John Vere Posted December 24, 2020 Share Posted December 24, 2020 (edited) Haven't had this issue for I bet 12 years. You open Cakewalk, load a project and it plays a bit fast and1/2 step up ( approx) Just bought a Motu M4 and have been using it for about 2 weeks. So far not overly impressed as compared to my old 1st Gen 6i6. I will assume this is due to sample rate. I have always set everything to 44.1. The Motu control panel and Cakewalk all show this is not changing, even during the fast playback. All indicators show 44.1. Even in Widows sound settings it shows using 44.1 in shared mode. I have submitted a tech ticket to Motu. And this issue has been slowly getting worse and is random. I thought it might be because I've been watching the odd You Tube or something but testing things it can actually happen from a cold boot and going directly to Cakewalk. My system gets turned off every night so everything comes on with a few switches and then I boot the computer. ( yes my volumes are all off) . If I turn the Moto on after I boot up it doesn't happen. This is 4 or 5 tries this morning. This might be the only option? But if the Motu is powered on before the Computer this happens. PITA. The playback issue is not just Cakewalk. Other issue is I getting crackles in playback of some projects. Another new thing for me. I have stayed at 256 buffer same as my 6i6. I'm going to A/B the 2 interfaces when I get a chance but looks like this will have to wait it's time to put on my Christmas sweater. Any Idea's? Edited December 28, 2020 by John Vere Changed title Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Arwood Posted December 25, 2020 Share Posted December 25, 2020 It sounds like a sample rate issue. See if the Motu has a default sample rate in drivers and hardware. Hope you get this figured out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurre Posted December 25, 2020 Share Posted December 25, 2020 It could also be old drivers from an earlier audiointerface that interfere. Read up on how to clean your pc from old drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJ Jacobson Posted December 25, 2020 Share Posted December 25, 2020 18 hours ago, John Vere said: If I turn the Moto on after I boot up it doesn't happen. This is 4 or 5 tries this morning. This might be the only option? But if the Motu is powered on before the Computer this happens. PITA. It is always better to have your PC turned on first, then power up your audio interface and other peripherals, like MIDi controllers and such. QUESTION: Did you delete the old MOTU drivers and install the newest MOTU drivers for your new MOTU interface? 18 hours ago, John Vere said: Other issue is I getting crackles in playback of some projects. Another new thing for me. I have stayed at 256 buffer same as my 6i6. I'm going to A/B the 2 interfaces when I get a chance but looks like this will have to wait it's time to put on my Christmas sweater. Some projects need more or less resources to playback at an optimal performance. After you delete the old drivers and install the new drivers for your new MOTU, go into the preference menu in Cake and enable 'share drivers with other programs' 18 hours ago, John Vere said: Haven't had this issue for I bet 12 years. You open Cakewalk, load a project and it plays a bit fast and1/2 step up ( approx) Just bought a Motu M4 and have been using it for about 2 weeks. Yes, you are right about it being a sample rate issue. I think if you delete the old drivers and then install the latest and greatest from MOTU's website, you will be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapasoa Posted December 25, 2020 Share Posted December 25, 2020 After you download and install the update drivers, every audio interface remove first the old drivers. You can see that observing what the the installers do and show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 25, 2020 Author Share Posted December 25, 2020 (edited) Thanks everyone for replying. And Merry Christmas First this is a brand new interface so the driver is the latest. I’m actually hoping that this is a driver issue and if other people have same issues it will be fixed in an update. Last update was March. I cannot find much on other forums mostly people praising it. I guess I’ve always gotten away with having everything come on with the computer. I have a second switch for all my hardware stuff which is not used every day. I guess I could add a third switch for my monitoring and the interface. CJ. I think the share driver option disappeared a while back. There is one in Windows settings and it is on. Thing’s I will try when Christmas is over is to install on my other computer and see what happens I will also try my Scarlett and see if this happens. Especially the crackles. I can swap interface with Cakewalk open. So if crackle goes away at same setting that’s proof the Motu driver is sketchy Edited December 25, 2020 by John Vere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Belled Posted December 25, 2020 Share Posted December 25, 2020 It's what happens when your Cakewalk projects are recorded at 44.1Khz but somehow the Audio Interface is running at 48Khz anyway. If you use the interface for Windows Sounds, and not only for Cakewalk, this might happen by simply playing a Youtube video while Cakewalk is open. R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 25, 2020 Author