Orpheus FAQs, Tips and Techniques

In order to guarantee that drop-outs do not occur, we recommend that you do not share the FireWire bus with other devices.

Note that there may be more than one FireWire port on the same bus.

Most expansion cards have several FireWire ports on a single bus.

All Apple Macs have a single internal FireWire bus. However, they may have several FireWire ports on this bus, and they could be a mixture of S800 & S400 ports.

Devices cannot interact if they are on different FireWire buses. If you have a FireWire expansion card as well as built-in FireWire, you will have two separate buses, so you can put Orpheus on one and a hard drive on the other.

You will also cut available bandwidth if you put your hard drive on the same FireWire bus. When recording, audio data has to be streamed from Orpheus, to the DAW and then to the drive. When playing, audio data has to be streamed from the drive, to the DAW and to Orpheus. This effectively halves the number of channels that can be used. If the hard drive is on a separate bus, the full channel count is available.

Choose one of the output pairs to use for your effects channel, for example AO7/8. Connect output 8 (say) to your effect input and connect the effect output to input 8.

Now open the Orpheus control panel and go to the 'AO7/8' tab and enable it by selecting 'Mixer' from the drop-list. Make sure that input 8 is muted, otherwise you will get feedback. Any of the other input channels that are panned to output 8 will pass through the effect.

The wet signal can be recorded on FireWire input 8, and can be monitored by enabling a foldback mix on another output pair. The dry signal can be recorded on its original input channel.

For example, you could configure an auxiliary mix on the DO 1/2 tab, using headphone monitoring to check the levels, pans, etc. Next, ensure that the DI channels are muted on the DO 1/2 mix, and ensure that your DAW signal is sent to the DO 1/2 channels. Now connect the digital ports back-to-back, with a BNC or TOSLINK cable.

The DO 1/2 mix is now available as DI inputs on all other mixes. You can enable 'Mixer' on any other mix tab, solo the DI signal, and you will hear the DO 1/2 mix through those outputs. You can also use the master volume control to mute selected outputs.

You do not have to use the digital channel for your 'master' mix, but this is recommended in order to avoid introducing additional analogue noise. However, if you need the digital IO for other purposes, you could use one of the analogue mixers instead.

• Mac: OS X 10.4.11 or higher. Use Software Update to ensure that you have the latest system upgrades installed.
  
  As of 8th January 2019, like many pro-audio manufacturers, we have not finished testing on Mojave.
  An error message “AVCCommand result = 0xe00002be” has been reported by some users who have made the upgrade, when trying to open the Orpheus Control App. This is caused by replying “Don’t Allow” to a message that Mojave asks fairly commonly when it first opens some programs... ”Do you want to allow Orpheus access to the Camera” (this question is asked, whether the Mac has a camera or not). If you say “Yes” to that question, Orpheus works as normal, but if you say “No” you will see the error message. Orpheus will work as normal with regard to the audio, but you won’t be able to use the Control Panel until you allow Orpheus to access the camera. To fix this problem, in System Preferences / Security and Privacy / Privacy tab / Camera .. tick Orpheus.
  Regardless of the setting of this, Orpheus does not use the Mac’s Camera.
  
  There is also a MacOS security setting for access to the Microphone. We have come across reports that some DAW software may need access to the microphone to be allowed in order to record (from any audio input). If users are experiencing issues of this sort, where audio appears in the Orpheus interface but not in the DAW, it would be best to check the DAW software's website for any further information.
  
  
• PC: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, 8 or 10.

On Windows, the Orpheus installer provides 64-bit drivers as well as 32-bit drivers. Windows 7, 8 and 10 x64, Vista64 and XP 64-Bit Edition are fully supported.

• Ensure that the latest EFI Firmware is installed on your Apple Mac
• Install Boot Camp with the latest Boot Camp drivers (Requires OS X 10.5 with latest Software Update).
  • Do not use the Boot Camp beta!
• Install Windows and update the system with the latest Microsoft hotfixes.
  • If you have XP SP2 with S800 FireWire ports, you may need to install Microsoft Hotfix KB855222 manually.
  • If you upgrade to XP SP3 after installing Hotfix KB855222, you may also need to apply Microsoft Hotfix KB955408
• Install the Orpheus Control Panel with the Windows installer package.

On OS X 10.6 or earlier, you can save a .spx file from the /Applications/Utilities/System Profiler app.

