M-AudioFW410 and Vegas... uncommon behavior?

FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 8:17 AM
I tried on the Vegas Audio forum but no success so I copy-paste here:

Bizarre. I just set up my new card (the 410) to my system and recorded two tracks of instrument.
Duplicated these tracks and added a few effects to test the system.
During my "mixdown", glitches and sound coming in chunks.
I go to Prefs, fiddle with settings (in fact, assign the outputs to get surrround), having my Audio Device set as M-Audio FW ASIO. All of a sudden: no more sound.
Now if I assign Microsoft Sound Mapper to "mixdown", everything works. Same with Direct Sound Surround Mapper as the Audio Device.
No glitches, sound in chunks, very ok...

edit: I just checked again on my system and with Audio Device set as M-Audio FW ASIO will give sound but with ckicking/glitches.

Could it be my 1394 port (I use the VIA on-board OHCI firewire outputs) ?
Is it normal, I mean, switching from M/S Sound Mapper to M-Audio card if I go to record or to mixdown?

Comments

filmy wrote on 3/21/2005, 8:43 AM
You might check the latency - if your system can't keep up you will get pops, cracks and stutters.

I don't have have the M-Audio but in some programs, mainly with ASIO use, if I am doing too much and the latency is too short this happens. Adjusting it for slower/longer or lowering the bit rate will fix it.
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 8:58 AM
Yes I got the latest drivers (in fact, I went to their site and downloaded it before installing with the suppplied CD-Rom).

I'll try to find this latency setting. I played with the buffer size yesterday and 128 or 384 samples gave me bad results compared to the suggested 256 samples. I'll try again.
And I got this ADS Tech 1394 pyro card on "standby" in my older computer...
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 9:15 AM
Ok, I have to go up to 2048 samples and I don't even have a perfect sound (still some glitches) with just 9 tracks of audio. Fade ins, a few effects...
Now I just tried to change the "sync source" in the M-Audio control pannel to "internal-caoxial" and it just... shut down my audio card. I re-opened and it shut down by itself again. If I go fast and re-assign the sync source to "internal-optical" again before the card seems to be actually used, it's ok.

Since the suggested sample rate is 256 and I have to go to the top 2048 samples of the gear (still with no success concerning glitches), there must be something I don't get heh?
Again, with SOund Mapper, everything is ok... :/
MyST wrote on 3/21/2005, 9:21 AM
Have you tried going back to an older driver.
The install process for the driver is kinda particular if I remember right.

Mario
filmy wrote on 3/21/2005, 9:34 AM
I dunno if this helps or not - probably not - but I found this little part of a review:

However, a number of outstanding issues are still documented by M Audio on their web site at the time of writing this review. These include problems booting from an external Firewire hard drive with the 410 connected, problems with Apple's I-Sight, intermittent clicks when receiving an external digital clock signal but still using the internal clock (although you can circumvent these by switching the S/PDIF input selection to the other digital input), a few issues with Mac OS 10.2 'Jaguar', and clicks when stopping or starting audio playback using the WDM drivers with Sonar and Sound Forge 6.0 under Windows 2000 (apparently a Microsoft problem). I suspect this is why the current Windows 410 drivers now exhibit the ramping I mentioned earlier.

And from M-Audio about the FW410 and click/pops:

If you are recording a digital input source, make sure the FireWire 410’s sync source, as well as the sync source in your audio software, are set to external.

ANd here is a clittle clip from a post made in January an audio forum:

Q:I just started using the M-Audio 410 and I am experiecing random pops and clicks when i record into Vegas 5.

There has been no response to that.
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 9:40 AM

What I'm gonna do is install the ADS Tech 1394 card in my comp' , shut off the VIA 1394 in BIOS and try again. If this ain't working, I'm going to capture with the M-Audio card; works A1A with monitoring and when I'm done with recording and get to mixdown, I'm gonna switch it back to M/S Sound Mapper in Prefs.
That's it for now I guess, 'til I get some more info.
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 9:41 AM

And yes, I'm going to ask people about the driver they use with this card. Like you said MyST, some older driver might work better. So much often the case with hardware... ; )
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 11:19 AM

And, BTW, Spot, I went back on the VASST site to read your review of the card again but the link leads to the hard drive recorder for cameras instead of the 410 review... oops. You might want to get back to this and correct the situation?
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/21/2005, 12:11 PM
I'm using the 5.10.0.5022 drivers on my M-Audio Firewire-410 hooked up to the firewire port on my Gigabyte 8KNXP motherboard which uses the Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 chip set and it works fine at 256 samples (5 ms). I’ve captured video live via firewire while simultaneously playing back 15+ tracks of ACID loops through the FW410 without any problems. I’ve heard bad things about VIA chipsets and audio so I stay away from them. Hopefully using the ADS firewire card will clear things up for you.

