Recording/Studio Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread - Megathread

[ThePIGI King]

 

[ThePIGI King]

Did you manually delete C:\\Program Files\Focusrite\Drivers?

When you try to uninstall the drivers, Windows is telling you that the uninstaller (unins000.msg) which is supposed to be in that folder is missing. I'm trying to figure out why is it missing.. What if you go to that folder? What is in there?

I don't think I deleted it manually. I could have by accident. I thought I uninstalled everything the way it was suggested in the CS email.

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

View attachment 140153

It's there!! Now run "unins000", what does that tell you? Does it allow you to uninstall?

 

[ThePIGI King]

It's there!! Now run "unins000", what does that tell you? Does it allow you to uninstall?

No, still this

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

No, still this

View attachment 140154

That's strange. Something's broken about the install I guess.

Maybe you could have an antivirus that's blocking those files? See on the Focusrite article there's a couple more files in that folder.
Another thing you could try is to delete that folder and try installing the drivers over it, see if it'll let you then, but it could be risky.

But if you want to play it safe keep talking with customer support I guess. See what they say.

I usually do everything myself because if I break something serious I'll just reinstall Windows and start over. I save all my stuff on drives other than C: so I don't have to worry about losing anything. But that's not the case for everyone. Also I don't have an antivirus, only Windows Defender. But I searched online and "unins000.msg is missing" seems to be an old problem with more than one program. People solve it in different ways.

 

[ThePIGI King]

That's strange. Something's broken about the install I guess.

Maybe you could have an antivirus that's blocking those files? See on the Focusrite article there's a couple more files in that folder.
Another thing you could try is to delete that folder and try installing the drivers over it, see if it'll let you then, but it could be risky.

But if you want to play it safe keep talking with customer support I guess. See what they say.

I usually do everything myself because if I break something serious I'll just reinstall Windows and start over. I save all my stuff on drives other than C: so I don't have to worry about losing anything. But that's not the case for everyone. Also I don't have an antivirus, only Windows Defender. But I searched online and "unins000.msg is missing" seems to be an old problem with more than one program. People solve it in different ways.

I've actually done all of these lol I uninstalled all antivirus, I uninstalled everything and started from scratch.

My newest idea is to transfer the files from the the laptop where everything works and see what happens. Worst case scenario I wipe my computer and start from scratch. I have 3 lol

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

I've actually done all of these lol I uninstalled all antivirus, I uninstalled everything and started from scratch.

My newest idea is to transfer the files from the the laptop where everything works and see what happens. Worst case scenario I wipe my computer and start from scratch. I have 3 lol

Yeah there's different things you can try. At least now you know that the interface itself is fine, since it works with the laptop.

 

[ThePIGI King]

Yeah there's different things you can try. At least now you know that the interface itself is fine, since it works with the laptop.

Yuppers!

It worked. I just took the uninstall file I was missing and put it on this computer and it let me uninstall - I redownloaded everything and it properly downloaded. It all works!

Thank you all for the help!

 

[ThePIGI King]

So I just experienced something odd with the new interface...I was tabbing in GP7 and all of a sudden all audio sounded as if my speakers blew out. I pulled up youtube and spotify and yep, same thing. I tried it through the headphone output on the interface and same thing. I unplugged it, plugged it back in, and now the audio sounds fine through the monitors and headphones. GP7 and youtube sound fine. Spotify won't open. It gives me an error that says "The Spotify Application is not Responding". And it's only since plugging back in the interface.

I'm really unhappy with the entire experience. Between the pain it was to get it to download the drivers and work, to now not letting me open spotify on my computer and randomly messing up the output signal, this thing is kind of junk. I might just try and return it without the packaging and buy a headphone amp to run the DT770s I'm going to be getting and use my old 2i2. I didn't NEED 4 outputs, but it was nice.

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

So I just experienced something odd with the new interface...I was tabbing in GP7 and all of a sudden all audio sounded as if my speakers blew out. I pulled up youtube and spotify and yep, same thing. I tried it through the headphone output on the interface and same thing. I unplugged it, plugged it back in, and now the audio sounds fine through the monitors and headphones. GP7 and youtube sound fine. Spotify won't open. It gives me an error that says "The Spotify Application is not Responding". And it's only since plugging back in the interface.

I'm really unhappy with the entire experience. Between the pain it was to get it to download the drivers and work, to now not letting me open spotify on my computer and randomly messing up the output signal, this thing is kind of junk. I might just try and return it without the packaging and buy a headphone amp to run the DT770s I'm going to be getting and use my old 2i2. I didn't NEED 4 outputs, but it was nice.

Heheh things like this used to happen to me with my old 1st gen 2i4 but I eventually fixed it.
One was to turn off USB Selective Suspend, that configuration is in your Windows power plan config.
Second was to turn off power saving on all USB ports in the Device Manager.

