Win XP and MOTU Ultralite users, "issues?"

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Mon May 29, 2006 7:05 pm

I have read and heard a lot of good tihings about the motu ultralite, so I now have one. I have seen/heard them used, largely by Mac users, and they are good, the sound quality is very good.

I have not found setting up the Ultralite quite a 'plug and play' experience, however. I'm getting dropouts on sets that I am able to play through my other soundcards (see signature below). Also, Live's CPU meter seems to jump around the in the ranges 3%-7% with an empty template-- while basically nothing is going on.

So I don't feel as solid with this promising piece of equipment at this point. One thing that solved a few problems was to set my VST buffers to same as audio. Another thing is that I am doing nothing fancy just yet with routing to different outputs/cue listen-- just routing to main outputs.

Have a gig coming up this weekend and as it stands *right now* the MOTU may have to stay home until I work this out.

Any insight/advice/similar experience? (and please, no Mac evangelism

)

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Tue May 30, 2006 4:22 am

"The mac is your savior, you will be cleansed of all sin once you accept mac into your heart....now, send me your check"

there is a blurb "hidden" in the motu faq's that they will not run on xp with SP2. If you are not running sp2, you will probably have something that requires sp2 (catch 22..........)

I know this is not good news, I had to go through the same thing with my traveler.

[/u]

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue May 30, 2006 11:18 am

I use an Ultralite with XP and it's been working just fine, no issues at all. What latency are you running it at?

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue May 30, 2006 2:29 pm

eyeknow wrote:"The mac is your savior, you will be cleansed of all sin once you accept mac into your heart....now, send me your check"

there is a blurb "hidden" in the motu faq's that they will not run on xp with SP2. If you are not running sp2, you will probably have something that requires sp2 (catch 22..........)

I know this is not good news, I had to go through the same thing with my traveler.

[/u]

Crap, sounds hard to believe, I'll have to check that...

Tarekith wrote: I use an Ultralite with XP and it's been working just fine, no issues at all. What latency are you running it at?

That's good to know. Buffers are at 1024, so 48 ms, not too worried about this, and think I can get it lower. I've been messing with it some more, I believe that the problem is due to peak tranisent levels-- I'd much prefer it to be my bad than MOTU's, it sounds awesome on the sets it runs well with So if I have to fine tune all my levels, that's only for the better.

Mika · Post by **Mika** » Tue May 30, 2006 3:19 pm

I found this on MOTU website while reading the Traveler overview, I have no idea if it's still true.

From MOTU website http://www.motu.com/techsupport/technot ... 9344567818

"I'm having trouble with my FireWire interface under Windows XP Service Pack 2

Due to issues with its FireWire implementation, we recommend that users with FireWire interfaces do not install Service Pack 2 for Windows XP at this time (October 13, 2004).

If you have already installed Service Pack 2 and are experiencing difficulties using your FireWire interface(s), you can remove Service Pack 2 as follows:

* Go to the Add/Remove Programs control panel.
* Locate Service Pack 2 and remove it."

Found this thread at Unicorn forums :http://www.unicornation.com/phpBB2/view ... hp?t=12149

On RME's website there's an extensive explanations on the Firewire problems with SP2 http://www.rme-audio.com/english/techinfo/fw800sp2.htm

And microsoft released a manual patch to correct FW800 erratic behavior under SP2 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Tue May 30, 2006 3:30 pm

FWIW, I have SP2 installed on my machine, no issues with it.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue May 30, 2006 3:35 pm

Mika wrote: And microsoft released a manual patch to correct FW800 erratic behavior under SP2 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222/en-us

Thanks! This looks very much like it's worth doing, regardless of the actual root cause of the specific problem I'm having.

[edited to correct typo]
And Tarekith, what you say makes sense, if you have 1394a FW 400, there shouldn't be a problem-- it affects only FW 800 (1394b) ports.

and to add, Thanks for that patch, Mika.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:08 pm

ok, mostly resolved. It sounds great, with some "buts". I hate when the forum times out on me, so my in-depth travails at http://utenzil.blogspot.com

suspended childhood · Post by **suspended childhood** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:15 pm

utenzil:

im in the market for the ultralite and guitar center just sent me a 20% off...so, im burning to get it by june 30....please keep us posted on this issue if you have any new updates.

thanks.

ilia · Post by **ilia** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:53 pm

mikemc wrote:ok, mostly resolved. It sounds great, with some "buts". I hate when the forum times out on me, so my in-depth travails at http://utenzil.blogspot.com

latency 40ms or so?
That's really not good at all for a $500+ interface, and then you are still getting crackles on larger sets? What is the maximum CPU percentage in Live with which you can play back large sets consistently? Why aren't you able to get lower latencies with this thing?

My machine is slower than yours, and I tend to push it to 75% and more, with real-time input processing in Live, so this really sounds like a no-go... Argggh.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:08 am

I can run 4ms latency no issues at all.

ilia · Post by **ilia** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 4:49 pm

Tarekith wrote:I can run 4ms latency no issues at all.

PC? What CPU?

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:02 pm

It's a HP zt3010us laptop, with a 1.5gHz centrino, XP Pro, sP2. 1280MB RAM.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:22 pm

ilia wrote: My machine is slower than yours, and I tend to push it to 75% and more, with real-time input processing in Live, so this really sounds like a no-go... Argggh.

I have read more in-depth re: WinXP and IEEE 1394, all of the issues pertain to 1394b not being well supported, there are other patches that relate to removing firewire devices and such, but only the previously mentioned SP2 problem that canl cause problems with slow transfer rate unless the patch is applied.

What seems to have made the most difference is that I have run disk cleanup to get rid of a bunch of crap, including some huge error dumps that I did not know existed . I did not have to de-install any less-used programs, which was my next step(s).

So, now, here's what I see/can say...

With one live mic in, the CueMix DSP and Live running at the same time, 96k where samples buffering setting gives me 6ms latency, sound is good, monitoring is good, 2% CPU idling with input armed for record, couple of other tracks running things brings it up in between 10% and 20% CPU, this is much better. I have not yet pushed it harder, but this is much better than what I was previously seeing and more in line with what others were reporting.