~jr
farss wrote on 3/21/2005, 12:47 PM
M-Audio 410 used here with great success.
A few things. You should be running with internal clocks unless using SPDIF.
Disable any internal sound card, things can get ugly if you don't, I had no end of dramas getting the 410 to work on my old VAIO until I disabled the internal soundcard.
Disable ALL Windows Sounds. These cause the 410 to switch sample rates everytime there's a system sound. Result is it takes the 410 about two seconds to reset the clocks back.
Running the 410 and other devices on the same 1394 port is problematic, make certain all 1394 devices are powered up before booting your PC. I've had Vegas trying to send video to the 410, very ugly results.
Start with just a stereo track playing out in Vegas just to get everything sorted, that should work just fine on any system using ASIO with the buffers set reasonably low. Bear in mind that adding FXs load the CPU and with ASIO there's very little buffering, add video as well and you might easily run out of CPU horsepower.
Bob.
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 3:05 PM
Wow! THAT is a LOT of info !
I didn't know about Windows sounds doing that and I just disabled all of these. Next step: swapping this FiWire card from one comp' to the other... no big deal.
A big big thanks guys for your help. when I'm done with that desktop, I'll try on my vaio laptop... : )

farss: when you say "Running the 410 and other devices on the same 1394 port is problematic", you mean daisy-chaining the sound card with other devices or using a device on any other port on the 1394 card along with the 410 on one output?
I mean, would I get trouble if I capture on output 1 with my cam and the 410 is plugged in output 2 ?
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/21/2005, 3:17 PM
> when you say "Running the 410 and other devices on the same 1394 port is problematic", you mean daisy-chaining the sound card with other devices or using a device on any other port on the 1394 card along with the 410 on one output?

He means any other port on the 1394 card. If you check your other post in the ACID forum I explain this along with disabling your Windows sounds. (sorry I didn’t copy my entire post here but I was trying not to be redundant)

The FW410 has problems with some other FW devices if they are on the same card. I cannot get my ADS Pyro A/V Link and the FW410 to work together. (not daisy chained, just plugged into two different firwire ports on the same card) Capturing with the A/V Link causes the FW410 to turn off, then on, then the capture stops. I have to turn off the FW410 to use the A/V Link. :(

I can capture DV from my camera via firewire with the FW410 on without any problems. It's just the A/V Link that gives me problems.

~jr
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 3:36 PM
Ok JohnnyRoy, message received ! thanks. (Yep, I just read your other post in fact...)
So I may be heading to something that works since I don't have any other 1394 device except my 410 and my cam.
I have an external enclosure with hard drive that's also firewire but I've been listening to some music for hours now without any problem.

Oh... I forgot about my DVD burner I put into another identical ext. enclosure too...
! o_o !


...to be followed...
MyST wrote on 3/21/2005, 3:51 PM
WooHoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Roy you son of a gun, you!!
You fixed MY problem!
Thanks alot also to the others that mentioned it, but I read JR's last post and the "He means any other port on the 1394 card." stuck out at me.
I'd switched my Digital8 firewire connection from the front of my PC to the back, on the same 1394 card. Everytime I tried to use my external preview, my sound would degrade, and playback would slow to a crawl, and eventually stop.
Now, after reading JR's post, I switched it back to the front and BINGf***ingGO!!!

Check your e-mail, I sent you a beer... sorry if there's a mess.

Mario
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 6:11 PM

I'm happy for you MyST.
But my problem's still there (%$@#$*_*()!!!)
I tucked in my ADS Tech firewirwe card and with ONLY my 410 plugged in the system, the problem hasn't changed at all.
Of course, I disabled the on-board VIA 1394 from BIOS before running the 410 on this PCI card.

Well well well... something to dream about...
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 6:11 PM

MyST :
What driver version do you run ?
MyST wrote on 3/21/2005, 6:32 PM
Hey FuTz.

I've got the latest.
5.10.0.5032

Don't give up, it must be something simple we're overlooking.
You say the problem starts if you start to add effects?
Are you sure it isn't there all the time?
I know DSE has said before to make sure you're signal cables aren't running alongside your power cables. I don't think that would cause pops though... more a hum, but it's something to look at.
You wouldn't have accidently downloaded their 64bit beta drivers?
Not all fx plug-ins are created equal. Are you sure your FXs are compatible with Sony apps? Did you try eliminating each FX to see if all of a sudden it stops popping, crackling?

Just throwing anything I can think of at you FuTz, hope you don't mind.

Mario
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/21/2005, 6:49 PM
Mario.

I’m glad it worked but I can’t take the credit for this. Spot was the one who told me about it when I was having trouble with the A/V Link. I’ll forward the beer to him. ;-)

~jr
Rednroll wrote on 3/21/2005, 7:19 PM
Futz, I see in your system specs you're running the Matrox P650. Have you checked to make sure you have the latest driver installed for that? Since, you've had everything in and out of that PC, I would try one more thing and try removing that video card temporarily throwing in another one just to see if the problem goes away. I've been told from a pretty good source that newer Matrox cards have been known to cause problems because of their drivers. Which P650 are you using the AGP or the PCI version? If you're using the AGP, you might want to check your motherboard documentation and make sure that AGP slot isn't sharing the same IRQ with a PCI slot as the Firewire card you're using for the 410. If you are, you'll definately want to move that card to another PCI slot. If you're using the P650 PCI version, you'll want to make sure each PCI slot that you're using is also not a shared slot, even if windows shows that they're not on the same IRQ. Again, check your motherboard literature for shared slot information.
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 8:04 PM
Heee-haaa... thanks a lot guys.
I'm gonna try dumping the driver and re-installing it just to be sure I don't have the beta one as MyST said. I remember they were just one over the other on the site, maybe I clicked the wrong one...?
I'll definitely check for the Matrox driver too. On top of that, I run two monitors and use the main one to access my older computer via XP's Remote Desk. Everything is networked too (the 2 computers).