Share Posted December 25, 2020 This happens from a cold boot up and the first thing I see is the Motu GUI. It is always set at 44.1, Everything shows 44.1 . That's why I'm a bit mystified and highly suspect the drivers. An audio interface set for 44.1 should not playback at 48 and especially if all indicators all still show 44.1. I have 3 other interfaces as well as I often use Windows sound on my office computer. I haven't had this issue since I believe my first Tascam drivers under W 7 a long time ago. I had so many issues with the Tascam drivers I bought the 6i6 and all the issues disappeared. Later they updated the Tascam drivers and now it also has no issues. The 3rd interface is an M Audio Fast track and is a million years old and not supported in W10. But even it was updated and runs just fine on W7. ( kinda) I also have a Soundcraft mixer with USB and it works fine but I rarely have used it for an interface other than live 2 track streaming. I didn't really need another interface but I made some cash doing some recording and though it was time to update. I would have loved an RME but I didn't make THAT much money recording. I still think the Motu is a good choice and crossing my fingers this is a passing issue just like I experienced with the Tascam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 26, 2020 Author Share Posted December 26, 2020 I copied this from another thread but it belongs here as well. Update: Just did a test. First just to make dang sure I re-installed both drivers for the M4 and the 6i6. Seems this has cured the playback speeding up issue with the Motu. I can't get it to do it for now. So even though the exact same driver, something must have been corrupted in the initial download and install. But the crackling is definitely an issue. Just a hint of it at 256 but if I switch to 128 it is totally garbled. So then I turned off the Motu and turned on the Scarlett 6i6. The Scarlett played silky smooth and I switched to 128 and all I got was very random glitches. The project has a lot of stuff already but I added 6 instances of the Adaptive limiter which I think is a heavy hitter and it didn't change. I returned to the Motu and now 256 is glitching worse. You would have to use 512. Interesting things between the 2 interfaces- When I turn off the Motu and turn on the scarlett with Cakewalk open I get the disconnect and the choose device pop ups. When I turn off the Scarlett and turn on the Motu I get the disconnected but no choose device pop up.. I did this a few time too. Also notice in the screenshots the Motu adjustment for mixing latency is not adjustable. Then later due to an answer in the other thread from @rsinger I swapped the Motu to my front USB 3 ports and now I'm not really hearing crackles at 256 but 128 seems just as bad as before? I fail to see how it would make a difference but the M4 does come with a USB C connector so ?? FYI the Scarlett is still plugged into the USB 2 ports on the back. This machine only has two USB 3 ( 12 years old ) ports and I like to reserve them for external drives. Notice the Motu has better RTL than the 6i6. Possibly this is why it has trouble coping. They have sacrificed stability for better RTL performance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Ruys Posted December 27, 2020 Share Posted December 27, 2020 One thing I always do on any DAW is disable Windows sounds - why? Because Windows usually tries to play all it's sounds at 48 KHz. I have had situations over the years where I am working at 44 KHz in my DAW, A Windows system sound plays and in doing so, forces the sound card to 48 KHz. On-board sound cards seem to handle this situation, but some recording cards don't, and stay stuck at 48 KHz. This has been something that specifically affects MOTU cards for me in the past. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 28, 2020 Author Share Posted December 28, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, Bill Ruys said: One thing I always do on any DAW is disable Windows sounds - why? Because Windows usually tries to play all it's sounds at 48 KHz. I have had situations over the years where I am working at 44 KHz in my DAW, A Windows system sound plays and in doing so, forces the sound card to 48 KHz. On-board sound cards seem to handle this situation, but some recording cards don't, and stay stuck at 48 KHz. This has been something that specifically affects MOTU cards for me in the past. Thanks. I always have sounds in windows disabled. Even in my office machine. I have put it back in the box and waiting to hear back from Long and Mcquade to return it. I'm happily back using my 8 year old 6i6 without any issues . I will see if I can get a Scarlett 8i6 instead. Of note is that Motu does not support Cakewalk. I think it's a good interface for Mac people etc. they obviously need to work on the windows drivers. And besides Focusrite on all the bench test sites comes in very close performance wise with DAC's etc to the M2 and M4. Motu gives you diddly squat in freebies. Focusrite gives you a bunch of good quality stuff worth well over $200. I already have it of course, but for first time buyers things like that are worth paying attention to. Focusrite has really grown as a company and seem to be keeping on top of things. I was real surprised to find a new driver for my 6i6. They donèt need to do this but they did so that brings