MR816csx audio dropouts

I do not have a wifi adapter. I disabled the onboard lan and the problem vanished. I’m probably going to remove the onboard sound card. I didn’t install the drivers for it when I did the W7 install because I knew I’d be using the MR-816, so there’s really no need to have it on the mobo.

I think the Asus Rampage firewire chip is a Via. I used the same motherboard with an n12 and had zero issues so I’m not worried about the Fw chip. My USB devices are: mouse, Cubase/Wavelab dongle, CC121. Energy settings and overall OS setup are optimized. This PC is dedicated to audio, is not on the Internet, has no antivirus, etc. I did a live recording last Sunday with 16 tracks running and got great results at 44.1/24. This was my first opportunity with the daisy chained MRs and also my first time out with a Universal Audio LA-610 Mk II. It was awesome on vocals - the singer does blues with Koko Taylor type dynamics. That channel strip rocks and has so much range. I need three more of those suckers. Drool / off.

Great you got it fixed!
Enjoy your MR816’s

I can’t use my ipad to control cubase vst because when I turn on the wifi the cubase starts droputs :confused:
when the steinberg going fix it ???

Just to update this thread, I bought a used MR816x, and was having dropouts like crazy. I am used to compatibility issues setting up audio, so didn’t panic but began surfing for a solution. I have an AMD Phenom II 4-core, multi-SSD system, with Asus mobo, running WIN 7 , 64-bit. I downloaded and installed the latest driver pack, and insured I had the latest firmware. I tried various latency settings to no avail. Finally, I found this thread and on a lark I followed one of the above posts about going into Control Panel, then to the POWER OPTIONS. The thread above called it the “Battery” settings, but it just uses the icon of a battery, it is called power. In my iteration of WIN7/64, It gives no advanced option to set ACPI, instead, it just defaults to a medium power saving scheme–below there, you see a radio button marked “HIGH PERFORMANCE.” Select that, close, reboot. Done! Problem solved. The issue, at least for me, was an underpowered Firewire section built onto the mobo. I was glad it was solved so quickly. Have had this kind of thing go on for days or weeks! Cheers all, hope this helps someone.

~Kurtis
Austin, TX

I am new to this and can’t say I know exactly what a drop out is, but it sounds like the problem I am having, when recording and all the sound “just drops” for a split second leaving a pop type sound on the recording.

I recently got a new desktop with windows 8 (64 bit) and have been having dropouts (as described above) at least every couple of minutes, sometimes a lot more. I also get these dropouts when I click on other programs or open a web page while cubase is open. These dropouts happen only when I have cubase open and channeled through my MR816csx. I do not get these drop outs when I record in cubase through my computers (beats) sound card, I also do not get these dropouts when just the MR editor is open or using my MR816csx to lay down some tracks into Audacity (a free recording program). I have just been using the software that came with the MR816 (CubaseAI4), but downloaded the trial version of Cubase elements 6, (64 bit version) to see if it made a difference, unfortunately the same thing happens in 6. I installed the SIIG FireWire 2-Port PCIe NN-E20012-S2 with TI chipset and use a Black Lion MKII external word clock, I’ve tried switching to the internal word clock, but to no avail. I have tried playing with buffer size, direct monitoring, sample rate, and am completely baffled as to why this only happens when using my MR816 with cubase. Anybody with similar problems?

I am using an HP Envy h8 1420t with 16 GB ram and intel core i7 processor, the weakest link in my computer is the Intel HD Graphics card, but I think the computer overall should be more than adequate to handle what i’m throwing at it. Although I had other issues on occasion, I did not have this problem in Vista or Windows 7 with the on board 4 pin firewire port on my now dead HP laptop.

Dear all,

I have sent the following to Steinberg (see quote below), they do not have an answer to the problem yet.
As you can read, it seems that is has nothing to do with performance, power settings, etc.
Somehow the situation is not stable, could be driver, firmware, conflicting stuff. I don’t know.
The only thing I know is when I connect my firewire back to my Mackie Onyx 1640, it runs undisturbed, whatever i do.

Hopefully Steinberg will come up with a resolution soon.

Martin


<<<
Hi dear Steinberges,

This week I bought myself Cubase 7. :slight_smile: hoera! Many thanks for all your effort for this game changer!
I combine Cubase using a Mackie Onyx 1640 firewire, which works perfectly.

When I saw Cubase 7’s new features (integrated Control Room) with zero-latency different cue sends, I definitely had to buy the MR816 CSX. I have bought this device second handed today.

