MOtu 2408mk3 +S4 Asio or WDM

MOtu 2408mk3 + S4 Asio or WDM

Wich one should be better ?

IMO WDM Performs better overall.

I've noticed the ASIO driver on the motu 2408MKIII has a half a note start effect when you push play. It does not matter which measure you start on. You have to listen carefuly to the bass drum (Midi) when starting.

I have the Motu 2408MkIII PCI424 Latest drivers works great.
I can run latencey as low as 2.7.

ZION

ORIGINAL: Scott Reams

Using ASIO/MOTU with Sonar does result in a buffer's worth of silence when playback begins. The upside of ASIO is that the latency is in actuality lower than WDM... even when the same latency is reported. The total latency with WDM is always one buffer greater than that of ASIO. This is especially noticeable when using softsynths or input monitoring.

-S

Are the new WDM drivers actually usable? I have always used the ASIO because I had the is crazy sync problem with wdm where there was a nearly 50 ms delay between when something was played and when it was recorded. It drove me crazy thinking my timing sucked. I finally realized what was happening when I accidentally rerecorded the room monitors with an acc gtr part. The guitar was in time with the drum bleed but the whole gtr track was out of time with the tracked drums. I called MOTU and they said use the ASIO drivers and all has been fine.

Do the WDM work better or at all?

Cheers, wm

I've had best results with the WDM. Even taking the latency thing into consideration that Scott mentioned, comparing the same "real" latency, I've been able to put more of a load on it with WDM before stuttering and/or dropouts start.

Robb

ASIO for me as well. I do no MIDI, but instead often several tracks of audio. My own experience has been that ASIO was faster and more solid. I tried both. However, with a particular MOBO/CPU, YMMV. Try both, go with what works for you on your system.

Use the ASIO...no problems whatsoever. Any references posted regarding "delay" must be a a secluded incident.

What's the link to the known bug?

I use only the ASIO drivers, which is why I am wondering where the link is... I tried your suggestion: increasing and decreasing the latency settings both ways, up and down to maximum and everything in between; and I am not experiencing your problem. It may be several conflicting issues, such as motherboard chipset, bios enabled onboard audio or even proprietary bios and motherboard. Unsure of many several ways you might try to troubleshoot and resolve your problem, since I'm not experiencing such problem. I am wondering if you have the updated MOTU drivers and if so, did you experience this issue with previous MOTU driver versions, if not when did you first notice the problem etc.?

When I first installed the most recent MOTU drivers, I experienced delays and popping and in general "weird" audio phenomena, which were not present in the previous driver version. During trying to troubleshoot the problem, I experienced another issue regarding my hard disks, whereby, my SATA storage drive was not being detected by the ACPI driver...

This particular issue, fortunately, was a known issue to my motherboard manufacturer. When I decided to attach another 10K RPM drive in raid1 configuration, my SATA drive was disk0 or "c:\", but it was no longer the OS partition. Rather, I installed the OS on the raid1 drives, which were respectively "disks1 or "D:\". And the SATA drive was "C:\". I was using both a raid driver for my raid drives and SATA driver for my SATA drive. Apparently there is a conflict which doesn't allow ACPI to detect the SATA drive. So, I needed to uninstall the SATA driver and install the raid driver for the SATA drive. So, even though the SATA drive would be "C:\" and used for storage, the raid1 configuration drive would remain "D:" and house the OS. So, I figured, what the hey...I'll just reformat the OS partition and reinstall the OS and make the raid drive the "C:\" drive and make the SATA drive the "D:\" for good posture...the way it would normally be. So, to correct my new more serious problem, I did so, reformatting my OS partition.

On my 80 gig SATA drive (my old "C:\" drive) I have 3 partitions...for storage and backup etc. On my Raid drive prior to the multiple RAID1 configuration, I had 4 partitions, on of which I install my OS. I keep my OS on a separate partition, that way if I need to reformat the partition, I may do so without the loss of any important data. Plus it keeps everything clean and fresh. I separate my temp directories, paging files etc., on separate partitions, for integrity purposes. Anyway, I reformatted my drive, installed the OS and all my programs, and voila! The MOTU issue had been resolved. So, even though I never exactly figured out what the problem was, I know that with enough time and troubleshooting, I could have resolved it...

