Ultralite AVB

Talk about your MIDI interfaces, microphones, keyboards...

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bluebell
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

GraysonPeddie wrote:Is the Ultralite AVB the ES version or non-ES version in Amazon?
https://www.amazon.com/MOTU-UltraLite-A ... NrPXRydWU=

There's a lot of discussion going on in this thread and I do appreciate the community a lot. I am wondering about the difference between ES and non-ES version of the audio interface. If there's a discussion about the differences between the two, I'll have to do some reading to find out unless anyone is kind enough to list the differences between them.
It looks like my old AVB but you can never be sure what they'll send to you. So I am afraid you have to ask there and make sure you get an old one.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

romki
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by romki »

ahellquist wrote: Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:55 pm I am using 1.3.4+558 which was one of the betas for their Touch Console Mixer and works quite well if you need newer firmware but not the ones that doesn't work.

If you want to test it, let me know.

/anders
Hello, I'd love to test it, but as I am a new forum member it seems I can't PM...
I just got a Motu 16a. They said class compliant, so I thought it would be, now I try to make it work.
I do understand a lot more after reading this thread though.
Thanks for the efforts!
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by Silhm »

Hi there!

I have the Ultralite for 2 years, until now I used it most of the time as a standalone mixer, or to record stuff on a macMini (both with AVB or USB) without any trouble.
I started to record some stuff on linux (mint, no RT kernel 5.0) and I got some bitcrusher noise while playing audio (record was ok).
I tried with another computer just for playback and I still have this horrible noise going on then silence, 1 min later, sound is coming back but bitcrusher noise start again as well.
I tried with Jackd and pulseaudio, result is the same.
I tried different frequency (44.1 and 48).
I also tried different firmware without any success.

Does anyone still having the same problem? I thinking about selling the unit and take something else (but I kinda like the small and all in one Motu unit)

You can hear the horrible noise here: https://youtu.be/0qteD-5UUIY around 00:20
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bluebell
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

Silhm wrote: Fri Mar 20, 2020 2:25 pm Does anyone still having the same problem? I thinking about selling the unit and take something else (but I kinda like the small and all in one Motu unit)

You can hear the horrible noise here: https://youtu.be/0qteD-5UUIY around 00:20
Didn't have the same problem but similar fading in/outs and channel hoppings.

Best results by now with Firmware 1.3.4+558.

Still input channel hopping (modulo 8, but only once) when I change jackd's buffer size on the fly (jack_bufsize).

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by Drumfix »

The firmware that should work without any additional patches is this one:

http://cdn-data.motu.com/downloads/audi ... B16.update

The only thing you loose is the Touchconsole.
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

Drumfix wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:19 pm The firmware that should work without any additional patches is this one:

http://cdn-data.motu.com/downloads/audi ... B16.update

The only thing you loose is the Touchconsole.
There is 1.3.4+558 with touch console. I have it.
1.3.2+520 is as good, but without touch console.

Both have no output channel hopping modulo 8 but input channel one-shoot-hopping when changing jackd's buffer size on the fly (with jack_bufsize).

My procedure:
- Switch on Utralite AVB
- Switch on PC and boot Linux
- Wait until the Ultralite AVB changes sampling rate to 192k
- Load your favourite preset with a web browser interface or with curl
- Wait 10 seconds
- Start jackd and programs

Loading the preset and starting programs does a script for me that's started when I log in to xfce4:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

PRIO=80
FREQ=48000
BUFFERS=3
PERIODS=256

IFACES="PCH 2i2 2i4 AVB"
PGMS="pulseaudio jack_mixer jack_thru jack-plumbing.sh jack-plumbing jackd a2jmidid"
JACKTHRU="main mic git"

kill_em_all()
  {
  for I in $PGMS
  do
    killall $I
  done

  sleep 1

  for I in $PGMS
  do
    killall -9 $I
  done

  sleep 1
  }

on_die()
  {
  notify-send "Audio initialization aborted"
  kill_em_all
  exit 0
  }

trap 'on_die' HUP TERM


notify-send "Audio initialization started"

kill_em_all

for I in $IFACES
do
  F=`aplay -l | grep $I | cut -d : -f 1 | cut -d " " -f 2`
  if [ -n "$F" ]
  then
    HW="$F"
    M="$I"
  fi
done

if [ "$M" = "AVB" ]
then
  AVBHOST=motu
   
  notify-send "Audio initialization in progress: enabling preset"
  curl -s --data 'json={"value":"1000"}' ${AVBHOST}/datastore/ext/presets/load 
  sleep 10
fi

notify-send "Audio initialization in progress: waiting for interface"
sleep 8

notify-send "Audio initialization in progress: starting jack"
/usr/bin/jackd -P${PRIO} -p512 -t2000 -dalsa \
  -r$FREQ -p$PERIODS -n$BUFFERS -Xseq -dhw:$HW -zs \
  >/tmp/jackd-${USER}.log 2>&1 &
JACKPID=$!
jack_wait -w

sleep 1

notify-send "Audio initialization in progress: starting utilities"
pulseaudio --exit-idle-time=-1 > /tmp/pulse-${USER}.log 2>&1 &
PULSEPID=$!

