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Topic: esi maya 44 and distorted sound (Read 25106 times) previous topic - next topic
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esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Hi everyone, I bought a ESI Maya44 sound card and I have a lot of problems with it:
when I use ASIO 2.0 I play some music and it gets that metallic distortion so I have to close the program
and change latency to 128 or 256 back and fort when it does that, same when just listening to music with
just winamp 
I tried disabling onboard sound, resetting cmos, switching pci slots, bios update and windows 7 downgrade to windows xp
same problem.
my motherboard is a P5N-E SLI (Nforce 650I SLI)
I have an ATI 4650 Video card
2 500GB SATA HDS
1 80GB IDE HD
1 DVDRW
what could be the problem? i'm using a plug to mini plug silver color adapter
I did download latest drivers too
i did put linuxmint to try and it detects it as envy 96/24 and no problems at all there
hope someone went through this and can help me

Thank you and nice proaudio forum!
 

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #1 –
Is there a reason that you need ASIO and/or low latency?  If you're not recording & playing at the same time or processing in real-time, regular Windows drivers should work fine. 

Low latency requires smaller buffers, which means it's harder to prevent buffer overflow/underflow.

Does this card support ASIO?  (I only see Windows & OSX drivers on the website.)

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #2 –
Quote from: DVDdoug on
Is there a reason that you need ASIO and/or low latency?  If you're not recording & playing at the same time or processing in real-time, regular Windows drivers should work fine. 

Low latency requires smaller buffers, which means it's harder to prevent buffer overflow/underflow.

Does this card support ASIO?  (I only see Windows & OSX drivers on the website.)

    *  Supports up to 24-bit / 192kHz output and 96kHz input
    * 4 analog input and 4 analog output channels
    * 4-in / 4-out full duplex recording and playback
    * balanced microphone input with +48V phantom power
    * headphone output with gain control
    * unbalanced stereo line input (1~2) can be switched to balanced mono microphone input
    * optical and coaxial (S/PDIF) digital output
    * optional MIDI I/O via MI/ODI/O extension
    * optional S/PDIF digital input via MI/ODI/O ext.
    * 3.3V / 5V compatible PCI card
    * EWDM driver: MME, DirectSound, ASIO 2.0 and GSIF 2.0 support
    * Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000 and Mac OS X compatible
In every version of Windows you have to install a driver, Windows doesn't have a driver for it, even Win7
it does support ASIO 2.0 and in Windows wish I could use it for low latency output monitoring in Sonar
there's no linux driver but I can use it with low latency on many distros
thanks for you help!

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #3 –
USB and Firewire audio interfacea seems to be quite sensitive for realtime changes when it comes samplerate and buffer size in question. I can reproduce your problem with E-MU 0404 USB and ESI DuaFire FW audio interfaces quite easy by doing that.

What comes into buffer sizes, buffersize 128 samples means
~3ms latency @ 44.1kHz
~1.3ms @ 96 kHz

and buffer size 256 samples
~5.8ms @ 44.1kHz
~2.7ms @ 96kHz

which all are quite low values for an USB audio device.

As DVDdoug already mentioned, low latency is mainly needed for recording purposes. For playback, bigger samplebuffer is better choice and as it just increases delay time for play to start after play button press, it shouldn't be harmful ... . I suggest you to try buffer size which gives you ~20ms (44.1*20=~880, 96*20=1920) playback latency.

If you still get issues with those bigger buffer values then, start by checking your system - http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml


Juha

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #4 –
hey thanks you all for all your help it's a pci interface though, i get to choose 48,96,128,256,512,1024 and 2048, gonna try the latency check and 2048 buffer size and check back, nice tips

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #5 –
this is what DPC latency tool put on my system, hope i uploaded the right image


Uploaded with ImageShack.us
thank all of you again
EDIT: tried with 2048 buffers and foobar2000 doesn't play at all and in 1024 neither i'm using 512 to see what happens
thank you all again

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #6 –
Sorry 'bout mixing the type of your audio interface. But both suggestions I made are valid for any of them.

Now that it's a PCI card in question, there are other possible culprits causing you this issue.
IRQ sharing might be one possible cause (on Windows, you can check this through system device manager)

Have you already checked tuning tips:
- http://emusician.com/mag/desktop/emusic_xp_audio/
- http://editthis.info/sonar/Optimizing_Your_DAW

By googling you might find even better ones since those are quite old links.

Juha

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #7 –
I just set up buffers to 512 and been playing almost an entire long album without problems seems to be that too low latencies as you said before might do it and luckily the card ins't sharing any IRQ with anything else gonna go ahead and try some asio apps later on, thanks for the heads up it looks like this works on PCI, FIREWIRE and USB Inferfaces.
just a dumb question is it worth to put asio output on foobar?
thanks!

