Firepod popping/crackling problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter vicenzajay
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vicenzajay

vicenzajay

Member
Hey all,

Got a firepod about 7 weeks ago. I've not really done much yet (group still working on live projects), but I have laid down a few tracks (mostly bass and vocals) without any problems.

Before anyone asks - I've spent the last half hour looking through the search function - really not finding answers yet to my problem (outlined below).

Well, today I upgraded the Firepod with the brand new drivers/firmware (to support multiple firepods) - seemed to go o.k. Then I ran into problems. Below I've copied the email I sent to presonus' tech support:

copy: Jonathan,

First - hope the new storm doesn't hit you guys too hard (and that all your families are out of harm's way).

Second - I'm discouraged and need help with the Firepod. I was excited today about the publishing of the new driver and firmware. I downloaded them, and things seemed to be fine (loaded and updated). I then plugged my bass into input 1 and recorded a song track....sounded great on playback. Then I connected line 3 from my vocal mic and played/sang/recorded a song. On playback....nasty clicks all the way through. I then worked on isolating the problem. Plugged my bass directly into line 3....input side of the pot (input/playback pot on front of firepod) was clean and great...playback side had the nasty clicks....then tried line 4 (bass)...same result - nasty clicks.

So then I put the bass back on input one and did the vocal mic on line 3....nasty clicks....then I put the vocals in line 1 with the bass in line 3 (at a super low volume (pot turned to about 10:00) on the front of the Firepod. This worked O.K., but the signal from the bass had to be boosted all the way up using the Cubase mixer just to somewhat balance the voice.

Bottom line is that something isn't set or working right, and I need some help. Is it a latency setting (as the potentiometer on the front "input" is completely clean...it's only the "playback" side that has the clicking and snapping). It's not a clipping issue (as the input monitor is completely clean. Is it a driver issue with the new driver? This is definitely a possibility as I've not had this issue before loading the new driver and firmware.

I'd love your ideas as it's very discouraging to have such a great piece of gear and not be able to use it to get a workable recording.

Thanks,
Jay

End of copied email.

My system is:

Intel Celeron M at 1400 Ghz
512 MB RAM
Not much else running on the laptop except this software (Firepod and Cubase LE).
4-pin firewire connection

Hope that covers it - I'm baffled as I've used this to do those other tracks with no issues whatsoever. Everyone says the unit has LOTS of headroom...so it makes no sense.

Other ideas....buffer settings (how to do that and why now)? ....sound card/firewire bus conflicts (don't know anything about this).

Any help would be appreciated.
Jay
 
Double check your sample rate of the unit if it has such a thing up against what your software may be set to. If you don't have those set properly, it's very common that you'll get those pops.
 
What is your latency buffer set at? It may be too low, although I was able to use the Firepod on a cheap Dell laptop with a 2.2 celeron at around 1 to 1.5ms.

War
 
It's actually high

Warhead said:
What is your latency buffer set at? It may be too low, although I was able to use the Firepod on a cheap Dell laptop with a 2.2 celeron at around 1 to 1.5ms.

War
Click to expand...
It's set on the default 10ms right now...that's one of the reasons I'm fairly discouraged.

Sample rate is the same....thus the pristine recording on channel 1. I was almost hoping the popping/crackling was going to be restricted to channel 3...then it's a warranty fix. However, channel 4 reacted in exactly the same way.

Jay
 
A shot in the dark, but if you have any type of wireless network card, be sure to disable it as it can cause the problems you are describing.

Samantha.
 
I typically do that

Samantha C. said:
A shot in the dark, but if you have any type of wireless network card, be sure to disable it as it can cause the problems you are describing.

Samantha.
Click to expand...
But I'll double check today to make sure I click the button to turn off the internal wireless when I try this all out again. Thanks!

Another idea....am I handicapped by the fact that my firewire port (on the computer) is a 4-pin connector. I'm contemplating getting a PCMCIA card with 6-pin connectors.

Thanks,
Jay
 
vicenzajay said:
But I'll double check today to make sure I click the button to turn off the internal wireless when I try this all out again. Thanks!

Another idea....am I handicapped by the fact that my firewire port (on the computer) is a 4-pin connector. I'm contemplating getting a PCMCIA card with 6-pin connectors.
Click to expand...

The extra pins just provide power and a spare ground... so no. That's not saying there might not be something quirky with the firewire bridge chipset used in the laptop, but that's probably pretty low on the probability scale....
 
Just in case, make sure you don't have any other firewire devices in the chain. My firepod doesn't play well with a firewire hard drive hooked up at the same time.
 
Ahh, yes. Read my recent post about getting my Firepod to work - trust me, you shouldn't feel too frustrated yet.

Anyway. First, I'd recommend uninstalling and reinstalling the new drivers. Still a problem? Uninstall the new drivers and install the old (original) ones (unless you need a specific feature that the new one provides). It won't matter that the old drivers are being used with the new firmware. Still a problem? Disable wireless as it was suggested. Get the SP2 fix if you are using Service Pack 2 for Windows. Still a problem? Get a new firewire card (btw, the 4pin vs. 6pin thing shouldn't matter in itself).
 
Samantha C. said:
A shot in the dark, but if you have any type of wireless network card, be sure to disable it as it can cause the problems you are describing.

Samantha.
Click to expand...

Where do you go to disable this card?
 
Start... settings... network settings.... disable...
 
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