The cable is nothing fancy -- it is one I purchased at Best Buy to use for occasional camcorder to computer work.

Occasionally while working in Cubase SX3, the sound will suddenly become VERY distorted -- as if the music is playing softly along with very loud white noise. The sync light on the firepod remains "blue" indicating it is "in sync". To get rid of the noise, I open the ASIO driver window for the Firepod, switch the rate to another one then back to the one I am using (say to 44.1, then back to 96khz).

This situation occurs whether or not I am actually recording or playing back though it is only audible if I am playing back. Additionally, if I am recording, the recording continues however I record noise along with the signal.

I am suspecting that the problem is either with the Presonus hardware/firmware or with the cable.

I am considering purchasing a more ahh... professional cable at musician's friend -- they have one that has gold-plated contacts, extra shielding, etc.

The other issue is more painful -- namely having to return my firepod.

My question is: should I pursue a cable replacement first? Any chance that will clear up the problem?

The other question is more general -- have you experienced this problem and do you know how it can be solved.

Any info appreciated. Thanks!

cebec · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:04 am Post subject:

Can you/have you used the cable that came with the Firepod? Have you checked Presonus' site for updated drivers? I've heard of this happening before but the reasons vary. I don't think a more 'pro' cable would help, though. I also don't think it's the Firepod, per se, but a configuration or sync issue. Unfortunately, it can be tricky to troubleshoot. Do you have any other DAW software to try this with to rule out some things? Maybe download a demo of Ableton Live or a shareware DAW like REAPER and try it out.
Is the Presonus' clock sync set to Internal?

kkissinger · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:18 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:33 am Post subject:

Some firewire interfaces will "crash" and switch sync and samplerates at will and also start distorting and stuff like that.. caused by lack of internal cooling. Is the interface placed on some hot object.. like a preamp.. and there is not a stack of books and stuff on top of it??

kkissinger · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:07 am Post subject:

The unit does heat up a bit... it is on my rack. There is a sample-rate converter unit underneath it on the rack that blocks the bottom side of the firepod. Above the firepod is the bottom of my Mackie CR1604 mixer ... though that part of the mixer only partially blocks the top of the firepod (and yes, the mixer generates heat however that part of the mixer is not anywhere near the firepod.

Anyway... I'll pull the firepod out of the rack and run it with nothing around it... in fact, I could even blow air past it with a little fan.

Another thing to try...

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:27 am Post subject:

What you could try is to see if the unit performs ok with the original cable on a mac. If it works fine then you know the unit itself is OK.
Preventing it from overheating is very cool too of course. Very Happy

If it works ok with a mac then the unit is probably OK. The cable can still be the main problem, but some PC firewire controllers can act up too. Does Presonus have a support forum/ support database online somewhere?

The Presonus is powered by a small external PSU?

kkissinger · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:51 am Post subject:

The Presonus's power supply is internal -- no wall wart.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to a mac Sad

I looked on Presonus's website and couldn't find any real nitty-gritty troubleshooting info -- they just have the usual "make sure you have the latest driver and that your application's settings are correct". I have been searching the internet and have been unable to find any reports regarding these symptoms (not that I've looked everywhere)

Of course, as soon as I say, "I can't find it on the web" someone will, within a few minutes, post a link that describes the problem. Under the circumstances, I wouldn't mind eating some humble pie and solving the problem! Wink

bigtex · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 8:28 pm Post subject:

kkissinger · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:18 pm Post subject:

A big thank you to everyone who has jumped in to help me with this.

I decided to do this project a 96khz with a 32-bit floating point format just to see how it would work.

Well, the Presonus supports 24bit yet I'm running Cubase with 32-bit floating point -- and that could be buggy. Another interesting symptom is that when I use the "export" function to create a stereo file (that is, the final mixdown) the monitored signal is distorted most of the time -- although the file is written clean.

