MOTU 8PRE problems

Hi all!

I just bought myself a MOTU 8PRE FW soundcard.

I have it up an running without any problems on my laptop running Win XP/Cubase SX3/Guitar Rig 4 and some other apps.

When installing it under Windows 7/Cubase 5 I get extreme distortion. And I mean really extreme distortion. I get it to "work" without distortion if I put all volume sliders in the mixer at 4%(!). When I start cubase I need to have the main out slider in Cubase also at -45dB to be able to get a descent sound.

I can use the MOTU Cuemix and hear my instrument correctly but as soon as I try to use any program other than that the distortion is very nasty. Even the system sounds distort like crazy.

I've tried all the tips I can find online but to no success ... I've tried different drivers, disabled the onboard audio completely and stuff like that ...

Plz help ... it feels kinda drag to buy a used sound card for €400 and not be able to use it properly ... *grrrr*

Thanks in advance!

The actual Firewire hardware chip can make a difference on many audio firewire devices. I have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 (8 channel audio interface unit) and it uses the "Dice II" firewire interface and the recommended PC firewire chip is the T.I. (Texas Instruments). There are a few others that will work OK but others will either not work at all or have a lot of latency and drop out problems.

I found that the "legacy" drivers must be used with this unit. Here is the info from the MOTU web site: MOTU.com - Using the Legacy FireWire Driver in Windows 7

I have corrected the FW-legacy problem earlier but still have the problem with the distortion of sound and extremely high sound levels out from the sound card.

As described in my initial post it is like if the signal is boosted 2 or 3 times before coming out of the sound card ... Any ideas?

Not being familiar with MOTU I can't say if it's a Windows 7 compatiblity problem or not. Have you contacted MOTU? Their support may have a solution for you. Since it works on the XP system that would also tend to say it's a Win 7 compatiblity issue, which is not uncommon with many devices. I see posts on the Sonar Forum about Win 7 compatiblity problems with many devices. Eventually Win 7 compatibility will be standard, but it's not yet.

The solution was change FW controller card ...
With the help of MOTU support.
I had a FW controller card with NEC chipset ... borrowed one with Texas Instrument chipset (as demanded by the support) and it works ... well well ... that was easy :)

Thanks for your time :)

Mnementh said:

The solution was change FW controller card ...
With the help of MOTU support.
I had a FW controller card with NEC chipset ... borrowed one with Texas Instrument chipset (as demanded by the support) and it works ... well well ... that was easy :)

Thanks for your time :)

Yep, I have a Presonus Firestudio which also behaves badly with NEC Firewire, Texas instruments makes the best chips for audio use although VIA Firewire chips work well too.

Ap

As my first response, I noted the TI chipset. Apparently this unit is also using the Dice II firewire interface as does Presonus, Focusrite, Alesis and many more.

My firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 recently died and it was going to cost within $50 of what I paid new for the unit so it's now a "boat anchor". I bought a new M Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R that is USB connected and the hardware works much better and lower latency.

fireberd said:

My firewire Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 recently died and it was going to cost within $50 of what I paid new for the unit so it's now a "boat anchor". I bought a new M Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R that is USB connected and the hardware works much better and lower latency.

Really, that's good to know, evidently USB has come a long way, I know it does take a bit more overall CPU than Firewire but with a modern machine it really doesn't matter much.

Ap