Steinberg MR816X driver stability

[FarShock]

Anybody??

[JeffE]

No problems at all with the MR816x drivers on my Win 7 x64 system. No crashes to speak of.

[opium89]

Anyone tried this badboy with Sonar yet? My interface may have taken a crap tonight so I might be in the market.

[FarShock]

Originally Posted by JeffE

No problems at all with the MR816x drivers on my Win 7 x64 system. No crashes to speak of.

Ah, thank you. It's good to know that you have had a pleasent experience with the interface, I think i'll just go ahead and buy it then.

Thanks again,
Matt

[mikeyr4444]

I'm running Vista and so far so good, just make sure to do the updates.

[Heartfelt]

through a driver upgrade, I have used two drivers successfully on W7x64

[MonkeyGang]

My experience is also very good. I'm on w7 64bit, used the last two driver versions without any problems. My advice is to tweak the Win7 by turning off all the unnecessary stuff. Also make sure that your FW chipset is on the Steinberg's list of supported chipsets. In case of any problems (audio dropouts) - some of the first things i can recommend is to go to the device manager and use the "legacy driver" for your firewire chipset.
My 2c.

[Big_Bang]

Cubase's forum is pouring with "I quit" stories from hell.

This is not to say the interface is bad!
PC land is freaky as hell with any brand. Heck, even recent Mac's are giving people hell with tried and tested setups. Just be sure to double check who is having what problems and why (firewire, drivers, OS, etc).

A simply checklist and you're off!

[Black Shadow]

It's a good machine, except for it exclusively using firewire as its transfer protocol. This, more than anything else, seems to be causing issues for many users (including myself).

For these users, the internal chipset of their desktops and laptops appear to be less than 100% compatible with the MR816's FW driver, and Steinberg recommends only using FW cards that have a TI (Texas Instruments) chipset - check their website for a list of manufacturers.

So this is a digital audio company selling interfaces that don't work properly with several types of popular PC and Mac chipsets, and telling their customers that their computers have bad parts that need to be replaced.

I have no idea why Steinberg/Yamaha chose FW400 over USB 2.0 (there is little real world difference in transfer speed), but I'm guessing the number of returned units so far will have them reconsidering this decision for future models.

[MonkeyGang]

Originally Posted by Black Shadow

I have no idea why Steinberg/Yamaha chose FW400 over USB 2.0 (there is little real world difference in transfer speed), but I'm guessing the number of returned units so far will have them reconsidering this decision for future models.

AFAIK there is a huge real world difference - USB 2.0 would never handle countinous data transfer for 24 channels of digital audio in and 8 channels out in 96k/24bit... google the real continous data transfer specs of FW 400 vs USB 2.0

[domus]

There´s no such thing as an easy checklist. I have a custom build DAW that works beautifully. Everything is pro specs and I have had no problem running Saffire Pro26, TC Studio Konnekt, Lexicon Ionix and several "low end" interfaces as well as UA 2192. Wanted to try the Steinberg though cause so many was raving about it. Borrowed it but couldn´t get it to work. Got in touch with the store, Steinberg support, updated firmware - nothing worked. Got dropouts all the time and after a minute or so no sound wasn´t working at all. Had to reboot to get the driver to work again - just for the same thing to happen over again, and again....

Worked in the music store though on their computer. Also a custom built PC.

Know that a couple of guys had similar issues from reading all different kind of forums to try to come up with a solution, and they could´n resolve their issues either..

Steinberg support couldn´t solve the issue nor the store.

It might work for u, but be sure that you can return it if it doesn´t..

[Black Shadow]

Originally Posted by MonkeyGang

AFAIK there is a huge real world difference - USB 2.0 would never handle countinous data transfer for 24 channels of digital audio in and 8 channels out in 96k/24bit... google the real continous data transfer specs of FW 400 vs USB 2.0

Try using both over an extended period of time like I have, and decide for yourself.

[Big_Bang]

24 @ 96k over USB ?

I would never run a session on that!

[mutilatedlip]

Originally Posted by domus

There´s no such thing as an easy checklist. I have a custom build DAW that works beautifully. Everything is pro specs and I have had no problem running Saffire Pro26, TC Studio Konnekt, Lexicon Ionix and several "low end" interfaces as well as UA 2192. Wanted to try the Steinberg though cause so many was raving about it. Borrowed it but couldn´t get it to work. Got in touch with the store, Steinberg support, updated firmware - nothing worked. Got dropouts all the time and after a minute or so no sound wasn´t working at all. Had to reboot to get the driver to work again - just for the same thing to happen over again, and again....

