Hi everyone,
First let me say that I'm new to digital recording. I purchased a Motu 828 MKII and I've been trying to evaluate different software platforms. I downloaded a trial version of Sonar 4 Professional Edition. I loaded the MOTU drivers and I can record sound in and see the waveforms appear but when I go to playback via the MOTU's headphones out the playback is all choppy and noisy and stuttery. I've looked into latency and I've been keeping an eye on the CPU usage but I'm not seeing where I am having any problems. I'm running a 3.2 gHz AMD Athlon processor with a gig of ram, 280 gig serial ATA hardrive...Since I'm recording and listening to the playback thru the MOTU. I have no idea why this is happenning any advice would be great. Also, shouldn't I be able to hear my voice thru the headphones when I'm recording the signal as well as when I'm playing it back?
Are there any trial versions of Samplitude or Cubase? I didn't see any when I was taking a look online. Thanks,
Scott
Sonar w/ A MOTU 828 having a playback issue...
-
earl parameter
- buyin' gear
- Posts: 514
- Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2004 2:36 am
this is going to possibly open a can of worms. as your problem could be many things.
1 buffer settings - both in motu's control panel and in sonar
2 do you have the newer motu drivers (3.5.3.2) http://www.motu.com/ under downloads then firewire soft (you need to setup an account first)
3 did you actually follow the install correctly. i don't remember exactly, but it think the soft is installed first then plug in the hardware after reboot. not the other way around.
4 the chip on your firewire card might not be compatible.
5 buffer settings
when you first install an audio app you sometimes need to play with the settings to get it to run well on a machine, because they are all different, and it can take a little while to smooth it out.
im on a p4 3.0, xp pro sp2, a gig of ram, intel board and an adaptec firewire card with a Texas Instruments chip ( i point this out because i read that there are problems with others ) i can't remember the model number though, sorry. and my current settings are:
in the motu panel:
clock source = internal
samples per buffer = 384
and the only thing checked is: multi channel wave sync
in sonar ( 4 ) under -options hit audio:
-general: buffer set to fast ( all the way left ) 8.7msec this i don't think can be changed though ( set by the wave profiler ).
-advanced: i/o buffer size ( 200 kb ) i dont know if your cpu supports multi threading so maybe uncheck ( use multiprocessing engine ) and see what happens
-drivers: select all motu options
also if you haven't run the wave profiler or need to again, i think it will be under the -general tab
these are just to give you an idea of whats working for me and may not work for you at all. it will depend on your ram and other things. so play around and test and play around and test again.
"Also, shouldn't I be able to hear my voice thru the headphones when I'm recording the signal as well as when I'm playing it back?"
yes you should. aside from arming the track ( hitting the R button ) you also need to set the tracks output port ( defaulted to bus A ) to whatever your using.
off the top of my head, if you want it to not have any latency then you have to do that in the motu panel. just under the -output title on the fader on the far right. choose the input your using in the dropdown menu. and change the output in the sonar track to something that your not using so it isn't audible. watch out for feedback if the mics too close to the source or if you have something else setup wrong.
also spend some time flipping through the help program. its actually pretty good. just use the -index or -search option and type in what you think might be what your looking for and you will find it eventually and learn something else in the process.
good luck and don't get discouraged, it can take a little time to get it just right.
steve
1 buffer settings - both in motu's control panel and in sonar
2 do you have the newer motu drivers (3.5.3.2) http://www.motu.com/ under downloads then firewire soft (you need to setup an account first)
3 did you actually follow the install correctly. i don't remember exactly, but it think the soft is installed first then plug in the hardware after reboot. not the other way around.
4 the chip on your firewire card might not be compatible.
5 buffer settings
when you first install an audio app you sometimes need to play with the settings to get it to run well on a machine, because they are all different, and it can take a little while to smooth it out.
im on a p4 3.0, xp pro sp2, a gig of ram, intel board and an adaptec firewire card with a Texas Instruments chip ( i point this out because i read that there are problems with others ) i can't remember the model number though, sorry. and my current settings are:
in the motu panel:
clock source = internal
samples per buffer = 384
and the only thing checked is: multi channel wave sync
in sonar ( 4 ) under -options hit audio:
-general: buffer set to fast ( all the way left ) 8.7msec this i don't think can be changed though ( set by the wave profiler ).
-advanced: i/o buffer size ( 200 kb ) i dont know if your cpu supports multi threading so maybe uncheck ( use multiprocessing engine ) and see what happens
-drivers: select all motu options
also if you haven't run the wave profiler or need to again, i think it will be under the -general tab
these are just to give you an idea of whats working for me and may not work for you at all. it will depend on your ram and other things. so play around and test and play around and test again.
"Also, shouldn't I be able to hear my voice thru the headphones when I'm recording the signal as well as when I'm playing it back?"
yes you should. aside from arming the track ( hitting the R button ) you also need to set the tracks output port ( defaulted to bus A ) to whatever your using.
off the top of my head, if you want it to not have any latency then you have to do that in the motu panel. just under the -output title on the fader on the far right. choose the input your using in the dropdown menu. and change the output in the sonar track to something that your not using so it isn't audible. watch out for feedback if the mics too close to the source or if you have something else setup wrong.
also spend some time flipping through the help program. its actually pretty good. just use the -index or -search option and type in what you think might be what your looking for and you will find it eventually and learn something else in the process.
good luck and don't get discouraged, it can take a little time to get it just right.
steve
Sorry for double posting, didn't see the post here until after I responded to the post over in the other forum.
I think Steve nailed it. There could be a number of issues causing the problems you are experiencing.
The chipset in the Firewire card you are using is huge according to MOTU. I didn't take the chance and the day I bought the MOTU I went and picked up a Firewire card with a Texas Instruments chipset as to meet their recommendation. I think it was a Belkin and it was pretty inexpensive. Maybe under $30.?
Hope you get it figured out.
-Darrill
I think Steve nailed it. There could be a number of issues causing the problems you are experiencing.
The chipset in the Firewire card you are using is huge according to MOTU. I didn't take the chance and the day I bought the MOTU I went and picked up a Firewire card with a Texas Instruments chipset as to meet their recommendation. I think it was a Belkin and it was pretty inexpensive. Maybe under $30.?
Hope you get it figured out.
-Darrill
slowly panning across something kind of crappy...
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