There are other tricks but I can't remember all of them now, I have them written down in a notebook. Those two are really important though.

Basically what happens with the default configuration is that when the computer thinks it's "idle" it will stop giving power to the USB ports, making the audio interface shit itself.
And then you have to unplug the cable and plug it back in for it to work again, the same thing used to happen to me.
This is not just a Focusrite thing though, it will happen with any interface. My Helix USB used to crash for the same reason, you just have to optimise your system for audio a bit.

 

[ThePIGI King]

Heheh things like this used to happen to me with my old 1st gen 2i4 but I eventually fixed it.
One was to turn off USB Selective Suspend, that configuration is in your Windows power plan config.
Second was to turn off power saving on all USB ports in the Device Manager.

There are other tricks but I can't remember all of them now, I have them written down in a notebook. Those two are really important though.

Basically what happens with the default configuration is that when the computer thinks it's "idle" it will stop giving power to the USB ports, making the audio interface shit itself.
And then you have to unplug the cable and plug it back in for it to work again, the same thing used to happen to me.
This is not just a Focusrite thing though, it will happen with any interface. My Helix USB used to crash for the same reason, you just have to optimise your system for audio a bit.

I appreciate the help you've been giving me. I'll give these a shot tonight if I have time. If not, I'll try it Saturday.

 

[profwoot]

Heheh things like this used to happen to me with my old 1st gen 2i4 but I eventually fixed it.
One was to turn off USB Selective Suspend, that configuration is in your Windows power plan config.
Second was to turn off power saving on all USB ports in the Device Manager.

There are other tricks but I can't remember all of them now, I have them written down in a notebook. Those two are really important though.

Basically what happens with the default configuration is that when the computer thinks it's "idle" it will stop giving power to the USB ports, making the audio interface shit itself.
And then you have to unplug the cable and plug it back in for it to work again, the same thing used to happen to me.
This is not just a Focusrite thing though, it will happen with any interface. My Helix USB used to crash for the same reason, you just have to optimise your system for audio a bit.

This is good advice.

I also had a case one time where something was messing with the sample rate so my interface was at 48k and windows kept setting it to 44.1 or something. It made it sound like you're describing. Just one more thing to check if issues persist.

 

[tedtan]

Yeah, you have to optimize Windows for audio. I’ve been on Mac for several years, so I’m not up to date on what needs to be done with the latest versions of Windows, but a quick Google turns up guides from Presonus, Sweetwater, Apogee, and more.

 

[DimMak]

Can anyone reccomend me some options for mixing phone recorded video and DAW recorded audio? I am currently using Reaper and Open shot video editor, the interface seems a little sub optimal for lining up the audio track to video. Just want to record some simple guitar videos with DAW, maybe do some pickup reviews for youtube. Pretty novice at all this but learn easily.

 

[cthsqd]

I use Vegas 20, bought cheap at some Steam promo. Easy but fully capable video editor. I've made some vids having barely no experience. I've tried Adobe Premiere as well, but failed so far. Whether because of lack of experience or a diffrent workflow, can't say for sure, but at this point I'd say Vegas.

 

[CanserDYI]

The Helix is terrible with plugins if you want to monitor your sound after the DAW. Pops and crackles start way earlier too, it can't handle too many plugins in a session for some reason before having problems. The driver controls are not so good either. It's really really sketchy.
An interface like the 4i4 will do 100 times better job as an interface. Just try it yourself, try mixing a full song with the Helix as the interface, you'll see what I mean.
What Helix do you have LT or Floor? Because LT doesn't have 48V power for a condenser, or an XLR in.

I have had absolutely zero issues using my helix LT as my full time interface, replacing all three of my other Focusrites and Presonus ones YMMV.

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

I have had absolutely zero issues using my helix LT as my full time interface, replacing all three of my other Focusrites and Presonus ones YMMV.

I don't know, depends what you're doing I guess. My experience recording & mixing a full album with it was not good. And I was switching back and forth between the Helix LT and the 2i4 at the time.
I was using Helix USB to record and reamp the guitars and the 2i4 to mix. Because once I added a few plugins with Helix as the audio interface, the artifacts would start.
In fact I was using both VSTi drums and bass for that album. And as I was reamping I remember having to disable the virtual instruments to do the reamp because otherwise I would get artifacts in the reamped audio way more often. Which is pretty crazy and terrible.

It just seems like the Helix as an audio interface drowns in a glass of water. Where any other interface can handle a ton of plugins with no sweat, the Helix will start having artifacts with as little as 1 or 2 CPU heavy plugins.

Then there's the driver panel control. You can't change the sample rate. Just have to trust the Helix to sync itself to whatever program is running?
What if you don't want to use the Helix for guitar processing. What if you wanna play with S-Gear, or TSE or whatever?
Then you can play with them, but with worse latency than any of the dedicated audio interfaces that you can buy for a 5th of the price for like 200€.
And the buffer size bar barely makes any difference. You'll still get noticeable latency at the minimum setting, you'll still get artifacts at the maximum setting.
And what if you want to have 8-10 instances of an amp sim plugin in the project? Well then you basically can't, because with 2-3 instances you'll already start getting artifacts.

