Mackie 1640 Firewire Interface

  • Thread starter Thread starter joro
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joro

joro

The Pie Guy
Hi Guys,
I spent all weekend trying to get my cousins new DAW set up.
He bought a Mackie Onyx 1640 with the firewire option...
It is supposed to stream up to 16 tracks of 24 bit 96 .wavs into recording programs via the firewire...
It came with a software called traction...and it works with that but, he wants to use Adobe Audition and it does not seem to work with AA1.5.
It skips...sputters...stutters...then stops.
Sounds like a latency or RAM usage issue...right? :rolleyes:
I spent about 12 hours troubleshooting..
disk de-frags (three 300 gig drives)
disk checks on all 3 drives
de-installed and re-installed AA1.5
expanded buffers and caches...
assigned devices correctly
assigned stmp settings correctly
then the fun started....turn this on...try it...no good...
try something else...then something else...again...and again...and again....
checked the latency settings on the firewire interface....and there are several settings for each of the 4 sampling settings...and no info on default settings at all...very frustrating...
so...after all this time...I figure that the Onyx only sends 24 bit...at either 44.1 or 48 or 96...and one more I don't remmber.....
and AA 1.5 will only allow either 16 bit or 32 bit...not 24...at various sampling rates...
so Iam figuring...the Onyx will NEVER work with Adobe audition....
It says it works with Sonar and Nuendo and other apps...no mention of AA 1.5 though...
so I pose this question in 2 parts...
1. Is there something I am overlooking?
2. if so...how do I fix it?

I know the Onyx firewire is pretty new and there may not be many of you out there with experience...but, any advice is appreciated...
Thanks,
Joe
 
Are we supposed to guess the computer specs/configuration?

My 1220 works just fine after some minor tweaks on my laptop.
 
brzilian said:
Are we supposed to guess the computer specs/configuration?

My 1220 works just fine after some minor tweaks on my laptop.
Click to expand...

sorry..
Pentium 4 running xp OS
1.5 gigs of Ram or so.....runs at 2.5 ghz...
all 3 HDs spin at 7200...


what where your minor tweaks?
and.....are you running AA1.5?
 
A - buffer settings is almost always the cause of what sounds like your problem, esp. with your computer. Your computer is a beast, and should be fine.

B - in audition, make sure you are using the AISO drivers for the onyx, and again check buffer sizes of it, sounds like you need to move up a bit.

C - record in 32bit, I think the files will record 24-bit but the software prolly uses 32-bit, as far as i can remember - that is the good setting... I suggest 44.1 to keep things easy too - but if you want to, move up to whatever sample rate you want.

D - update XP to SP1 at least, i KNOW the drivers require that. I had better luck with my onyx drivers updating to SP2, too.

....hopefully that stuff will fix ya.
 
shackrock said:
A - buffer settings is almost always the cause of what sounds like your problem, esp. with your computer. Your computer is a beast, and should be fine.

B - in audition, make sure you are using the AISO drivers for the onyx, and again check buffer sizes of it, sounds like you need to move up a bit.

C - record in 32bit, I think the files will record 24-bit but the software prolly uses 32-bit, as far as i can remember - that is the good setting... I suggest 44.1 to keep things easy too - but if you want to, move up to whatever sample rate you want.

D - update XP to SP1 at least, i KNOW the drivers require that. I had better luck with my onyx drivers updating to SP2, too.

....hopefully that stuff will fix ya.
Click to expand...

Yeah man...the computer is more than enough...
We'll try those settings for the drivers...that is one thing we didn't try...
what latenvy setting should we use for 44.1?
Thanks mang! :D
I'll let you know if it works.
Be cool,
JOe
 
44.1 shouldn't really change the settings of your latency settings...the buffer size WOULD change that. the sample rate (44.1,96, whatever...) affects CPU/plugin usage more so...

if you actually open the mackie onyx control panel (through control panels, or start-programs-mackie onyx), you can see what your latency setting should be, based on your buffer size (it tells you, haha.)
 
shackrock said:
if you actually open the mackie onyx control panel (through control panels, or start-programs-mackie onyx), you can see what your latency setting should be, based on your buffer size (it tells you, haha.)
Click to expand...

well...no it doesn't...it gives you options for each of the 4 sampling settings....
how do you know to choose the correct option?
 
joro said:
well...no it doesn't...it gives you options for each of the 4 sampling settings....
how do you know to choose the correct option?
Click to expand...

