Sonorus STUDI/O

Here is most of the details of the contact I had with Sonorus:

( 10 January 2005 )

There is this driver Win9Xv2_00, but I can't make it work right.
First of all, I have more files in the Zip as described in the readme file. There are these four:
studiox.dl_
studll.dl_
Syncio
Syncio txt. File
Is this normal?
Using Cubase VST 5.1 under Windows Me your Asio Studi/O driver Win9Xv2_00 runs at least 50 times times to fast. Why is this?

( 10 January 2005 )

How is everything clocked? Also, what is the latency set to?

( 14 January 2005 12:23 )

The Studi/O card is clocked to the adat output of the digital mixing - table.
That means that the clock of the mixing - table is set to INTERNAL 48 KHz and the clock of the Studi/O is set to LOCK TO INPUT A.
It looks o.k. and it looks that I am in phase with the audio wave forms and so probably as well with the midi (didn't try yet because of more serious problems in the audio but as I said it's probably o.k.)
But the problem is the speed and it looks like it's proportional to the latency setting. But even all the way down to 2 (the lowest setting possible) I am nearly there but it's still slightly fast and the sound is something like bubbling or vibrating as it goes along. A setting of 16 runs far to fast and a setting of 32 is double the speed of that. The higher the setting of the latency of the Studi/O card the faster the speed of the whole song.
But just to give you an idea: Already at the latency setting of 16 you wouldn't even be able to recognize any melodie because of that incredible speed it's going along.
As you can see it is something in relation with this.
Any setting changes I've tried within Cubase VST 5.1 didn't change anything to the problem.
There is just another funny detail I've discovered with this driver.
I have this song in Cubase, it is not working right as described above but the funny thing is: I messured the speed of these audio files now at about 101 beats a minute; now I imported these same audio files (24 bits - 48 KHz) into a completely new Cubase Song but with the same Cubase and Studi/O Set-up, and these same audio - files now run at 106 beats per minute. Why?
I am going crazy at this.

Could you grab screenshots of all of your setup screens?

Sorry but I do not understand what you mean by this.

The other driver Win9Xv1_996, which is working half way, I have trouble getting Audio and Midi in Sync.
The audio is playing the more and more earlier in comparison to the midi and as well to the wave-forms you can see on the screen.
Why is this and what can I do?

You won't be able to get the audio and midi to sync up with that driver. The 2.0 driver had fixed the sync issue.

I thought it could be perhaps useful for you to know all the material I've installed.

All of the hardware looks fine.
STUDI/O is not sharing an IRQ, which is also what we want.
-Craig

( 14 January 2005 16:52 )

Have you tried recording at 16-bit?

( 16 January 2005 12:59 )

I’ve tried recording and playback in 16 bit resolution as you asked me to do, but I have just the same problem with this.
I can’t get Adat – Midi – Timecode working right.
Once the Adat-Midi-Timecode is enabled in the “Studi/O Device Properties”, I have the same trouble that the music is running far to fast.
The settings within Cubase Midi-Timecode enabled or disabled don’t change anything to this problem.
The only thing makes things work is to either disable the Adat-Midi-Timecode in the “Studi/O Device Properties” or to switch on my machines (wich are connected to the Studi/O card)without running them. As soon as I run the tapes the Problem is back again. The Sync activated or disabled within Cubase don’t change anything to this problem.

As you can see, it is exactly the same as in the 24 bit recording or playback mode.(look further down)

Please help me, did you get the last three e-mails I’ve send ?

I've never seen an issue like this before. Do you have another video card or even onboard video you can switch to?

I actually have video onboard and I already tried this but it didn't change anything to the problem.

Did you try moving the STUDI/O card to another PCI slot?

I’ve tried that as well but it didn't solve the problem either.

The new things I've tried:

I turned on the BRC and the Adat xt 20 to run a song (I've transferred to Cubase before (a few years ago)) in Sync with the tape and as I expected I had the same problem.

But:

When I stopped the machines -
(but they were still plugged in: power on, wordclock send from the mixing desk to sync the Brc; which itself syncs the Adat xt; which syncs the Studi/O for MTC. The Studi/O is locked as well to Input A and this signal comes directly from the digital Mixing desk) -
and run Cubase on it's own: Problem solved - but not really because I couldn't run the machines otherwise the problem was back again and as well when I turned off the power of the Brc and the Adat xt the problem was back again as well.
Basicly I had to turn on the machines without using them to make things work.

Then I disabled the Adat Sync Option in the "Studi/O Device Properties" window and rebooted. I could turn off the machines and the Studi/O worked fine. Sound o.k. and synchronisation with Midi.

It looks as I am getting somewhere but now the problem is that I do not have Sync with my machines.

As soon as I reactivated the Adat Midi Timecode in the "Studi/O Device Properties" the problem was back again and even Cubase seemed to have trouble and crashed down 2 or 3 times. (Error in the VSTdll.dll). When then I got it opened, Cubase seemed to have trouble with the graphique set up and the music was playing far to fast again.

It must have something to do with this Adat Timecode Sync.

By the way: The Adat Timecode Sync works fine with the Win9Xv1_996 Driver and the same set - up as described above.

As I installed different drivers several times for your card could it have something to do with the Syncio reg. file, because of cause every time I registered the Syncio again.
I uninstalled all of the other files of cause but I do not know what to do about this registration file. Does it matter at all? Obviously I'm getting closer but what is wrong with this Adat timecode Sync?

