Intel Xeon dual Quad Core and Presonus FireStudio

[tomcat]

Hello, I have a xeon dual quad core Intel Xeon E5320 Clovertown 1.86GHz processor that I am wanting to get setup with SAC. I also have a Presonus Firestudio and a presonus digimax fs for an extra 8 preamps. I can't seem to get my latency to a decent level without problems. I know a lot of people here don't care for the xeon quad core, but is that my problem or is the problem the "Horrible" Presonus FireStudio. Any help would be GREAT!

[Bob L]

Firewire becomes quite a rough ride in Windows for a stable low latency multi-chan audio solution.

Microsoft itself has made quite a mess of firewire thru-put since XP SP2.

There are many long threads here about getting the firewire port up to speed... but still no direct simple one stop solution and still no real direct way to measure the results to make sure the patches did take.

For me... I do not rely on firewire sound solutions for low latency stable systems... especially when a lot of channels are needed.

There are good solutions with RME cards and Sydek cards that take the firewire port out of the loop.

Beyond all that... there are many other reasons why you may not be able to acheive low latency un-interrupted audio thruput... as needed with SAC.

Background apps like virus checkers, background services like wireless network cards searching for networks... interrupt conflicts with other system operations stepping on the soundcard drivers... etc.

You will also most likely need to use the ASIO driver model... make sure to set that up correctly in SAC... its normal default will still be MME.

I would suggest you try my XP tweaks found in the misc downloads on the SAWStudio website.

Also... if you are running Vista... give up. :)

Bob L

[Bob L]

Something else that I see a bunch... video card drivers stepping on the soundcard heavily enough to stop low latency performance cold... one of the culprits that comes up there often seems to be the nVidia cards.

You may try dropping the hardware acceleration performance of the video card in the Windows Display properties sections a notch or two on the troubleshooting slider... sometimes that shuts down some of the more fancy 3d elements that might be causing the stomp.

Also... try setting the SAC Realtime priority option in the SAC options menu... that may get SAC ontop of whatever may be stomping on the threads servicing the soundcard.

Bob L

[tomcat]

thanks for the fast response! i thought I would add a few other things.
I am running xp....I have done a few tweaks, but I haven't used your tweaks(but I will). It is always standard for me to set the computer to best performance.
I will be setting this portable system to run 16 channels on the road. I am also looking to set up a larger system in a few months that will need 32 channels. this wil be for a church.
I have actually been running a live computer based system for our church for about 3 years...it is a 24 channel system and I used 2 MOTU HD192 and cubase with 1 powercore and 1 uad.....I am so excited about SAC! it is about time someone stepped up and delivered something like this.
if you have any suggestions for these audio cards or anything else, I am all ears!

[Bob L]

Definitely try ASIO mode... the MME drivers of these cards are not efficient enough for low latency operation.

Bob L

[mycorn]

i'v have a fairly storied history with the firestudio

...not all of it glowing high reguard

i did my first SAC gig with it

now that i have a couple of RME cards
it's been relagated to a 8 chnl adat unit
and the master clock in that rig

i cant get latency low enough to use in-ears with it

i did get 14 channels and 5 mixes out of it
but was pretty much brick walled at that with my
t2600 duo core notebook

if you dont have a TI firewire chipset
you may not get it to work

i do intend to get it to work
as an 8 chnl "singer/songwriter night"
over the shoulder rig but
my expierence agrees with bob-
firewire is a unnecessary bottleneck

[fwiw]