MR816X No audio out to / no audio in from PC

Dabert · June 24, 2012, 4:49pm

Hi all,

I am out of ideas how to get audio in and out from my PC with the MR816X - can anyone help me?

SItuation:

I have connected my MR to the PC via an Exsys EX-6505E Firwewire card with TI chipset, the only cable connection is from the card to the MR. I have installed / reinstalled the latest Drivers (v172) several times onto my Dell Optiplex 790 running Win7 64.

All indications in the PC say that everything works fine: In Device Manager everything checks out ok, I have tried the alt / legacy driver for the Exsys as well. I can see all in and outputs in MR Editor, Cubase and Reason. All is like it should be. The MR editor works fine with the MR as I can control everything and I say the input meter react to an anlog signal.

When I connect a guitar to Analog in 1, I hear its sounds over the monitor on Analog out 1&2 - no problem. Just for the life of it I cannot get audio in or audio out from the PC. When I select the internal sound card in Cubase / Reason, all DAW sounds play fine. Before, I had a Line6 UX2 connected via USB and never had a problem with that.

BTW, I have factory reset the MR as well.

As with the first MR, it did not even play an analog signal in to analog out, I had returned the first unit and this is now my second unit so I assume a ghardware defect can be ruled out.

I have read all I found on the forums and the net but have not found a similar problem.

Now I am just completely out of ideas what still to try. Another interface is not an option as I also have to get an XS Rack connected via FW once I have the MR sorted out.

Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Robert

Bassbase · June 24, 2012, 4:55pm

Hi

Knowledgebase from user for user
No Sound On Playback

Firstly, you will need to close all other applications (they could steal your outputs.)

Be sure that your system volume is not muted, your track/event is not muted, and your monitoring is not enabled.

You may also want to check your Preferences>VST>Auto Monitoring settings and reset them to manual.

Next check your connections:

Confirm that the desired inputs/outputs are enabled in your driver’s control panel. You can check this under Devices>Device Setup.

Be sure that your busses are configured correctly and your input/outputs are enabled under VST Connections (F4).

Be sure the correct busses are chosen in your track’s inspector.

Cubase Won’t Record

Please check the following:

Your track is Record Enabled

Use External Sync is set properly in the transport panel

Your connections are correct as mentioned above

If none of this works, then you may need to reset your preferences in case you have disabled a vital setting.

Dabert · June 25, 2012, 10:16am

Thanks for the input Bassbase! All these points I have checked even though it is no Cubase problem. Even if I load a Cubase template example project, when playing it, all lights blink, all meters meter but no sound is coming out of my speakers.

When using MR editor and a Guitar on analog in 1, the speakers work and I see all meters work in MR Editor. It is only when trying to get sound into or out of the PC it does not work.

My only idea left is that is has to do with the fw interface card (even though it has TI chips). I have ordered alternative cards (making sure their chipset appear on the Steinberg recommended list) and hope that one of these cards will fix it.

Any other thoughts?

Norbury_Brook · June 25, 2012, 1:44pm

have you chosen the MR as your asio device?

have you added the MR’s outputs in the F4 output settings?

Added MR inputs to the inputs F4

have you turned up the master volume on the front of the MR? It will default to headphones first,it needs pressing a second time to do master volume and a 3rd press will access the reverb levels.

Do you have direct monitoring checked?

do you have the monitor (orange speaker icon) checked?

you can’t use MR Editor and cubase at the same time.

MC

Dabert · June 25, 2012, 3:17pm

have you chosen the MR as your asio device? YES (testing in Cubase and Reason)

have you added the MR’s outputs in the F4 output settings? YES

Added MR inputs to the inputs F4 YES

have you turned up the master volume on the front of the MR? It will default to headphones first,it needs pressing a second time to do master volume and a 3rd press will access the reverb levels. YES - plus as I said the MR works fine with a guitar connected, just nothing from / to PC

Do you have direct monitoring checked? YES

do you have the monitor (orange speaker icon) checked? YES

you can’t use MR Editor and cubase at the same time. I KNOW (otherwise software tells you when one is up and you want to start the other)

Thanks Norbury for your ideas!
Can it be a problem with WIN 7 64? I have read on the net things about hotfixes and such - but that was in 2010. Of course, the legacy 1394 driver I use already…

BA1 · June 25, 2012, 5:52pm

its not a fundamental win 7 64 problem. MR816 does work fine with that.

BA1 · June 25, 2012, 6:02pm

Have you tried a new firewire cable. With a previous interface I was having all sorts of problems and it turned out to be an intermittent cable fault (even though it looked perfect)

Norbury_Brook · June 25, 2012, 6:32pm

don’t use legacy driver, it’s not needed.

There’s something wrong somewhere, i’ve been using 2 x816’s ever since they first came out on 3 different machines all no problem (windows 7 x64 and OSX snow leopard)

MC

Dabert · June 26, 2012, 4:08pm

Success!

After replacing the fw card it worked right away without a glitch! I have now the MR816 and the Motif Rack XS working together without any problems at 64 samples with a latency of 3-5 ms.

The old card was an Exsys EX-6505E with the approved TI tsb43ab22/a chipset - even though it was a combo card and used a NEC chipset for the USB portion. It was ~ 50 EUR.

The new card is a no name FW card with VIA vt6306 chipset for under 10 EUR!

Now I could hit myself over the hat with a baseball bat for spending all those countless hours experimenting (no more FW cards in the shops - you have to wait until Amazon delivers). Maybe the “old” card was DOA or maybe the combo portion kept it from working. Anyway I could not be happier and would like to thank all of you for your input and advice.

It felt good that you guys cared and responded!

Norbury_Brook · June 26, 2012, 7:46pm

well done glad you’re sorted, it’s also good to know that the MR works with a VIA FW chipset card.

MC