• Hugh
  • AD/DA expert
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-05-02
  • Posts: 84

Topic: Netstor pcie chassis with Madi HDSPe

Hello,

We purchased a Netstor NA-210 3 slot pci express expansion chassis for our MacBookPros after reading a positive comment on Netstor's site from RME.  Testing with just one HDPSe Madi card and Nuendo 5.1.1 and 5.1.0, the card does not maintain sync with the OS or Nuendo which results in digital pops and noise on the outputs with an occasional pop on a recorded track, but none on the incoming madi.  This occurs with both a late-2010 MBP and a 2011 new MBP.  It does not occur with the MadiFace.

Obviously we've done days of testing to narrow it down including three separate Madi cards, three MBPs, MadiFace for comparison, different madi sources, Aggregate/no-Aggregate device, and many more variables to control. Clocking is fine, and the usual suspects have been controlled for.

Anyone using this device with a MBP?  The testing mentioned on Netstor's site was on a PC.

Thanks
Hugh

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,558

Re: Netstor pcie chassis with Madi HDSPe

I've not been able to do even test it on my Mac Pro yet. Will do a test with two MADI cards when I get a chance. I did test it with my oldish Acer laptop, and there were no apparent problems.

Does the noise occur on the card's phones output, too? DOes it go away with higher latency?


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Hugh
  • AD/DA expert
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2007-05-02
  • Posts: 84

Re: Netstor pcie chassis with Madi HDSPe

Hello Daniel,
Thanks for your quick response.  I suspect it's a MBP firmware issue because there's a long-standing issue with MBPs and Magma chassis and this may be a similar issue.  Therefore testing on your MacPro desktop would be useful but not definitive due to different firmware.  If you have a MBP to test the Netstor then all the better.
The easy repro is to put in one HDSPe Madi card, launch TotalMix in three-row mode, and launch Nuendo or other software.  Every once in a while the playback and output meters (mixer preset 1) will spike.  The MadiFace in the same slot on three different MBPs is fine.

Thanks again,
Hugh