Another happy Aardvark user

[dannyc]

Just letting everyone know, I've been using Sonar (absoutely love it, upgraded to 2.0) and just got a Q10. Easy install and was surprised at the sound quality. Win XP, latest drivers from their website.

[DjatWork]

I´m an Aardvark Happy user too.

[ALBERTPIKE]

ditto

[laaba]

Hi Guys,
are you sure everything is working fine with Windows XP? I´ve been waiting to change from ME to XP but i ve read so many negative experiences in this forum concerning windows media player,winamp etc.
Should i change? i have the 24/96 by the way
thank you all

[joemix]

are you sure everything is working fine with Windows XP?


Yes. As long as you're not using the Intel 850/e chipset(RDRAM), otherwise be prepared for a considerable performance hit, as well as the infamous media player/boot hang, even with aardvark's patch installed.

[Boom]

I'm generally happy. It works fine with ASIO applications but the MME/WDM part is still buggy. I have the media player patch and it still is very slow to start. It really makes me wonder if the AWDM thing is the right way to go or not. CPU's are fast these days, I dont see any need or benefit of using the onboard DSP to power the audio driver. Aardvark is the only card with the Directsound/MME bug AFAIK. I think it probably has something to do with the drivers running on the DSP chip. Run dxdiag from start>run and test the card. You'll get an error along the lines that the card doesnt support buffering. The hardware is superb, drivers are only OK at best. If you ask Aardvark they think that they're finished with the drivers, that they function perfectly, but all of the people here and on other forums with problems is proof that the divers still have bugs. I noticed that on their website they're beta testing Mac drivers which is a waste of time because with the reputation of their 2K/XP drivers nobody with a Mac will be purchasing an Aardvark, they'll stick with the proven Mac hardware-Motu and RME.

[laaba]

What about crashes and hangs do you have many of them when you are recording?
How do you deal with the players to just listen to music or compare mixes, do you use winamp or Which player works then? Is XP much more reliable than ME? i am just wondering if i should go to the trouble because ME crashes on me very often.
thanx for your input

[gascap]

I run the DP 24/96 through XP Pro using Sonar 2.0. I have had no troubles at all - even on a lowly P3 550 (INTEL 440 BX chipset.)

I don't need a ton of tracks and plug-ins (although it will be a nice move-up some day soon to gain the optional tracks/plug-ins) and I get @3-4ms latency. The new drivers fixed my Media Player hang too. More importantly I have had no crashes in 5 months.

I know there were big problems with drivers emerging for the XP platform, but to me, it seems that the problem is pretty well solved. My current situation is rock solid.

Good luck!

[Rv-Sound]

Ditto to. Running win2k, Iwill kk266 plus mobo (Via KT133a), 1.4ghz Athlon Oc'ed to 1.5 ghz. Working good here. Thomas wrote me not long ago stating that there is still a new revision of windows drivers coming this month. Bugs are beign fixed and GSIF support for 2k/XP is beign added.
I differ on the mac thing, since the mac is more of a closed hardware enviroment, and OSX is idiotic stable, I think they will get their soundcards to work even better.

[Stereo]

Hi all, My Q10 is working perfect with my Aardvark Pro Q10 no crash since the final version. It sounds great and it works great

[diminished]

SURE just because it works for a few people,(a few people)dosnt mean it works period. with xp.
it should work for everyone,if it dosnt for everyone,than it dosnt work.is this so much to grasp or what?or are you the very few, work for the man or something?

[gascap]

[This message has been edited by gascap (edited 10-17-2002).]

[SonarAardvark]

Mine works great in XP too. Matter of fact I have 2 24/96 cards working great in XP.

I never crash.

And no, I certainly don't work for Aardvark.

[SonarAardvark]

Maybe it would be better said that just because it doesn't work for one person that doesn't mean the drivers don't work.

[jfletcher]

My Q10 has always been rock solid. Win XP from day 1.

[lemonjello420]

Never had a problem with my 24/96 since upgrading to xp. In fact it's been way more stable.

[joemix]

There are 6 Aardvark threads on this first page of the Sound Cards forum!? Also seeing a new trend of people cut and pasting "my Aardvark works great" in each one.

Those that have followed the development of the driver since early beta, know that a statement such as "my Aarvark is rock solid with XP" is vague, and means jack considering how flaky the driver has been between variations in chipsets, and Microsoft service releases.

Believe me, posts like "my Aarvark RAWKS" is not responsible for the evolution of your stable Aardvark.

