Have I Got A Hardware Conflict.

[stookiebhoy]

Hi guys. Am brand new to all this so please be gentle. I bought a Mackie Onyx Satellite AI today as I want to record my band in a live situation. Here's the problem. I am connecting it to my pc via the firewire port on my audigy PCI card. I am running Sonar 6 and when I go into the I/O options, I see my Mackie listed but it won't let me choose it in the tick box so I obviously can't record through it. I have tried enabling, disabling drivers....but nothing seems to work. Would appreciate someone's help on this as it's doing my head in.
Thanks in advance
Mark

[Reegs]

What set of drivers are you running (ASIO/WDM), and have you tried installing the drivers from here (http://mackie.com/products/onyxfirewire/onyxfw_update.html)?

It could be a number of problems. I recall hearing that the onyx firewire drivers aren't the most solid ones ever written. Also, I couldn't find a model of the Audigy line that has a firewire port, but the cable (http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=16&product=552) they sell suggests I just haven't found it yet.

Creative's are generally regarded as consumer cards, and you don't want them touching anything you're recording. My first guess to the conflict is going to be this Audigy firewire port. It's probably great for external drives, and a POS for transmitting audio information and letting the Mackie driver communicate with the hardware. Have you tried a different firewire port on your computer?

If you don't have one, they're wicked cheap PCI card add ins. For the best stability, go for one with a Texas Instruments chipset, like this one (http://www.firewiregear.net/productdetails1.cfm?sku=TI-3P-PCI&cats=302).

[itsplayed]

Do not use the Soundblaster to connect the Onyx, purchase a dedicated card for this purpose, one with a TI chipset.....
http://www.adstech.com/products/API-315/intro/API-315_intro.asp?pid=API-315

[stookiebhoy]

Thanks guys,
I thought it was because I was going throught the firewire port on the Audigy but wasn't sure until now.
I just want to get this straight before I go do anything daft. I install a dedicated firewire PCI card and run the Onyx through that, and leave everything else as is, or do I disable the Audigy. As I say I'm very new to this stuff. Does the Onyx act as a soundcard also, or do I have to go and buy a good one of those too. I was under the impression that the Onyx is the soundcard also and I wouldn't need to buy another one, am I right in saying that.
Thanks again

[Reegs]

Yes, the onyx is a sound card and will work for general applications too. Or, you can continue to use the Audigy as your generic card. Having two sound cards, one of which is for dedicated recording, does happen. If you start having recording problems though, disable the Audigy as the first troubleshooter.

And don't run any sort of multimedia applications while you're recording.

[stookiebhoy]

Thanks a lot guys, sorry for being so thick. But better to get expert advice than spend hours pulling my hair out.
Cheers
Mark