The SM 57 is a dynamic microphone and doesn't use phantom power, did you have the faders up on the channels you tried it on? If channels 5-8 are line level inputs then you will not get same signal strength out of them as you do out of the XLR mic inputs. The reason being that the XLR inputs have a preamp that you can turn up.

From the looks of it you could plug the 1/4 inch jack below the XLR mic and use the preamp gain and faders set to 0db. From what I understand a TRS jack is balanced.

Did you have the channel selected (5-8) in your recording program when trying the SM 57?
Yes a Preamp will give you more gain on the line level channels (5-8), but I would try using the ones on the Alesis first and experiment some before I bought one.

If I remember the manual right you can have a 1/4 inch jack plugged in below one of the mic (XLR) plug ins and the phantom power will not effect it, check the manual first though. Phantom power is not suppose to affect a dynamic microphone, or some of them at least.

randy

Bill,

I'm using a P-IV so I guess the dual core stuff doesn't mean much to me. Does Sonar 6 deal with these problems? I know it's a marketing conspiracy the way that new hardware makes your old software need new versions that need new hardware.

Randy,

I've sure that the connections and volumes are up, I think that your right about the gain on 5-8. I will have to buy a preamp to use channels 5-8 with mics the way I want to. The manual does state that those channel inputs are ballanced and the block diagram shows TRS connectors so I should have the option of using TRS out or XLR to TRS cables to connect from the preamp to the mixer.

Bill,

It's a TI I guess it's a 1394a. Oddly eough the built in firewire is also a TI. I do believe that the change over to 6 pin ports has fixed the problem for me. What exactly is hyperthreading? I have a bad habbit of not learning about these types of things untill I need to know. I should probably buy one of those computers for idiots books if I'm going to keep recording with a DAW.

ORIGINAL: bvideo
I have recently found that the "hyperspace" playback problem happens much more readily when the project is playing back acid-style loops, either in the loop explorer or on the timeline. Without loops, the playback problem is only occasional. With the CPU affiity for Sonar.exe set to only CPU 1, these playback problems go away.

Survey: For those that have this playback problem, is there anyone who has it on a single CPU system? Hyperthreaded? For those on a dual CPU, is the problem fixed by the workaround I described above?

For me, when it happens, the timeline starts playing back at a crazy speed. As cjlinus says, "if you've heard it you know what I mean." Audio spits out noise and MIDI plays very fast. The Sonar screen is generally responsive, but when exiting, Sonar leaves behind a process that is using a whole CPU, and it has to be killed by the task manager. Another thing that happens when Sonar reaches this condition is that the user interface goes dead when trying to go to the mixer settings panel, and again needs to be killed through task manager.
Thanks In Advance to all who respond to this informal survey (wystan - thank you for your earlier response).
Bill B.

Old thread, but

I've been fighting this problem for like 2 weeks since I got a FireWire 12... I have the latest driver and firmware from the Alesis website. It does the speed playback/noise thing, and the whole sonar process in task manager thing. Sometimes when I restart the program, it fixes it, sometimes not, and eventually it always just happens (seemingly randomly) again.

This is with ASIO; The WDM drivers just aren't working, they seem to randomly pop the output into a high volume distortion.

I will try the CPU affinity, I'm running a dual core system. Other than that, has there been any updates on this issue? Any resolves? It really sucks when I'm trying to get a song done and have to sit and troubleshoot every five minutes.

Thanks...


Woodbury

Bill,

thanks for the follow up =)

The CPU affinity worked perfect, I recorded a friend (acoustic and vocal) with playback and "through"s working fine. It seemed to make both the "hyperspeed" and random distortion thing go away.

I am stuck with the mixer, but I want to get one of the Mackies w/ firewire. It seems to have much better customer responses, and from people that have sent the MultiMixs back.

So, I will send complaints to Alesis. I don't know if they are just trying to promote Cubase or what, since it does appear that the two have a deal set up, w/ the bundled software and all. Does this problem occur in any other program? Cubase? Logic? I have the same problems in both Sonar 5 and 6... I think it's hardware/drivers too.

Thanks again, I may post whatever Alesis comes up with to tell me.

Woodbury

Tyler,
Let's see if email worked.

I had a phone conversation with Alesis tech support. No one in tech support has a dual CPU setup. But the guy (not Justin Baro) told me the developers know something about it and TC is involved too. Unfortunately it's probably behind Vista and 64-bit in their way of thinking.
Bill

have you guys fixed this problem? I am getting scared of getting an Alesis.

Hi,

I spoke with Alesis people before i buy Alesis multimix FW to use in Cakewalk sonar.

They said they do not have any problem with Sonar. I am reading lot of complaint abt some problem here in this Forum.

Is ther any problem with respect to dual core??.

Can anyone Be able to use Sonar with Mulitimix FW.

Plz Post here.

ORIGINAL: Native Import

Does anybody know how to get the internal effects on the Alesis Multi Mix 16 to work with in recording?

I know how to turn the effects on, off, how to adjust the level and all that other good stuff.

Its just that when I record using the effects its seems that it doesnt record with the effect on even though I can hear the effect via the headphones.

There has to be a way to do this, any suggestions welcome!!

There is only one effect processor, not separate ones for each channel. The output goes to "2 trk", which can be recorded on the main stereo input, not on individual channel inputs.
Bill B.

ORIGINAL: bill52pa
Justin Baro in the Staes has been on the ball and responsive. Wish I could say the same about the mixer.

Hi Bill,

Does Justin Baro offer any explanation for all the trouble?

I tried to help a friend of mine set up his MultiMix 16 FireWire and received very poor results. The mixer (drivers) would be there and then disappear as yours did! Even when it was present, the audio was very distorted and unusable.

