My Mackie ONYX squeals?

[FolkDog]

I just got an Onyx 1220, then picked up the digital input card on Ebay.

The thing is that it just gives this high pitched squeal from time to time. At first I thought it was a weird form of dropout from data overload when the processor was overtaxed, but after living with it for a week, it definitely just occurs randomly - although always in response to the computer sending a sound out.

I went through and cleaned up the firewire driver and disabled the firewire networking like the Mackie site says. That cleaned up some hiss and crackle that I was hardly noticing, but the squeal remains. I've checked IRQ conflicts - there are none. The squeal appears independent of the app I'm running - so it is not a software thing. It seems worse when it is hotter (my studio is in an attic) - so I'm going to try giving it extra cooling space.

Does anyone else have this problem? Any other ideas?

I'm just about ready to sell the damn card and go back through my Echo MIA (where I didn't ever use SPDIF, sorry other post guy) which never had this problem.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

picked up the digital input card on Ebay.

Instead of moving to another brand, why don't you get a new interface card that's not broken? 4:1 says that's why it was being sold on eBeware.

And if even with the new card it still squeals, then you know it's the mixer, in which case you need to determine that for sure before the warranty runs out.

G.

 

[Freddy]

Are you sure it's not a pig, cunningly disguised as a soundcard?

 

[BushmasterM4]

Do this. I have a Mackie 1640 with firewire interface and had the same problem. It was my wireless network card. Nic cards (Wireless and wired can cause the problem) send a strong signal and are not sheilded well. Disable them and try it. Also disable your virus and firewall. I have to do this with my set up. No big deal because the cards are very easy to disable and enable within windows. If I need online I just enable the card and Im good to go. If you have extra firewire connections they shouldnt cause any problem. 90% of the time if you do what I said it will fix the issue.

 

[brzilian]

Do this. I use I have a Mackie 1640 with firewire interface and had the same problem. It was my wireless network card. Nic cards (Wireless and wired can cause the problem) send a strong signal and are not sheilded well. Disable them and try it. Also disable your virus and firewall. I have to do this with my set up. No big deal because the cards are very easy to disable and enable within windows. If I need online I just enable the card and Im good to go. If you have extra firewire connections they shouldnt cause any problem. 90% of the time if you do what I said it will fix the issue.

+1

I disabled my wireless card on my Gateway laptop and the issue went away.

I'm more convinced this is a PC/Windows thing rather than a Wi-Fi interference thing though. My new Mac Mini works just fine with the Onyx attached and with the onboard Wi-Fi enabled.

 

[BushmasterM4]

+1

I disabled my wireless card on my Gateway laptop and the issue went away.

I'm more convinced this is a PC/Windows thing rather than a Wi-Fi interference thing though. My new Mac Mini works just fine with the Onyx attached and with the onboard Wi-Fi enabled.

Probably right. Could be alot of things. I had interference in my personal pc (sound wise, when playing games) and it turned out to be one of my cd-roms. Swapped it out and it was fine.

 

[BushmasterM4]

I cant post

 

[FolkDog]

Are you sure it's not a pig, cunningly disguised as a soundcard?

Could be - although it sounds more like the squeal you get when the timing belt fails in your car - so maybe the mixer just has a loose belt. Anyway, I'll heat it up and see if it smells like Bacon.

As to the others - I went back to the Mackie forums and searched "Squeal" instead of "noise", and it turns out I am not alone. Tons of people have this issue, and it seems to come from a wide variety of hardware conflicts. Most likely on mine is the software that times the cooling fan on the CPU chip - since heat is clearly a factor. I'm sitting here in the cool morning with the CPU just started up, and I'm getting almost no noise.

Either way, this puppy clearly generates hardware conflicts at a very deep layer. Since I am fortunate enough to have the MIA card which works just fine, I'll go back to pumping the audio through that and skip ripping apart my system. I got the Mackie because my mixer was shot, but didn't need the recording interface.

So, look for an Onyx card for sale on Ebay soon. But, beware, it may smell slightly like pork. ;-)

 

[brzilian]

Could be - although it sounds more like the squeal you get when the timing belt fails in your car - so maybe the mixer just has a loose belt. Anyway, I'll heat it up and see if it smells like Bacon.

As to the others - I went back to the Mackie forums and searched "Squeal" instead of "noise", and it turns out I am not alone. Tons of people have this issue, and it seems to come from a wide variety of hardware conflicts. Most likely on mine is the software that times the cooling fan on the CPU chip - since heat is clearly a factor. I'm sitting here in the cool morning with the CPU just started up, and I'm getting almost no noise.

Either way, this puppy clearly generates hardware conflicts at a very deep layer. Since I am fortunate enough to have the MIA card which works just fine, I'll go back to pumping the audio through that and skip ripping apart my system. I got the Mackie because my mixer was shot, but didn't need the recording interface.

So, look for an Onyx card for sale on Ebay soon. But, beware, it may smell slightly like pork. ;-)

It's you're loss.

You can't beat the value for the money when it comes to the Onyx. It sounds great for the price. I get tired of people who look at the Mackie forums, see the posts and suddenly come to the conclusion that the product is crap. There is no way to tell how many countless customers use the products without a hitch because they would not have a reason to post on the Mackie message board. Every manufacturer's message board is always skewed on the negative side because that is where people having problems go...

Did you even try the advice given here about wireless networking? Did you check your Firewire Controller's chipset? Mackie is not alone in having trouble with Firewire controllers which don't use the TI chipset.

Finally, I don't see why you would dump both the Onyx and the Firewire Card. It would be stupid to go back to inferior Pre's on a cheaper soundcard. If anything, keep the mixer and run the direct outs into another card. The Mia would work fine for now and you could upgrade to something else down the line (Firepod).

 

[FolkDog]

It's you're loss.


Did you even try the advice given here about wireless networking? Did you check your Firewire Controller's chipset? Mackie is not alone in having trouble with Firewire controllers which don't use the TI chipset.

You misread my post. I'm only selling the card. Keeping the mixer. I like the pres, and my other mixer is waay past its prime.

And, yes, before I even came here I had disabled all networking on this PC and the virus checkers. From the looks of it, the Mackie recording card doesn't like it if the firewire controller shares IRQs or other system processes. When it does, it "squeals." I've done all the possible IRQ conflicts already. The Mackie has its very own IRQ dedicated to it at the BIOS level. Most people who run into cd-rom conflicts or networking conflicts are probably just hitting a version of the IRQ conflict depending on their system.

However another known conflict this card has is with power mgmt software on the processor for overclocked CPUs. I don't overclock, but I do have a high end system with a high end BIOS, and it has all sorts of power mgmt functionality going on. I'm in a hot studio, so I leave it enabled. I'm not going to spend hours screwing with tweaking the chipset software when the MIA has great sound and is stable.

Too bad, I liked the ease of not having to do the sends through the board to the MIA - but in the end it is only one extra step.

I'm not dissing Mackie. I love my HR824s and I love the sound of the Onyx board. It is just that the recording card doesn't seem to play well in the wonderful world of Windows... and I wish it did.