Randy,

Now for another MultiMix Question. The manual states that the inputs on channels 5-8 are ballanced. Does that mean they are TRS? I want to buy a preamp so that I can run the last 4 channels using an external channel strip and XLR connectors for the mics. This should also give me the option of turning on only one or two phantom supplies instead of having all the XLR ins with pantom power on. I'm hoping to get a ribbon mic pair soon and dont want to worry about blowing the mics up.
Anyway, I tried to run channels 5-8 with a XLR to TRS cable and the SM-57 I hooked up wouldn't work, yes it does work fine on the other inputs. If I buy a preamp with XLR ins and TRS outs will I get a good signal?

Thanks,

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

ORIGINAL: cjlinus

Randy,

Thanks for posting the settings, I hope they show up soon. I'm kind of wondering if alot of the problems people are having are related to not having the MultiMix control pannel and Sonar/Acid/GuitarTracks settings the same. I am wondering if you leave the WMD box checked and if you've used the Sonar specific settings as described by Alesis. Is there any advantage you know of with using kernel streaming?

Bill,

Please check and make sure that both the mixer and Cakewalk are set the same. The problems I've seen with both recording and playback seem to be related to the settings not matching.

cjlinus,
Normally my mixer and Sonar (HS-4) are the same, and WDM is UNchecked, and not using kernel streaming. For kicks, I tried setting the mixer differently from Sonar. When Sonar starts up, it sets the mixer back to the same rate as the project. (That is with the CPU affinity workaround in place.) If I try harder, I can get the mixer and Sonar on different frequencies, but then Sonar freaks out completely and can't even be killed by the task manager.

to All,
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.

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.

ORIGINAL: cjlinus

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.

.
.
.

cjlinus,
Is your P-IV hyperthreaded? For practical purposes, you may qualify as dual CPU in the task manager. If your last remaining playback problem was fixed by your pcmcia card, I'd still be interested to know what 1394 chipset it has and what chipset it replaced.
I don't know about Sonar 6. The feature set doesn't mention any bugs fixed and I didn't see the feature "Works seamlessly with Alesis Multimix Firewire 8-12-16". I did see this: "Take your productions deeper with superior support for multi-processor and multi-core computers."
Bill

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.

This appears to have morphed into another Alesis Firewire Mixer trouble thread. A primary issue to me is that people can't get WDM mode to work and are using the ASIO driver. I had lots of trouble with ASIO when trying to record more than 3 or 4 channels at the same time.

ORIGINAL: Looney

I do get a lot of "snap, crackel, pop", while utilizing the WDM drivers. The ASIO drivers are nice and quite. So I will have to do with what I got untill Alesis comes up with something better. Thanks to every one who posted.

Looney

I had that exact problem but solved it, because in other ways the WDM drivers performed much better (and works with other sound cards), including being able to record more channels at the same time.

The "special note to Sonar users" on the instructions with their drivers is confusing, poorly written and their own techs don't even know what it means. I figured it out eventually and posted it here;
http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.asp?m=685410

Hope that helps

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

ORIGINAL: firstodd

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

Old thread, but same old same old. The drivers now on Alesis website don't work for me. Maybe you can get the older (March 2006) drivers (would Alesis support help?). I found that those drivers can be configured with WDM to work ok. Some config tricks posted by others helped me with that (search). Also, if you are stuck with the equipt, and the ASIO/CPU affinity workaround helps, post it here; there is a programmable way to get the CPU affinity set when you click on a Sonar shortcut. And please tell Alesis support what you have found.

In other news, the PreSonus Firestudio has the same symptom on dual CPU under Sonar, and shares a chipset, DICE II, with the Alesis. I found that a Sonar process thread in diceasio.dll is looping after the audio breakdown, which makes me believe it is the chipset driver.

I wrote to Presonus tech support about all the above and they responded very positively. I am not even a Firestudio owner! (I may eventually wish I were, based on this one tech support's response.) Presonus is actively debugging this problem and so is TC (the chipset vendor). They know how to reproduce this problem. My hope is that there will be TC fixes that eventually make it into the Alesis drivers. Alesis tech support has never given me the impression they take this seriously, ever since I first asked for support a year ago. But please send them your requests/complaints and let them know you know you are not the only Sonar user with this problem.

Bill

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