Hi folks -
Though I've been a member here for some time, this is my first post, and of course I have a problem which is confusing me.
For many years I've had a stable recording setup. I use a Presonus Firepod (with the final firmware installed); my computer
was rather low end - an MSI motherboard, AMD Phenom 965 CPU, 8GB memory, windows 7, PCI firewire card with a TI chipset.
This ran stabily and I wasn't really having any performance issues. I was beginning to worry though that using an out-of-support
interface and OS would bite me at some point, especially as I regularly updated my DAW (Reaper) and plugins (mostly stuff from IK Multimedia.
Toontrack, and Izotope).
My old case was starting to vibrate loudly, and it really was a piece of junk, so I replaced it with a Fractal Designs R5. Much better, much
quieter. But then I got hooked on reducing the noise - so I replaced the power supply with a BeQuiet Straight Power 10/600, and added a
Samsung EVO 850 500 disk. I installed Win 10 on this disk, configured the FW card to use the legacy driver, and installed the Presonus drivers
in Win7 compatibility mode.
It is important here to note that everything was still working perfectly - the win7 drivers functioned with no problem under Win10.
This is where I should have stopped, but like Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon, I crossed the line.
I decided it was time to buy a modern MB and CPU, so I did a little research and bought an ASUS Z270-A and an I7-7700 (no K),
with a Dark Rock Pro 3 fan. I put 32gb (2x16) Corsair DDR4-3000 memory in it. It was at this point I realized the new MB had no PCI
slots, only PCIe, so I bought a new FW card (TI chipset).
This is where my misery began.
If you listen to the attached mp3, you can hear, under the horrible noise, the recording, being played back too slowly.
I did the following:
1) tried all available PCIe slots.
2) tried a second, more expensive FW card (TI chipset)
3) made sure everything unnecessary was shut off (on-board sound, USB3.1, useless motherboard LED lighting, network/firewall/etc., and all the usual tuning stuff)
4) I borrowed an RME UFX and installed the current driver - same result. Using USB, the RME was fine. I thought the old FP drivers might not work well with a new chipset.
But the RME drivers are new and of high quality - and since the RME has the same problem, I don't think it is a driver issue.
5) tried known-good cables
6) used the Firepod with my laptop (win7) - cable and interface are fine; worked without issues
7) checked all the OS and BIOS settings I could find
8) tried the "TI" FW driver rather than the legacy
9) updated the MB bios, installed newest chipset drivers
all to no avail.
So I have a fast, dead quiet computer that I can't use. But I can no longer go back to the old MB either.
I bought a little Focusrite 2i2 USB just to have something to work with, but it really feels limited after using the
FP for ten years. I also don't like the preamps; but that may be because I am used to the Presonus pres.
Now, before I completely give up and buy a new interface, I thought I would throw myself on the mercy and knowledge
of this forum. I've searched through this and other forums and haven't found anything quite like this. If it were
just the noise I would suspect there was something from the MB buss causing it, but the slow-down, as if a slower
sampling rate were being used to play back, suggests the problem is somewhere else.
On the other hand, it is a good excuse to buy a new interface, since that will be necessary at some point anyway.
But I may be old-fashioned, and I prefer Firewire to USB2. USB3 might be a different matter.
thanks for any ideas or information
steven
Though I've been a member here for some time, this is my first post, and of course I have a problem which is confusing me.
For many years I've had a stable recording setup. I use a Presonus Firepod (with the final firmware installed); my computer
was rather low end - an MSI motherboard, AMD Phenom 965 CPU, 8GB memory, windows 7, PCI firewire card with a TI chipset.
This ran stabily and I wasn't really having any performance issues. I was beginning to worry though that using an out-of-support
interface and OS would bite me at some point, especially as I regularly updated my DAW (Reaper) and plugins (mostly stuff from IK Multimedia.
Toontrack, and Izotope).
My old case was starting to vibrate loudly, and it really was a piece of junk, so I replaced it with a Fractal Designs R5. Much better, much
quieter. But then I got hooked on reducing the noise - so I replaced the power supply with a BeQuiet Straight Power 10/600, and added a
Samsung EVO 850 500 disk. I installed Win 10 on this disk, configured the FW card to use the legacy driver, and installed the Presonus drivers
in Win7 compatibility mode.
It is important here to note that everything was still working perfectly - the win7 drivers functioned with no problem under Win10.
This is where I should have stopped, but like Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon, I crossed the line.
I decided it was time to buy a modern MB and CPU, so I did a little research and bought an ASUS Z270-A and an I7-7700 (no K),
with a Dark Rock Pro 3 fan. I put 32gb (2x16) Corsair DDR4-3000 memory in it. It was at this point I realized the new MB had no PCI
slots, only PCIe, so I bought a new FW card (TI chipset).
This is where my misery began.
If you listen to the attached mp3, you can hear, under the horrible noise, the recording, being played back too slowly.
I did the following:
1) tried all available PCIe slots.
2) tried a second, more expensive FW card (TI chipset)
3) made sure everything unnecessary was shut off (on-board sound, USB3.1, useless motherboard LED lighting, network/firewall/etc., and all the usual tuning stuff)
4) I borrowed an RME UFX and installed the current driver - same result. Using USB, the RME was fine. I thought the old FP drivers might not work well with a new chipset.
But the RME drivers are new and of high quality - and since the RME has the same problem, I don't think it is a driver issue.
5) tried known-good cables
6) used the Firepod with my laptop (win7) - cable and interface are fine; worked without issues
7) checked all the OS and BIOS settings I could find
8) tried the "TI" FW driver rather than the legacy
9) updated the MB bios, installed newest chipset drivers
all to no avail.
So I have a fast, dead quiet computer that I can't use. But I can no longer go back to the old MB either.
I bought a little Focusrite 2i2 USB just to have something to work with, but it really feels limited after using the
FP for ten years. I also don't like the preamps; but that may be because I am used to the Presonus pres.
Now, before I completely give up and buy a new interface, I thought I would throw myself on the mercy and knowledge
of this forum. I've searched through this and other forums and haven't found anything quite like this. If it were
just the noise I would suspect there was something from the MB buss causing it, but the slow-down, as if a slower
sampling rate were being used to play back, suggests the problem is somewhere else.
On the other hand, it is a good excuse to buy a new interface, since that will be necessary at some point anyway.
But I may be old-fashioned, and I prefer Firewire to USB2. USB3 might be a different matter.
thanks for any ideas or information
steven