[LAU] M-Audio Fast Track Pro: unreliable, distorted recording

Tim termtech at rogers.com
Thu Aug 2 22:09:53 CEST 2018



On 08/02/2018 05:29 AM, Ketil Thorgersen wrote:
> Dear gurus (and others)
> 
> This is perhaps beating a dead horse, but I try....
> 
> I post here every fourth year or so, but now I need help from someone 
> more knowledgeable than me again. I have used the Fast Track Ultra 8r 
> for some time without really using it for anything serious. There have 
> been some clicks, pops and static noises, but I have assumed it was 
> something with my computer and did not bother to bother.
> 
> But the other day my band did a recording session on it and it then 
> became evident that it is completely useless as it works now: I am on 
> Ubuntu Studio 16.04 with rt kernel on the studio machine, but for 
> testing I have now tried it on two other linux machines - one with an 
> updated Manjaro system and one with an older Lubuntu. The noise is on 
> all these machines. I suspected grounding so I detached the one laptop 
> from the power, tried changing power sockets, USB cables, USB sockets 
> and so forth, but no change. I then tried to install the drivers in OSX 
> on the laptop - and voila - completely silent. I then tried to install 
> the driver in windows on the Lubuntu stationary and - silent.
> 
> The noise starts as soon as linux initiates the sound-card during 
> startup and even if it changes depending on which settings I choose in 
> Jack etc it never goes away.
> 
> I have of course searched the internet for possible solutions but have 
> found none that works. Since it is silent under windows and osx there 
> has to be something with how Linux treats the card - either it is the 
> drivers (it is supposed to be class compliant though) or something with 
> thee USB treatment overall.
> 
> So - dear clever people: Should I abandon the card or do you have some 
> ideas for a possible solution for me?
> 
> All the best!
> 
> Ketil
> 
> 
> Den 2017-10-25 05:42, skrev MartinF:
>> I know this post is old, but has a solution been found?
>>
>> I have the exact same problem. I have seen some posts reporting this 
>> issue,
>> but no solution. The card works well in Windows.
>>
>>
>>
>> David Jones wrote
>>> On 04/17/2014 03:04 PM, Morten H wrote:
>>>> david-602 wrote
>>>>> Have you eliminated the possibility of intermittent hardware issues 
>>>>> with
>>>>> the FTP? The symptoms suggest that to me.
>>>> I'm not sure what you mean. If you are suggesting that my FTP may be
>>>> defective, that is of course a possibility. But firstly the issues I'm
>>>> having correspond with the issues the original poster had, and secondly
>>>> it
>>>> works perfectly in windows with the m-audio driver.
>>>>
>>>> These two things put together suggest it is not a hardware problem with
>>>> my
>>>> FTP... At least they do to me :-)
>>>>
>>>> Morten
>>

Hi list. Talk of intermittent distorted audio, clicks,
  and pops is really sending up a /huge/ red flag for me.

This is just a shot in the dark but have you tried running
  with just one CPU core?

Also, is the CPU clock throttling turned off, and are
  certain CPU features such as the Intel Hyper Threading
  turned off?

Recall some months ago I had trouble with my PCI Delta1010
  ice1712-based card. Same issues. Clicks, pops, and
  after a while, distortion.
After tough debugging it turns out I must run ONE core only.
I can dig up the thread but basically that's it.
Coincidentally, a few weeks later another poster asked the
  very same question about another brand of ice1712 PCI card.
I explained the solution, and he replied that it worked.

It seems to me that if your device works at all sometimes,
  it should work all the time.
In my mind this screams out timing errors.
Certain pointers are drifting with time, and not stable.
In my case this was because of more than one CPU core.
I tried affinity settings but it didn't seem to get anywhere.
Only running one CPU worked.

I think there's a small gnome taskbar thing that can set
  the CPU frequencies and cores.

Ralf helped with command lines to set the number of cores.
I don't have those commands handy ATM.

Tim.


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