Maybe I simply ask too much to my machine? I checked and I'm running 29-30 processes...

I've put my ADS Tech PCI 1394 card in the second slot under my AGP Matrox 650. Usually, it's the first PCI slot that shares the IRQ ain't it ? I'm gonna check the manual to confirm that this second slot isn't sharing too, just in case. Anyway, I got 3 more slots to choose from...

Ok, back to work!

===>
FuTz wrote on 3/21/2005, 9:57 PM
I'm gonna give all the steps...

-I installed the new driver for the Matrox P650 (issued last march 10th, by the way, for those of you who got the same card)
-I uninstalled the M-Audio driver, went to my files and deleted the downloaded driver I had. Then, I went back on M-Audio site and downloaded the driver again, double-watching twice that I was downloading the good one, not the Win64 upgrade.
-I got rid of the Realtec AC'97 driver via control pannel (driver for my on-board sound module)
-same with this "Creative DVD plugin driver for Audigy" ( never had this card on my system - ever ! ??? ) (in fact, I banned Creative a long time ago but that's another story...)
-I reduced my running processes to 24
-I changed my 1394 ADS Tech card's slot ; reading the manual, I discovered that slot 2 was shared with the on-board LAN (at least, I "guess" I understood the graphics...not very clear)
-I re-installed the "freshly downloaded" latest driver for the M-Audio
-I went into BIOS and switched the IRQ#5 to "Reserved" instead of "Available". The IRQ#5 is listed as "IRQ for the sound card" in my mobo manual. By switching it to "Reserved", it reserves the IRQ for ISA legacy devices.
Now, I don't know if this sound card is listed as a "legacy ISA sound card", and I sure don't even know what the heck "ISA" means...
But, still, I'm gonna make some more tests tomorrow.

After all of this: same problem. No difference at all.

Rednroll wrote on 3/22/2005, 12:51 AM
"Now, I don't know if this sound card is listed as a "legacy ISA sound card", and I sure don't even know what the heck "ISA" means..."

ISA is an older bus architecture. It is like PCI but much slower/older. I believe it was built off of 16 bit data streams, where PCI is 32bit and 64bit. Early sound cards where made for ISA slots. You probably want to undo that step, because you probably don't have any ISA slots, which are a different size than PCI.

"-I reduced my running processes to 24"

You definately want to cut down any running processes that aren't necessary. Then you can add them back one at a time, until you find the one that might be causing this problem.

Goto START>RUN Type in "Msconfig">OK
Goto the "Startup" Tab. You can disable startup programs there, to temporarily disable them from running upon startup. If your problem goes away, then start adding them back one at a time.

Also temporarily disable your network card. This is another possible problem.
Goto Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager
Expand network adapters, right click on your nextwork card and select "disable".

While you're in the Device manager, check to make sure you have DMA enabled on all your hard drives. Click on IDE ATA/Atapi controlers. Right click on Primary IDE channel>select properties>advanced settings. You should see 2 drop down selection boxes, make sure both are set to "DMA if available". Do the same for the secondary IDE channel. I'ld be surprise if you where able to much video work without these already enabled, but thought I would mention it anyways, just in case. If anything by the time I'm finished we'll at least have your system tweaked for doing audio, and if you have gone through all this, still with the same results, just do yourself a favor and sell that M-audio on Ebay and pick up and Echo card. www.echoaudio.com
farss wrote on 3/22/2005, 1:53 AM
Red,
while all of this (apart from the last comment) is all good advice it's largely irrelevant I suspect as the 410 is a firewire device. Unless I'm mistaken echo don't do a 1394 card, I looked at the Echo gear before I bought a 410 but they don't have anything that does all that the 410 does.
So far I've had no trouble with the 410, works just fine on both my laptop and desktop systems. I've been able to record into my vinatge laptop at 24/96 with no problems, even managed input monitoring back out of Vegas, throw a few FXs on the bus and the latency gets too high but that's not the 410s fault. They're a bit twitchy about how you route your firewire ports but apart from that it's a half decent general purpose box, sure it's not as good as the top shelf stuff but it's way ahead of an aweful lot of the consummer stuff.
Bob.
FuTz wrote on 3/22/2005, 4:37 AM
Yeah, I switched back that IRQ to its first position before going to bed last night since it didn't change a thing.

Gonna try different things today.

I'm slowly considering simply switching to M/S Sound Mapper when I mixdown since for recording, everything seems ok with ASIO driver.