Below is the window I see.

under Latency, that is the buffer settings.
Mackie has been nice enough to tell us the default latency times that the onyx has based on the different buffer settings...so whatever it's set to, that's what you set your program's latency settings too, so it will correct for this automatically from there on out.... If stuff is really delayed, probably have buffer settings too high. If stuff is poppy and clicky, then youyr settings are too low. somewhere in the 256-1000 range is probably fine.
 

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yes...but you can change the latency settings for each sampling rate...
How do you know which is right?
Is a higher sampling rate with a longer latency better or worse for quality?
Or does it have anything to do with using effects?
We like to use a lot of real time digital effects....
And do you have to "record" in your app at the same sample rate?
 
joro said:
sorry..
Pentium 4 running xp OS
1.5 gigs of Ram or so.....runs at 2.5 ghz...
all 3 HDs spin at 7200...


what where your minor tweaks?
and.....are you running AA1.5?
Click to expand...

The Onyx series don't like non TI Firewire chipsets. I have to disable my wireless networking to avoid droputs and clicking noises.

Did you check for IRQ conflicts? Disable Anti-Virus software?

I use Sonar 4.
 
Sounds like a driver issue. What driver are you trying to use in Audition? Choose ASIO if its available. I would really give Traktion a good look though if its the full version, its a VERY good program and goes way beyond what audition can do. Traktion gives you Midi and VST, 2 things sorely missing in AA, not to mention that your hardware is pretty much made for it.
 
brzilian said:
The Onyx series don't like non TI Firewire chipsets. I have to disable my wireless networking to avoid droputs and clicking noises.
Did you check for IRQ conflicts? Disable Anti-Virus software?
I use Sonar 4.
Click to expand...
no IRQ conflicts...I checked that...
will do on the disabling the Anti Virus stuff...
I am actually trying to talk him into disconnecting from the net all together...but, keeping the connection available for tutorials, downloads and updates...
Thanks man...



altitude909 said:
Sounds like a driver issue. What driver are you trying to use in Audition? Choose ASIO if its available. Traktion gives you Midi and VST, 2 things sorely missing in AA, not to mention that your hardware is pretty much made for it.
Click to expand...
Will do on the driver setting....I think that is the issue...but, it will be two weeks before I know it is the issue...
regarding Traction.....yech.. :eek:
That's all I have to say about that....
regarding AA 1.5 and Midi and VST...
Vst plugs work just fine in AA...so do directX...
Midi is another issue but, hey...I don't use Midi...

Thanks man,
Joe
 
joro said:
yes...but you can change the latency settings for each sampling rate...
How do you know which is right?
Is a higher sampling rate with a longer latency better or worse for quality?
Or does it have anything to do with using effects?
We like to use a lot of real time digital effects....
And do you have to "record" in your app at the same sample rate?
Click to expand...

Latency and Sample rate and Buffer settings are all totally different....related? yes. but you have the logic wrong.

The sample rate is the number of times a second that the audio is digitally sampled. In other words, 44,100 times a second for a 44.1KHz sample rate. Idealy, of course, the higher the sample rate the better.
You will find that as you increase the sample rate, your computer works harder and harder to apply the same DX effects, VST, record multiple inputs, playback, etc. Everything takes more proccessing power with a higher sampling rate.

The buffer setting is just that - a buffer as far as sending the audio digitally to your computer goes. A higher BUFFER setting will yield a HIGH LATENCY in transfering audio to your application. You never want latency, which is why the onyx control panel tells you the probable latency with your computer, for any given buffer setting.

You will most likely need to enter that latency into your host program. I don't use sonar, so I can't really help you there. But it should automatically compensate for your latency once you tell it how much to compensate for.

You may also need to set your sample rate in your host program. Again, I don't know sonar....but in my case, Vegas automatically sets the sample rate to record whatever the AISO drivers were previously set to.


hopefully this will all make sense to ya now, good luck.
 
shackrock said:
hopefully this will all make sense to ya now, good luck.
Click to expand...

yeah man....it's like I was blind before....and now I can see..... ;)
I understand completely now dude...thanks!
 
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