• Registered: 2019-08-15
  • Posts: 3

Topic: Problems with RayDAT, it may be sync/clock but not sure

Hello, thank you for maintaining this forum, it's been wonderful coming here over the years and reading topics. Now I come to you for help.
My RayDAT card is having problems:

-Boot into Windows for the first time in that day, open up DAW, playback works. TotalMix shows activity in the meters and Hammerfall DSP Settings show Sync 48k on my ADAT1 port coming from my Fireface UCX (more on this later). Clock source is set to Internal (Current: Master). On my Fireface USB Settings Sample rate is set to 48k (Current: 48k) and Clock Source Optical In (Current: ADAT).
-After a little bit of time playback in my DAW stops working. It freezes and won't allow me to resume/stop anymore no matter how many times I restart it (Bitwig Studio and Ableton Live in my case). TotalMix now shows no activity in the meters and Hammerfall DSP Settings show No Lock on my ADAT1 port. Clock source is still the same. On my Fireface USB Settings Sample Rate is now red and is set to 48k (Current 44,1k) and Clock Source Optical In (Current: ADAT).
-If I reboot the system, it works and doesn't freeze again.

This happens every single day and I would like to fix it. It started happening around the time I got my UCX. It acts as my AD/DA and as a backup interface should the RayDAT have trouble. The RayDAT and UCX are connected with two ADAT cables, RayDAT is the master clocking wise. The UCX is connected to my PC with a USB cable. The freezing happens even if the Fireface is not connected to the PC via USB, I just don't see the Fireface USB Settings obviously. I'll report tomorrow if it happens when the UCX is not connected to the RayDAT at all as well.

Windows 10 64-bit
Bitwig Studio 2.5
Ableton Live 10
RME Hammerfall DSP 4.22
RME Fireface Hardware Revision 46, Driver Revision 1.167

  • Registered: 2019-08-15
  • Posts: 3

Re: Problems with RayDAT, it may be sync/clock but not sure

Update: even when the UCX is not in use (either not connected or connected but not powered on) the problem is still there. After a couple of minutes the RayDAT freezes and yesterday it even happened that I had to restart the computer multiple times to get it stable.

Do I have a defective card?

  • Registered: 2019-10-01
  • Posts: 675

Re: Problems with RayDAT, it may be sync/clock but not sure

Hi there!

My guess is that your Fireface gets recognized as windows device, when you connect it via usb and therefore becomes Clock Master and loses sync with your RayDat, so I 'll try to be of some help!
There are some steps involved, so:

1. Disconnect your ADAT cables and Fireface from USB
2. Restart your PC
3. Connect you Fireface and go to the settings' tab regarding WDM Devices. Uncheck every Output and Input. That is to have it set up for ASIO Operation only.
4. Connect the first cable from RayDat ADAT Out to Fireface ADAT In as you 've been doing all along. Set RayDat as clock Master and Fireface as Slave. Check if everything is locked and synced.
5. Now connect the second cable from Fireface ADAT Out to RayDat ADAT In and check everything again. Also Totalmix for routings and levels. If everything is as it should be, then
6. Turn off your Fireface and disconnect it from USB. It says in the manual that it automatically stores these settings for stand-alone operation, if I understand correctly.
7. Restart your PC
8. Turn on your Fireface but leave it disconnected from USB.

I think you should be ok, now
If you still have problems, refer to the manual section labelled "Stand-Alone Operation" on how to store your settings for that purpose.

Another minor detail is that ADAT(or TOSLINK as they are also known) cables, should be of the same brand and length, and of good quality.
Please report back if you 've fixed it, or if you have problems still.

RME Gear: Digiface USB, HDSP 9632

4 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2019-10-11 16:46:06)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,391

Re: Problems with RayDAT, it may be sync/clock but not sure

You are using old drivers and firmware, see list below.
I would upgrade everything to latest drivers and firmware and then re-check.

Drivers:
UCX:      you: 1.167,  latest: 1.168
RayDAT: you: 4.22,   latest: 4.29

Firmware:
UCX:      you: 46,        latest: 48
RayDAT: ----- you didn't tell -------

Could you kindly tell the firmware of the RayDAT as well ? Thanks.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • Registered: 2019-08-15
  • Posts: 3

Re: Problems with RayDAT, it may be sync/clock but not sure

OK, after talking to support it seemed like my problem was fixed, the suggestion was to give the card a bit more time to initialize when starting up the computer. But now it's back and more unpredictable. Before I reliably had the interfaces lose sync every time I started up the machine, now it's less frequent but it still happens.

I also now have another problem. The computer bluescreens when I change the buffer size. I get a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (hdsp_64.sys) error. I haven't yet been able to reliably trigger this crash. At first I thought complex projects had something to do with it but then it crashed during a 4 track recording session.

I also tried updating all the firmware and software to see if that would help and it did not.

UCX:      1.167 revision 48
RayDat: 4.29   revision 16
Windows 10 Pro 1903