I remember having this discussion in the Line 6 forums and from what I remember people agreed with me. Which is why I can't recommend the Helix as an audio interface by itself.

 

[CanserDYI]

I don't know, depends what you're doing I guess. My experience recording & mixing a full album with it was not good. And I was switching back and forth between the Helix LT and the 2i4 at the time.
I was using Helix USB to record and reamp the guitars and the 2i4 to mix. Because once I added a few plugins with Helix as the audio interface, the artifacts would start.
In fact I was using both VSTi drums and bass for that album. And as I was reamping I remember having to disable the virtual instruments to do the reamp because otherwise I would get artifacts in the reamped audio way more often. Which is pretty crazy and terrible.

It just seems like the Helix as an audio interface drowns in a glass of water. Where any other interface can handle a ton of plugins with no sweat, the Helix will start having artifacts with as little as 1 or 2 CPU heavy plugins.

Then there's the driver panel control. You can't change the sample rate. Just have to trust the Helix to sync itself to whatever program is running?
What if you don't want to use the Helix for guitar processing. What if you wanna play with S-Gear, or TSE or whatever?
Then you can play with them, but with worse latency than any of the dedicated audio interfaces that you can buy for a 5th of the price for like 200€.
And the buffer size bar barely makes any difference. You'll still get noticeable latency at the minimum setting, you'll still get artifacts at the maximum setting.
And what if you want to have 8-10 instances of an amp sim plugin in the project? Well then you basically can't, because with 2-3 instances you'll already start getting artifacts.

I remember having this discussion in the Line 6 forums and from what I remember people agreed with me. Which is why I can't recommend the Helix as an audio interface by itself.

Fair, I suppose I don't use mine for much more than demo recordings, but works absolutely fine for all of my applications, and I feel I use quite a decent amount of plug ins and VSTs with it and haven't run into any issues on my end, at least.

At least you have an answer on why you think that, most people are just talking out of their ass.

 

[cthsqd]

I don't know, depends what you're doing I guess. My experience recording & mixing a full album with it was not good. And I was switching back and forth between the Helix LT and the 2i4 at the time.
I was using Helix USB to record and reamp the guitars and the 2i4 to mix. Because once I added a few plugins with Helix as the audio interface, the artifacts would start.
In fact I was using both VSTi drums and bass for that album. And as I was reamping I remember having to disable the virtual instruments to do the reamp because otherwise I would get artifacts in the reamped audio way more often. Which is pretty crazy and terrible.

It just seems like the Helix as an audio interface drowns in a glass of water. Where any other interface can handle a ton of plugins with no sweat, the Helix will start having artifacts with as little as 1 or 2 CPU heavy plugins.

Then there's the driver panel control. You can't change the sample rate. Just have to trust the Helix to sync itself to whatever program is running?
What if you don't want to use the Helix for guitar processing. What if you wanna play with S-Gear, or TSE or whatever?
Then you can play with them, but with worse latency than any of the dedicated audio interfaces that you can buy for a 5th of the price for like 200€.
And the buffer size bar barely makes any difference. You'll still get noticeable latency at the minimum setting, you'll still get artifacts at the maximum setting.
And what if you want to have 8-10 instances of an amp sim plugin in the project? Well then you basically can't, because with 2-3 instances you'll already start getting artifacts.

I remember having this discussion in the Line 6 forums and from what I remember people agreed with me. Which is why I can't recommend the Helix as an audio interface by itself.

Not denying your experience, but tbh all what you say runs perfectly smooth here (Helix LT). My last track had approx 6 helix native instances, drums vst, 4-5 synths, lots of EQs, compressors, mastering VSTs, and in the end I've also added a ZGameEditor Visualizer with a 4k video, and I've had absolutely no problems with that. Perhaps what you say is caused by other pc components (RAM or CPU), and some other interfaces might handle it better.
The only thing I've got a problem with is latency when using a midi keyboard, what drives me mad, and for this reason I'm thinking of using my other interface which I've used only for microphone so far.

 

[ibenhad]

Best advice I can give is Record, Record and Record some more. Equipment is just a by product to make you spend more money. Sure it's nice to have but once you get things sounding the way you want you are there. Great recordings have been done on 4 track cassette machines. Also performance is more important. I have heard tracks done in hotel room bathrooms that are mind blowing. We are taught, trained and raised to be consumers and CONSUME... Focus on doing and get equipment as your needs dictate, don't let the equipment dictate your needs. PM me if you like. Just stop worrying about the superfluous and get recording. Lastly ignore what the Internet tells you (Including me) and spend less time on the Interwebs and get recording. All IMHO of course.