Topic: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

I'm having a recurring problem with my set up.

I have a Fireface 800 with the most recent firmware.

I'm running retail Windows 7 64-bit, with the most recent Fireface 800 drivers.

I'm running Ableton Live 8.1.

When I start Ableton it often will not locate the Fireface under ASIO.

I thought the problem was with the firewire drivers, so I switched back to using the legacy ones, as recommended on the forums, and that seemed to help, and I was even able use Live a few times without any problems. But now, although nothing has changed in my system, once again Live can't find the Fireface under ASIO. If I switch to using MME/Direct X I can get access to the unit, but it doesn't appear though the ASIO interface. I have an Asus Xonar (soundcard) which is listed under ASIO.

Any suggestions?

Thanks for any advice.

Take care,

Caligari

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

I had same problems with my fireface... installed Asio4all and then the fireface started working good again.... not sure why.

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Try deleting Live's "preferences.cfg".

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Thanks for the suggestions, but so far, no go.

ASIO4All did nothing for me. It was able to tell that the Fireface was there, and list all of its channels, but the test tone from Live never was audible through the Fireface that I could discern, and the midi (which had been working fine through the fireface regardless of the audio interface stuff) showed a red light on the midi activity indicator that normally only flashes green when a button is pressed. All up, not useful for me, I'm afraid.

I did try deleting Ableton's preferences.cfg, but that also didn't result in any helpful change of behaviour - the Fireface still doesn't show up. While I was there I had a look at Ableton's log.txt, but all it showed on the subject of what ASIO interfaces were available was:

3279 ms. ASIO: SInit: started
3286 ms. ASIO: SInit: 0. Asio Device: ASUS Xonar DX ASIO
3287 ms. ASIO: Proccessor: Intel
3287 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseClockSource: 1
3287 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseSetSampleRate: 1
3287 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseSampleRateCheck: 1
3287 ms. ASIO: SInit: finished

A little later it went on to configure the Asus Xonar, as you would expect, but the Fireface simply doesn't show up. When I had ASIO4All installed, that showed up in the list of ASIO interface devices, below the Xonar, as device 1.

Thanks for any further advice!

Take care,

Caligari

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

1. Unplug the Fireface and close all software.
2. Uninstall the Firewire device via Task-Manager.
3. Restart the Computer.
4. After Windows starts it will redetect the Firewire device and install the NON-legacy driver.
5. Change the Firewire driver to the "(legacy)" one via Device-Manager.

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Thanks again, but still nothing... (although I was happy for the excuse to do the uninstallation and reinstallation)


I suspect that if I reinstall the fireface drivers it will appear again in Live...

... and indeed that worked.

I uninstalled the RME drivers (asking it to delete the files); it prompted me to restart; I did that, and then updated the drivers to the most recent set, to be certain those were the ones being used; rebooted again; and then Live was able to detect the Fireface happily.

Now, I figured all along that this would work. What worries me is that I don't want to have to do this again and again every few times I use the Fireface...

Anything more people can offer?

Take care,

Caligari

7 (edited by Caligari 2010-01-10 14:26:52)

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Well, after a few days of problem-free use, I'm back at the same place I was before, with the Fireface no longer appearing in Ableton. I imagine that I can reinstall the drivers again and things will work, but I'd like to know what is going wrong, and I'd really like not to have to reinstall the drivers every week or so...

This time I turned on the Fireface just before starting Live. I waiting for the sound cue that Windows had identified the device. It crosses my mind that perhaps I should have waited longer, but there is no indication of that, nor would I know how long to wait. I did wait long enough for the red HOST light on the front of the Fireface switched off. If it is relevant, my system had been on for a long time (many hours) before I did all of this.

I started Ableton Live, and it took a very long time to come up. I know it does this some times, and I don't know if that is an indication that something is timing out during setup. Below is the set of log entries that it made. I have also listed the same part of the entries made a few days ago when I started it successfully.