[lemonjello420]

my 24/96 has been fine in xp since the early beta days. Now with thre final 7.0 drivers it's great. Have not had any problems. Upgrading to XP with this soundcard has not been a problem.

[laaba]

What about Winamp how does it behave? Can i hear Audio Cds through the card without problems? What player then?

[diminished]

SONARAARDVARK,ITS NOT ONE PERSON dudeeee.
havent you been in this forum for a while and heard the horror stories?ofcourse you have.we know you know it.but i think you are related to whomever and you are always on the deffensive with everyone with q10 and xp with paying consumers.if you doubt my words, look at your replies on the threads.dont stick your head in the sand.
you are exposed anyways.you are not dealing with kids here.
what is your point anyway?disagreeing with hundreds of the people who bought them and didnt work.what are you trying to achieve?its getting old you know.

according to your attitute and constant deffensiveness on this very issue,we have nothing better to do,and all of us are liers, right?

[This message has been edited by diminished (edited 10-18-2002).]

[This message has been edited by diminished (edited 10-18-2002).]

[laaba]

Guys i am just looking for an honest opinion here but i am getting a bit confused with some of this replies!So far i think "boom" has said the true facts of this matter so i´ll wait a bit more till the new drivers come up.
Cheers to you all

[apropos of nothing]

Still experiencing weirdness with my dp2496, I believe related to the Aardvark conflicting with a Highpoint controller. AMD-761, baby! Ish.

Wish they'd put out a driver that addressed this issue, since its "known".

-Jj
http://www.dogma.org/jjvsworld

[SonarAardvark]

Well, actually, no I am not related to anyone who is related to anyone or anything like that.

And as for having my head in the sand, that is not true either.

I have posted on having problems with Aardvark in the past. I was especially critical in how they kept promising the WDM drivers and putting us off.

But that was then and this was now.

Pro Audio cards are specialized pieces of hardware and you shouldn't expect them to plug and play in every possible PC configuration on the planet. I decided that if I wanted to get good performance from my Aarkdvark card that I would go buy the MOBO with chipset that they recommended. Since I have done so I have been really pleased with the results.

The last thing I will say on this matter is that I am currently in the middle of doing a project with 5 songs that each have about over 20 tracks, and my system is working crash free. Sure I can't leave my system running for a week straight without rebooting, but that is the nature of using a PC. The point is that I don't have any problems using my setup to do what I bought it for:

Which is to make music.

[laaba]

Hi Sonarardvark,
Can you develop more on that? What is MOBO and what kind of configuration are you using? I would be also interested if you can use players to play a CD and compare mixes.
Thanx

[SonarAardvark]

Here is the hardware guidlines that Aardvark suggests

Hardware Compatibility
for the Aardvark Q10, Aark 24,
Direct Pro 24/96, LX6, 20/20+, and 20/20

Known Incompatibilities:
Processors:
There are no known problems with any currently produced processors. Pentium, Celeron, Athlon, Duron, K6, are all fine!

Motherboards:
Motherboards using the AMD 750, 751 (or anything else that begins with 75) chipset will not allow our products to work. Keep in mind that the AMD 750, 751 is a chipset, which is different from the processor.

Hard Drives:
There are no known problems with any hard drives, SCSI or IDE.

RAM:
All RAM, including newer technology like DDR works just fine with our products.

CD-ROM, CD-RW drives:
No known problems with any drives.

Other Soundcards:
The only soundcards we are incompatible with are Echo Audio's products, such as Gina, Layla, and Mona.

Network Adapters:
The built in network adapter on newer dell machines does not allow our products to work properly. If you disable the network adapter in Device Manger, though, everything will work fine!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some tips on buying a PC to work with Pro Audio:
Following this rule when buying a motherboard will save countless headaches:
If you are getting an Intel Processor (such as Pentium, or Celeron), make sure the motherboard has an Intel chipset (such as the 815 or 820).

If you decide on an AMD processor, get a motherboard with an AMD chipset (such as the 760 or 761). Chipsets by VIA and Ali will work with our products, but are not recommended for pro audio in general.

Some motherboards have AMD/VIA hybrid chipsets which are fine, though.

Remember- the chipset is not the same as the processor!

If you are not well versed in PC hardware (it's just fine if you're not!), be sure to use IDE drives on your PC instead of SCSI. Although SCSI is considered the best format for Audio, the difference between IDE and SCSI now is not enough to justify the difference in price and convenience. Be sure that the IDE drive is 7200 RPM or faster.
Avoid using a PCI video card. Our products are PCI based, and PCI video cards tend to hog the bus a bit much!
If you want to get a pre-built computer, we've observed the best performance with machines made by Soundchaser, Dell, and Gateway.