On Windows, you can download the free Belarc Advisor application. You can use this to generate a .html file containing all system settings.

If you need to contact tech.support@prismsound.com, please attach your system log.

AppleFWAudio-2.2.0fc9-e1.pkg is a patch for FireWire Core Audio drivers prior to OS X 10.4.11.

Under normal circumstances, you should not install AppleFWAudio-2.2.0fc9-e1.pkg. The correct FireWire Core Audio drivers will be installed on your system and upgraded when Software Update runs.

AppleFWAudio-2.2.0fc9-e1.pkg installs the FireWire Core Audio driver version that ships with OS X 10.4.11. You should only install AppleFWAudio-2.2.0fc9-e1.pkg if you are running OS X Tiger but are unable to upgrade to 10.4.11 for some reason.

Audio degradation may occur if you install AppleFWAudio-2.2.0fc9-e1.pkg on Leopard because Tiger drivers are not suitable for a Leopard system.

If you have installed AppleFWAudio-2.2.0fc9-e1.pkg on a Leopard system in error, you will need to restore your operating system. Software Update will not restore this automatically. You have two options:

• Use Time Machine to revert to a previous back-up, or
• Reinstall OS X from your installation disk, using the Archive & Install option to preserve your settings. If you are using Lion or Mountain Lion, you can use OS X Internet Recovery.

• Download the latest version of the Orpheus Control Panel for Windows 7 and later
• Unzip the folder and files from downloaded zip file
• Open the Orpheus_CP_VXXX_Win folder where XXX is the version number
• Right mouse click on the setup application file and choose Properties from the list
• In the setup Properties window, click on the Compatibility tab at the top.
• Click on the tick box in the Compatibility mode section that says Run this program in compatibility mode for: which will enable the drop box below it.
• From the drop down list below, choose Windows 7
• In the Privilege level section, tick the box for Run this program as an administrator
• Press the OK button to accept the changes and to close the setup properties window.
• Double click on the setup application and proceed with the install

We recommend that you use cards that have an OHCI compliant Texas Instruments chipset.

Cards with S800 ports are not recommended because there are technical difficulties in manufacture that may cause them to be more unreliable than S400 cards. In any case, S800 cards are more expensive and provide more bandwidth than necessary for Orpheus.

It is possible to extend this range by using active repeater cables, or to extend it to many hundreds of metres by using fibre-optic extenders.

However, the connectors are different. You will need to use a bilingual, 9-pin to 6-pin IEEE-1394 firewire cable.

Prior to Snow Leopard, OS X has a bug that results in audio degradation when a class-compliant FireWire audio device is connected to two or more Core Audio clients at the same time. For example, you could experience drop-outs in Logic Pro if iTunes is also being used in the background.

We recommend that you only connect to a single Core Audio application at a time. Please also ensure that Orpheus/ADA-8 is not your default recording or playback device in order to prevent accidental connection.

Apple have confirmed that this bug is fixed in Snow Leopard.

WDM drivers still connect to channels pairs individually. The ASIO driver will automatically combine all audio channels into a single interface. You may need to re-start your DAW in order to detect the additional channels.

OS X

You need to ensure that all units are running at the desired sample rate using CSP sync before daisy-chaining them:

1. Connect a single interface to your Mac and ensure that power is connected. Wait until it appears on the control panel.
2. Ensure that it has the latest firmware installed
3. Set the sync source to CSP (using control panel) and set the sample rate. Save all settings by putting Orpheus into standby, then back to normal.
4. Disconnect the FireWire cable but keep your interface powered. Wait for control panel to go blank.
5. Repeat above steps for every additional interface.
6. Daisy-chain all of the units together. The first interface should be connected to your Mac, the second connected to the first one, and so on.
7. If devices fall off the FireWire bus during the final step, disconnect power from all units, reboot your Mac and begin again from the top.

Note that you need to set all units to the same sample rate otherwise some channels will not be available. Use the Orpheus control panel to change sample rate for all units, or use the aggregate device sample rate (which can be set from your DAW).

Please also note that your interfaces must be used as the clock master because CSP sync is required. If you have external digital devices, you must synchronise them from wordclock or digital outputs.