Today:
69 ms. : #######################################
69 ms. : # Opening Log: Mon Jan 11 00:07:20 2010
69 ms. : #######################################
69 ms. :
71 ms. : Checking...
131 ms. : Checksum 1: 0d50d915e14837cb782766b0dfdf8f9d
166 ms. : Checksum 2: fb5d165b95b507729c05865f4a13d2ec
205 ms. : Checksum 3: fb5d165b95b507729c05865f4a13d2ec
216 ms. Directories: Resources: Check
216 ms. Directories: Resources: Ok
216 ms. Directories: Preferences: Check
216 ms. Directories: Preferences: Ok
216 ms. Directories: Documents: Check
216 ms. Directories: Documents: Ok
216 ms. Directories: Desktop: Check
217 ms. Directories: Desktop: Ok
217 ms. Directories: Default Recording: Check
217 ms. Directories: Default Recording: Ok
217 ms. Directories: Default Cache: Check
217 ms. Directories: Default Cache: Ok
217 ms. Directories: Index Cache: Check
217 ms. Directories: Index Cache: Ok
217 ms. Directories: User Home: Check
218 ms. Directories: User Home: Ok
218 ms. Directories: Application Support: Check
218 ms. Directories: Application Support: Ok
218 ms. Directories: Temp folder: Check
218 ms. Directories: Temp folder: Ok
218 ms. Directories: Windows icons: Check
218 ms. Directories: Windows icons: Ok
244 ms. : Use server: https://services.ableton.com
506 ms. Net: Setting up connection framework
508 ms. Directories: Cached Presets: Check
509 ms. Directories: Cached Presets: Ok
509 ms. Plugins: Setup
509 ms. Plugins: Setup
509 ms. Plugins: Setup
509 ms. Build: 2
1072 ms. Directories: Bugreporting: Check
1072 ms. Directories: Bugreporting: Ok
1800 ms. WindStructureInit: Setup
1800 ms. WindStructureInit: Setup
1800 ms. WindComplexInit: Setup
1800 ms. WindComplexInit: Setup
1800 ms. Device: Setup
1800 ms. Device: Setup
1800 ms. Device: Setup
1800 ms. Device: Setup
1800 ms. SetWinRegistry: Start
1823 ms. SetWinRegistry: Succeeded
1824 ms. SetWinRegistry: End
6960 ms. QuickTimeVideoWindow: Quicktime version: 0x7658000
6969 ms. Live App: Begin Init
6969 ms. Live App: Version: 'Live 8.1'    '524544'
6970 ms. Live App: OS: 'Windows 7 With  [64 Bit]'
6970 ms. Live App: Pid: '1336'
6970 ms. Live App: Start as first instance: yes
6970 ms. Default App: Begin InitApplication
7200 ms. ADefaultApp: Begin InitEventRecorder
7200 ms. ADefaultApp: End InitEventRecorder
7200 ms. Default App: Begin LoadPrefs
7288 ms. VuMeter: Use default. MeterUpdateRate = 40
7288 ms. ALAudioInOut: Constructor started
7290 ms. ALAudioInOut: Constructor finished
7314 ms. DirectSound: 1. DirectSound device: S
7314 ms. DirectSound: 2. DirectSound device: D
7315 ms. DirectSound: 3. DirectSound device: A
7315 ms. DirectSound: 4. DirectSound device: S
7315 ms. DirectSound: 5. DirectSound device: D
7315 ms. DirectSound: 6. DirectSound device: A
7315 ms. DirectSound: 7. DirectSound device: A
7315 ms. WaveOut: SInit: started
7315 ms. WaveOut: 1. device: S
7316 ms. WaveOut: 2. device: D
7316 ms. WaveOut: 3. device: S
7317 ms. WaveOut: 4. device: D
7317 ms. WaveOut: 5. device: A
7318 ms. WaveOut: 6. device: A
7322 ms. WaveOut: 7. device: A
7323 ms. WaveOut: SInit: finished
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 1. DirectCapture device: M
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 2. DirectCapture device: L
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 3. DirectCapture device: D
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 4. DirectCapture device: S
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 5. DirectCapture device: A
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 6. DirectCapture device: A
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 7. DirectCapture device: A
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 8. DirectCapture device: A
7328 ms. DirectCapture: 9. DirectCapture device: A
7328 ms. WaveIn: SInit: started
7329 ms. WaveIn: 1. device: M
7329 ms. WaveIn: 2. device: L
7329 ms. WaveIn: 3. device: D
7330 ms. WaveIn: 4. device: S
7330 ms. WaveIn: 5. device: A
7331 ms. WaveIn: 6. device: A
7331 ms. WaveIn: 7. device: A
7331 ms. WaveIn: 8. device: A
7332 ms. WaveIn: 9. device: A
7332 ms. WaveIn: SInit: finished
7375 ms. ASIO: SInit: started
7381 ms. ASIO: SInit: 0. Asio Device: ASUS Xonar DX ASIO
7381 ms. ASIO: Proccessor: Intel
7381 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseClockSource: 1
7381 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseSetSampleRate: 1
7381 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseSampleRateCheck: 1
7381 ms. ASIO: SInit: finished