I have an AMD 760 chipset on my MOBO with an AMD T-Bird 1.4ghz CPU.

I have a SBLive, a PCI modem, a AGP Gforce 2 video card, and 2 Aardvark DP 24/96 cards

I have WinXP with ACPI disabled.


Hope that helps.

[laaba]

Fine but what player are you using? Winamp? Media player?Music match?Real? And do they work properly?

[Rv-Sound]

I use winamp with no problems.

[Nick Driver]

Originally posted by joemix:
Yes. As long as you're not using the Intel 850/e chipset(RDRAM), otherwise be prepared for a considerable performance hit, as well as the infamous media player/boot hang, even with aardvark's patch installed.

I'm running my DP 24/96 in an i850 chipset mobo (ASUS P4T-E) and not experiencing any performance hit (in Sonar, Samplitude, other serious audio software programs) but I am experiencing the irritating start-up delay in cheap consumer audio apps such as Windows Media Player, Winamp, Realplayer, etc. As long as that's the worst of my problems, I'm happy with the Aardvark. The great sound quality and low latency in Sonar keep me happy.

[laaba]

so you mean in worst case that if i just use my soundblaster card, winamp should be ok?
or is there a setup solution to aardvark?

[clint]

For what it's worth, I'm running Win2K Server, 2 Aardvark Q10's, a 120GB HD, 1.8Ghz P4, 1GB RAM, and for the most part, everything works fine.

I can record 16 live at 16/44.1. Haven't tried 16 x 24/96 yet.

I have a few beefs with the Q10's but they are vastly outweighed by my love for 'em.

I'm fairly new to this forum, so I'll list my beefs in some later posts.

Just know that, as far as I'm concerned, the recordings kick ass, the mic pre's are great, and the input options are wonderful.

Mostly happy with my 2 Q10's,
-Clint

[joemix]

Any word on the new driver due this month? I hope they get it right this time!

[not holding breath]

[directine]

I just wanted to chime in and say that i'm a happy Q10 owner as well. i'm running great with WinXP and CubaseSX..

[oops]

Anyone using an asus a7v333 with aardvark 2496???
Can you record at 96khz without crackling in the background????
email me. Thanks http://www.rightwingproductions.com

[jrummer]

Has anyone had trouble installing sonor xl 2.0 in XP? I tried last night and it locks up at the very end. i can run the program after a power down and reboot. but i cant uninstall from the add remove programs section. any thoughts?

Originally posted by dannyc:
Just letting everyone know, I've been using Sonar (absoutely love it, upgraded to 2.0) and just got a Q10. Easy install and was surprised at the sound quality. Win XP, latest drivers from their website.

[oops]

Its finnicky. It'll work but only after a few goes at it. Uninstall the aardvark drivers for the control panel. Also have to uninstall from the add remove. Remove the aardvark dir from the c drive. Power down. Reboot. Reinstall the cards drivers from the cd or driverfile from aardvark. Reinstall the control panel. Reinstall the 2.1 upgrade from Sonar just to be sure it took. Yessss folks ittttsss Allllllllive. Good luck.
Hope this helps. I found the 2496 to be great sounding and fast as up to 2.5 mls of latency within xp. So software plugs worked in realtime. Couldn't get rid of crackling while recording at 96khz in xp though. Hopefully a new driver will help. http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gifIMHO

[Boom]

Originally posted by oops:
Anyone using an asus a7v333 with aardvark 2496???
Can you record at 96khz without crackling in the background????
email me. Thanks http://www.rightwingproductions.com


Im on a Pentium system and I have the same problem. The 2496 doesnt do "2496". Aardvark has falsely labeled and advertised their product.

[mrs FuDpUcKeR]

Has anybody noticed how many brand new Q10's have been on eBay in the last month?
Does that mean Aardvark are going down?
Like I mentioned ina previous post, mine works OK if I:
1. disable raid!
2. disable com ports
3. disable USB
4. disable IDE primary and secondry - using scsi
5. disable LAN (tempory)
6. disable printer port
Perhaps there will never be a satisfactory driver as maybe the hardware itself is faulty.

