Audio dropping, ASIO crashing

B

Balki

New Member
I recently upgraded my ancient PC with a Surface Laptop i7, 16gb. I'm using the FM3 as my audio interface, as I have for years.

The audio eventually will drop out and crash, losing all audio and drop recording. To fix, I have to go to the FM3 audio device control panel and change the buffer size and it will immediately begin working again. I've installed ASIO4ALL, and that didn't fix the problem. It's been a while since I've set this up and not sure what I'm doing wrong. Do both of these run at the same time?

My main DAW is Reaper, but am also having the same issues in Abelton.

Thank you in advance!
 
well, if you have a buffer size too small, and the PC can't keep up with it, you could have problems. don't go too much low and you should be fine, 256 is quite a safe value. (stay away from asio4all, they're not true asio drivers and the latency is awful)
 
I love the FM3 but the Asio performance compared to other (and cheaper devices) is not great. The manual recording offset issue has still not been rectified so I have to revert to an external devices.
 
ezellohar said:
well, if you have a buffer size too small, and the PC can't keep up with it, you could have problems. don't go too much low and you should be fine, 256 is quite a safe value. (stay away from asio4all, they're not true asio drivers and the latency is awful)
Click to expand...
What would your suggesting be to use an AxeFXIII in conjunction with Cubase 13. What driver is better than the asio4all?
 
Oke, When in Cubase 13 in Studio setup I define the FAS ASIODriver Axe-FX III the playback of the entire song will be through the AXE FX monitors. I want that to be through my studio monitors. They get it through my soundcard, the Aus Xonar Essence STX. But since the FAS ASIO driver is setup there is no playback. Do you get my problem?
 
You could either plug your monitors directly into the Axe III for monitoring or send analog output from your III into the Line In on your soundcard for monitoring.
 
For one reason I did not had this issue when I used Cubase 11 or 12. After installing the update Cubase 13 Pro, this issue occurred. I don't know if the installment process changed things on my PC (windows 10). Recording with the Axe FX has always been plug and play and didn't need any additional routing
 
Silly question, but did you download the very latest USB Driver bundle? I can see that new drivers came out on September 29, 2023.
 
JPE said:
Oke, When in Cubase 13 in Studio setup I define the FAS ASIODriver Axe-FX III the playback of the entire song will be through the AXE FX monitors. I want that to be through my studio monitors. They get it through my soundcard, the Aus Xonar Essence STX. But since the FAS ASIO driver is setup there is no playback. Do you get my problem?
Click to expand...

That can be done, but you need to either:

1) Connect your studio monitors to your Axe-FX, or
2) Connect your Axe-FX to your STX.

You'll find instructions for both of these options here:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/axe-fx-for-the-recording-musician.177592/
 
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JPE said:
Yes, I have version 5.58.0
Click to expand...

There is a newer version - v5.62.0 (from the FM3 Downloads page):

1701900141680.png

It is a two step process to get the drivers fully loaded.

What Windows OS are you running? It has been a while since I optimised a PC for recording, but there was a series of steps to get it rock solid. For example, telling Windows to never turn off HDD's (and never turn off power to USB - Fractal gear connected via UBS may not like this setting), choosing High Performance instead of (something like) battery optimization, having Windows prioritising background tasks. Also, new off the shelf PC's and laptops can have a stack of bloatware installed. I usually begin by going to Task Manager and stopping things like Word, Adobe, etc starting automatically on boot - I only want programs running in the background when I want them running.

Also, as another poster mentioned, buffer size is important - if this is set too low, your PC might not be able to keep up (then again it might, if you optimise your PC!).

Lastly, is your DAW, Windows audio, ASIO set to 48khz? The FM3 is locked to this ...
 
Doogz said:
There is a newer version - v5.62.0 (from the FM3 Downloads page):

View attachment 131012

It is a two step process to get the drivers fully loaded.