Earlier:
21 ms. : #######################################
21 ms. : # Opening Log: Wed Jan 06 23:15:19 2010
21 ms. : #######################################
21 ms. :
24 ms. : Checking...
84 ms. : Checksum 1: 0d50d915e14837cb782766b0dfdf8f9d
119 ms. : Checksum 2: fb5d165b95b507729c05865f4a13d2ec
241 ms. : Checksum 3: fb5d165b95b507729c05865f4a13d2ec
251 ms. Directories: Resources: Check
251 ms. Directories: Resources: Ok
251 ms. Directories: Preferences: Check
251 ms. Directories: Preferences: Ok
251 ms. Directories: Documents: Check
251 ms. Directories: Documents: Ok
251 ms. Directories: Desktop: Check
252 ms. Directories: Desktop: Ok
252 ms. Directories: Default Recording: Check
252 ms. Directories: Default Recording: Ok
252 ms. Directories: Default Cache: Check
252 ms. Directories: Default Cache: Ok
252 ms. Directories: Index Cache: Check
252 ms. Directories: Index Cache: Ok
252 ms. Directories: User Home: Check
252 ms. Directories: User Home: Ok
252 ms. Directories: Application Support: Check
254 ms. Directories: Application Support: Ok
254 ms. Directories: Temp folder: Check
254 ms. Directories: Temp folder: Ok
254 ms. Directories: Windows icons: Check
254 ms. Directories: Windows icons: Ok
254 ms. : Use server: https://services.ableton.com
499 ms. Net: Setting up connection framework
501 ms. Directories: Cached Presets: Check
501 ms. Directories: Cached Presets: Ok
501 ms. Plugins: Setup
501 ms. Plugins: Setup
501 ms. Plugins: Setup
501 ms. Build: 2
1930 ms. Directories: Bugreporting: Check
1930 ms. Directories: Bugreporting: Ok
1987 ms. WindStructureInit: Setup
1987 ms. WindStructureInit: Setup
1987 ms. WindComplexInit: Setup
1987 ms. WindComplexInit: Setup
1989 ms. Device: Setup
1989 ms. Device: Setup
1989 ms. Device: Setup
1989 ms. Device: Setup
1989 ms. SetWinRegistry: Start
1990 ms. SetWinRegistry: End
3424 ms. QuickTimeVideoWindow: Quicktime version: 0x7658000
3433 ms. Live App: Begin Init
3433 ms. Live App: Version: 'Live 8.1'    '524544'
3433 ms. Live App: OS: 'Windows 7 With  [64 Bit]'
3433 ms. Live App: Pid: '2416'
3434 ms. Live App: Start as first instance: yes
3434 ms. Default App: Begin InitApplication
3701 ms. ADefaultApp: Begin InitEventRecorder
3702 ms. ADefaultApp: End InitEventRecorder
3702 ms. Default App: Begin LoadPrefs
3758 ms. VuMeter: Use default. MeterUpdateRate = 40
3758 ms. ALAudioInOut: Constructor started
3760 ms. ALAudioInOut: Constructor finished
3760 ms. DirectSound: 1. DirectSound device: S
3760 ms. DirectSound: 2. DirectSound device: A
3760 ms. DirectSound: 3. DirectSound device: A
3760 ms. DirectSound: 4. DirectSound device: A
3760 ms. DirectSound: 5. DirectSound device: A
3760 ms. DirectSound: 6. DirectSound device: S
3761 ms. DirectSound: 7. DirectSound device: D
3761 ms. DirectSound: 8. DirectSound device: A
3761 ms. DirectSound: 9. DirectSound device: A
3761 ms. DirectSound: 10. DirectSound device: D
3761 ms. DirectSound: 11. DirectSound device: A
3761 ms. DirectSound: 12. DirectSound device: A
3761 ms. DirectSound: 13. DirectSound device: A
3761 ms. DirectSound: 14. DirectSound device: A
3761 ms. DirectSound: 15. DirectSound device: A
3761 ms. DirectSound: 16. DirectSound device: A
3761 ms. DirectSound: 17. DirectSound device: S
3761 ms. WaveOut: SInit: started
3762 ms. WaveOut: 1. device: S
3762 ms. WaveOut: 2. device: D
3763 ms. WaveOut: 3. device: D
3763 ms. WaveOut: 4. device: A
3764 ms. WaveOut: 5. device: A
3764 ms. WaveOut: 6. device: A
3765 ms. WaveOut: 7. device: A
3765 ms. WaveOut: 8. device: S
3766 ms. WaveOut: 9. device: A
3766 ms. WaveOut: 10. device: A
3767 ms. WaveOut: 11. device: A
3767 ms. WaveOut: 12. device: A
3768 ms. WaveOut: 13. device: A
3768 ms. WaveOut: 14. device: A
3768 ms. WaveOut: 15. device: A
3769 ms. WaveOut: 16. device: A
3769 ms. WaveOut: 17. device: S
3769 ms. WaveOut: SInit: finished
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 1. DirectCapture device: M
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 2. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 3. DirectCapture device: D
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 4. DirectCapture device: S
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 5. DirectCapture device: L
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 6. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 7. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 8. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 9. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 10. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 11. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 12. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 13. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 14. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 15. DirectCapture device: A
3780 ms. DirectCapture: 16. DirectCapture device: S
3781 ms. DirectCapture: 17. DirectCapture device: A
3781 ms. DirectCapture: 18. DirectCapture device: A
3781 ms. DirectCapture: 19. DirectCapture device: A
3781 ms. WaveIn: SInit: started
3781 ms. WaveIn: 1. device: M
3781 ms. WaveIn: 2. device: A
3782 ms. WaveIn: 3. device: D
3782 ms. WaveIn: 4. device: S
3783 ms. WaveIn: 5. device: L
3783 ms. WaveIn: 6. device: A
3783 ms. WaveIn: 7. device: A
3784 ms. WaveIn: 8. device: A
3784 ms. WaveIn: 9. device: A
3784 ms. WaveIn: 10. device: A
3785 ms. WaveIn: 11. device: A
3785 ms. WaveIn: 12. device: A
3785 ms. WaveIn: 13. device: A
3786 ms. WaveIn: 14. device: A
3786 ms. WaveIn: 15. device: A
3786 ms. WaveIn: 16. device: S
3787 ms. WaveIn: 17. device: A
3787 ms. WaveIn: 18. device: A
3787 ms. WaveIn: 19. device: A
3787 ms. WaveIn: SInit: finished
3830 ms. ASIO: SInit: started
3843 ms. ASIO: SInit: 0. Asio Device: ASIO Fireface
3843 ms. ASIO: SInit: 1. Asio Device: ASUS Xonar DX ASIO
3843 ms. ASIO: Proccessor: Intel
3843 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseClockSource: 1
3844 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseSetSampleRate: 1
3844 ms. ASIO: SInit: UseSampleRateCheck: 1
3844 ms. ASIO: SInit: finished

