Focusrite Pro 40 or pcmcia card Faulty?

Disease8

Disease8

New member
I want to make a long story simple. erm...

Well I got a pro 40 top replace my alesis io26 (I think wise choice except loosing 8 input channels).
The main reason I swapped was to get the far superior software and have the ability to route any thing to anything. The io26 did not have this and to play back recordings to musicians on different output pairs you would have to actually UNPLUG and plug back into that pair. Yep you could only have the DAV output out of one pair at a TIME.

So I have used the Fiocusrite to reord a band and some other bits and bobs like lead rap vocal... etc..
I think everything going into it and coming out is lacking in over all quality and high end detail... I also had a problem with latency which I contacted Focusrite about and they have been very helpfull (unlike Alesis).

So we werre trouble sdhooting stuff to find which device was causing the latencyI think I worked out it is caused by my cheap firewire pcmcia card even though its definitely TI chipset and so is the card controller in my laptop.

I plugged in my Delta M-Audio card from my desktop and the difference was amazing the m-audio delta pci card sounded so much clearer. So
Do I have a faulty Focusrite or is it the pcmcia card? Can pcmcia effect the sound like that?
I would have thought not .. But then the Focusrite should not sound THAT much worse than the M-Audio Delta?!?!?!?!?

Check the recording I have done on the Focusrite:
 
One other thing it might sound bad to me but ok for everyone else as I am monitoring through the focusrite also! So the A-D might be fine but the D-A dead sounding....

I ordered a new pcmcia card from a betther brand will see if this makes a difference..

Any advice or observations are welcome :-)
 
thnx for the post. i have been checking out the pro 40 and i have had 5 freeze issues (requiring reboot). I think it was due to my old video card which I cant seem to be able to update. i wound up getting into trouble and had to reload some windows XP from the disc. So far no freezing but the old pc seemed slower, so I removed Ableton. But I have a gut feeling the Pro40 is a bit much for my older pc.

You make a excellent point on the MixControl "routing" software. EMU 1820 had PatchMix......my Tascam 122 didnt and I agree I missed it.
I have a 1641 coming and I dont think it has this "routing" software either....sooooo....

As for sound quality, I wonder if some of your settings are downgraded or something? As someone told me it was my gain staging and that was correct.

Have you checked your CPU performance while running the software of the Pro40?

(through Task Manager)...I'm curious what your MixControl is using, my pc seems to have slowed down is all I know and the freezing pc has never happened before, the only change is the Pro40 + software+Ableton.
 
CoolCat said:
thnx for the post. i have been checking out the pro 40 and i have had 5 freeze issues (requiring reboot). I think it was due to my old video card which I cant seem to be able to update. i wound up getting into trouble and had to reload some windows XP from the disc. So far no freezing but the old pc seemed slower, so I removed Ableton. But I have a gut feeling the Pro40 is a bit much for my older pc.

You make a excellent point on the MixControl "routing" software. EMU 1820 had PatchMix......my Tascam 122 didnt and I agree I missed it.
I have a 1641 coming and I dont think it has this "routing" software either....sooooo....

As for sound quality, I wonder if some of your settings are downgraded or something? As someone told me it was my gain staging and that was correct.

Have you checked your CPU performance while running the software of the Pro40?

(through Task Manager)...I'm curious what your MixControl is using, my pc seems to have slowed down is all I know and the freezing pc has never happened before, the only change is the Pro40 + software+Ableton.
Click to expand...

Hi. Thanks for the interest. Yeah the Mix Control is Excellent. My CPU and Latency go up a lot when using the Focusrite.

As I said the main point is could the quality of the PCMCIA card effect the quality of the sound coming from the computer through the sound interface?

I have never had any problems with anything freezing up and it all seems pretty stable apart from the clicking and performance..

My settings are fine as I said I have been trouble shooting for ages and it all seems to lead back to the pcmcia card or iuts just that the focusrite is crappy, which I doubt. When the pcmcia card is taken out the latency and overall performance increases massively.

So I do not understand your post.. Did you get rid of the Focusrite? Did you find the overall sound quality good? I definitely think something is wrong its just a matter of finding out what. The Focusrite is new so I know its within warranty I will just return it if its faulty.
 
its in testdrive...
1641 coming to compare.(possibly less taxing on my 2005 pc)

i agree with you, the ability to route the different outputs to different speakers is great. MixControl...arrrg...always a trade off.
the layout on the Pro40 is easy and works well, mute buttons etc.. 2 headphones which are plenty loud.imo.