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #8 –
Hi,
I too have experienced the "metallic" distortion sound.  TWICE!

I have two ESI maya 44 pci cards.

I had two computers, both had ASUS motherboards in them.  One computer started with this distortion one day "out of the blue".  I switched ram (i had extra laying around - different brand of ram).  I swapped maya cards from the non distorted computer to the distorted computer.  Still the problem existed, so that eliminates the possiblity of a faulty Maya 44 card.

I tried re-installing Windows 7 with a clean install, made sure I had the latest drivers.  Still the problem persisted.  So after the switching ram, a cpu, maya44 and doing a clean install, and new drivers, and playing with the latencies,  I thought well the only thing left I haven't switched out is the "motherboard".  So I ordered a new one.  This time I went with a Gigabyte GA-ep45 and guess what?  NO DISTORTION!  It's been a few months running the new GIGABYTE and still clean sound.

NOW...here's the thing...the 2nd ASUS motherboard that wasn't making any distortion just started today making the same noise as my other ASUS board.  Again, i have followed the steps above and the problem still exits... the sound will sound fine for a few seconds, then this HORRIBLE loud electronic metallic distortion sound starts. 

IF i had to say, it's an ASUS motherboard problem.  Yes..the Asus motherboards were different models too. P5W-DH deluxe and a P5Q.

I'm done with ASUS!

This problem can't be a coincidence.

If someone finds a solution to this problem.  Please let me know.  I'm very curious to know. 

Thanks guys.

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #9 –
IIRC, SLI boards have been troublesome with some PCI audio cards (at that time SLI appeared).
Was those yours ASUS SLI boards?

Juha

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #10 –
it's me again, seems the ASUS motherboard's the problem so I give up for now till I can
get some gigabyte motherboard, again after sometime sound's distorted
I read 2 other asus motherboards had the same problem, mine with SLI and P5Q without
that's it for now onboard sound till i get a decent motherboard
I had some other problems with ASUS so i'm not buying asus again

hope this helps everyone else

thanks to you all anyway

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #11 –
I have the same problem.
I own two PCI Maya 44 (the old one with the black board from Audiotrack).
I also own one PCI Maya 44 (the new one with the white board from ESI).

I have the same "metal" sound on the new PCI Maya44 (from ESI) from the very first day.
I try everything. Latest drivers (released one month before).
I contact with them.
I am professional. I use my computer for my work. The respond of ESI's Support was really bad.
No help at all. Just a few words like "maybe your IRQ are not correct - some incompatibility with the motherboard... We can't access you via team-viewer... etc".

THE MOST STRANGE happend to me last night.
Well... for one more time, I try to fix my problem. So I play a song from winamp.
Suddenly, I thought that I can re-check my "Windows Experience Index"...

NOW IS THE CRAZIEST THINGS ever happened to me.
For almost 4 minutes that this proccess lasts, the sound was perfect!
No metal sound.

When this proccess finished (and I 've got the same level of experience index).... the sound started to be metallized.
My motherboard is a
ASUS A8N32-SLI (not the deluxe but the cheap one).

I think that I must give you the personal e-mail address and the phone number of ESI's support and tell them that "Here we have a problem".
I will send you a p.m later, mate!

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #12 –
Quote from: radiodj105 on
When this proccess finished (and I 've got the same level of experience index).... the sound started to be metallized.
My motherboard is a
ASUS A8N32-SLI (not the deluxe but the cheap one).

I think that I must give you the personal e-mail address and the phone number of ESI's support and tell them that "Here we have a problem".
I will send you a p.m later, mate!


You might try runing an audio rightmark test both stand-alone and with the windows experience test running to see if antying measurable is changing.

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #13 –
Quote from: Arnold B. Krueger on
You might try runing an audio rightmark test both stand-alone and with the windows experience test running to see if antying measurable is changing.


Where can I find this application?
Do you have a link?

Thanks in advance


esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #15 –
The most strange thing on ESI is the after sales support.
I sent them an e-mail at 13 of August, now is 24th of August and still no answer.
I can't consider, how easily they can just ignore our e-mails.

FOR SURE I will never buy again from ESI.

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #16 –
Quote
The most strange thing on ESI is the after sales support.
I sent them an e-mail at 13 of August, now is 24th of August and still no answer.
I can't consider, how easily they can just ignore our e-mails.


Hmm... Regarding DuaFire RIAA issue I have, I got ESI support answer next day with copy of specs sheet PDF (maybe not even public document) as an attacment so it's not that B&W matter you may think.

BTW, As the Maya has S/PDIF I/O ports available, and your ASUS motherboard has S/PDIF output available as well then, doesn't it work if you use Maya as DAC (you may need to specify the Maya clock source through it's control panel (extrernal))?

