rme ff400 stuttering in ableton (macbook osx10.4.7)

bobaphat · Post by **bobaphat** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 2:46 pm

My ff400 is stuttering in ableton when only 40% of the cpu is loaded. When i switch to the onboard soundcard, everything runs smoothly so there must be something wrong with my rme ff400.

Anyone got an idea on what to do??

MODDER1 · Post by **MODDER1** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 2:55 pm

I thought this was the case with mine, but I find that my L6 just can't handle some of my audio, and very unpredictable on what's it's going to do sometimes (i.e. cutting out, slow starts, choppy audio happening at any given time). I went back to L5 because I'm having some serious audio issues with L6. I'm using a MUTO UlatrLite has my sound card.

bobaphat · Post by **bobaphat** » Tue Oct 03, 2006 3:16 pm

so how come a5.2 runs smoothly on my onboard mac soundcard, and terribly on my rmeff400 with the same settings????

bobaphat · Post by **bobaphat** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:42 pm

anyone got a clue?? im goin bazerko over here

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:35 pm

Boba, just a thought, if you open the FF400 Settings panel and play around with the Limit Bandwidth settings [ie turn off the ADAT and SPDIF ports] does that make ANY difference? So that instead of being ready to serve up audio to 18 ins and outs, the FF400 is only servicing 8 ins and outs?

With 8 ins and outs, the FF400 is still serving more hardware outputs that your computer's stereo outs, so perhaps you can't expect exactly the same results with the same settings. That said, It surely shouldn't be DRASTICALLY different. RME traditionally know their stuff. I'm only speculating here, I've only had my FF400 for a week, but haven't got into a position of testing it under full load.

My only other thought could be something screwy on your firewire bus? an RME driver or Firewire/OS problem? Is it possible to borrow another FW audio interface from somewhere and compare performance?

Hope this is some help.

bobaphat · Post by **bobaphat** » Wed Oct 04, 2006 11:44 pm

I already switched to the analog in only, i also have got the latest driver installed.

I compared the performance of the core audio onboard card with the ff400,,, guess what??? THe shitty onboard core card performance WAY better then the FF400

ooh jeez im going nuts over here, ive been thru hell and back with getting a decent setup, and now this shit,,, arrrrgggggg

Pitch Black · Post by **Pitch Black** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:40 am

Perhaps email/phone Synthax and tell tham about your performance, and ask is this normal?

leonard · Post by **leonard** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 1:53 am

bobaphat,
did you hear a response yet.
i'm getting much the same thing, but worse with another application.
it's ok for playback, but as soon as any audio processing enters it, it craps out.
i don't think its just live, though.

leonard · Post by **leonard** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 2:05 am

if i rout all things (ff400, sc3, live etc) through jack os x, the cpu overload dissapears. this is setting jack as the default in/out in system prefs too, btw.
not thatthat's necessarily a solution, but maybe ok for the time being.

Wheelie · Post by **Wheelie** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:23 am

I have a firewire 400, and am experiencing the same problems using windows xp system... all worked fine with my last firewire soundcard, an m-audio no less!!, and also works fine with the internal soundcard, but with the fireface400 it starts stuttering around 60% CPU... I am using live 5.2.2

I have emailed RME support who don't seem to take the issue too seriously and have forwarded me on to a website for tweaking xp optimally for audio... all of which I had told them I have already done...

Also settings in the fireface control panel are set to analog only

So what next?? seems like this is a cross platform issue...

BASSbüro · Post by **BASSbüro** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:19 am

I think it's a Firewire PCI issue.

My Motu Ultralight sounds horrable with Live 5.2. I even can't change the sample-rate, when i do that, an driver-error-massage appear. Although i got the latest asio-drivers etc.

And guess what? With the shitty on-board Soundblaster-Soundcard, Live 5.2 performance way better!!

My next step is to buy a Firewire PCI Card with an Texas Instrument Chip. Maybe it works better with that......

http://www.partsdata.de/DUAL-Firewireka ... 4-900.html

cheers,
thom (BASSbüro)

bobaphat · Post by **bobaphat** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 1:42 pm

Im a macbook laptop, so that wont do.

I think there is nothing left but to return the damn thing

earthlinger · Post by **earthlinger** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 11:56 pm

So with my MBP-FF800 ( OSX 10.4.8 ), when Live 6 CPU shows around 50% usage with 256 sample buffer size, stuttering starts for me. I need to change the buffer to 512 if I wanna get rid of stutters. Is this normal then?

bobaphat · Post by **bobaphat** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 12:27 am

No this is not normal, ive read on the macsupport forum about more poeple who had trouble with cpupower on 10.4.8

stay on this thread earthilinger, it might be that RME doesnt have his drivers up to par for 10.4.8

bobaphat · Post by **bobaphat** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 12:32 am

check this out

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jsp ... 3&tstart=0