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1. Re: How to set up audio interfaces in AA 3.0.1 for multitrack record & playback? (Phonic Helix Board)
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beatfux wrote:
one important thing: the guy who sold us the helix board said that the firewire interface is somehow broken. we didnt't quite believe him but now it looks like he was right.
Possibly, but there's one important consideration here, and that's the Firewire implementation in your laptop. If the Firewire chipset it uses isn't the TI (Texas Instruments) one, then all bets are off. It says to use one in the manual, but it doesn't tell you quite how important this is! Chipsets are a common problem with Firewire, and generally the only one that seems to be completely compatible with audio is the TI one. If all else fails, you need a laptop with a PCMCIA slot and a Belkin Firewire adaptor. This uses the correct chipset, but it's on the card not the laptop. Unfortunately this combination is not so easy to source these days...
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2. Re: How to set up audio interfaces in AA 3.0.1 for multitrack record & playback? (Phonic Helix Board)
Some of the later Via Firewire chipsets seem to be OK but I wouldn't like to guarantee one.
Also why do you want to use both audio interfaces? This is always a problem with using ASIO drivers which are meant to be one audio device to one bit of software. This is where ASIO4All can help but causes extra complications. SO unless that is the faulty bit of the helix board it would be better to use it for playback as well as recording since latency will be much lower.
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3. Re: How to set up audio interfaces in AA 3.0.1 for multitrack record & playback? (Phonic Helix Board)
thanks guys for answering. this theory is interesting, but i forgot to mention that one of the firewire jacks doesn't work at all (laptop doesn't recognize the helix board when using the broken jack), while the other one, as i said, works only one-way.
now, if the firewire interface would work like it should, then i wouldn't have to think about using the internal interface for playback. that's why i asked if it was possible to use both..
device manager says my firewire controller is a "Ricoh 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller". unfortunately i'm unable to find out what kind of chipset it is.
i have no PCMCIA slot in my laptop (2010 dell studio 1555), so let's hope that the problem lies in the firewire jacks (i heard replacing the firewire module isn't that expensive)
edit: found out that there are three different compatible drivers for my laptop's firewire interface, will try the other two..
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4. Re: How to set up audio interfaces in AA 3.0.1 for multitrack record & playback? (Phonic Helix Board)
beatfux wrote:
device manager says my firewire controller is a "Ricoh 1394 OHCI Compliant Host Controller". unfortunately i'm unable to find out what kind of chipset it is.
Er, it's a Ricoh? They are crap - had nothing but trouble with them. What's worse, it's in a Dell. We've collectively had quite a bit of trouble with them as well - they really don't understand sound!
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5. Re: How to set up audio interfaces in AA 3.0.1 for multitrack record & playback? (Phonic Helix Board)
haha, well then that sucks
but how possible is it that recording works with my "crappy" hardware but the other way round doesn't. i would say it's a compatibility problem if both ways wouldn't work, but this? still, haven't lost hope for the helix board's interface being broken..
btw: in those almost 5 years that i use this laptop, i never had any "real" trouble with anything. driver mismatch and some smaller itches, yeah, but nothing worse.. can't call it bad hardware.
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6. Re: How to set up audio interfaces in AA 3.0.1 for multitrack record & playback? (Phonic Helix Board)
It would be useful if you could find a friend with another PC, laptop or desktop, with Firewire to test out the Helix board.