Another Alesis Firewire 8 Mulitmix Problem
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Posted on Oct 17, 2006 10:28 am
GlasgowG
Member Since: Oct 17, 2006
Hi,
I was really excited to get this mixer/interface as it seemed to be great value. I needed the multimple channels for recording drums - otherwise I was fine with my Tascam US-122. Anyway, I installed the latest drivers and did the firmware upgrade and my laptop (Dell 6400) says that it is installed fine. It shows up in the windows control panel and everything. Well, not everything, cubase can't see it and the multimix contol panel can't either. Also, playback is glitchy in the extreme.
My hunch is that it's because my laptop has a 4pin firewire connection. Has anyone had similar problems - or indeed got this to work with a 4 pin connection?
Thanks,
Gerard
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Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 17, 2006 06:17 pm The 4 pin connection will help solve the major part of this. Try solving that problem first, then you can move on to the next level of problems if any still exist.
Someone just had this very same issue and that was the 4 wire cable as well as a low quality cable.
Oct 20, 2006 03:17 am Well, I held off on buying a new firewire card as I have a Dell laptop and that means a £70 Expresscard rather than PCIMA but I did spend £15 on a new cable. To be honest I don't know if that has helped but I do seem to have found a workaround of sorts. Basically, if only the ASIO drivers are installed then CUBASE sees the mixer fine and it seems to work (I did a brief test and recorded 4 channels at once with no probs) but if I click on the WDM option on the control panel it goes haywire: I can no longer load the control panel, playback of sounds is terrible and CUBASE can't see it. I hope this might be of use to someone with the same problem.
It does mean that any sounds created outside of CUBASE (say for instance I play an MP3 in media player or whatever)the sound goes through the onboard Sigmatel device and out of the laptop speakers.
As I will only have the desk plugged in when I'm recording I can't forsee this being a problem. I am still miffed it doesn't work perfectly though. I read somewhere that at the end of 2005/beginning of 2006 they were releasing a driver which allowed the use of 4 pin connectors. Whether this actually happened or not I have no idea.
Anyone have any similar experiences?
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Oct 20, 2006 01:07 pm The ASIO drivers should be the best choice for working in Cubase. As well, yes the chip on the firewire control can play a huge part in the firewire interface functionality. The manufacturers site should tell you which chip is accepatable as some do have bugs with them. In the windows sound control you should be able to choose the firewire interface for system sounds if it is available. But from what you are stating it sounds as though it may not be, but it is worth checking out.
