Focusrite Saffire series playback/record delay

[jazzboxmaker]

I have 2 Focusrite units, Pro 24 DSP and Liquid 56 which both exhibit occasional delays in playback & record of up to 5 seconds. They both use the same driver. Tried in Win 7 and Win XP on desktop and Macbook Pro /Bootcamped Win 7. On the desktop I tried different firewire drivers (TI,Legacy) with the onboard TI chipset and a SIIG add on card with TI chips.

If you click around on the timeline, it will definitely happen after a few moves. Buffer settings have no effect. Still get clean playback at low latencies. Tried different priorities and force 1 CPU with no change. All tweaks done. I use another DAW program as well that does not suffer from this. Ideas :confused:

[MikeDee]

As an "outsider lóòking in" (i.e., having no experience with your setups), it appears that the video driver (and/or another driver or service) is stealing CPU time slices from SAWStudio.

Have you tried using the DPC Latency Checker on these machines to check for spikes? 5 seconds...that's a helluva lõtta delay! :eek:

Hope you get it sorted out.

Best regards,

[jazzboxmaker]

As an "outsider lóòking in" (i.e., having no experience with your setups), it appears that the video driver (and/or another driver or service) is stealing CPU time slices from SAWStudio.

Have you tried using the DPC Latency Checker on these machines to check for spikes? 5 seconds...that's a helluva lõtta delay! :eek:

Hope you get it sorted out.

Best regards,


Thanks Mikey- I spent the last couple of weeks tuning the desktop and laptop, No Spikes, running under 200 on DPC latency checker both machines.

[Bob L]

Delays at the start of playback would suggest a harddisk issue... sounds like the drive is having trouble finding some sectors or perhaps the drive is spinning down... hopefully the drive is not one of the newer GREEN series... no good.

Or... what about plugins... any plugins in the loop?

Bob L

[jazzboxmaker]

Thanks Bob,
I'm seeing this with 4 audio tracks, no plugs. WD Black in the desktop, not sure about the HD in the Macbook Pro, that's a 750G 7200 Hitatchi.

I have to check my swapfile settings again on the DAW. I will say I never saw this with my Raydat so I'm thinking it's the Saffire driver. Haven't found any hits on Google for this malady yet.

[Wurst Werner]

I also have a Saffire Pro56 and tried it with SAC/SAW on two computers, none of them having any trouble to run 1x64Samples with a RME Fireface400 (connected over firewire). But the Saffire is a different beast. Even on 256 Samples, the audio driver will be reseted by SAC/SAW. I'm afraid, the the Saffire stuff is not able to run low latency audio. At least not on my computers. But the RME Firewire gear does, so I think the interface/driver is the culprit. On the other hand in the SAC forum, someone stated in his signature, that he runs a Focusrite Pro40 (the little brother of the Pro56) with 64 Samples. I don't know, it just gave up on the Focusrite stuff in combination with SAC/SAW...

[jazzboxmaker]

Wurst,
I just sent a support ticket to Focusrite describing the problem. Let's see what happens. I do like their interfaces though so I'm hopeful. I was getting some resets on the MBPro until tweaks, now runs nicely once you get playback started:rolleyes:

Did you try the Legacy driver?
I just got a SIIG 1394a/b PCIExpress card for the desktop. It loaded some fancy new Firewire driver-didn't connect to either of my Saffires:p
TI and Legacy MS drivers hooked up but Legacy is better with the bigger Saffires: 40/56

[jazzboxmaker]

Well took a few days for Focusrite support to get back to me but I got an intelligent response and a link to a new beta driver:
http://beta.focusrite.com (http://beta.focusrite.com/)
which BTW has new betas for all their audio stuff, not just the Saffires.

I just gave it a fast test in Lite and the prognosis is Yeah Baby:D
Playback quickly initiated and you can vault back and forth clicking the timeline with equal response. 2x96 buffers So rejoice you Focusrite fans.

I'm definitely liking the Liquid 56, a bargain can be found on Ebay. A place is selling Refurbs/Open Box for $740 buy it now, full factory warranty but I found if you put in an offer of $680 UPS will be sticking it in your hands in a few days. Mine came in a beat-to-hell box w/o manual but works beauty.

Thanks Bob, Mikey, Wurst

[MikeDee]

And thank you, Vinny, for the link...new beta for VRM Box. :)

Glad the Saffire's working for you.

Best regards,