Recording with an M-Audio JamLab ....annoying lil click sound....

Hey everyone,

I am doing basic demo'ing in garageband using the m-audio jamlab (this is all i can afford at the time being) and I notice that when i'm recording/playback tracks, I often get this lil 'clicks' or 'glitch' pops in the track that occur like ever 6 bars or so...

Last night I updated the driver of the jamlab to the most recent, 1.6.1...
I really want to do some demo's and put alot of effort into this. I know most of you will say its about time to purchase a half decent interface, but at the time I cannot. Is there ANY kind of recommendations u can give me regarding this annoyance which is taking away from the quality of my tracks?

MacMini, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Aug 25, 2006 9:12 AM

37 replies

isteveus

Level 5

4,340 points

Aug 25, 2006 2:45 PM in response to David MacVicar

I use a alesis multimix firewire without any problems. I think if you go with any of the popular Firewire interfaces you'll be very happy.

Aug 25, 2006 2:53 PM in response to isteveus

Can we throw out some successful firewire devices from different makers?

So far I know of the one you mentioned and:

M-audio Firewire Solo
Edirol Firewire FA-66 and FA-101....

any others? I'm looking to spend around 250 dollars....

*EDIT - is firewire better to use than USB in terms of audio production and interfaces?

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 2:53 PM in response to David MacVicar

Without question the Presonus INSPIRE 1394 FireWire Interface. $200 and top of the line Mic PREs. I use their FirePod and I can't say enough about the quality.

isteveus

Level 5

4,340 points

Aug 25, 2006 2:56 PM in response to David MacVicar

Presonus inspire is real popular and $200. I would make a list of what you may want in the future like number of inputs and pre-amps. Also size form factor rack mountable or desktop. I went with a firewire mixer because I needed a mixer for jammin' so it does double duty.

Aug 25, 2006 4:38 PM in response to isteveus

Hang or isteveus...

Can you do me a personal favor and check out the specs of this m-audio unit and compare it to the Presonus Inspire....

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MobilePreUSB-main.html

That page details the specs and stuff...I'm not good with the terms because i'm new to it all, but if you have a moment, look over that and tell me if u think its good. The reason i mention this one is because its in stock at my local music shop and its kinda in my price range....

HangTime

Level 9

53,853 points

Aug 25, 2006 4:48 PM in response to David MacVicar

I'll say upfront that I'm a FireWire bigot, I just think it's a better protocol.

That said, it's hard to argue against the Mobile Pre seeing it for $129 here. That'd be hard to pass up.

cnitro

Level 1

0 points

Oct 8, 2006 11:05 AM in response to David MacVicar

Hi!

I don't know about the JamLab and i don't want to get you all discouraged, but there are problems with the Mobile Pre, too.

Here's my story (copy an pasted from another thread):

I'm using Garageband 3 on my new MacBook 2GHz 512MB (upgraded from 12" Powerbook with GB2) and I just came back from a little home recording session in Sweden.

Recording through a M-Audio MobilePre (yes, Intel Drivers) and mixing I had problems with playback distortion (solved by lowering GB output level) and playback cracks and skips. GB3 puts cracks and skipps into playback of just 4 tracks, 3 of them secured (little green lock). My Powerbook did fine on a lot of more! This urely can't be the end of capacity?! I plan on upgrading RAM, but it should be working fine with 512MB though! [end of quote]

Recording a MXL 99 condenser mic with phantompower produced clicks. It can't be bad electricity because I was on battery all the time (MobilePre works USB-bus powered), truely mobile so to say.
There were spikes in the waveforms of course.

In playback I had clicks, skipps and so on (without touching anything nor highlighting tracks etc.) with just 4 tracks.

I am a little upset, to be mild, and if the 14days were not yet over, the MacBook would be back right away (I should have waited for the Core 2 Duos anyway) but now i have to deal with it.

I am glad for any recommendation. The Mobile Pre never made any problems with the Powerbook under 10.3.9 and GB2, just for info.

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Recording with an M-Audio JamLab ....annoying lil click sound....