[Michael Quayle]

So, you mean yours works if you disable the rest of your machine then? http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[smooth1_2u]

hey guys
i just got a AMD xP 2200 w/ 512 ddr ram and 80gig 7200 hd. plus the aardvark 2496. im running 2000 professional and i had problems. first i guess there is a invisible conflict between my modem and aardvark. i cant dailup, if i try to it freezes my computer - anyway around this ? for time being i just made 2 hardware profiles. also when i try to listen to mp3's or wav's thru any player, its slows the computer down. its takes forever to play the darn music. what is the solution ? i red all this stuff about the patch where is it ? will it work on mine ? should i just convert to XP professional ?

[Roycanedo]

Seems like all your coments have convinced me about the Aardvark Q10, but now for the best test of all.
Anyone has something recorded and mixed thru de Q10 so I can hear it?

[Roycanedo]

I forgot, if someone does have any listening material, please include a list of the other gear used in the project.

Thanks

Roy

[Tcmax]

I have been using a Q10 for about 6 mths now. The thing I found was it was unstable under XP living alongside a SB Audigy. In the meantime I was told by two different people at Aardvark that new drivers were on the way to solve that problem. What I have now had to do was send my Q10 back to Aardvark for a chip update which cost me $39.00 they do not tell anyone ANYWHERE that this is needed .. but you need it to run at 24/96 otherwise all you get is noise! now I am waiting to build a dedicated system for the studio so no idea if it is better yet. Will keep you all posted when I do. In the meantime you can hear things recorded on the Q10 at my studios website.

[Dick not Richard]

Originally posted by Tcmax:
What I have now had to do was send my Q10 back to Aardvark for a chip update which cost me $39.00 they do not tell anyone ANYWHERE that this is needed .. but you need it to run at 24/96 otherwise all you get is noise!

Tcmax,

What the hell?!!?!!
Can you please elaborate on this?

If the hardware does not do what it's manufacturer advertizes it should do, should the manufacturer not replace the parts free of charge?

Why did they charge you $39? Shipping?

I've been a Q 10 owner for about 6 months or so and haven't got the problems ironed out quite yet. To blame my problems on Aardvark alone would be unfair because my computer is a frankenstein of leftover, near obsolete components and I know it's a piece of crapola (though it's always been a stable machine before the installation of the Aardvark Q 10, hmmmmmm..)

[Tcmax]

Originally posted by Dick not Richard:
Tcmax,

What the hell?!!?!!
Can you please elaborate on this?

If the hardware does not do what it's manufacturer advertizes it should do, should the manufacturer not replace the parts free of charge?

Why did they charge you $39? Shipping?



Simple really the hardware version of the firmware did not support 24/96 in the Q10 I purchased back in June. They told me on the phone I needed to send it to them for an update.. now supposedly it does .. cannot confirm yet until I have a machine to put it back in. It was stable other than the known bug of the control panel software dissapearing .. but as soon as I went to use 24/96 I got noise .. prompting the phone call to them. And like I say .. they don't really want people to know this obviously..

Cheers

[trfb]

Has anyone run into a problem with the timing being off when playing back or recording using a metronome (MIDI)? When I play a project back with a click track to record the timing is off. When I press the space bar to play back, there is a delay and then the time begins. It's keeping me from moving forward in the recording process. I'm using a Aardvark Pro Q10, Soundblaster Live, and Sonar 2.1.

[Tcmax]

Originally posted by trfb:
Has anyone run into a problem with the timing being off when playing back or recording using a metronome (MIDI)? When I play a project back with a click track to record the timing is off. When I press the space bar to play back, there is a delay and then the time begins. It's keeping me from moving forward in the recording process. I'm using a Aardvark Pro Q10, Soundblaster Live, and Sonar 2.1.

You are using the new 7.04 drivers for the Q10 I take it? at any rate in my opinion for what it is worth you need to ditch the SB live from your system .. Q10 had enough troubles with my SB Audigy even with WDM drivers it does not like to play nice with another card on board. The only trouble then I realise it losing the sound fonts & or gaming ability .. a fact that is not lost on me .. having to own two PC's these days since I switched to using a DAW based PC.
Cheers Tc http://www.castille.us

[dhassay]

I have had my q10 since it came out and I have through some very pissed off stages with it concerning drivers. after seeing this thread I felt the need to give my opinion. The moment the xp drivers left the beta stage (i was a tester) I have had not one problem. I latency in the early days with sonar with awful. I built an xp pro box loaded the new drivers, installed my favorite program which is cubase sx and like I said-not one problem. I read the many many threads here and many other forums where people were soo pissed at aardvark and thomas. I know it can be frustrating to not have expensive hardware work properly but I can say it was worth the wait.