I found out my pc is 2005! i was cleaning up the startup MSCONFIG and getting rid of background crap. So no recording....pc software cleaning up. I got to point where everything was ready to go...then I had several freezes/crashes.

reloading the MixControl now and will record with it hopefully some today.
 
I just spent another half day with computer freezing up and rebooting and re-installing without Ableton (so I know its not the Ableton causing problems)....

I'm uninstalling the Pro40 and just got my old US122 backonline...geeez. Enough reboots for 2 days. haha
Whatever it is its not working and as I said a few times, I'm not buying a new pc to make this work better.

Its a fine unit with the right pc no doubt. But this cryptic US-122, 2 channel, is 24bit and it doesnt bog my pc down or crash it. Actually most the time 2 inputs is fine and this cost $50 used.

I started this all for the live drums...its the drummers fault!!! ahaha

oh well...maybe the 1641 will fit this chipset better?
 
Dude how are you connecting it to your computer?
Is it through a PCI firewire card?
Or is the firewire built in to the computer?

You need to track it down and find out what chipset it is. If its anything apart from Texas Instruments chipset you need to buy a TI chipset PCI card. They are the only reliable ones for audio.

Sorry if you iknow all this but thought it might help, I am a bit of a IT geek so let me help trouble shoot.
 
Also:

I don't think its possible for the PCMCIA card to effect the sound quality right?

Some people have listened to the recordings and thought they were alright and I will listen on my other sound card but surely the Focusrite should not sound that much worse than the Delta????

I will listen to them on my other sound card, it might mean that only the D-A side is bad and I can still got good recordings on it just not good quality monitoring.

.. Grrr why can nothing work!
 
is it in the mix? maybe mono, not stereo, or some kind of dynamic eq active?
is ther an eq setting default?

converters can make a difference they say, but that drastic of a change I've never read about.

yeah its whacked when instead of recording or jamming, its like rebooting and reloading over and over...makes one want a tube amp and a strat and a sm57 and a 2" tape recorder!
 
Dude how are you connecting it to your computer?
Is it through a PCI firewire card?
Or is the firewire built in to the computer?
 
I was connecting through the Front Firewire "stock". The rear one never would work.

Maybe it was the chipset? I'm going to try this 1641 today, if its ok its ok...if not maybe I'll breakdown and buy a stand alone TI chipset card. I been using a Tascam 122 and up to 16 tracks and no issues using "stock" USB 2.

but I have never recorded more than 2 at one time on this pc. previously I had a EMU1820 and recorded up to 4 simultaneously.

the Pro40 was built sturdy , and the control routing software was great....

I'm still confused on what the 512 versus 1024 settings do? I just notice the system that is working was at 1024 the pro40 was default at 512?? it was adjustable... would that cause screen crashing?

was it the Kristal talking to the MixControl software?

anyway I had to take back the Pro40 to get a full refund. time was running out because it was attached to the ISA One I had tried out previously. .... about burnt out on shopping for a bit! ahaha. testdriving is ok, but returns and shipping suck.imo
 
CoolCat said:
I was connecting through the Front Firewire "stock". The rear one never would work.

Maybe it was the chipset? I'm going to try this 1641 today, if its ok its ok...if not maybe I'll breakdown and buy a stand alone TI chipset card. I been using a Tascam 122 and up to 16 tracks and no issues using "stock" USB 2.

but I have never recorded more than 2 at one time on this pc. previously I had a EMU1820 and recorded up to 4 simultaneously.

the Pro40 was built sturdy , and the control routing software was great....

I'm still confused on what the 512 versus 1024 settings do? I just notice the system that is working was at 1024 the pro40 was default at 512?? it was adjustable... would that cause screen crashing?

was it the Kristal talking to the MixControl software?

anyway I had to take back the Pro40 to get a full refund. time was running out because it was attached to the ISA One I had tried out previously. .... about burnt out on shopping for a bit! ahaha. testdriving is ok, but returns and shipping suck.imo
Click to expand...

Well I want to return my Focusrite and i do not have any of the packaging!!

The latency or buffer is the settings that have 512 and 1024. The bigger the number the bigger your audio buffer. More buffer = more latency but also more stability. You will be able to monitor and record more with a bigger buffer but at a higher latency..
I would say that has nothing to do with the crashing..
USB is different to firewire you dont need to worry abou tthe chipset..

