any Q-10 users?

[kc]

Considering an Aadvark Q 10 in the next few weeks, either with Sonar or Vegas. Anyone using either combo? I have a P-3 850, 512 ram, dual hard-drives, windows 98 SE, with the usual treaking of settings, currently using a GL 824 and cool edit, would rather be back in the realtime world, but cool edit was the only ap that would even work with the 824 and I have put off upgrading. If you have any other suggestions on a better combo, let me know. I have considered the delta 1010, but the Q10 looks like it has major potential. I also have Windows 2000 for when the drivers are released. Thanks for any advise.

[Nigun]

Well, kc, I hope to be soon. I ordered one a month ago. Got it, hooked it up, and my system froze big time. Tried different things, still no go. Shipped it to Aardvark. They tested it and said they couldn't find anything wrong. Hope to get it back soon...
I'm running an ASUS A7M266 mobo, which Aardvark said should be okay...

[Rv-Sound]

Nigun: did u tried switching the aardvark to another pci slot?...the same problem happened to me when installing my DP 2496 on a new system. After loading the drivers on windows' PnP wizard the thing just froze, and from there each time I booted up. I switched the card to another pci bus and that fixed the problem.

[kc]

Thanks for the input, I should have the Q-10 in the next few weeks, I want to finsh a couple of projects first. Just wanted to see how its working with Sonar. Hope you get your problem lined out. I have heard only positive things about Aardvarks support. The present lack of WDM is the only thing that has me concerned, but I'm sure it's just around the corner.

[StanS]

Should have my Q10 by this time next week. I am running a Giga-Byte GA-7DX with Athlon XP. I did my homework on this one, and expect it to run very well. I called Aardvark tech and this is the board they recommended for AMD, the A7M from asus had reported problems from other Q10 users. Users of the digi001 and this mobo resolved problems by using a promiseATA controller I believe, but I wouldn't venture to say that would resolve all problems. Go ahead and call Aardvark if you have questions, you will get to talk to someone, and they seem to know their stuff...a big reason I chose them over digi, or anyone else. I am also planning to run Sonar, using demo right now and like it. The Win2000 drivers are soon to be finalized according to Aard when I spoke with them, WDM drivers soon to come. I looked at the delta,etc.. but with 8 mic pres, which I hear sound really good, I don't need my mixer any more. I will post results when all is setup. Also I ordered from www.bayviewproaudio.com (http://www.bayviewproaudio.com) and they are throwing in a free mic and some software, all in all a good deal I think. All for now

Stan

[Jackyl]

I posted this reply under the cakewalk thread-- but saw the same question here so I'll post again. I currently have 2 Q10's up and running with CWPA9. I'm on windows 98SE. Once I got my computer tweaked and running smoothly, I haven't really had any problems with the Q10's and Pro Audio 9. I have a KT7 mobo (VIA KT133 chipset) with a 1.2 T-bird processor, 7200 RPM HD and 512MB RAM. I have had the units for about three months. Got them when they first shipped. I did have to send back one of the units initially, b/c I was picking up some noise from the breakout box. Think I had a bad converter or something. The folks at Aardvark and Sweetwater provided top rate service and I had a replacement unit in no time. No problems since then. The Q10's are pretty quiet and very flexible. I have been recording my band with the units. I have recorded 13 audio tracks at once including a 6 piece acoustic drum set and have had no problems. Very smooth and very crisp sounding. I haven't tried the Q10's with Sonar yet. I am waiting for Aardvark to release their WDM drivers before I upgrade.

[kc]

Thanks for the input. I am using an Asus P3b-F with P-3 850, 512 ram, 7200 hard drives and need to record for now only 8 tracks at one time and be able to playback 24 minimun. Any idea on if I will be able to get this with the Q-10 and my current system either with cakwalk 9 or Sonar? If I need to upgrade, now is the time with a project finishing and payng the bill. Thanks again in advance for all of the help. After being burnt by the Gadget Labs bug, I am very cautious until I hear from current users.
Thanks again for the help.

