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User's Guide Fireface 800 © RME
31
13.2 Known Problems
If a computer does not provide sufficient CPU-power and/or sufficient PCI-bus transfer rates,
then drop outs, crackling and noise will appear. We recommend to deactivate all PlugIns to
verify that these are not the reason for such effects.
Additional hard disk controllers, both on-board and PCI based, aften violate the PCI specs. To
achieve the highest throughput they hog the PCI bus, even in their default setting. Thus when
working with low latencies heavy drop outs (clicks) are heard. Try to solve this problem by
changing the default setting of the controller (for example by reducing the 'PCI Bus Utilization').
The above note on PCI is not an error in this manual: so far all FireWire controllers are con-
nected to the PCI bus. Therefore the same problems known from PCI audio cards can occur
with FireWire audio interfaces as well. Further information is found in chapter 37.3.
When using more than one Fireface 800, all Firefaces have to be in sync, see chapter 15. Else
a periodicly repeated noise will be heared.
Another common source of trouble is incorrect synchronization. ASIO does not support asyn-
chronous operation, which means that the input and output signals not only have to use the
same sample frequency, but also have to be in sync. All devices connected to the Fireface 800
must be properly configured for Full Duplex operation. As long as SyncCheck (in the Settings
dialog) only displays Lock instead of Sync, the devices have not been set up properly!
14. Operation under GSIF (Gigasampler Interface)
Windows 2000/XP
The GSIF interface of the Fireface 800 allows direct operation with Gigastudio, with up to 28
channels, 96 kHz and 24 bit. The new GSIF 2.0 is also supported with both audio and MIDI.
Gigastudio requires a lot of a computer’s CPU performance. Optimum performance is achieved
with a stand-alone GSIF PC. The GSIF latency of the Fireface 800 can be set between 48 and
256 samples. Above 256, only the ASIO latency will rise. Such a setting can prevent perform-
ance problems on slower machines when using ASIO and GSIF at the same time.
Please note that the W2k/XP driver fully supports multi-client operation, including the combina-
tion MME/ASIO. So for example Cubase, Gigastudio and Sonar can be used simultaneously,
provided each of these programs use audio channels exclusively on the Fireface 800. For ex-
ample ASIO could use channels 1/2 and Gigastudio (with GSIF) channels 3/4 simultaneously,
and so on.
Simultaneous operation of GSIF and ASIO requires to use different channels. For example,
if Cubase uses tracks 1/2 these tracks can not be used by Gigastudio.
Common Problems
Please note that Gigastudio is running unexpectedly in the background (thus blocking its as-
signed audio channels), as soon as the Gigastudio MIDI ports are used – even when Gigastu-
dio itself hasn't been started. This causes a lot of confusion, as the driver seems to behave
completely buggy, and the user does not recognize the simple reason for it – for example simul-
taneous operation of ASIO and GSIF on the same channels.
If Gigastudio starts up properly, loads gig files too, but won't play at all even when using the
virtual keyboard: Go to Hardware/Routing and select a valid MIDI input port. Note that blank is
not valid, but <none> is.