Dude you will not get it working on the built in firewire. Get a TI chipset firewire card for £10 on ebay, everything will work!

Did you take out the video card and see if it kept crashing after that?
 
Disease8 said:
Well I want to return my Focusrite and i do not have any of the packaging!!

The latency or buffer is the settings that have 512 and 1024. The bigger the number the bigger your audio buffer. More buffer = more latency but also more stability. You will be able to monitor and record more with a bigger buffer but at a higher latency..
I would say that has nothing to do with the crashing..
USB is different to firewire you dont need to worry abou tthe chipset..

Dude you will not get it working on the built in firewire. Get a TI chipset firewire card for £10 on ebay, everything will work!

Did you take out the video card and see if it kept crashing after that?
Click to expand...

no packing? oops... I'll bet you'll get it working. Your pc and all the audio software needs to get on the same "page" and same settings thats probably all it is?? idk?

this is a stock 2005 amd 2.8 64, 2gig ram and nothing else..some ati stock built in video card...cant remove it. hahaa it works fine for what I'm doing and really other than extra inputs the US122 is fine.

I would like to play with some different software and i got the old rack table out and moved everything to it from my desk, so the rack mount units wont be flopping around.

the pro 40 was returned yesterday, and the discontinued 1641 is here. i'll probably start another post for it.

mainly reading the manual and all the forum posts I can find. there's a bunch of them....

no more crashing with the Tascam US 122....going on 2 days and on all night. Kristal Audio Engine working fine.

so what are you going to do? have you tried different sample rates?

the buffer latency is interesting, i was reading up on that. thanks.
what si the buffer exactly? ram or hd space?
 
Hey i do not think in my case its that simple of getting all on the same page, its the overall sound quality that is bad. Although I do get glitches in audio I am pretty suire this is caused by the fireqwire pcmcia card. As for the sound quality I hope this is also the pcmcia card but I dont see how that is possible. No ones answered my thread with the answer to that (like usual).

As for your computer dude it will never work if you are using some crappy built in firewire card buy a TI chipset one NOW!

PCI FIREWIRE 1394 3+1 PORT TI CHIPSET SUPPORT WINDOWS 7 on eBay (end time 18-Mar-11 16:44:21 GMT)
 
I have tried everything as I said I have been trouble shooting this for weeks and been in touch with Focusrite also.
 
troubleshooting for weeks doesn't sound good.
I agree with you I dont see it being the card...IDK? changing it out cant hurt for a test. If thats not it....sounds like preamps to me.

you dont like the sound of the Pro40, is what your article seems to say.imo

when you say the sound has lost detail and hi-end, i think it might be the preamps flavor you dont like and others dont hear.

you say you had no issues with the Alesis sound and the MAudio sounds much better to your ears.

i'm test driving a Tascam 1641 USB....its half the price and as I posted on the Tascam forum, setup was 5 minutes and not a crash or issue in hours. todays testdrive will tell for 100%.

-It doesnt have the routing software you wanted, and sounds like your Alesis the 3/4 out is on ALL the time. I use 3/4 for a 2nd set of monitors> amp+passives that are controlled by the volume knob on the amplifier. I'd rather turn a knob than reset frozen computer screens.

convertors seem to be the least likely if you read around, even those with high end stuff often use the Behringer cheap-cost 8000. $199 8 i/o and take this into a card.

what they do have is higher end plugins/software like UA Solo and better and of course the holy grail of rack mount hardware and mics....

the fact you like the sound of the Alesis and MAudio tells me your cool with your monitors and room setup.

but then you wanted the "MixControl" thing..... EMU uses PatchMix maybe you could try one of their interface's?

thats my 2 cents its the preamps in the Pro 40 you dont like.
I had a Focusrite ISA One at home preceding the Pro 40 and the preamps sounded nothing alike, I dont care what the ad's say. The ISA One was like having good sex...it loved the SM-7 and was a beautiful tone....my 1641 stock pre's dont sound this good either. (disclaimer: this is without plug-ins= no eq no comp= nothing= dry)

After I pay off this TAscam 1641 and its error free, I'll probably get the ISA One.
 
I didnt really like the sound of the alesis that much it was bearable but Focusrite should be much much better!
I am pissed off and expect acceptable sound quality from this Pro 40. It is really sounding like junk. Did you listen?
If it sounds ok on other peoples set ups then I know its the sound card. I am going to test soon.
 
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