loyalty. I see they even re vamped the Mix Control software now called just Control. Another feature lacking with the M4. Scarletts rear jacks have software controlled Pads. I couldn't plug my Korg 05/rw into the 3/4 of the M4 because the signal was way to low. No problem on the 6i6. Another deal breaker for me. So back she goes. Edited December 28, 2020 by John Vere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michayl Asaph Myers Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 I have had this device for over a year and no troubles, except I have stayed on this driver - MOTU M-Series Installer v4.0.83874 (Release Date 2020-01-23).... for me, drivers newer then this one gave me problems. Totally agree with "delete" old drivers, delete "AUD.ini file and start fresh, shut off Windows sounds, turn off desktop display pics, I just have a black background....basically, turn off all the crap that you don't need, including the hdmi/monitor audio sound drivers... I believe there is a reg fix floating around here somewhere, that's what I used to turn it off. I do have a windows driver for this that came out the same time the new Mac driver came out (Nov 17 2020) I believe, but for some reason they pulled it.... I have tried this newer driver and had no problems with it, but I choose to stay on the older driver because it works. Don't know why they would pull the new driver. This is a smokin hot interface with stunning sound and features..... don't give up on it, you'll get it going. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsinger Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 Just saw this thread today. I always power up the M4 after I login in so that may be part of the reason I'm not having problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 28, 2020 Author Share Posted December 28, 2020 As I said it’s going back. I A/B it with my 6i6 for a few hours last night and the Scarlett is more stable. I am not about to fight to make the Motu work. This computer has been my DAW only computer for a long time now and as I said I have 2 older interfaces that run smoothly at 256 year after year. I plug in a brand new interface and I get crackles? If the Motu is that picky about my system then I’m not interested. The computer is about as optimized as possible. I unplug the internet most of the time just out of habit. it doesn’t even have on board sound driver I disabled long time ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 28, 2020 Author Share Posted December 28, 2020 I got a nice reply from Motu and a link to this pretty good document regarding windows tweaks. https://cdn-data.motu.com/django_prod/techlink-attachments/159747/Troubleshooting USB Audio Problems on Windows.pdf There were a few things in there I had not done and I unpacked the M4, re installed the drivers. Things went a little weird as I got that Windows doesn't like this app warning which didn't happen before. Anyhow drivers installed. Even though I've never heard this was an issue I went into reg edit and deleted all other ASIO drivers. So we'll see tonight if I still have the issues. I would prefer to keep it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
don belisle Posted December 28, 2020 Share Posted December 28, 2020 I had a brand new MOTU UltraLite-mk4 out of the box about 2 months ago. I had problems similar problem with channel phasing, noise and popping. My mouse was bleeding thru , lots of audio issues. The right was playing but the left was phasing in and out. I could run all the GUI/mixer stuff, no problems there. From the GUI I could reset all factory defaults and re-initialized the MK4. Still, bad audio out. But, I had no problem communicating with my MK4. It was so bad I thought for sure the unit was defective. I even took the power supply to work and spec `d it out on a scope. To finish my story, the USB cable that came with the unit, in the box, had a incomplete ground from the computer to the MK4. I checked it out with my meter at work, and sure enough it was open! The ground (shield) did not make it to both sides. There is an internal ground for the USB +/- differentials pairs, but the (shield) ground was my culprit. I grabbed another cable, It works flawlessly now. MOTU had great customer service and answered every question as we debugged this problem. They were surprised it was the frigggin USB cable too! The cable came from MOTU. good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vere Posted December 29, 2020 Author Share Posted December 29, 2020 (edited) That’s funny because I normally troubleshoot by swapping out components. But out 400 cables I have, that USB C is one I don’t have. At least yours has a power supply. I think my issues boil down to buss power and that cheap cable. Like I say, compared to Focusrite these guys are cheaping out on extras. Not impressed. I did all the stupid tweaks on the list and it made no difference to the crackles. I think I will order a pci USB card and find a better cable if that’s even possible. USB C is cell phone consumer junk. This is what really bugs me I thought I was buying a better interface than my Scarlett I'm giving it one more chance. long and mcquade can’t get back to me because they are having web site issues Edited December 29, 2020 by John Vere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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