• Registered: 2011-08-14
  • Posts: 16

Topic: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

I have owned a fireface 800 for years now, i moved over to mac some time back, and have been audio distortions / noise during playback of any kind, it's not always, but most of the time. even while playing back mp3s with vlc, itunes, etc.

these are my current fireface 800 settings:
http://i55.tinypic.com/9qitcl.png

http://i55.tinypic.com/9qitcl.png

which lead me to a couple of questions:

1) where on the mac are the latency settings?

2) is it normal to have constant numbers going through my inputs 1 to 10? they constantly show something from -105 to -109.

  • Registered: 2011-08-14
  • Posts: 16

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

no reply?

so i take it, it can not be fixed right?

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,778

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

There is nothing to "fix". The latency settings are in your software. And the numbers show the AD converters' self noise level.

As for the noise etc., please provide more details.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2011-08-14
  • Posts: 16

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

thank you very much for responding!

so the ad converters self noise level is supposed to be there constantly? ok, i never noticed that before.

as for the noise, it's as if i don't have enough ram, even though i'm on a mac pro with 6gb ddr3ram on an i7, all i have running is firefox and vlc or itunes or mplayer to play music or movies or music videos, disregardless of what i am listening to or watching 50% of the time i get skips and sound breaking, as if i had premiere, cubase, firefox and a video converter running at the same time. that's basically what it sounds like, even if i have absolutely nothing running.

i have had my fireface 800 on for the last 5 years or for just about every day, and never had this problem before, i it just began recently, and i am not certain what could be causing it.

if hearing the problem would help, i can record it and upload it, just let me know. i haven't even started recording with this mac, because i'm still waiting for my new mic, but i can't have this type of thing happening while i'm trying to record music.

  • Registered: 2011-08-14
  • Posts: 16

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

it sounds like this:

http://hulkshare.com/y7puq3jj03et

it gets worse towards the end, i just recorded it real quick with my iphone's voice memo, but it should help to understand the kind of distortion i'm getting.

this if from playing an mp3 with vlc player, while firefox and transmission were on, i turned both off before recording this, but it didn't help, at all.

  • Registered: 2011-08-14
  • Posts: 16

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

wann ist es denn so schwer geworden ne antwort in diesem forum zu kriegen?


something i noticed though is that i haven't noticed this problem ever happening when streaming flash, only while playing mkvs, mp4s, mp3s off my hard drive.

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,778

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

Carter4 wrote:

wann ist es denn so schwer geworden ne antwort in diesem forum zu kriegen?

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wochenende  fryingpan cool

something i noticed though is that i haven't noticed this problem ever happening when streaming flash, only while playing mkvs, mp4s, mp3s off my hard drive.

Have you tried different playback software? Will wav or aiff files play back better?


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2011-08-14
  • Posts: 16

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

Hmm Wochenende... ja das erklaert es auf jeden Fall.

well i tried quicktime, itunes, vlc, mplayer, those are the only media players i have. could it be a codec problem or something? the problem is it is not 100% of the time, it's only about 60-70% of the time, depending on the day. which is why it is so hard to pinpoint. for example i downloaded the itunes version of the carter 4 album yesterday, it had the error on the first 3 songs then it went away, then came back around the 12th song or so and stayed for another 4 songs then went away again.

i just tried out 3 wav files and no the problem did not appear, i do not have any aiff files.

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,778

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

While I don't have a real explanation, it does not seem to be an issue of the FF to me...


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2011-08-14
  • Posts: 16

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

is there anyway of troubleshooting for something like this?

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

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

Maybe it would help if you could record some of the distorted/noisy output when it happens?

  • Registered: 2011-08-14
  • Posts: 16

Re: Fireface 800 Distortion/Noise During Playback after Switching to Mac

Timur wrote:

Maybe it would help if you could record some of the distorted/noisy output when it happens?

i did right here:
http://hulkshare.com/y7puq3jj03et

thanks for joining in on solving my problem.