Old 04-17-2015, 02:10 PM   #1
Hartley Mays
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Default Motu Audio Express Crash

Hello,

I recently installed a Motu Audio Express to use for live recording of my piano. I use ASIO for it and the Delta Audiophile soundcard, so I have to switch back and forth in the Reaper preferences between the two to record and then listen to the recording through the studio speakers.

That was working OK (albeit painfully) until I opened the Motu GUI to monitor the input. After doing that, the next time I tried to switch, the PC (Windows 7) crashed hard. When I rebooted, Reaper still recognized the Motu at the top level, but would not allow it to be used, and didn't show the input or output options in the lower level dropdowns. (I got the startup message asking if I wanted to change my audio preferences). After switching to the delta, everything came up and ran.

I plan to research on the Motu forums also, but I wanted to check here whether anyone knows of problems with this interface in general or with Reaper in particular, and if it's a known restriction to not have the device GUI active when swapping ASIO devices in Reaper. At this point, I'm assuming that this use of the GUI was directly related since it had worked fine switching previously, but it's just a guess.

Later,
Hartley
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Old 04-17-2015, 02:59 PM   #2
serr
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All the MOTU devices I've used have worked flawlessly stable in Reaper.

My first guess is a conflict between control panels.

Reaper gives you the option to control connected audio interfaces from the Reaper audio/device page or OS control panel or other audio apps.

If you choose to control sample rate selection and block size from Reaper and then inadvertently change one of these settings from the MOTU control panel... something's gonna fight.

I'd try this first:

Make an aggregate device of the Motu Audio Express + Delta Audiophile (with Audio MIDI Setup in OSX or ASIO4ALL in Windows).

I'd try using the MOTU for clock master 1st (as it's a higher quality device than the M-Audio). Neither of these has word clock I/O so your choices for sync are the computer data connections (PCI & firewire) or a digital connection (they both have SPDIF).
So...
choice a: (data connection)
MOTU clock: internal
M-Audio clock: MOTU

choice b: (digital connection)
patch a SPDIF output on the MOTU to a SPDIF input on the M-Audio
MOTU clock: internal
M-Audio clock: SPDIF input

Now select the aggregate device in Reaper.
In Reaper Preferences/Audio/Device page, check the boxes for sample rate and block size (to control these with Reaper) and enter the values.


That should get you both devices working together and controlling the sample rate and block size with Reaper. You should still be able to use the other controls on the MOTU control panel (routing and so forth).

NOTE! Some devices require a word clock connection for sync when running at HD sample rates (88.2k, 96k). (ie. they will not sync properly over a data connection or a SPDIF connection) In this case you may be forced to use the devices separately.
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Old 04-17-2015, 04:24 PM   #3
Hartley Mays
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Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Posts: 307
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Serr,

Thanks for the quick reply.

When I discovered that I couldn't use the sound card and the Motu concurrently, I checked with Jim Roseberry at Purrfect Audio (Studiocat.com). He built my music PC, and has been very helpful with questions and advice. He advised against ASIO4ALL, based on synchronization problems, performance, general stability. I really don't need to use both concurrently, and plan to buy a pair of monitors to hook into the Motu within the next couple of months. My understanding from Jim is that ASIO4ALL will use WDM drivers to talk to the devices under it, and that would prevent using the Motu GUI (CueMxFX) which has some real nice features in it, one of the reasons I chose this interface. As I said, everything was also working fine for me with the Motu until I had the GUI up while changing configs.

I plan to contact Motu support Monday, and I'll see if they have an opnion on the ASIO4ALL option when I do.

Later,
Hartley
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