Alesis I/O 26 Problems

TelePaul

Just got the above firewire interface in the post today. Set it up, installed the latest drivers, etc etc. My computer recognises it in Cubase SE3, so I grab a bunch of mics and mic up my drum kit. So far so good.

Now, I try to set my levels. I've an LDC on the kick, two SDCs as overheads and a dynamic on the snare. The problem is, listening through the hea dphones and playing back through same, they all sound distorted as hell! But my levels are no way close to the red.

I'm trying to establish whether this is a problem with the interface or the drivers or what...it seems unlikely that every mic I own should immediately stop working. Your thoughts guys?

PaulBrewer

TelePaul wrote: »

Just got the above firewire interface in the post today. Set it up, installed the latest drivers, etc etc. My computer recognises it in Cubase SE3, so I grab a bunch of mics and mic up my drum kit. So far so good.

Now, I try to set my levels. I've an LDC on the kick, two SDCs as overheads and a dynamic on the snare. The problem is, listening through the hea dphones and playing back through same, they all sound distorted as hell! But my levels are no way close to the red.

I'm trying to establish whether this is a problem with the interface or the drivers or what...it seems unlikely that every mic I own should immediately stop working. Your thoughts guys?

Up Buffer size? Otherwise, on to your dealer ...

TelePaul

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Up Buffer size? Otherwise, on to your dealer ...

AH! I never even thought. I thought buffer size was determinable by the amount of ram available?

PaulBrewer

TelePaul wrote: »

AH! I never even thought. I thought buffer size was determinable by the amount of ram available?

Buffer size is how much of the Ram that's to be used as a buffer.

TelePaul

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Buffer size is how much of the Ram that's to be used as a buffer.

Thanks Paul, this seemed to sort my problem. Raised the buffer to 128 and when I loaded a project recorded with my old USB sound card that horrible distortion showed up again so I upped it to 256. This added another 3ms of latency.

I'm running with 2 GB of ram..is this normal? Is buffering project-dependent?

PaulBrewer

TelePaul wrote: »

Thanks Paul, this seemed to sort my problem. Raised the buffer to 128 and when I loaded a project recorded with my old USB sound card that horrible distortion showed up again so I upped it to 256. This added another 3ms of latency.

I'm running with 2 GB of ram..is this normal? Is buffering project-dependent?

Could be, insofar 3 ms of 24 tracks is an awful lot more memory than 3ms of 1 track.

TelePaul

PaulBrewer wrote: »

Could be, insofar 3 ms of 24 tracks is an awful lot more memory than 3ms of 1 track.

Hmm touche. Okay, one more question...does the sequencer have any impac on the amount of latency? I know it's not the same thing but SE3 doesn't fully take advantage of dual core processing.

PaulBrewer

TelePaul wrote: »

Hmm touche. Okay, one more question...does the sequencer have any impac on the amount of latency? I know it's not the same thing but SE3 doesn't fully take advantage of dual core processing.

Don't know. I'm not an expert in this area. Perhaps there is one who might like to help?

dav nagle

You say you are using a USB interface? USB transfers information extremely slow. Has the unit you own got a Firewire port on the back? If so I would highly recommend going into your audio interface VIA Firewire. Your usb connection is most likely over run with the multiple mic inputs you are using and hense the tearing sound. If it has firewire then use it. Firewire transfers information allot quicker. Anyway its just a guess..

TelePaul

dav nagle wrote: »

You say you are using a USB interface? USB transfers information extremely slow. Has the unit you own got a Firewire port on the back? If so I would highly recommend going into your audio interface VIA Firewire. Your usb connection is most likely over run with the multiple mic inputs you are using and hense the tearing sound. If it has firewire then use it. Firewire transfers information allot quicker. Anyway its just a guess..

No no, the old unit was USB. The Alesis is FW.

slavedave

I have both the IO14 and the multimix FW16. Best recommendation is to create a set point in your Windows with the current working arrangement. At least you can get back to where you are (if you have an imaging programme like Norton Ghost or DriveImage mores the better- they will create an exact snapshot of your system should you need it).
Then go to Alesis Website and download the latest driver if you haven't already.
http://alesis.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/1132/tt/5
There are also instructions on the site for complete removal of previous drivers which are important to follow. Then try the new driver. Several users have found that a different version of the driver provides better results on their own system configuration even if it meant going back a few reveisions so you may have to experiment. It took me several goes with different versions to get consistent, drop-out free recording in Sonar but now I am very happy using the FW16.
If you have a spare week(!) this thread has loads of good tips in amongst the rants regarding IO14 and IO26 set ups.
http://216.57.203.36/showthread.php?t=1562285&page=72

Amother good resource for the IO is
http://io.nixion.net/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13
May the Force be with you.