What Windows OS are you running? It has been a while since I optimised a PC for recording, but there was a series of steps to get it rock solid. For example, telling Windows to never turn off HDD's (and never turn off power to USB - Fractal gear connected via UBS may not like this setting), choosing High Performance instead of (something like) battery optimization, having Windows prioritising background tasks. Also, new off the shelf PC's and laptops can have a stack of bloatware installed. I usually begin by going to Task Manager and stopping things like Word, Adobe, etc starting automatically on boot - I only want programs running in the background when I want them running.

Also, as another poster mentioned, buffer size is important - if this is set too low, your PC might not be able to keep up (then again it might, if you optimise your PC!).

Lastly, is your DAW, Windows audio, ASIO set to 48khz? The FM3 is locked to this ...
Click to expand...
it's on windows 10.
I did find the v5.62 version and installed it. That one wasn't yet on the european website.
My problem remains if I setup studio with a generic asio driver from my soundcard I can playback a song, but I don't have the Axe FX III inputs to record with. I did have that when I was on Cubase 11. So something in audio setting must have changed but I cannot find out what it is.
 
JPE said:
it's on windows 10.
I did find the v5.62 version and installed it. That one wasn't yet on the european website.
My problem remains if I setup studio with a generic asio driver from my soundcard I can playback a song, but I don't have the Axe FX III inputs to record with. I did have that when I was on Cubase 11. So something in audio setting must have changed but I cannot find out what it is.
Click to expand...

It's possible your Cubase Audio Connections changed when you upgraded, so check that panel (you'll find it in the Studio menu).

However, regardless of the settings on your Cubase Audio Connections panel, to do what you want, you'll need to route things the way I described above. The good news it's quite simple to set it up, just follow the instructions in the recording guide I linked above.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/axe-fx-for-the-recording-musician.177592/

The most likely explanation is that in the past you monitored through Cubase. I wouldn't recommend that.
 
GlennO said:
It's possible your Cubase Audio Connections changed when you upgraded, so check that panel (you'll find it in the Studio menu).

However, regardless of the settings on your Cubase Audio Connections panel, to do what you want, you'll need to route things the way I described above. The good news it's quite simple to set it up, just follow the instructions in the recording guide I linked above.
Click to expand...
I gave it a quick reading. I think I go for option 4. Something for tomorrow
 
JPE said:
I gave it a quick reading. I think I go for option 4. Something for tomorrow
Click to expand...

That option is only available on a Mac. You could go back to monitoring through Cubase, which is what I presume you were doing before you upgraded to C13, but I'd recommend configuration #1 or #2. If you need more flexibility than those configurations give you, you could try #5, but that works better with an FM9 or Axe-FX III than an FM3.
 
JPE said:
I gave it a quick reading. I think I go for option 4. Something for tomorrow
Click to expand...
On PC, the right way to do is use the fractal gear (asefx, fm..) as a soundcard (using its own drivers, provided by FAS), bypassing your internal soundcard entirely (the asus). So, your monitor should be connected to your axefx.
If you want to be able to switch your monitor easily between your soundcard and your fractal gear, you could buy a cheap passive monitor controller, with two inputs and a switch. Wiring then becomes: input A asus sc, input b fractal, output your monitors.
 
ezellohar said:
On PC, the right way to do is use the fractal gear (asefx, fm..) as a soundcard (using its own drivers, provided by FAS), bypassing your internal soundcard entirely (the asus). So, your monitor should be connected to your axefx.
If you want to be able to switch your monitor easily between your soundcard and your fractal gear, you could buy a cheap passive monitor controller, with two inputs and a switch. Wiring then becomes: input A asus sc, input b fractal, output your monitors.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say there is one "right way". And, no, it isn't always necessary to connect your monitors to your Axe-FX. See the recording guide linked above for a variety of options for how to do what he's trying to do, some of which don't require connecting monitors directly to the Axe-FX.
 
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