• Registered: 2011-04-04
  • Posts: 52

Topic: Pops And Clicks Solved!!!

Hi. I'm getting very occasional stuttering in Cubase 5.1 using a bootcamped MPB with ff400. The MBP is the last of the Core 2 Duo non-unibody ones.

I've tried using a fw800 firewire cable instead of the 400 one. This makes things slightly better, but still I get a stutter every so often.

It's not dropout in the conventional way, it's like a stammer. It happens if I play say Kontakt Alecias keys or Addictive drums over say a minute. It's like cubase is 'filling up' with information, and then gets to a point where it can't cope anymore, and it just stutters. Sometimes it just stops for a second or so.

Any ideas?

Is this a Cubase problem or a FF400 one?

I must say I am not impressed so far with RME cards, my last multiface had the same issue on a completely different machine... Different card, different everything....

  • Registered: 2011-04-04
  • Posts: 52

Re: Pops And Clicks Solved!!!

Hi. I've just bought a firewire repeater cable and can now get down to 3ms easily with no pops and clicks. This is mindblowing!!!

So why haven't RME just taken whatever electronics are in the cable and stuck them in their soundcards. Seems to me the Fireface 400 is just plain badly designed if a simple piece of electronics like this can solve the problem......


Very pissed off but happy there is a solution. Will never buy RME again however......

3 Reply by Timur Born (edited by Timur 2011-04-07 16:14:47)

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: Pops And Clicks Solved!!!

The Repeater just includes another Firewire chipset than what your own Firewire port uses. So whatever issues the Fireface has with your Firewire port is "translated" by the Repeater. The Fireface works properly with the Repeater chipset, the Repeater chipset works properly with your Firewire port.

Another possible solution for your issues would be to get another Firewire port/chipset because yours seems "plain badly designed" and you should not buy another product from that vendor.

RME chose the one they thought to be best for the job at hand. Now the question is can you blame RME for not having chosen the combination that works best with *your* setup? Maybe, but maybe it's a hard decision when all the different Firewire chipsets from different vendors have their own quirks, especially with each other. There's always two sides on a coin...

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,777

Re: Pops And Clicks Solved!!!

chrisyking wrote:

So why haven't RME just taken whatever electronics are in the cable and stuck them in their soundcards.

Because good FW chipsets do not require such fixes.

Seems to me the Fireface 400 is just plain badly designed if a simple piece of electronics like this can solve the problem......

... of the computer's FW connection. This is not a Fireface issue.

Very pissed off but happy there is a solution. Will never buy RME again however......

Killling the messenger here, I'm afraid... The FF is the victim of these issues, not the cause.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2011-04-04
  • Posts: 52

Re: Pops And Clicks Solved!!!

Just an update: The firewire cable hasn't helped at all. I'm fairly sure the comp is overheating and this is causing the issue.