Ableton Forum

hi,

did anybody tested the alesis ioI26 yet? wondering if this soundcard is good or not?

thx. spacy

I recently purchased an Alesis IO|26 for recording and live performance.

Overall, I have been satisfied with the experience, but I have been dealing with some issues that may or may not be related to the device.

Here is my setup:

Sony Vaio VGN-FS850P/W (Intel 915GM chipset)
Windows XP Professional (up-to-date)
Ableton Live 6
Alesis io|26 (Latest drivers: 3.0.56.2; firmware 1.6)

Description of the problems:

At first, everything usually works properly with decent latency and no issues. But then the interface will start disappearing randomly. Live will inform me the interface cannot be found, and then disable the audio engine.
Usually, I can fix the issue by unplugging the firewire cable, and then reinserting it after a couple of seconds. I can then go to the preferences window and reselect the io|26 as the audio device.
This will often happen multiple times throughout a session, with no obvious relation to what I might be doing in live.
I do not know if this is a driver issue, a system resource issue, or something else. What I do know is having your interface disappear and all audio stop mid-performance is very frustrating.

As I said, my testing is in progress right now. I am getting ready to install a fresh setup on my clone laptop that has just been reformatted and configured. I plan to install minimal applications, and test the system thoroughly to figure out just what the cause of the problem might be.

If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, it would be greatly appreciated. I am technically literate, but this is my first experience with a firewire audio interface. I'm hoping to rule out the io|26 as the culprit, as I really feel it is an excellent piece of hardware.

This might not be exactly what you were looking for... but other than my problems, I have been extremely satisfied with the quality and form-factor of the io|26.

I just bought the Alesis iO14 yesterday (the little brother/sister), great solid build, lovely tone, adequate controls, etc. The only problem is that, like some of the M-Audio firewire interfaces mentioned in these forum pages, I'm getting enormous amounts of stuttering, clicking and popping -- even when I'm playing only simple, unprocessed audio files, with no plugs-in loaded, and the buffer size all the way up (or half way up, or all the way down, no difference). My MenuMeters says I've barley churning the CPU, so the problem is not that. I suspect it's that seemingly unresolved issue about Os X's audio drivers for firewire.

Strange how some days being in great excitement and end in utter frustration. Computers, don't you just love 'em!

squintylive wrote:I just bought the Alesis iO14 yesterday (the little brother/sister), great solid build, lovely tone, adequate controls, etc. The only problem is that, like some of the M-Audio firewire interfaces mentioned in these forum pages, I'm getting enormous amounts of stuttering, clicking and popping -- even when I'm playing only simple, unprocessed audio files, with no plugs-in loaded, and the buffer size all the way up (or half way up, or all the way down, no difference). My MenuMeters says I've barley churning the CPU, so the problem is not that. I suspect it's that seemingly unresolved issue about Os X's audio drivers for firewire.

Strange how some days being in great excitement and end in utter frustration. Computers, don't you just love 'em!

Where's your clock sync coming from? Sounds like you have a problem there.

Thanks for posting.

The clock source is set to Internal. I've tried ADAT and SPDIF, just to be sure, but they don't work either. The only other setting that looks as if it might affect performance is Machine Type: three choices there, but none of them leads to an improvement.

I have 1 GB RAM. Could it be too little memory? My M-Audio Firewire Solo has no problems on the same firewire port.

squintylive wrote:Thanks for posting.

The clock source is set to Internal. I've tried ADAT and SPDIF, just to be sure, but they don't work either. The only other setting that looks as if it might affect performance is Machine Type: three choices there, but none of them leads to an improvement.

I have 1 GB RAM. Could it be too little memory? My M-Audio Firewire Solo has no problems on the same firewire port.

well. you should have gotten the focusrite instead, no problems here at all...

squintylive wrote:Thanks for posting.

The clock source is set to Internal. I've tried ADAT and SPDIF, just to be sure, but they don't work either. The only other setting that looks as if it might affect performance is Machine Type: three choices there, but none of them leads to an improvement.

I have 1 GB RAM. Could it be too little memory? My M-Audio Firewire Solo has no problems on the same firewire port.

Try making an aggregate instrument in audio/midi setup
also try making an aggregate instrument with something that doesn't break up or distort, but use the connections on the Alesis

Still sounds like a clock problem

Thanks again for posting, but still no joy. I've made an aggregate device, following the Audio Midi Setup Help, but when I choose it in Live and try the test tone, even with no tracks playing, all I get is stuttering and buzz, again even with the buffer jacked up high.

Is there perhaps a separate way to set the buffer for the Alesis device, other than through Live. The manual says that one sets the buffer through the device Preferences Panel, but in fact there's no option there to make changes.

I wonder if anyone else is having similar problems? I've emailed Alesis support but have heard nothing back yet.

Many thanks folks.

squintylive wrote:Thanks again for posting, but still no joy. I've made an aggregate device, following the Audio Midi Setup Help, but when I choose it in Live and try the test tone, even with no tracks playing, all I get is stuttering and buzz, again even with the buffer jacked up high.

Is there perhaps a separate way to set the buffer for the Alesis device, other than through Live. The manual says that one sets the buffer through the device Preferences Panel, but in fact there's no option there to make changes.

I wonder if anyone else is having similar problems? I've emailed Alesis support but have heard nothing back yet.

Many thanks folks.

I don't have Live in front of me now, but I think there's a preference screen
where you can set plugin buffers...
Does it act that way if you play iTunes through it?

Thanks again for taking the time.

Yes, if I play iTunes through it it seems perfectly OK and clear. No stuttering or noise at all. Which perhaps points back to Live itself (both versions 5 and 6) rather than the firewire issue I thought might be the problem.

I did play around with Live's buffer (in the Audio Prefs panel) but nothng made any difference. It seems as if the Alesis just won't or can't cooperate with Live. I'll try installing Cubase LE that comes with the Alesis to see what happens there.

An update to my posting of about 24 hours ago. Having tried all I could, the way you do I decided to try uninstalling the Alesis driver and starting over, but this time I DIDN'T install the latest version as posted on their website (1.5d), but the earlier version that comes on the CD. And, so far, it works! No stuttering, popping or anything. And, crucially, the test tone of Live's buffer setting section is clear and continuous.

It looks as if, after all, it was a problem with the Alesis driver update.

I'll sit tight for a few days to see if the problem is gone for good, but other users might in the meantime be suspicious of that update -- if they value their ears and their work!

Thanks.