Why is Saffire Mix Control fighting with Pro Tools

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by dr_daw

or just nail the parts in one take :P LMAO I mean comp the parts :P

Nice !!! Love it

[right beside]

When overdubbing, what latency are you referring to? And how is the plug in supposed to help? Emcha's post said he uses it to switch the routing from within Pro Tools.

[Emcha_audio]

Alright sorry had a busy day.

Let me try to explain in details how I use it.

1 obviously load it in any track (I prefer to load it on an empty track, not that it changes the sound of anything just that I don't get mixed up.)

2 don't use the default routing option from the rtas mix control Reason being is that they won't follow the settings you might have created for yourself, unless they happen to follow your workflow, in my case they don't and I wish there was a way to actually tell the rtas mc which routing settings to use. So instead ...

3 Use the advance button in the Rtas mix control plugin. This will let you chose your own routing presets and also the pre-amps emulations. Now with this you can still use the blend knob in the rtas mix control which can be useful for quick and Low latency tracking.

[dr_daw]

Originally Posted by right beside

When overdubbing, what latency are you referring to? And how is the plug in supposed to help? Emcha's post said he uses it to switch the routing from within Pro Tools.

What I'm refering to is the latency when trying 'say' punch in a guitar part. When tracking, I don't use PT to monitor signal input, because Mix Control offers zero latency. But when I want to punch in, I need to hear the original recorded track, and need to hear my live guitar at the same time to get the timing right. In order to do that, you have to un-Mute the recorded track (and because I don't CPTK or HD) I can hear PT's input and at the same time. I find it annoying and it often throws me off because of the 'echo/comb' effect.

The Rtas Mix control allows you to blend the saffire input and PT's output so you can 'minimize' that latency. I find even at 128 for a buffer size I feel the latency on my guitar, not too bad for vocals. So like I mentioned, when working on my own stuff or the bands stuff...we just keep going until we get a good couple of takes, then comp it all together. No messing about with punching in/out.

[right beside]

Ahh, THAT latency. Auto input punch in. I haven't even gotten to that yet, but yeah that's a pain.

What I do sometimes is duplicate the track (or tracks), trim out the part I want to punch, unmute THAT track, and then monitor in Input Only mode on the muted/armed track. But then you gotta slide your new region up to the real track and delete the duplicate so you aren't confused later. If you have a lot of punches though, its a lot of mousework while also trying to perform.

Mostly though, I have a main 'guide' track in all my sessions, and I just do multiple takes and comp from playlists. That's actually the main reason I stick with pro tools. I have a good work flow down with their playlist feature that I haven't been able to duplicate in other programs.

[right beside]

So a little over a month in, I have a new problem with the Saffire. I'm wondering if any of you have experienced the same, or if I'm just missing some setting.

My LS 56 no longer works when plugged directly into my computer. It prefers to be plugged in through an external hard drive. If I go directly into my computer, it disables all its analog, meaning it sends nothing out of the monitor outputs and all inputs are also inactive.

And example is, if I have a mic up and am getting signal through it while the Saffire is daisy chained through an external hard drive, and leaving all things the same, I eject the hard drive, turn off the Saffires's power, plug the Saffire directly into the computer, and turn on it's power again, I no longer get signal from that mic (or any other inputs). The meters on the hardware itself show nothing. If I play something from Pro Tools or iTunes, the meters in Mixcontrol show activity, but my amp receives nothing. If I reverse all the steps and run the Saffire through a hard drive again, all analog is restored.

Occasionally and randomly, the LS 56 works going directly to the computer, but I know not why. And if right after that, I use it again through an external drive (to work with audio on that drive), when my work is over, it will not work again plugged in directly to the computer. Restarting everything in my system does not help. It's almost as if the LS56 prefers the hard drive way and is confused by going into the computer and so disables analog.

Also, it seems to work with any hard drive, all the time. It doesn't prefer one or the other. When it's not working while plugged directly into the computer, it will still work with any drive (it has previously worked with).

In all of the above cases, I have changed no settings on anything, just either added or removed an external hard dive in the firewire path.

Am I missing something?
I wrote Focusrite last week but have not heard anything back yet.

[right beside]

Well, right after writing this I did hear back from Focusrite.

Amongst other things, they suggested that maybe my unit is switching the Sync Source on me. I went through the steps to make the unit 'not work' and checked MixControl and the source still said 'internal'. However I toggled it to ADAT and back to internal, and that fixed things.

So, it seems like when I attach the unit directly to my computer, the hardware is switching its sync source (which disables the inputs and monitor outputs), BUT MixControl is not reflecting that change, which confuses things.

However the toggling trick has worked on numerous tests so thankfully its a simple thing.

Once I knew what I was dealing with, I found these threads with similar issues:

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=302898

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=337461

Hopefully they work out a fix.

[dr_daw]

Good that you got things going. Just to clarify, you are NOT leaving your computer turned ON when you do all this plugging and unplugging the F/W ports are you? I don't believe this is a recommended practice and can damage your F/W port or device.

[right beside]

Good looking out Dr. Daw. I always power down FW devices before plugging/unplugging, but don't always shut down my Mac. I'm not sure if that's considered hot-plugging or not.

I did read this:
http://global.focusrite.com/answerba...rewire-devices

But it says that the LS 56 adheres to the IEEE 1394 standard and is therefore hot-pluggable, but that an individuals computer might not be.

However, my mac definitely adheres to the IEEE 1394 standard as well. It's also covered under applecare for 3 years, though downtime is never fun.

My last MBP hasn't had a problem with the firewire bus in all its 6 years, and I followed the same protocol: power down FW devices (including an 003), but not the Mac. And I was always using FW 800 which has a more stable plug.

However, I reckon it would probably be wise with this new set-up to heed your advice, considering the temperamental nature of the Saffire thus far.