[Hank Williams]

Let me tell you about my Q10 experience so far:

I too purchased a Gadget Labs 4/96 and was waiting for the promised W2k drivers and got burnt when they went out of business. I thought I would have a winner in the Q10 -read on...


I got the card and put it in my system I had just built an ASUS P4B 1.7 P4. I thought this would be great. It wasn't. It would not be recognized under Windows 98SE -period, even with a fresh install.

No big deal I thought, I will just use the beta 2 driver and install under Windows 2000 since that was what I was really looking forward to. No go - the hardware requires a service to start and it never does. The driver won't copy properly and says the file is missing when it gets to the end of add new hardware. Gee this is starting to suck. So I put on Windows XP Pro Final- same thing. Now getting upset I go back to Windows ME - ahh the card installed and was recognized.

But when I tried to run the card manager applet it gives me a fault and won't run. Nice big error.

I e-mail support and get an updated version of the control program - now it works. But they tell me the file they sent will not be supported. How nice. Does that mean they do support the one that does not work and insist on not supporting the one with the bug fix?

Incidentally the updated version is not available for download. Nor is the driver version they send you on the CD with the Q10. In fact the version on the CD is the first one that supports the Q10 fully. It says so in the readme.txt.

In the meantime, I discover that if I have my SBLive and the Q10 active in devices at the same time then the Q10 will not work. My Gadget Labs card did not do this. My delta/66 card did not do this. For example if I have Q10 enabled and then enable SBLive the Q10 fails to function until SBLive is disabled. If I have SBLive enabled first and then enable Q10 the whole system locks up. And yes it does this on all 4 motherboards I tested.

So now I sit in my studio with a $750 dollar card that does not work right. I have tried the following motherboards:

ASUS P4B I845 - nope.
ASUS CUSL2 I815 - nope.
ABIT Bh6 - BX - nope.
Intel 850 - nope. - just bought this last night - I figured you can't get more compatible than an Intel board. Another $130 down the toilet. Plus $200 for the RDRAM I didn't need before.

Yes I know to look for conflicts and such in I/O, Memory Address, IRQ, etc. There are none. I tried all PCI slots - nothing.

Now we are on Beta 4 of the Windows XP driver so tonight I did another clean install of XP - I put no other cards in the new Intel board except the Q10 host card and my video card - guess what? It still does not install under Windows XP - not even close - the driver begins to copy and then it says unable to copy driver file. Excalmation on device in device manager. Following the instructions in the readme - since this is a known issue - yields - nothing. Nada. Zip.

I have also seen a dude complaining about this very problem in the forums at Pro-Rec.
I also notice one of the guys above me posted that his Q10 was locking up his system. Hmmm....

You do what you want with your money. If I had it to do over again I wish I would never have seen this card arrive on Fed-Ex.

And of course if you buy a card online like at Musicians Friend where I did please beware the small print - NO RETURNS on SOUND CARDS.

I did read of a person or two in these forums who said it was working for them on some AMD platforms. I'm sure there must be others. It seems to me that the entire problem is poopy drivers and software.

I defy anyone to make a logical case that 4 motherboards, with 4 Intel chipsets from 3 manufacturers have some kind of "thing" with the Aark Q10 host card. I have never owned a piece of hardware that had these types of operation problems. Especially when it is the only frigging card in the system at the time.

In my day job I manage a Microsoft Consulting practice with 45 technical staff. I have some experience in computers and really do insist that I am not a bumbling computer newbie.

I sent another rant to Aardvark hoping to get some resolution. Again, you do what you want with your cash. This is just my experience.

If I could do it over again I would go with the MOTU and the finished WDM drivers they provide. I feel cheated. The tech support guys are very nice and try to help you but hey this is getting out of hand. I think my next step will be to mail my PC to them and challenge them to get their card working on any of my motherboards under Windows XP and with my other cards.

[Hank Williams]

Forgot one thing:

When I do jury-rig it to work under Windows ME it works fine with Vegas and sounds loads better than the Gadget Labs or Delta/66. That is what's so maddening. I am so close to sonic nirvana - denied!

[Boom]

Originally posted by Hank Williams:
Forgot one thing:

When I do jury-rig it to work under Windows ME it works fine with Vegas and sounds loads better than the Gadget Labs or Delta/66. That is what's so maddening. I am so close to sonic nirvana - denied!


