Did I fry my Delta 1010LT?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sippy Cup
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Sippy Cup

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I FINALLY got the capability to use my M-Audio Delta 1010LT Multichannel Audio card with the purchase of Cakewalk Music Creator Pro. I plugged a guitar directly into an RCA port (by using a 1/4 to RCA converter), and plugged a mic directly into one of the mic inputs and tested it out. The result was quiet, but quality was good. My friend and I moved the computer down to our practice room so we could record our music. We hooked the computer up, then ran a cord from the pre-amp out on the guitar amp to an RCA input, and we had two mics directly plugged in (one for drums, one for vocals). When we played the song back, the guitar sounded terrible, the drums were too loud, and the vocals were too soft.

We decided to fool around with the guitar amp's settings until we could get it to where it sounded good while we played and during playback. As we kept messing around with the settings, a constant click developed. We tried the mics and they did the same thing. We thought maybe the speakers were just messed up somehow, so we played back a sample song and it sounded fine. Since the guitar and all the mics made the same noise, and it wasn't the speakers, it has to be the card or the dangly piece which attaches to the card and has all the inputs and outputs on it. We plugged nothing into the card which had any power. The guitar was always from the preamp or without the amp at all, and the mics were always plugged straight into the card. We also thought maybe we had some electromagnetic interference, so we moved the computer back upstairs, away from the amp, and still got the same problem. Can someone tell me what the hell happened?
 
Relax...

May be you run into resource conflict (IRQ/DMA etc...). Move the card into another PCI slot. Go www.musicxp.net and see if it helps...

;)
Jaymz
 
I think a resource conflict would just cause the device not to function at all. That's what it does with other devices, at least. I'll check it anyway, but I don't think that's what it is. I'm going to test the power coming out of the PreAmp on the guitar.. maybe it screwed up and some power came through it. I don't know.
 
Ugh, I'm sorry... what I meant is sharing resource which caused the crackling noises. It's pretty common with winXP set to ASCI mode. Make sure you also install all latest driver.

;)
Jaymz
 
IRQ Trouble

Check the IRQ on your sound card.

The thing about IRQs is this: only 1-15 are real. Any number above 15 is virtual, and doesn't exist - its just created by your computer, kind of like virtual memory (which in case you didn't know is actually a part of your hard drive). If you're going to do any sort of recording, it is essential that your soundcard is on a real IRQ (1-15) AND that it is alone on that single one. Sharing an IRQ with a soundcard can create a hardware conflict, and those are a real pain in the ass to deal with.

The way to check this on Windows is:

Go to Start Menu - Programs - Accessories.
Click on System Tools - System Information.
Under Hardware Resources, click IRQs.

If your soundcard is on an IRQ above 15 or it is sharing one with another hardware device, I would recommend calling your manufacturer's technical support before preceding to change IRQs around, because often you have to go through your BIOS and doing that can be very touchy. A little mistake in the BIOS can make your system really suck.
 
I have computer experience, so I'll be able to change the IRQs around. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try them out as soon as possible.
 
Well, it is now using IRQ 11, but the little dangly piece of crap with the inputs on it is not making a good connection to the card, so we can't get Music Creator Pro to pick anything up. We're pretty angry about that. So, I don't know if it fixed the problem or not.
 
Well, I changed that driver to Standard PC and the ATA Controller didn't find a resource, so the hard drive is running at the slowest speed, which means everything is slow. I went to change it back to APCI after deciding to put the card in another computer, and the drivers are GONE. Before, there was a list, from which I selected Standard PC. Now there is only one listed, which is Standard PC. Where are the drivers? Why aren't they on the Windows XP CD? UGH.
 
"Because switching modes leaves registry entries and some driver files intact, we recommend a fresh installation of the operating system with the correct PC mode selected."

Could this perhaps be the reason I can't switch back to ACPI?
 
Sippy Cup said:
"Because switching modes leaves registry entries and some driver files intact, we recommend a fresh installation of the operating system with the correct PC mode selected."

Could this perhaps be the reason I can't switch back to ACPI?
Click to expand...
Yes of course it could be. I've always had problems changing from ACPI to Standard PC. A format and reinstall was in order... :(
 
That really sucks. There must be a way to do it, but I can't find out how. The drivers just disappeared from the list. I really don't understand that.
 
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