As you can see, there are many more devices listed when it finds the Fireface, as you might expect. The long delay I noticed happens between the end of the SetWinRegistry, and when it finds the QuickTimeVideoWindow version. There is normally some delay there anyway, which doesn't really help me to work out what it is doing, and whether it is even relevant.

If it is relevant, when I start the app again, it starts much more quickly, but still doesn't find the Fireface (and in my experience will not be able to until I reinstall the drivers.

I very much want a solution to this. Any suggestions are welcome. And I'm happy to provide any further information that is needed.

Take care,

Caligari

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Did you make sure that Windows did not switch back from the legacy Firewire driver to the non-legacy one without informing you?

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Just checking now... the legacy driver is still in place.

Take care,

Caligari

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Unfortunately I don't have a Fireface 800, but only the 400 and UC and both are found by Ableton Live (usually even when turning them on after Live has already started).

Try the following:

0. Unplugg the Fireface.
1. Uninstall the Fireface drivers.
2. Restart Windows.
3. Start "Regedit" and search for *all* entries saying "Fireface" and delete them (you might want to do a backup of the entries).
4. Restart the Windows.
5. Delete Live's Preferences.cfg and start Live to check if all reference to the Fireface ASIO is gone out of its Preferences/Audio tab.
6. Close Live, plug in the Fireface and reinstall the driver.
7. Restart Windows.
8. Start Live and check if it works. Then report back if it keeps working.

Good hunt! wink

11

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

There seem to be some details missing. Have you checked that whenever Live does not detect ASIO the Fireface settings and mixer still come up (work), and that other programs will work with ASIO? For example DIGICheck. If so, then Live is the problem, nothing else. If DC doesn't work too then the fault lies somewhere else and needs more investigation.