After installing the
Tools for MR 1.7.4 · 64-Bit · 90 MB
MR816 CSX/X Firmware V1.10 - 680 KB
I couldn’t wait to try the device.

But unfortunately as soon as I open a relatively simple project (just a groove agent and a halion channel) it hackles, like it could not handle the complexity of it. (like my old computer with a very very large project)

I have tried to raise the buffer level / samples set to max and checked several times to see if the yamaha steinberg driver was selected correctly. But clicks, stops and hackles.

I can say this was the last thing I was expecting from the CSX.
I shut down Cubase, switched the firewire back to Onyx and restarted Cubase again with the same project. No hackles or clicks.
Again with the CSX, checked if there are any conflicting settings in the F4 window, but couldnt find any irregularities. And again the clicks.

I know the CSX is a masterpiece, so I am still hoping I am just missing something here.
I really don’t want to bring the CSX back to the previous owner, because I hope it is not a hardware but a software problem.

I hope you guys can help me lead the way to solve this problem.

Many thanks in advance!

Regards Martin"

martin.butzelaar@gmail.com

read all…

Guys, seriously.

I think* this solved my problem.
IRQ conflict. I disabled my network adapter and it works fine. Enabled and hackles. Disabled and works fine.

*But I am not closing this before I have build a pretty big project which works fine.
To be continued…

Also try the utility software that comes with the MR816 driver dowanlod. read the notes before.

I’m also having dropouts issue, this doesn’t only happen in Cubase, it also happens when I set my default Playback as my MR816 and play some music or sounds. The problem seems to occur more often when there’s more activity like opening stuffs or browsing the web.

I’m using Windows 8 64bit with Cubase 6.5. I’m also using a TI chip firewire card.

One point to note is that my 2 other firewire interfaces, my Saffire Pro 24 DSP, as well as a Phonic Helix Board 18 works perfectly fine, I never had any dropouts before prior to owning the MR816csx.

Also, my MR816 works perfectly fine on my MacBook Pro, with Cubase and Pro Tools.

This is rather disappointing, how can such a higher end product have such issues, it has to be issues with the MR816csx drivers as my 2 other firewire interfaces works fine.

Had the same problems with windows 8pro, Cubase 7.0x and MR.
How did I solve it:
-turn off MR and CC, only turn on when I mention.
-made a clean install Windows 8pro on my pc.
updated all hardware drivers (mainboard, graphic card).
update Windows 8 pro.
download NET Framework 3.5 including 2.0 and 3.0 and install and check for updates.
-Installed Cubase 7.0.0 64 bit (don’t start Cubase)
-Installed Cubase 7.0.2 64 bit (don’t start Cubase)
-Installed latest driver CC (CC121 V174 win64)
-Installed latest driver MR (MR V174 win64)
Turn on CC and windows will install driver.
Turn on MR and windows will install driver.
-locate your MR V174 win64 directory on your harddisk.
go to utility and run ysfwutility, change IEEE1394 buffer size to Large, click ok and restart computer.
-go to Configuration - System - Device manager - IEEE 1394 Host controller.
right-click on Host Controller and click -update driver software,
click -Browse my computer for driver,
click -Let me pick from a list…
choose 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller
click -next (when finished restart your computer)

start Cubase 7.0.2

click devices - devices setup
vst audio system, Audio priority = boost, activate Multi processing, Asio guard and activate stenberg audio
power scheme.

click yamaha steinberg FW ASIO - control panel and change asio buffer size to 1024.
close - apply and ok.


This works for me !!!
Please let me know if it works for you.

Regards,
Twan

That’s too many unnecessary steps IMO, changing the IEEE1394 buffer size from small to medium solves my dropout problems, but I don’t like the extra latency due to the buffer size.

Why does my 2 other firewire interfaces work but not this expensive MR816csx, frustrating…

It’s pretty simple…cause the drivers are very very very picky, don’t get me wrong here the hardware on this machine is amazing but the software…well it suxx, bigtime.
It should be reprogrammed from scratch not only to do what it promises to do but also work without all this hassles.
That said after allot of frustration I managed to make it work on my rig but it takes allot of time/energy and knowledge to accomplice such a task…
The official support here is below zero and it all depends on users…
I recently bought a kurzweil product and comparing the support…well there is no comparison…
I don’t really get it, Steinberg techs are either snobs or not up for the job…I mean if they could make reliable drivers why are they not delivering…
At the end of the day after allthis frustration we (the end users) aren’t the ones that have to say sorry and be polite to people ignoring us.
I was holding this for too long.
An early mr816 adopter.

