ProFire 2626

[crossroad]

Originally Posted by leigh

Yes, seems to be working fine. I have one 8 channel (Lucid) ADA hooked up via optical, simultaneous with a 2 channel SPDIF ADA (also Lucid). I don't have a second 8 channel ADAT box, so I haven't tried using both optical ports at the same time.

Thanks, I guess i'm just gonna try the Profire 2626.
I'll report my experiences with the Adat ports.

[glitch]

Originally Posted by leigh

Yes, seems to be working fine. I have one 8 channel (Lucid) ADA hooked up via optical, simultaneous with a 2 channel SPDIF ADA (also Lucid). I don't have a second 8 channel ADAT box, so I haven't tried using both optical ports at the same time.

I also have both the 8824 and AD&DA9624 Lucids just like you. Can the converters on the 2626 hang with the Lucids or are they completely blown away? How are you clocking, BTW?

[leigh]

Originally Posted by glitch

I also have both the 8824 and AD&DA9624 Lucids just like you. Can the converters on the 2626 hang with the Lucids or are they completely blown away? How are you clocking, BTW?

My comparison so far has been between the Profire 2626 and the Lucid 8824. The other Lucid I have is the ADA1000 (20 bits max bit depth), so I haven't put that up against the 2626 yet. On the one project I've used to compare the Profire and the 8824, I thought the Profire had a bit more low/low-mid freq smearyness than the Lucid. But I've barely messed around with comparing them, I just needed to get my system back up and running to finish an ITB mixing project. I will be doing more A/Bing when I get to do an OTB mix.

I've been clocking off the Lucid, and for this ITB project, just monitoring out a pair of Lucid channels.

cheers,
Leigh

[joemeek]

maybe this helps someone with a similar problem:

Got my 2626 on saturday.
tried it immediately.
2626 plus LENOVO 3000N200 Laptop with WinXP(built in Firewire 4 pin).
FRUSTRATION: the m-audio-control-programm (How is it called btw?) did not recocgnice my 2626. Sad.
But it worked on my Big-PC...even on my ibook G4...
Contacted the Maudiosupport (germany): you need a TI-Firewirechipset.
BTW:Everything else worked flawless with my Lenovo (i.e. Firewire: Focusrite Saffire Pro26, even the Duende with zero Problems).....
After several hours of trial and error i found the 2626 in the hardwaremanager BUT not in the firewire-but.
It was listed as "Audio,Video,Gamecontroller".
After installing the driver again from the Hardwaremanager, restarting, deinstalling it, and reinstalling it seems to work now...
i don´t have the feeling that this came from a weak firewire chipset, as i can record 26 Tracks of Audio with no problems and a CPU-Usage of about 5% now.
Maybe it was beacause i have a GermanXP? (had similar Problems with an HP-Printer)
Cost me at least one day...
Can´t comment on the Audio/Preamp-quality yet.
THe built Quality seems ok, but a little bit less than for example Focusrite Saffire Pro26.
I don´t like the external psu with its tiny cheap connector that can not be fixed in any way.
So be careful in a liverecording setup that you don´t loose your recording just because anyone looked to strong on this connector.-) !
But maybe the external PSU is good for the SN-ratio--then i´ll swallow it.
Greetings!

[crossroad]

Nice report and good to know you need a TI firewire port.

I'm gonna check it right now.

[WizProdux]

This is actually common with PC Laptops - god bless them....

You may have an IRQ sharing issue, but it;'s also possible there are not enough resources on the built-in FW port to manage the bandwidth requires by such an interface as this.

BTW, have you tried www.musicxp.net, checkout the Tuning Tips.
Not a bad idea to disable the 1394 Net Adapter from the Device manager.

[heavi5ide]

Just wanted to report on my experience with the Profire 2626 so far. Have been using it with Pro Tools M-Powered 7.4cs3 on a home-brew Core 2 Duo with XP. I can't remember the exact processor or motherboard models. I think the mobo is an Asus. I have the Profire connected to a PCI firewire card. Don't know what chipset it has (I salvaged from a previous home-brew pc) but I'll try to find out.

I've been having similar problems to joemeek (the Lenovo user) in that frequently the Profire is unrecognized when I start up the computer. I power on my rack power conditioners, and they turn on the profire. Then I turn on the pc, it starts up into windows, but if I try to open the Profire control panel it doesn't recognize the hardware and further, gives me some error ("Cyclic redundancy check" something or other).

