Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

One of the issues that's been reported here by me as well as several others is that when you need to switch your sample rate from one session to another, say going from 48k to 44.1k, you can't just open Mix Control, switch it, and then open your PT session and off you go. Most of the time PT just won't respond and you end up having to not just re-boot PT, but your computer as well...sometimes twice. I have personally gone through every system check possible with Focusrite on this issue with no resolution.

Well, at long last, I think I have found a workaround that at least makes it easier and avoids all the re-booting. This works for my Windows 7 based system...I don't know if there would be a corresponding workaround for Macs (or if MAc users even have the issue at all). But if this HAS been an issue for you, then here's a workaround.

First, go download ASIO4ALL, which allows to use your PC or MAC itself as the interface. Set that up as an additional interface in your Pro Tools.

Now, let's say you want to go from a session using 44.1k sample rate to one at 48k sample rate. Do the following.

1. Close your current session
2. Exit Pro Tools
3. Open Mix Control
4. Set sample rate in MC to the new rate - 48k in this example
5. open PT...but NOT the session
6. Before opening the new session, change your interface in PT from your Focusrite to the ASIO4ALL
7. Open your new session
8. Hit play...if it plays, all is well.
9. Now, go back to PT settings again and switch your interface back to your focusrite and you should be fine.

A few steps involved I know, but its better than having to reboot your entire system and once you've got the process, it takes all of about 2 min from start to finish.

Until Focusrite and Avid can solve this one, this is a reasonable work around. Hope this helps anyone who has this issue. Good luck.

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

ADDENDUM: I stumbled on this by accident over the weekend. I was working in a session that is at 44.1k. Saved and closed it and went to reopen another session that I thought was 44.1k, but was really 48k. The Mix Control was still at 44.1k from the prior session. As soon as I opened the new session I heard a little pop pop in my speakers, which is always there when a different sample rate session opens. I thought "Great", I'll end up having to reboot my entire PC!"

When the session opened, I hit play, and the stop button turned blue and nothing played, as usual. Just for fun, I opened the settings and switched the interface to ASIO4ALL. When that was done, I hit play and it played. So I immediately switched back to the Focusrite, and it was fine! So, no more having to close sessions and reboot! Just switch to the ASIO4ALL, then switch back and that should work! I'm assuming switching to some other interface might also do the trick too, but I don't have another to check that with.

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

ASIO4All is not a true ASIO Driver. It is a WDM Driver wrapper.

It uses the WDM Driver rather than our ASIO Driver and then reassigns things so that it appears to your program as "ASIO4All" ASIO Driver Type but then routes audio to a WDM Device.

Thus you can use it but will have significantly worse latency performance due to use of the WDM Driver.

It may also limit your channel count as our WDM Driver does not always support all channels. This is being updated in the version 3.x drivers on our Beta Page.

Kat

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

Kat, I don't actually use the ASIO4ALL for any audio in/out. In this instance I use it simply to more easily go from one sample rate to another with the Focusrite Scarlett 8i6. As I've mentioned before, whenever you switch sample rates with Mix Control while in Pro Tools, it causes PT to lock up and not play. But what I've found, and am mentioning here, is that by switching to a different interface within PT, and immediately back to the Focusrite, the new sample rate will register correctly with the Focusrite and PT and everything works fine. Prior to figuring this workaround out, I was shutting everything down, rebooting PT, and sometimes even my PC to get the new rate to "take" in PT. But with this little workaround, I don't have to even shut down PT, just switch to another interface, in this case I'm just using the ASIO4ALL as the placeholder, then right back.

Ultimately, what needs to happen is that the Mix Control will not cause PT to lock up when opening a new session with a different sample rate than MC is set at. We've been over this many times with email and such, and I've provided you all with all my tech and specs.

This is just a workaround, not suggesting actually using the ASIO4ALL for any actual I/O.

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

Hi Donald,

You mentioned that you heard a little pop pop from your monitor speakers whenever you open a different Pro Tools session that has a different sample rate. Is this totally normal or will this actually cause damage to the speakers? I too am experiencing this with my Focusrite Forte. Whenever I switch from 48k sessions to 44.1k sessions or vice versa, there would always be a little pop from my speakers. Should I be concerned about this? Thanks a lot :)


Kevin

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

I doubt it'll hurt the speakers as its pretty low level. But you can always turn off the monitors when opening/closing sessions to be safe.

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

Any solution to the change of sample rate by focusrite?

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

Hi John,

I'll just copy and paste my answer from the other post:

Hi Everyone,

I'm going to go ahead post this again for anyone wanting to know how switch between sessions with different sample rates without closing PT:

The Sample Rate needs to be changed in windows sound preferences.
- Right click on the speaker icon in the bottom right corner of your screen and hit recording devices.
- Right click on the line in of the Scarlett and hit properties.
- Go to the advanced tab and select desired sample rate from the drop down list.
Repeat the process for playback device.

Another workaround is to disable the interface in the windows sound preferences, that way PT is only using the driver.

The simple answer is that WDM takes priority of the driver so all sample rates must match if you are using your interface for both PT and windows sound. This is specific to windows operating systems.

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

This is the problem I've been having for about a week with my Focusrite 18i20 2 generation. I recorde a session in 48 then I recorded a couple other sessions at sample rate 44, but when I go to switch it won't play the other session due to the sample rates not synching with Protools which would force me to close protools and make my pc go nuts with (not responding) so I would have to restart my pc and this would go on until I had Focusrite tech help me with some steps but the whole thing repeated itself and now just joining DUC yesterday and finding this thread...you would think that all would synch and all would be good...

Re: Focusrite Mix Control and Sample Rate Changing
 

As to the Focusrite sample rate back and forth. I am poor! The 2i4 first generation is my only option, I'm Windows 10, 64 bit with Pro Tools 12.7. I have found that setting all sessions to 16 /44 is the ultimate answer to the problem of trying to find a solution that doesn't exist. It works for me. That's the way music winds up anyway and I argue that there is all that much noticeable difference in the sound quality unless your one of those fortunate people with super hearing! :eek: