Pro Tools not working with Saffire Pro 40 Audio Interface

[AquaticYamaka]

Hi. I'll try to explain this the best I can, but I am hardly an expert, and I don't know at all of how to fix this problem.

I'm still in the process of trying to start a Pro Tools recording system, and I am a novice with getting everything straightened out. I have Pro Tools 10.0, the student academic version, and when I asked for advice earlier on this board for an audio interface, I was recommended the Saffire Pro 40. It uses firewire ports, which connects to a SIIG Firewire 3-port PCI card (Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 chipset, highly recommended to me) on my computer. Before I got the PCI card, my audio interface would not connect to my computer. Now it does, and the audio interface's software works fine on my computer. The software interacts perfectly with my mic/line inputs, but the problem begins once I start Pro Tools. Whenever I open a session, new/old/whatever, there is an incessant buzz of clicks from the audio interface. The input meters are not affected, but the DAW meter in my audio interface software is lit up very high. So there's nothing intrinsically wrong with my audio interface, since it works on its own with my computer. However, there is some major compatibility issue with Pro Tools. As I said, a number of people on this forum recommended this hardware for me, so I expect this to work.

Furthermore, if I ever try to press play in the Pro Tools transport controls, whether if attempting to record audio/use MIDI, or not, I get this error message: (-9129) "Audio processing could not complete due to conflicts with other CPU tasks or a potential clocking issue. If this occurs often, verify your sync cables or try changing the HW Buffer Size setting in the Playback Engine dialog. In most cases, a larger HW buffer size will prevent the problem."

So, I increased the buffer size to its highest, 1024 samples, and I tried tweaking everything else in the playback engine dialog, and nothing changes. So, I figure that maybe I need to increase my audio interface's buffer size manually to match Pro Tools' 1024 samples. I go into the Pro 40 software (called Saffire MixControl) and change the ASIO buffer size to a higher number (I've tried 1024 samples all the way to 3072 samples). Every time I try to change this, I get this message "ASIO device properties have been changed by the device control panel. Pro Tools must be restarted for these changes to take effect. Please restart Pro Tools". Much obliged, I decide to save, quit, and restart Pro Tools, assuming that the buffer sizes of both the Pro Tools playback engine and the Pro 40 software have been raised to 1020 samples, hopefully solving my problem.

When I try to start Pro Tools again, however, I'm confronted with this message halfway through startup: "Pro Tools hardware is either not installed or used by another program." I have no idea what this means or what I'm doing wrong, so I click OK and Pro Tools quits. I'm able to start up Pro Tools again, without the message, but the ASIO buffer size in the Pro 40 software program is changed back to its default of 96 samples!

I hope you can see what my issue is. I don't know how to solve the clicking issue or the -9129 error message, and the only solution I can think of, involving raising buffer sizes, just leads to a circular series of complications that leads nowhere. I'm sorry if I sound stupid, like a complete novice, but I'm fairly exhausted at this point. I know the Saffire Pro 40 works, since it is compatible with my computer, and others recommended it for recording with Pro Tools, but I don't know why it won't work in my case. If you can help me, it would be very greatly appreciated, especially if you were one of the few who recommended the Saffire Pro 40 as an audio interface. If I could get past these few (but extremely severe) bugs, I would have no other problems with recording or utilizing MIDI with Pro Tools. Please let me know if you need more information, but I tried to be as complete and accurate as possible. Thank you!

Sincerely,

AquaticYamaka


This is my equipment:

Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit, AMD Phenom 9600 Quad-Core Processor 2.30 GHz (built-in sound card), 4.00 GB RAM (3.25 usable), Saffire PRO 40 audio interface with firewire 1934a ports (I'm using the firewire cable that came with this device), SIIG Firewire 3-Port PCI i/e card with Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 chipset (I'm using the internal port), Pro Tools 10.0 for Students (full version)

[Emcha_audio]

There's a faq on the focusright website that you'll need to follow to use the saffire series with pro tools. Somewhere in there (sorry don't remember where) they talk about setting the buffer of the saffire to long etc. This should aleviate the clicks and pops (also need to get the latest drivers from them for that).

Hope it helps.

[AquaticYamaka]

Thank you so much! I could not find the solution the last time I looked at the focusright website, but it worked, and I can record audio now. Thanks again!