Funny thing is, when I first installed it -- installed the driver, rebooted, un-installed PTMP 7.1, rebooted, installed PTMP 7.4, rebooted, installed PTMP 7.4cs3 update, rebooted -- everything was fine immediately. Once I worked out the clock issues -- using an RME ADI-8 DS as master clock on ADAT 1, and a Presonus Digimax FS as slave on ADAT 2 -- and configured the input order in the control panel (PTMP only allows 18 inputs so I'm forgoing the ones built into the Profire), I launched PTMP and everything worked great. Was able to immediately track 10 or 11 channels simultaneously into PTMP from the RME and the Digimax.

Since that first time though, whenever I turn on the computer the Profire is unrecognized. I got around this yesterday by re-installing the driver, after rebooting everything a couple times didn't work. Today, I was talking the lead singer through things over the phone, and eventually had him unplug the firewire cable while everything was off, replug it, and then turn things back on (profire before pc). This seemed to work for him. I'm guessing this is also just some firewire flakiness -- I'll be checking out what chipset I'm running and maybe I'll try a different PCI card.

Despite this problem, I'm loving this so far because of all the i/o. Also, build quality seems decent but QC maybe not so much -- one of the preamp knobs, which are pull-for-pad, pulled right off, and I haven't even used the preamps yet! It didn't break, I think it just wasn't glued right or something (I didn't see a set screw so I guess the knobs are glued on?).

Ray, thanks for being around. Good to have some support on the forums!

Nick

[joemeek]

Hello!
funny that i had the CRC-error also with my lenovo as one of my steps on the way to a currently working system...
so this seems nothing that is related with laptops especially.
Which language is your PC?
do you use XP or Vista?
Btw:my Lenovo has a 4pin (NOT bus powered Firewire). So i can plu and unplug while in use (with the 2626 switched off).
When it is not recogniced after the correct way (connecting, then 2626 power, than power up computer) sometimes it helps to unplug and plug in again.
I still believe this can be fixed by correcting the installer...
m-audio chime in!
Greetings!

[WizProdux]

Good news!!!!

New driver released. Click here: M-AUDIO - Drivers

[heavi5ide]

Will try new drivers when I go into the studio shortly. Thanks for the heads up!

Ncik

[mortimer]

Originally Posted by WizProdux

Good news!!!!

New driver released. Click here: M-AUDIO - Drivers

Has anyone tested the new drivers and firmware with Sonar 7.0.2?
Are the issues mentioned by stingray1122/RayT in post #80 better?

[heavi5ide]

Installed the new drivers last night, although I did it after doing all of our work as work was in progress when I got there, so I didn't really test the new drivers so much, except to note that they seemed to work fine when I restarted the computer after installing. I think the real test will be seeing if it works tonight (as my problem seemed to occur only after cycling the master power conditioners -- they're off when we're not in there).

My specs, btw:

Asus P5N-E motherboard
Core2 Duo E6600 @2.40GHz
2GB RAM

XP Pro SP2

I didn't crack the case to take a close look at the PCI firewire card, but it appears as "OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller" in device manager. The mobo built-in FW appears as "VIA OHCI compliant 1394 Host Controller". If the PCI one doesn't say VIA, does that mean it's TI? How many companies make these chipsets?

Nick

[WizProdux]

Both OHCI and VIA are pretty generic.

You gotta go with Texas Instruments.
This can play a significant role, just as a master clock plays a significant role with multiple digi devices.

[heavi5ide]

Thanks Wiz. I'll check the card tonight to see what I'm dealing with. Is it possible I just let windows install a generic OHCI driver when I should be using a manufacturer-specific driver? Would that matter?

Nick

[WizProdux]

The beauty of PC's is that you can customize them. When I had mine built I specifically asked them to incorporate a T.I. IEEE 1394 card.
I would go as far as to say:

*Disable the onboard 1394 from BIOS and stick to the PCI T.I. card.

[polf]

im currently using a 002r and this looks very interesting for the x16 adat outputs... probably better pre-amps also...

why am i still using digidesign hardware?

[WizProdux]

I'll be getting the 003 Factory soon, if anyone's interested in a test between PF2626 & 003 let me know

[crossroad]

I'm surely interested in a test.
I had the plan to buy a digi 003 rack but after seeing the profire 2626.......

My mobo (Asus P5K-E wifi) has an onboard firewire Agere chipset.
So i go for a sitecom card with TI chipset.
This card is only €19,-
Guess it could save me a lot of problems.