It sounds like you have a defective card. I have the Direct Pro 2496. I was making music within 30 minutes of opening the box. I would return the Q10 and get another. I use Windows ME, but I just downloaded the Beta 4 drivers, I want to give W2k a try.

[Acousticguitar555]

He bought it from Musicians friend though. They don't take returns at all do they? I feel bad for you man, sorry. Hope you get it resolved though.
Daniel

[Jackyl]

Sorry to hear of all the trouble. I was able to simply pop in the cards and they ran fine the first time. The people at Sweetwater recommended an Intel chipset with the Q10 and warned that I may have problems with the AMD (VIA chipset). I e-mailed Aardvark before I bought the units and asked them if my AMD would work. The support person indicated that they actually used the same AMD chipset
with the Q10 drivers and ensured me everything would work just fine. Also, I try to buy my more expensive musical gear from Sweetwater. I find that thier support staff and product support is exceptional. When I had a converter problem with my first Q10, I had a new unit in just a couple days. They followed up immediately and made sure everything worked. I tend to order the smaller purchases through musicians friend (usually thier proces are little better). Although, EVERY damn order myself and my bandmates have made from musicians friend in the past 3 months has been screwed up! Whoever is packing the boxes can't seem to put the right thing in the box! The returns also take forever.

kc, I'm not sure what your max playback would be-- but my guess is that you should be ok. I have only played back 16 tracks so far (24bit 44.1 rate)-- with little problems. As the size of my project grows, I've found that I have had to tweak my buffer setting to get the best playback. Our songs tend to hit the 6-7 minute length, so the files get pretty big.

[Boom]

Originally posted by Acousticguitar555:
He bought it from Musicians friend though. They don't take returns at all do they? I feel bad for you man, sorry. Hope you get it resolved though.
Daniel

Im unsure if they take returns. I know buying cards at music stores like Mars, its easy to take back because Ive returned quite a few http://www.audioforums.com/forums/wink.gif. Im sure Aardvark would take it, test it, and replace it if it was defective.
Id call them and tell them the deal.

[marcusmusic]

Originally posted by kc:
Considering an Aadvark Q 10 in the next few weeks, either with Sonar or Vegas. Anyone using either combo? I have a P-3 850, 512 ram, dual hard-drives, windows 98 SE, with the usual treaking of settings, currently using a GL 824 and cool edit, would rather be back in the realtime world, but cool edit was the only ap that would even work with the 824 and I have put off upgrading. If you have any other suggestions on a better combo, let me know. I have considered the delta 1010, but the Q10 looks like it has major potential. I also have Windows 2000 for when the drivers are released. Thanks for any advise.

Hi! I have the old Wave 824. How can I get hold of the drivers for Win2000?
Appreciate any help! marcus.music@spray.se

[jrummer]

I just bought the Q10, got it hooked and its actually running on the first try.
My system:
2.0Aghz P4
ASUS P4PE motherboard
512 DDR333 memory
2 Maxtor 80gb hard drives
Windows XP PRO

I tried SONAR last night and had trouble with the install, but it loaded ok and i was able to see a signal and record. except it gave me a dropout right away and showed a lot of CPU usage. i set the latency all the way to the bottom....thats part of the problem. the other one is, i was reading on aardvark's site about using the MME option which will allow the A/WMD driver to be used instead of the standard WDM driver.

my question is, does anyone have any suggestions on tweaks or things to look out for in XP that can help ensure the recording of 8 tracks at the same time? using sonar or even cubase SX.

[mrs FuDpUcKeR]

Mine works flippin' Grate!! on BD7 RAID as long as I:
1. disable raid!
2. disable com ports
3. disable USB
4. disable IDE primary and secondry - using scsi
5. disable LAN (only tempory)
6. never move mouse whilst booting up
7. stop breathing for 70 seconds
Apart from those minor irritants, my wonderful Q10 works all day. Do you think the new driver will help?
P. S. I forgot to mention, I also disable printer port & in the bios I .................................................. .................................................. ........................!!!!