( 21 January 2001 )

Just to remember you, here is an extract of an e-mail you answered (08 March 2001)

Hello SONORUS,
I have big trouble to get the Stud IO card working right. Since at least a week I am at it and I tried almost everything but still the same result. I have the impression that I got ripped of, that’s very disappointing. I bought this card in Germany about 10 days ago, would you take it back?

We cannot take it back, but we will work to solve these problems.

Hope you're gonna be honest about this.
Final Driver for Windows 98/ME
Now Available
Please note that this will be the last driver update from Sonorus.

I hope you are not serious about this, I paid nearly a 1000 $ for this Studi/O card with its Sync Backplate.
I have this for four years now and never got it to work right.
First I had to abandon my "Soundblaster-Live-Platinum" Soundcard, than there was this Midi - Audio Sync Problem and now since this is solved I don't have Adat Midi Timecode anymore.
Shit I start to get fed up. I think you should pay me the money back.
Why don't you answer to my e - mails anymore?
Are you going to do something about this?
I've tried different Jumper settings with no result either.
I really think that it is up to you to solve this problem!!!

( 21 January 2005 )

I'm sorry that you are still having problems configuring
your STUDI/O card. STUDI/O is a discontinued product and we
have ceased all driver development for it, and we are phasing out
technical support for it as well (STUDI/O is now EIGHT years old).

So all we can do is try to point you in the right direction so that
you can use the existing driver. The final release has NO KNOWN BUGS.
Every function is known to work. Does that mean that there are no
problems with certain configurations? No, it doesn't. STUDI/O is
just the driver board - it's up to the Windows system and the DAW
application to use it properly as well.
It looks like your STUDI/O hardware is working (i.e. no H/W errors) but
the audio application is not maintaining proper sync. This can also
be affected by the external audio gear synced to your system, how
it's configured, and how well it's working. While we can (and have)
given you general guidance as to how to do this, we can't troubleshoot
every potential situation.

Our web site at http://sonorus.com has many application notes showing
many different ways of configuring STUDI/O, and all of these are known
to work since we have done them ourselves. If you can't get one of those
configurations to work, that may help you narrow down the specific
problem with your setup. Beyond that, I don't know what else we can do.
You wrote:

So all we can do is try to point you in the right direction so that
you can use the existing driver. The final release has NO KNOWN BUGS.
Every function is known to work. Does that mean that there are no
problems with certain configurations? No, it doesn't. STUDI/O is
just the driver board - it's up to the Windows system and the DAW
application to use it properly as well.
But Craig obviously told you already:

Mark,

How should I handle this guy?
I think it's a driver-related issue. Seems to be a bug in the driver? I'm out of ideas on this one.

-Craig

( 22 January 2005 )

How do you explain yourself that the Adat-Midi-Timecode works with the Win9Xv1_996 Driver and my Setup without any problem (apart of this Audio - Midi Sync problem), but it does not work with the Win9Xv2_00 Driver.

This proves that the external audio gear synced to my system is not the question and as well that my setup is not the problem!

It is definitly the driver. I had contact with other users of your card and they actually have the same trouble.
I hope you consider this now as a known bug and still hope you are doing something about it.

Peter

Would you be happy with something you paid a thousand dollars and doesn't work?

UTILISATION

L'installation n'est pas facile.
Incompatible avec Sundblaster Live Platinum et beaucoup d'autre materiel
Configuration n'est pas compliqué
Le manuel n'est pas clair du tout est existe seulement en anglais

MISE EN OEUVRE

Problem des Drivers sur Windows.
Les mise à jour sont déplorable
Cubase et Soundfoprge
environ 45
je n'ai pas eu de problem jusqu'ici

AVIS GLOBAL

4 ans
Le dernier Driver ne permet plus de synchroniser les machines
et le Driver précedent avait un problem de Synchronisation entre l'Audio et le Midi.
No
Beaucoup trop cher en 2001, pres de 1000 € pour un produit qui ne fonctionne pas correctement. C'est carrément de l'harnaque.
Plus jamais.

Que dire ? 16 canaux sur 1 carte avec toute la qualité ADAT... Pas de pertes pas de souffle ! évidement ! Avec un 01V ou une O2R c'est la perfection.

UTILISATION

Facile à installer... Le parametrage des vu-mètres E/S est très souple mais il faut aller le chercher ! Allez 9 pour la peine !

MISE EN OEUVRE

Stabilité absolue sur une bécane poussive (1GHZ !) mais bien configurée. Plus de mise à jour des drivers mais qu'importe ? Ceux fournis fonctionnent parfaitement sous samplitude, sonar etc. Latence infinitésimale.

AVIS GLOBAL

Très bonne carte spécifique... Indémodable, difficilement surclassable.

16 canaux sur une seule carte : bravo. Un bémol : le bus PCI tire la langue !
Idéal en couple avec une console numérique genre O2R, WR-DA7…

Ma config : Studi/O + G4 400Mhz 960 Mo Ram + Logic 6.3.1 + WRDA-7

UTILISATION

Aucun problème particulier au niveau de l'installation.

MISE EN OEUVRE

Avec Logic (sous OS9), aucun driver n'est nécessaire !
Par contre, Sonorus a arreté de mettre à jour les drivers depuis… 2000 !

pas moyen d'utiliser la carte sous OSX ! (" />(" />(

AVIS GLOBAL

J'utilise cette carte depuis 4 ans, et globalement j'en suis satisfait, mais l'attitude de Sonorus est scandaleuse (je me demande si la boîte ne s'est pas cassé la gueule)

finalement, il vaut mieux investir chez une grosse boîte, de type MOTU, sur laquelle on peut compter dans le temps.
par contre, en terme de performances et de rapport qualité/prix, cette carte est excellente.

à voir !