• Connect Orpheus and go into Audio MIDI Setup (AMS) in OS X
• Select 'Properties For: Orpheus'
• Go into 'Configure Speakers'. You should have a list of all the available outputs of Orpheus listed.
  • Check the box next to SPDIF (outputs 9-10)
  • Below this list is the speaker configuration, make sure you have stereo selected
  • beneath each speaker you will be able to select the output depending on which outputs you checked in the above list. Select S9 for the left speaker and S10 for the right speaker.

1. Connect to Pro Tools 9 software with Core Audio or ASIO*.
2. Connect Orpheus' AES3 or S/PDIF to Pro Tools hardware. You can route the analogue channels using the low-latency mixers.
3. Connect Orpheus ADAT to Pro Tools hardware and set ADAT Direct mode, which converts analogue inputs to ADAT outputs and ADAT inputs to analogue outputs. All 8 channels can be converted at sample rates up to 48kHz.†

*_{On Windows 7, you must ensure that the latest Orpheus drivers are installed}

†_{Pro Tools hardware does not support S-MUX, so you will not be able to use ADAT Direct mode to convert four channels at 96kHz.}

On Windows, CPU load can be reduced by setting the Buffer Time value higher. Note that drop-outs will be inevitable if this value is set too low.

Your DAW may also have options to change buffer sizes, and there may be other options available, such as the ability to freeze tracks.

Orpheus provides foldback mixers which can be configured for extremely low-latency monitoring. These operate in hardware, so they can take some of the load off the CPU.

DPC Latency problems with Windows
Latency issues with Windows drivers using Deferred Procedure Calls (DPC) can cause problems with streaming audio and video. These are generally noticed as drop-outs (pops or clicks) in audio streams, and can affect the operation of interfaces (such as Orpheus or ADA-8XR) or audio application software. Note that this problem affects both PCs and MACs if they are running Windows, especially Windows7. We have noticed an increase in these problems lately, perhaps as a result of most Windows PCs now being shipped with Windows7 64-bit OS as standard. This has caused many PC peripheral vendors to hurriedly replace their tried-and-trusted 32-bit drivers with new 64-bit drivers, some of which may be under-tested.

Thesycon offer a convenient DPC Latency Checker tool which can be downloaded from http://www.thesycon.de/eng/latency_check.shtml. The Checker displays a continuous graphical indication of DPC latency, which indicates if your PC has such a driver problem. However, the Checker is unable to identify which driver is causing the problem: this must be done by opening the Windows Device Manager and Task Manager and experimentally disabling non-essential services and devices. More detailed and helpful information is included on the Latency Checker web page.

Orpheus can accept sync sources from external devices. Alternatively, Orpheus provides a Wordclock signal, with superclock and base rate options.

For more information, please refer to the online manual.

If you do not need to synchronise Orpheus to an external device, then you can avoid this problem by selecting Local or CSP sync in the Orpheus control panel.

If you are using DI, ADAT or WCK sync, you need to ensure that the external nominal sample rate is the same as Orpheus' sample rate.

For example, when you are using ADAT at 48kHz, the sample rate choices are 44.1kHz and 48kHz. These are the only valid sample rates that are possible with 8-channel ADAT.

In order to select a higher sample rate, you will need to set ADAT to None.

You can resolve this by applying Microsoft Hotfix KB885222

If you upgrade to Service Pack 3 after installing Hotfix KB855222, you may also need to apply Microsoft Hotfix KB955408

This tool will discover any 3rd party drivers that cause audio drop-outs on the FireWire bus. For more information, see the DPC Latency Checker Product Sheet

The Buffer Time value must be set higher than the maximum DPC latency, otherwise there will be audio drop-outs.

Orpheus Downloads Page

Use these steps:

1. Open your DAW and select your audio interface driver.
2. Create a track with outputs set to the interface DO (i.e. outputs 9 & 10).
3. Select a clip with a sharp attack, like a snare hit.
4. Create another track with inputs set to the interface DI (i.e inputs 9 & 10).
5. Arm recording on the second track.
6. Connect the digital ports back-to-back using a suitable digital cable.
7. Use your transport bar to play & record simultaneously. You will see the clip recorded on the second track, delayed by the round-trip latency.
8. Most DAWs have a 'delay' value that can be set on the second track. Use this to offset the record time.
9. Continue changing the delay time & re-recording the clip until the two clips line up perfectly.

You can verify the delay with a null test. Invert the recorded track & mix with the original; the samples will cancel out exactly.