Worked in the music store though on their computer. Also a custom built PC.

Know that a couple of guys had similar issues from reading all different kind of forums to try to come up with a solution, and they could´n resolve their issues either..

Steinberg support couldn´t solve the issue nor the store.

It might work for u, but be sure that you can return it if it doesn´t..

I had the very same issues to begin with and was so frustrated.

However, switching to Legacy drivers resolved everything for me. Even after I'd bought a FW TI PCIe card!

I must say though, the perseverence was worth it. Great, great bit of kit, and I'm tracking an album using it.

[erezh]

Originally Posted by JeffE

No problems at all with the MR816x drivers on my Win 7 x64 system. No crashes to speak of.

Hi.

I'm trying to install the MR816x original disk on Windows 7 64 bit but keep getting these annoying messages: "Your system is not adequate to install the software"...

I have a Core i7 (8 virtual cores) with 6Gb triple speed memory chips.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

[blacklion]

Originally Posted by erezh

Hi.

I'm trying to install the MR816x original disk on Windows 7 64 bit but keep getting these annoying messages: "Your system is not adequate to install the software"...

I have a Core i7 (8 virtual cores) with 6Gb triple speed memory chips.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

In the manual it says to install the latest drivers from the website if there are newer ones than on the original disk.

[mikedaul]

I've got an MR816X. I'll double stress the 'only use a TI chipset FW card' mantra. The 816 is pretty flaky on a non-TI FW card in my experience, but rock solid when using a good card. Also, don't daisy chain it with other devices - give it it's own card for best performance.

This is the one I use:
Newegg.com - ADS Tech PYRO PCI 64R2 3 Ports Firewire PCI Card Model API-315

[blacklion]

Originally Posted by Big_Bang

Cubase's forum is pouring with "I quit" stories from hell.

This is not to say the interface is bad!
PC land is freaky as hell with any brand. Heck, even recent Mac's are giving people hell with tried and tested setups. Just be sure to double check who is having what problems and why (firewire, drivers, OS, etc).

A simply checklist and you're off!

I hear this from time to time, but it just doesn't seem true. Out of every 10 friends I have with a DAW setup on Mac/PC, maybe one or two will have legitimate issues. For those people, most of the time they haven't studied up on the spec for their particular setup.

The forums are where to go for troubleshooting so it appears that all companies make problematic gear, but that's because people who are setup well generally don't need troubleshooting FAQ.

This past year, I had 4-5 different interfaces, each with different needs on both my MAC and my PC. The only one I couldn't get working well was the profire 610 but I'm sure there are many stable profire users and I was able to pinpoint the issue, which was my PT setup and digi drivers.

Get a TI card, use gear within spec, keep your drivers and bios updated, check your cables from time to time, don't buy a consumer comp if you can help it or at least know what parts your comp is made of. Pretty straightforward.

[aliismailnyc]

so what happens if i only have usb 2.0 and usb 3.0 and no fw? it wont work?

[edwonbass]

Originally Posted by aliismailnyc

so what happens if i only have usb 2.0 and usb 3.0 and no fw? it wont work?

Not with your current setup. You would need to purchase a Firewire card for your computer. Get one with a TI chipset as mentioned.

[DonDraper]

Been running on OSX for about 2 years and now with Lion. For those thinking about running with a mac, no crashes what so ever. Even like it over the RME FireFace 800. Enjoy.

[col]

Here's a few fixes I made to make mine work like it should:

- Swapped my Firewire PCI-card to a one with a TI TSB43AB23 chip to make it install the drivers properly. I had another Firewire PCI-card there previously with a TI chipset but it didn't work with the MR.

- Ran the ysfwutility that comes with the downloadable "Tools for MR" package and set the buffer to medium. This made away with the audio dropouts.

You just need to be patient with these devices, there usually is a way if there is a will.

[rasseyed]

Owned it for over a year! Works great with my PC and Mac Book Pro.

I also own a saffire pro 26 and had issues with dropouts and latency, now I'm using the same fireward card and the 816x with no issues! Since I really can't sell the pro 26 for much, I use it as a 8 channel mic pre into the 816x. It all works really great together!