Since there are alot of people who own aardvarks how about giving some suggestions on various configurations for it.

[Tcmax]

Originally posted by dhassay:
I have had my q10 since it came out and I have through some very pissed off stages with it concerning drivers. after seeing this thread I felt the need to give my opinion. The moment the xp drivers left the beta stage (i was a tester) I have had not one problem. I latency in the early days with sonar with awful. I built an xp pro box loaded the new drivers, installed my favorite program which is cubase sx and like I said-not one problem. I read the many many threads here and many other forums where people were soo pissed at aardvark and thomas. I know it can be frustrating to not have expensive hardware work properly but I can say it was worth the wait.


Since there are alot of people who own aardvarks how about giving some suggestions on various configurations for it.

The only real configuration for the Aardvark is a good solid brand name motherboard (ASUS, Gigabyte, Intel..intel chipsets need only apply in my VAST experience) with either win2k or XP ..( I use XP) it is very clear and most of the time reliable now .. but there is still the fact that it is really only happy to be on it's own, and if you try to use it with SB products it loses the plot that is a fact .. you have to build a dedicated PC for the DAW with your sequencer/audio recording software of choice I use Sonar XL 2.1 here with Sound Forge 6 and Waves plus a few other add-ons. I went through a rally big run around with both Aardvark and Creative Labs over these issues .. I would love to run two cards & two seperate user configurations but that is a fantasy the reality is two pc's one for the studio .. which is fine .. makes it easier to keep house so to speak.

A happy setup with above mentioned motherboard in mind is at least a P4 class of 1.2GHZ or better ( reality check my 2.26GHZ performs more like I think one should) with either DDR2100 or better speed RAM preferably 512MB or more.. never enough RAM and DO NOT!! use any of the tweaks described on the pages strewn across the web at best some are off the mark due to new improvements in motherboard technology such as FULL ACPI implementatin allowing for higher IRQ's beyond 16 and registry entries best left as are .. in Aardvarks opinion most are a crock one gentleman at Aardvark when I told him about setting background tasks instead of programs in the advanced settings of XP promptly told me to set it back .. that was causing a delay in the win media player .. and also wave play back in general .. he was right. .. just one example I realise. What you MUST do with the drivers for the Aardvark Q10 at least is use it in MME mode on Sonar and use the 32bit left justified ( I think that was it .. not looking at my settings) and 48 buffer sizes in all sample rates... it then VERY happily gives me 1ms latency at 4buffers to an effective 3ms which I am fine with as there is NO drop out at all at 24/96 even. Sorry if this is long and drawn out and it is only my opinion for whatever that is worth.

Thanks
Tc http://www.castille.us

[dannyc]

I agree. My Aardvark has always worked great, and with the new drivers I just put back my SB live back in my computer (I had removed it from hearing thes posts) and, as expected, it works great.

The Q10 is a great piece of gear. I never had any problems, but cutting through all the fog on this forum it seems this last driver (7.04) fixed most people's complaints.

My congrats to Aardvark.

[le french cowboy 1]

allo

[Jeff Barrett]

" in Aardvarks opinion most are a crock one gentleman at Aardvark when I told him about setting background tasks instead of programs in the advanced settings of XP promptly told me to set it back .. that was causing a delay in the win media player .. "

It may cause the delay, or may not for you. Either setting gives the delay for me and the patch thus doesnt work. Also when set to background tasks I get alot better CPU (noticable in mixes) performance with mixes in Nuendo. Also this is an AARDVARK only anomaly if thats the case. Ive not yet come across another card manufacturer with this sympton so the problem lies within their driver. Next us older aark users are stuck with an older driver and waiting games on drivers cause of newer products. This has been an Aardvark problem since I bought my card and has caused me to bump my Aark card down to a computer B system because its taken them 4.5 yrs to get things straight driver wise. Its been 7 months since the last driver almost. But they seem to have time to instead of getting their heart and soul (the people who bought their products and kept them in business) PC products better drivers they work on a MAC driver. This is the aggravating stance of it all. Next driver release (meaning after the June 2003 release of 7.04 for 24/2020/2020+) users will probably not even support their older cards. Great products yes. Driver support No.

Other than that though the current release of the drivers that I can use is functional and works well. Asides from the Winamp/Media Player thing that is. Works with MyMP3 player by Steinberg though.

Jeff