BTW, the time needed for a complete setup after plugging-in the unit varies heavily, depending on the motherboard and OS. It can be 5 seconds, but also 30 seconds. You can check easily by looking at the CPU load. When it drops to near zero all ASIO and WDM devices are set.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

What confuses me is that when this happens (for whatever reason) Live will never (apparently) detect the Fireface again, regardless of how the machine is turned on or any other details that I can discern.

What is DIGICheck, and where to I get it? I can certainly still use the mixer and settings apps that the Fireface always uses when this happens. I am not sure that I have any other ASIO-aware apps, although perhaps SoundForge might suffice? I do not have a terribly recent version (five years old, perhaps?)...

Take care,

Caligari

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

You can download a demo of Reaper to test another ASIO application.

What about the Fireface Settings and Totalmix applications (tray icon), are they loaded and accessible?

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Caligari wrote:

What is DIGICheck, and where to I get it?

https://archiv.rme-audio.de/download/dc_523_win.zip

regards
Zapp

Regards
Zapp

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Since I last wrote, things have been fine, until just now.

I had to reinstall the drivers (again), but I haven't had any problems since then. I was evening using the Fireface this morning with Ableton quite happily.

Now, I've just turned on my machine. After giving it a moment for Windows to find itself, I switched on the Fireface, and heard the Windows sound that confirms that the connection is running. I did some other things before starting Ableton, and it must have been at least a minute. My system is a fairly fast core i7 machine running Windows, for reference.

Ableton took a while to start, and then told me that it was using the only ASIO device it knew about, the Xonar sound card.

I've exited out, and I'll try to give some more information.

DIGICheck: When I try to start it I see its window, and then I'm told by Windows that it has stopped working. It tells me there was an APPCRASH, that I'm using Digicheck 5.23.0.0, that the exception code is c0000005, and the offset is 000080d8. For reference, it was working fine when I installed it after reinstalling the Fireface drivers.

Fireface Settings: The tray icon starts up the settings panel, which seems fuctional.

Fireface Mixer: Also starts, and appears to be communicating (the channels are bumping around at -106 to -108, which indicates to me it is monitoring the device).

Reaper: Seems to think that the device is there, at least it doesn't complain when I start it, and it appears in the options, but I don't know when it is checking, and what it simply reads from its saved data.

That's all I can think of to test at the moment. Past experience tells me that no amount of rebooting and trying is going to get Ableton to recognize the Fireface at this point, until I reinstall the drivers. That being the case, I'm likely to do exactly that sooner rather than later, as I'm working on a project at the moment.

Thanks for any advice anyone can provide.

Take care,

Caligari

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

As a followup:

When I next started my machine, I verified that things still were not working - I'd turned the Fireface on before booting the machine (which I often do when things are working fine). After giving it several minutes I tried DIGICheck again, and got the same results (it didn't work, as described above).

So I went into the Control Panel and from there into the Device Manager. There I asked to Update the Driver for the Fireface. I recall that if I ask it to reinstall the same version, most of the time it won't do it, but if I tell it I have the disk and locate the driver I last installed again, it does the install regardless of the version number. So that is what I did.

And immediately (no reboot required) DIGICheck is able to happily connect to the Fireface without any hesitation.

Ableton, too, detects the Fireface now, and I'm able to switch back to using it.

Even though the solution isn't a big deal, I'd still much rather not have to go through this every few weeks.

Take care,

Caligari

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Just updating to confirm that I still have this problem - my Fireface doesn't appear in Ableton and I have to reinstall its drivers.

When this happens I've noticed that Windows has set teh Fireface to be the default playback device for the operating system. When it just happened, for example, I was watching a video in Media Center when I turned on the Fireface. Media Center complained that it had changed and was unable to continue playing the video. I restarted it, and all the audio was coming out from the Fireface, rather than my soundcard and speakers. I changed the default playback device, which immediately got my media center audio coming out of the speakers, but still when I started Ableton it was unable to locate the Fireface.

Once again I will be forced to reinstall the drivers.

This is really annoying.

Thanks for any advice.

Take care,

Caligari

Re: Fireface 800 + Win 7 (64bit) + Ableton Live = ?

Another followup on this problem, which continues to plague me.

I purchased NI Massive the other day, and I've been interested to find that the stand-alone version is happily able to talk with the Fireface even when Ableton Live doesn't recognize that it exists.

This would seem to indicate an issue with Live, and I'll pursue the situation with them as a result.

Still, any advice would be appreciated.

Take care,

Caligari