Once I finish the current project I'll work with 24 bit instead of 32-bit. The problem seemed to occur less frequently when I set the ASIO driver to a higher latency value (I was running at 4ms and experimented with values up to 20ms).

In fact, I may try 16-bit 44.1khz (the lowest bit-depth/resolution) and see if the problem disappears.

Nothing like stress-tests! Smile

I will keep you posted and in the meantime, thank you for the help.

jksuperstar · Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:58 pm Post subject:

By chance, do you have all windows sounds disabled, and maybe even force windows to use only your internal/other sound device? (Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > [Audio] , select your internal card as default device then check the "Use only default devices" so all WDM traffic will go that way, and Cubase will send all ASIO traffic to your Presonus. This will prevent windows from sending an 11k sound to your card during a 96k session (a trick I learned from the Echo Audio developers).

bigtex · Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 12:40 am Post subject:

Yes, good point. I always have my Windows default sound output device set to something like the motherboard audio so it won't interfere with my "good" sound card.

kkissinger · Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 6:51 am Post subject:

Fortunately, the Cubase instructions cover the issue of the internal sound card vs. the ASIO device. So, I got that base covered.

Another issue is that the file sizes when working at 96khz are large and I am struggling to keep sufficient space on the laptop's 80gig drive. (Currently I have only 20% free space -- I am defragging every night).

So, I have my work cut out for me once I finish this project... backup files and find me a **BIG** external disk drive.

Cubase has a number of non-real-time functions that includes pitch-shifting. I was playing around with the pitch-shift function and predictably, as soon as I finished a pitch-shift operation, the static would return.

Anyway... I am a catch-22 situation... I have to finish up my project so that I can back up/remove the files from my harddrive so that I can start experimenting. I hope to be able to reproduce this problem predictably so that I can forward it to the vendor(s) if need be.

cebec · Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2006 7:45 am Post subject:

mhb22079 · Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 3 Location: usa

I too am having this problem and am sure it is not the Presonus as they sent me a new unit. Like your issue it works fine for a while but if I switch patches I get the almost robotic / static sound mentioned. Changing the latency fixes it but then it happens again.

I wonder if it has to do with the LAPTOP itself, perhaps an issue with the processor? I'm running with an AMD 2.5 ghz.

If you found a solution please post because right now I have to use my Berringer FIREWIRE interface as a workaround and have a $600 firepod not getting use.

Thanks!

kkissinger · Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:22 pm Post subject:

Sorry to hear that you are experiencing the same symptoms that I am.

The problem seems to occur on playback. I have not "lost" a recording because of this.

I have not yet been able to reproduce this problem constantly though I am suspecting an issue with the ASIO driver or Cubase's interface with the driver.

So, no breakthrough yet. I'll let you know if I find out more.

mhb22079 · Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 3 Location: usa

I'm using it in a live setting plugging into Guitar Rig via Forte. Even using Guitar Rig by itself does not seem to help. I agree with you, something is out of sync and I'm guessing it is a driver issue.

mhb22079 · Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 3 Location: usa

I just wanted to update to let you know that I got my problem resolved. As an IT guy by trade I decided to just start over and reinstall everything on a new bootable partition and am not having problems. I suspect there was a conflict with an installation I did for my Behringer firewire box but cannot be sure. I also followed the advise of others to optimize XP from the following sites:

http://www.absdigital.co.uk/dloads/XPdawTweaks.htm
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Mar02/articles/pcmusician0302.asp

They system is now running perfectly in fact quite efficiently. You may try creating a new bootable partition and doing a reinstall of everything. What I have now are 3 bootable partitions which I can select using Acronis Disk Director at boot time. Partition 1 contains all networking, internet and “office” type software, Partition 2 contains my setup using my Beheringer Box (now a backup) and is optimized for DAW (no networking / internet / firewall / etc), and the third with my Presonus setup (optimized DAW). Since there are 3 separate installations, what you do on one side does not impact another.

Good luck, I hope you get your issue resolved.