HDSP Multiface II & HDSP generally; you experiences plea
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oblique strategies
- Posts: 3606
- Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:57 pm
- Location: Another Green World
:)
Well, thank you for all your comments so far.
It looks like a no-brainer now. It makes it easier to save up.
For the past few months, i didnt manage to get into a nice workflow because of aforementioned Ultralite issues. At least now i have a good reason to believe that if anything doesn't sound well after getting a Multiface II, its my logic board and not the soundcard...
And you are all right about the quality and its value. I guess i can just look at it like this; maybe i just needed to spend $1000 bucks on a few lesser sound cards first to find out that i should really save up and spend a bit more in one go.
Thanks a lot.
It looks like a no-brainer now. It makes it easier to save up.
For the past few months, i didnt manage to get into a nice workflow because of aforementioned Ultralite issues. At least now i have a good reason to believe that if anything doesn't sound well after getting a Multiface II, its my logic board and not the soundcard...
And you are all right about the quality and its value. I guess i can just look at it like this; maybe i just needed to spend $1000 bucks on a few lesser sound cards first to find out that i should really save up and spend a bit more in one go.
Thanks a lot.
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oblique strategies
- Posts: 3606
- Joined: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:57 pm
- Location: Another Green World
Some things are just worth paying for.
I used to have an M-Audio Quattro USB audio interface & it was a nightmare! It would work fine in the studio, so I'd take it out to a gig where it would crap out on me! Happened d repeatedly because it would fool me! I'd get to thinking that it was ok after-all, then take it out to a gig again, & blam! failure!
When I got my Multiface & played a song through it the improved sound quality was immediately apparent.
I used to have an M-Audio Quattro USB audio interface & it was a nightmare! It would work fine in the studio, so I'd take it out to a gig where it would crap out on me! Happened d repeatedly because it would fool me! I'd get to thinking that it was ok after-all, then take it out to a gig again, & blam! failure!
When I got my Multiface & played a song through it the improved sound quality was immediately apparent.
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Pitch Black
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which laptop are you using? this is certainly not true of a mac.ekwipt wrote:The express cards in laptops work off the same controller chip (bus?) as the firewire so if your computer has shit firewire it most likely has shit express cards.
Macbook Pro unibody 2.2 Ghz Quad i7, 16GB RAM, 512MB graphics, 500 GB SSD, 500 GB HD, Mac OS 10.8
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I am a bit uncertain about this topic to be honest. What follows may be slightly off topic though;
PostPosted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 10:09 pm Post subject:
ekwipt wrote:
The express cards in laptops work off the same controller chip (bus?) as the firewire so if your computer has shit firewire it most likely has shit express cards.
which laptop are you using? this is certainly not true of a mac.
I have a MacBook Pro and the Ultralite has worked fine on it for a few months. It also works flawlessly on another 13" Macbook an on other at least one other MacBook Pro. So the possibility of my main MacBook causing this comes to mind.
Yet Apple service tell me that my logic board (which hold a Texas Instruments FW chip; TI is 'the standard') is fine and does not need to be replaced. FW hard drives also work without issues. Many people have the exact same issues with the Ultralite on different FW chipsets.
My hunch is still that it could be an issue in the logic board, yet if i am going to spend a large amount of money to fix an issue that i dont know the root cause for, i rather spend it on a solid and, more importantly, a durable DSP card than on a new logic board. I will replace my Mac anyway with in the next two years, but by then they will have a newer CPU etc. I also am sure that if i replace the DSP card and i still have problems, at least i have a really good sound card made by a company which actually do offer support. With MOTU, you can never be sure because they simply don't offer any meaningful support. There are large numbers of forums where people discuss the problems i have, yet no one seems to have a final solution.
The issues are always preceded by the "FireWire (OHCI) TI ID 8025 built-in: handleUnrecoverableErrorInt" error message in my dmesg. I am not sure if this is a problem with the driver or with the chipset. Nevertheless I found several other references to this error message with different hardware, yet -none- with RME hardware. So this again makes me doubt if the logic board is really the issue, or that it is the driver, or firmware, of the Ultralite.
So, my conclusion is; RME does something a lot better than MOTU. That is why their products cost more. They also seem to have a better approach to FW technology as explained here:
http://www.rme-audio.de/en_support_tech ... o_firewire
After having tried to fix the issues i have for too long now, i just want to stop using the MOTU as a primary card and get on producing music. I can still use it as an overpriced mic pre-amp because the Mutliface does not come with one
Because there are some still some issues with FireFace 400 users who have Agere FW chipsets in their Macs, i decided to go for an HDSP card instead. My expectation is that i will be able to use that for years to come, no matter what FW chipset Apple decides to use in future Macs.