Basically, and usually only as a last resort, if I ever have any type of totally weird phenomena, such as the problem you are experiencing, and because of the way my drives are partitioned, I just reformat and reinstall the OS. It takes abut six hours to get everything reinstalled fresh, but believe it or not, all problems are usually resolved. There are many problems that can go wrong in the registry, and even simple backups and restores can't fix the bigger problems. Conflicting scripts and memory access and jumbled garble-ations help to cause any number of weird glitches to any part of the OS.

At my last job, I had to supervise LAN operations for some 1000+ networked computers and workstations, and you'd probably be amazed at some of the problems that users can experience on a daily basis from the trite and triflesome to the most baffleous perplexing problems. Fortunately, we were able to "ghost" PC images, whereby an image of a fresh, clean running computer with OS and all the programs installed were stored to our servers, as well as the user data. So if we had a problem with no time to troubleshoot, or if troubleshooting was becoming time consuming, our approach was to re-ghost the problem computer. It automatically reformatted the drive and installed the fresh image on the PC, and then it was just a matter of configuring the LAN settings of the computer. I wish I had a server here I could store such image on...it would make the entire process take maybe 20 minutes or so... Fresh, clean OS with all the programs installed...etc.

Anyway, I know this was somewhat lengthy, but I'm sure there is a way to solve your problem, even if it means reformatting the drive and reinstalling everything! It all depends on whether or not you can live with the issue. I am somewhat anal about the running efficiency and performance of my DAW, so I have no problem reformatting my OS, especially since it makes it like a brand new machine... I admit it is somewhat time consuming, but for me, it’s well worth it. Better no problems, than some glitches you have to live with… That will be entirely up to you. Also, I don't know if you tried to contact MOTU support, but if you haven't I would ask them. They've always been helpful to me.

Scott,

Is this a MOTU or a Sonar issue? I currently have an Aardvark Q10 but am considering getting a MOTU HD192.

Hopefully I don't sound too dense in asking this, but when you say a "buffer's worth of silence" at the start of playback do you mean a delay before play starts, or is it an actual audible gap?

How long, timewise, is a "buffer's worth"? If you're running at a "low" latency of say 7 ms, how does this impact this behavior?

What really confuses me is your statement about switching to the RME and having the same problem. Was that still using the MOTU drivers?

Does this affect a mixdown?

I guess what I'm really asking is if you do or don't recommend using a MOTU interface (due to this issue)?

Thanks Scott

If you're going from Aardvark to MOTU HD192...Good Choice! Not to say that Aardvark is not a good converter. I don't have the issue that Scott is talking about, which Is why I keep asking for a link, and there is no apparent information at MOTU. I build DAWS, research the specs, compatibilities etc., If there is a problem, it's seems to be on his end...and maybe due to a particular chipset, but without any of the information I asked him for in my "at length" post...who knows why he's having the problem.

I've notice this problem with many different DAW configeration.

I've had the same problem with my Motu 2408MkI PCI324 asio drivers and
my Motu 2408mkIII PCI424 with all ASIO drivers versions. A friend of mine has the Motu 2408MKII PCI324 same problem. All different daw configrations. the only common denominator is the Motu and SONAR.

ZION

This is the first I've heard of such issue from a MOTU user. The problem seems to be isolated. I say...go for it!

I too have had this same problem....I no longer use MOTU because of these problems. MOTU has no tech support to speak of.....anyone want to buy a 2408MKII or a 1224 ? I have replaced them with an RME Hammerfall and an EMU 1820M....both sound better, perform better, and have better drivers. If MOTU works for you great.......but as a company they are non responsive to their user's problems. If you have a MAC go MOTU......but then why are you here ?