[WizProdux]

Just remember that when you buy the PF2626, Pro Tools M-Powered is a separate purchase.

[Dean7]

Originally Posted by WizProdux

The beauty of PC's is that you can customize them. When I had mine built I specifically asked them to incorporate a T.I. IEEE 1394 card.
I would go as far as to say:

*Disable the onboard 1394 from BIOS and stick to the PCI T.I. card.

How would disabling your onboard 1394 have ANYTHING to do with your TI 1394 controller? I understand using different controllers w/ different drivers would make a difference, but I don't see how that would possibly make a difference being as how they are on a completely different bus.

Just trying to get away from "black art" theories about PCs, and I'm not trying to offend you. So, if you have some good logic behind your statement I'd really like to hear it.

-Dean

[WizProdux]

Originally Posted by Dean7

How would disabling your onboard 1394 have ANYTHING to do with your TI 1394 controller?

In short, simply to eliminate unused/unwanted resources.

[stingray1122]

Hey guys, I've been out for a couple days (and will continue to be out next week while I'm at the NAB show). I see there are a few of you with some strangeness on your PCs. Be sure to post back here or PM me if you continue to have these problems with the new drivers.

As for Sonar, I haven't looking into this again with the new drivers. I wont have a chance to look at it again until after the NAB show. Once I can get to it I'll post my findings here.

RayT

[Pädy]

Hello Ray,

I'm in the market for a FireWire audio interface. I'm on a MacBook Pro 2.16 GHz, 2 GB Memory, 10.5.2, mainly using Cubase 4, eXT 2 and Tracktion 3.

Originally there were four units I was looking at:

Motu 828mk3, TC Konnekt 24D, ProFire 2626 and RME Fireface 400.

The 828mk3 didn't make it after I read about the hot signal issues on the main outs and (even more importantly) the issues with the instrument inputs.
What I'm mainly looking for is rock solid low-latency drivers for live playing with NI Guitar Rig 3. Of course high quality Hi-Z input is a must have for this. So how does the ProFire perform in this regard?
Do the instrument inputs and the Mic inputs have any means to prevent the converters from clipping - analog limiter or anything?
And finally, are there any known issues with the FireWire chips of the current Mac line up?

Thanks!

Pädy

[JonesH]

I've just purchased my 2626 and I haven't had time to test it with any analog sources but I've used it with iTunes and VideoLan Client.

I don't know why, but I get lots of distortion when playing from iTunes. On the meters, theres one or two dB:s of headroom but there's audible distortion on the outputs (line outs as well as headphones). This would seem to be constant, and independent from the output from iTunes. iTunes does, of course, not distort when playing to the internal outputs.

Same goes for playing through VLC or Soundtrack.

Any ideas? I would really hate this device to be defective...
I've upgraded firmware, using it with a MacBook running 10.4.9. Forn now it's the only FW unit in the chain.

[WizProdux]

Originally Posted by JonesH

I've upgraded firmware, using it with a MacBook running 10.4.9.

Did you update the firmware on the MacBook while the PF2626 was connected to your computer?
Updating firmware on a Mac has been known to cause damage to even USB devices if these devices ARE connected to the computer.

The best thing for you to do is update your Mac to 10.4.11 using the combo update (Apple - Support - Downloads - Mac OS X 10.4.11 Combo Update (Intel)) primarily because the minimum specs for PF2626 requires a system on 10.4.11

[JonesH]

Thanks. I did update the ProFire firmware but of course not the macbook firmware :)

Thanks for pointing out the update issue. I've been lagging behind in updating because my PT LE doesn't work properly then, but I should upgrade now. Will do and check in again!

Edit: Upgraded to 10.4.11. Still same issue. Any other ideas?

[WizProdux]

Try Repairing Disk Permissions and then turn off any wireless and bluetooth on your computer.

Repair disk permissions. [Hard drive > Applications > Utilities Folder > Disk Utility] – Choose Macintosh HD when the utility launches and click repair disk permissions.

[JonesH]

Thank you for your reply and help. It did not, however, help. Same distortion... M-audio?

[WizProdux]

Did you say you didn't want to upgrade to 10.4.11 because of PTLE?
Exactly which Pro Tools format and interface are you using?

[DrSyn]

Are you able to test it on another computer? Or try it running in standalone to eliminate the computer/driver as being the culprit.

Also are you at +4 or -10? It may be set incorrectly and actually clipping your amp/monitors. Check that in the maudio control panel.