PS: I really love this hardware…not the software though.

Hey everyone,

Running Win 7 64 bit.

Recently purchased a SIIG firewire PCIe card as I thought my crackle issue was due to the onboard one. It did not help at all. I cant listen to any audio without tons of crackle and dropouts ocasionally. Windows media player, winamp, you tube, etc, it all cuts out constantly.

I also have a Fractal Axe FX II - I plugged it in via USB and the dropouts stopped immediately. I can record guitar no problem, but the reason I have the MR816CSX is to record other instruments obviously.

Cubase! What the heck? Thow us a bone here!

it does seem quite random these issues. I’ve had 2x MR816’s from the day they were released and have used them on 4 or 5 different machines without any problems at all. I’ve used them on macbooks OSX10.5 ,10.6/ mac pro same/ PC’s using windows Xp,windows 7 and a brief test on windows 8 all no problem.

Sorry i can’t be of more help.

HAve you dissabled the C1E states and any thermal throttling in your BIOS? that’s the only thing I’ve done to tweak my DAW, however I’m still on old hardware X58


MC

This was it!! I was strugging with my MR816x for several months and was considering selling it due to this mysterious issue, but switching the buffer size to “Medium” (leaving the speed at “S400” is fine) makes the interface run without any issues whatsoever! Where I was frustratingly fidgeting with the ASIO buffer size before, I can now move the slider to the far left and there are no problems whatsoever!

In case any of you are wondering, this utility’s path is Utility/ysfwutility.exe in the “Tools for MR” archive found here.

P.S. I created a Steinberg account to say “thank you” and let anyone else Googling for this problem know how to fix this!

I’d recommend anyone running Windows 7 to try some of the tweaks listed here:

http://www.pc-music.com/content/audio-tweaks-windows-7-revisited

I did 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and the last one returning Firewire to legacy driver - has made a MASSIVE difference to my system, now getting much better latency and far fewer clicks!

Hello.
I was experiencing a drop out every couple of seconds, regardless of the track count/project size etc.
disabling internal sound cards/lan cards/USB didn’t work, neither did changing the Aiso buffer size.
however I used the YSFWUtility programme in the ‘tools for MR’ folder to change the IEEE1394 buffer from ‘small’ to ‘medium’ - problem solved. it plays perfectly even on 128 samples buffer.
simple, I wish i’d tried it first, steinberg recommend you do!

https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/mr816-resolving-audio-performance-issues.html

Let me just say first that these forums have saved me time and money multiple time over the years, Thank You.

Just had this problem with my brand new mr816x
Bought a brand new setup and chose the Steinberg interface as my interface(being a Cubase user and all).
The audio dropouts in my case seemed to happen every 10 to 20 seconds on the output channels only. I tried all the things in the threads one at a time and reversed the changes if it didn’t fix it. In my case it was the use of the legacy driver for the FW card I was using. that’s all I changed and it seems to have worked in my case. Changed the driver to the legacy did a reboot and everything worked ! Thanks again

I have same issue with yamaha n12. These interfaces seem to be absolutely useless on Windows. It worked perfectly on mac mini.

I’ll add my experience with this problem…
I had previously used the MR816x with Windows 7 and Window 10 with the Gigabyte X58 motherboard and Siig 2-port firewire 400 card with no issues.

I just put together a new music computer and it took three days to get it working.

  1. I tried two different Intel H110 chipset motherboards along with the Siig 2-port firewire 400 card and I got terrible glitching. The motherboards were a Dell 3650 and an MSI H110M.
  2. I tried everything inlcuding the legacy firewire drivers, disabled LAN, Ethernet, Internal Audio… didn’t work.
  3. Also changed the settings in the MR816x utility and still nothing helped.
  4. I installed a dedicated PCIe grahpics card (GeForce 8400 GS) and no change.
  5. On a whim I decided to try the Siig 3-port firewire 400/800 card. It’s still PCIe and still uses the TI chipset. After uninstalling the MR816x drivers, installing the new firewire card, and reinstalling the MR816x drivers it works! It works with both the ‘new’ 1394 and legacy OHCI 1394 drivers. These are the ‘same’ drivers the other Siig card doesn’t work with. Totally random.

A few more notes…

  1. The MR816x does not work with the firewire 800 drivers that come with the Siig card. This driver is called “Unibrain driver (OHCI Compatible Board)”. It only works with the new/legacy firewire 400 drivers as listed below…
    a) 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller
    b) 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller (legacy)

maybe this will help someone… it might be worth trying the different firewire card.