for I in $JACKTHRU
do
  jack_thru $I &
done
sleep 1

~/scripts/jack-plumbing.sh &
JACKPLUMBINGPID=$!

notify-send "Audio initialization complete"

wait
jack-plumbing.sh looks like:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

while true
do
  jack-plumbing -u 90000
done

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

Silhm
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by Silhm »

Drumfix wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:19 pm The firmware that should work without any additional patches is this one:

http://cdn-data.motu.com/downloads/audi ... B16.update

The only thing you loose is the Touchconsole.
Could not find 1.3.4+558 with touch console

But with 1.3.2+520 it works like a charm! Without touch console, too bad, but at least my MOTU is usable!
Thanks a lot
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by bluebell »

Silhm wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2020 4:28 pm
Drumfix wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:19 pm The firmware that should work without any additional patches is this one:

http://cdn-data.motu.com/downloads/audi ... B16.update

The only thing you loose is the Touchconsole.
Could not find 1.3.4+558 with touch console

But with 1.3.2+520 it works like a charm! Without touch console, too bad, but at least my MOTU is usable!
Thanks a lot
I sent you a PM.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

tom0915
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by tom0915 »

Hello there, I am new to this forum, I have been having similar problems with the Ultralite AVB, do you think anyone could share that beta firmware that seems to be working? (with touch console) thank you very much!
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by ahellquist »

tom0915 wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 4:15 pm Hello there, I am new to this forum, I have been having similar problems with the Ultralite AVB, do you think anyone could share that beta firmware that seems to be working? (with touch console) thank you very much!
PM sent
tom0915
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by tom0915 »

Okey, little update : the beta 1.3.4.558 works really good for me, just have to make the sample rate and buffer size changes from the motu web-app, latency is around 8 ms and had no stability issues, glitches nor channel swapping. I'm running manjaro with realtime kernel 5.4.26, tested on Reaper and Bitwig..
Did have a couple of xruns but didn't hear the difference ; sorry for the dumb question, is there any log that show what causes the xruns ? qjackctl doesn't say.

Thank you all
ahellquist
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by ahellquist »

tom0915 wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 11:28 am Okey, little update : the beta 1.3.4.558 works really good for me, just have to make the sample rate and buffer size changes from the motu web-app, latency is around 8 ms and had no stability issues, glitches nor channel swapping. I'm running manjaro with realtime kernel 5.4.26, tested on Reaper and Bitwig..
Did have a couple of xruns but didn't hear the difference ; sorry for the dumb question, is there any log that show what causes the xruns ? qjackctl doesn't say.

Thank you all
There is no log that shows the cause..
It might be possible to monitor processes with htop to find what is giving you x-runs if they appear periodically and not caused by heavy load.

There are a lot of things one can do to improve the latency and stability if you haven't done that already.
rtirq and raise the priority of the sound interface. (needs threadirqs kernel argument)
Disable unnecessary devices on your computer, (wifi, camera, bluetooth, fingerprint reader and such)
Move the Motu device to a different usb-connector (check lsub to find a bus with no/few other devices on)
pin the cpu frequency or at least select perormance scheduler
change jack2 to jack1 sometimes gives a lot less x-runs for some reason

Check this link for many ways to improve performance if you haven't
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=19276
http://jack-audio.10948.n7.nabble.com/J ... 18671.html
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=19268

I am having x-runs myself and trying to find the cause.. Welcome to the club :-)

I wish we had a small utility that could analyze cpu/dsp-load and keep track of x-runs and match x-runs with process priorities or sudden irq spikes. Something like dtrace in Solaris maybe.

X-runs and finding the cause has haunted the linux audio community since day one.
ahellquist
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by ahellquist »

There is also a linux utility called latencytop that can help finding whats causing problems..
tom0915 wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 11:28 am Okey, little update : the beta 1.3.4.558 works really good for me, just have to make the sample rate and buffer size changes from the motu web-app, latency is around 8 ms and had no stability issues, glitches nor channel swapping. I'm running manjaro with realtime kernel 5.4.26, tested on Reaper and Bitwig..
Did have a couple of xruns but didn't hear the difference ; sorry for the dumb question, is there any log that show what causes the xruns ? qjackctl doesn't say.

Thank you all
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by tom0915 »

Great, I'll check that out, inthe mean time, I think pipewire was what was causing the x-runs, I never set it up but it keeps executing when I log in. By killing it in the terminal the x-runs stopped, I guess it was trying to take over..
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Re: Ultralite AVB

Post by root2 »

I recently bought the Ultralite AVB and it came with Firmware 1.3.5+637. I also experienced channel hopping and distorted sound :( Can you send me that beta firmware too? Thank's in advice!
bluebell wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2020 4:49 pm
Silhm wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2020 4:28 pm
Drumfix wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 12:19 pm The firmware that should work without any additional patches is this one:

http://cdn-data.motu.com/downloads/audi ... B16.update

The only thing you loose is the Touchconsole.
Could not find 1.3.4+558 with touch console

But with 1.3.2+520 it works like a charm! Without touch console, too bad, but at least my MOTU is usable!
Thanks a lot
I sent you a PM.
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