What is Justin (Alesis) saying about all of this. Are they working on the the problem?

Hey All,

Here is the full transcription of my various conversation with Justin at Alesis regarding my Firewire12. It might be of help to some of you... but I seriously doubt it.

regards,
Bill

Hi Justin,

After I have seen all of the posts on the Cakewalk forum I find it hard to believe you are suggesting there is something wrong with my firewire ports. Everyone else is having the same problems as me and I can’t see where that was suggested to anyone else as a remedy.
________________________________________
From: Bill Colacicco [mailto:billc@shubette.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 4:26 PM
To: Justin Baro
Subject: RE: alesis firewire 12 mixer - sending again 03 july 07

Hello Justin,

Thanks for the reply. I will go through all details as instructed. My first comment though is: you say use latest drivers from your website. I have not found any there. Can you give me the correct link? I would prefer to try that first.

regards,

Bill

________________________________________
From: Justin Baro [mailto:jbaro@alesis.com]
Sent: Wed 04/07/2007 17:39
To: Bill Colacicco
Subject: RE: alesis firewire 12 mixer - sending again 03 july 07

Hello Bill,

Generally we have had great success with the Multimix firewire mixer and the Belkin firewire cards. What specific model of firewire card is this?

I would highly recommend disabling your 1394 Net Adaptor as this can cause driver installation issues. This can be done by:

Hold the Windows key and the Pause Break key down at the same time. This will open up the System properties box. Then go to the Hardware tab and select Device Manager. Click on the + sign next to the Network Adaptor option. Then right click on the 1394 Net Adaptor option and choose disable. Then I would reinstall the latest Multimix drivers from our website.


Also are you running the latest drivers from Microsoft? This can be verified by going to the “Start” menu, choose “Control Panel” and then “Add or Remove Programs.”

Look for the following items in the list:

Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 (or later)

Windows Installer 3.1 (or later)

If one or both of these items does not appear, you must go to www.WindowsUpdate.com and download the latest drivers.


Also I would recommend installing this firewire fix from Microsoft:


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CA0F2007-18B5-4112-8BD6-8BF4BD3130B9&displaylang=en


Switch off the "Intel SpeedStep" / "AMD PowerNow!" BIOS option on laptops. Disable antivirus
software, firewalls, wireless networks, energy control that can eat up your performance.
Also press CTRL+Alt+Delete and exit out of any programs running in the background besides the audio application.
Also have you tried another firewire cable?

Best Regards,
Justin Baro



_____________________________________________
From: Bill Colacicco
Sent: 03 July 2007 07:54
To: 'supportuk@alesis.com'
Subject: alesis firewire 12 mixer
Hello,
I just purchased a Firewire 12 mixer. I am using an HP laptop with Windows XP Pro. I have a Belkin firewire pcmcia card attached. End use will be with Cakewalk Home Studio version6 .
I installed mixer using the CD provided. I have powered on and off all devices in correct sequence as per your instructions. My laptop only recognised the mixer once after installation. Since then it fails to see it in Windows sound devices and is not being picked up by the system.
I have many other soundcards (Edirol, Line6) which work perfectly on my other pc’s (and considerably less expensive). I bought your device thinking it would be a much better interface for my recording setup. I am extremely disappointed that you cannot provide a system which works first time and every time, especially for the money I paid.
I have read posts in several forums on the internet and it seems I am not the only one with these problems. I hope your tech support is better than the product.
I await your comments.
Regards,
Bill Colacicco

I found that with mine it works every time if i start the computer first and when all the os is loaded etc, i turn on the multimix...

Although, my channel assignments are screwed...

channels 1 - 8 appear as channels 9 - 16 and vice versa anyone else got this problem?

Hello to all,

I've noticed that Alesis released new driver and firmware versions not long ago (from Alesis website "Windows driver 3.0.56.2; firmware version 2.0 for the MultiMix FireWire mixers, Updated by Alesis 07/2007).
I was wondering if anyone has already updated news on this version and if does anyone know if all those severe problems are now corrected and one can use the model for PC recording without the reported problems.

Cheers

ORIGINAL: littleblur

Hello to all,

I've noticed that Alesis released new driver and firmware versions not long ago (from Alesis website "Windows driver 3.0.56.2; firmware version 2.0 for the MultiMix FireWire mixers, Updated by Alesis 07/2007).
I was wondering if anyone has already updated news on this version and if does anyone know if all those severe problems are now corrected and one can use the model for PC recording without the reported problems.

Cheers

For me all the problems with ASIO went away. Here's a thread about it:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=1072303&mpage=1&key=􅲯

hey everyone:

Ive had this multimix firewire 12 mixer since April..... never noticed the new drivers becuase i've been busy.....anyway ...downoaded them and they seem to run pretty smooth....

problem is I only get 7 inputs and one out..... so i unistalled the drivers then re installed --- made sure I clicked the 12 channel verion in the firmware -- still only 7 in and one out --- then for the hell of it I installed the firmware as the 16 channel ...and that gave me 9 in and one out.......

well at least it works now without any pops and cracks and crap.... but the manual cleary staes in big bold letters that I would get 12 seperate channels in and 2 channels out --- anyone know anything about this? ......

and yeah .... i had the same problem on the old drivers except they didnt run as smooth.....

I dunno what kind of firewire card I have.... I popped that pci in there about 6 months ago or so.... i think I just bought a whatever looked good at best buy when I bought it cuz i figured eventually i was gunna need a firewire card....maybe its not fast enough ?

What would happen if I hook up 2 fire wire cables to it since it has not slots on the mulitimix for 2 cables? What would that do? Probably nuttin huh ?