Juha

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #17 –
Quote from: Juha on
BTW, As the Maya has S/PDIF I/O ports available, and your ASUS motherboard has S/PDIF output available as well then, doesn't it work if you use Maya as DAC (you may need to specify the Maya clock source through it's control panel (extrernal))?

I can't understand all of the things you are trying to say.
However, I can't adjust maya's clock source.

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #18 –
Quote
I can't understand all of the things you are trying to say.


Hmm...
- connect the onboard sound S/PDIF output into Maya S/PDIF input using optical or coaxial cable
- set onboard sound output through S/PDIF
- set Maya samplearate equally with the onboard sound samplerate which maybe either 48kHz or 96kHz
- analog output is coming from Maya

Actually, I don't know if this is possible with your setup but worth to try. It's possible you ned to use some software to get the Maya input routed to Maya output ... maybe DirectWire can handle this.


Juha

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #19 –
Now you did describe everything perfect.
I will try that immediately.

I am back...
I try that but there is something we didn't consider.
The sound card which is onboard, indeed has a digital output. (optical and coaxial).
Maya 44, has only digital output. (optical and coaxial).
No input.
So.. I can't test that.
For sure... I must say a big "thanks" to you for the idea.
I have never thought of that.

However, I did a test using Rightmark.
Here is the IPP Info I get... and if you have something to suggest me, I will be happy to do that.


IPP would recommend using cpu_t7(m7) code for this processor

px C-optimized for all IA-32 processors
w7 Optimized for Pentium 4 processors
t7 Optimized for Pentium 4 processors with Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3)
v8 New Optimizations for 32-bit applications on Intel Core 2 and Intel Xeon 5100 processors
p8 New Optimizations for 32-bit applications on 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo (Penryn) family processors and Intel Core i7 processors (Nehalem)
s8 Optimized for Intel Atom Processors

BrandName
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+

Signature 
Stepping      2
Model        35
Family        15
Type          0

Feature Flags 
Cores        1 - Number of cores per physical package
CMP / HTT    1 - Multi-Cores and/or Multi-Threading
LogPerPhysCPU 2 - Number of logical processors per physical processor package

MMX        Intel Architecture MMX - YES
SSE        Streaming SIMD Extensions. (Pentium III) - YES
SSE2      Streaming SIMD Extensions 2.(Pentium 4) - YES
SSE3      Streaming SIMD Extensions 3.(Prescott) - YES
SSSE3      Supplemental Streaming SIMD Extensions 3.(Merom) - NO
SSE41      Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4.1).(Penryn) - NO
SSE42      Streaming SIMD Extensions 4 (SSE4.2).(Nehalem) - NO
STTNI      STTNI Instructions, Nehalem first instance. - NO
EM64T      Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology. - YES

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #20 –
Quote
Maya 44, has only digital output. (optical and coaxial).
No input.
So.. I can't test that.


You're right ... actually there is, but it's an extension module.


Quote
optional S/PDIF digital input via MI/ODI/O ext.



Juha

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #21 –
Today I try to install Windows 7 (32 bit) on a new hard disk of the same machine.
After the installation, MAYA 44 had the same problem.
I am affraid that there is something wrong with my proccessor.
Not with windows 7!

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #22 –
I ve got the same problem with ESI MAya44 and Asus MB/Intel CPU. Not quite sure, that they are the case.
The problem is almost the same - when I run something, that changes samplerate - audio goes mad - internal clock shows 44.1, but the sound is distorted and pitched down. I can change samplerate in console to 96k and sound becomes pitched up again, but it is not a solution, of course. After reboot - everything is fine until the moment when I try to run simultaneously WinAmp and Cubase, for example.
Is there any solution available apart from throwing away an ESI card?

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #23 –
Quote from: radiodj105 on
Today I try to install Windows 7 (32 bit) on a new hard disk of the same machine.
After the installation, MAYA 44 had the same problem.
I am affraid that there is something wrong with my proccessor.
Not with windows 7!


In general, if there's something wrong with your CPU chip, the machine won't boot.

Your problems have "bad drivers" written all over them.

Non-answers from the vendor tech support group are often tacit admission that they know that they have a problem, and are getting tired of admitting it wihtout having a fix in hand.

esi maya 44 and distorted sound

Reply #24 –
Quote from: sr2k on
[...]After reboot - everything is fine until the moment when I try to run simultaneously WinAmp and Cubase, for example. [...]


The most probable configuration that you use in those programs is directsound in winamp and ASIO in Cubase.

ASIO is intended to work at the hardware's preffered sampling rate.

The good part (and bad part from a different perspective) of directsound is that it allows the players to use any sampling rate, and the OS (or the drivers) upsample/mix/downsample to whatever it needs.

ASIO does not do it, by design.

Does your soundcard come with native ASIO drivers? (I.e. did you install asio4all or you didn't need it?).  Maybe a solution could be installing asio4all and use this implementation instead.