If you ever pick up an M-Audio Firewire Sound card, you might become one of the no-so-lucky customers that experience distortion when playing music through iTunes or WinAmp.   There are numerous recommendations on the internet that may not work for everyone.

Here were my symptoms and what was happening to me:

1. While playing an mp3 in iTunes, any large data transfers like syncing your iPod at the same time may cause distortion.    Shutting down iTunes and iTunesHelper.exe sometimes helped but required a reboot most of the time.
   
2. While copying large amounts of data from an external hard drive, my M-Audio Sound card would disappear from the Device Manager completely.    Re-scanning for hardware didnt work so rebooting was required.
3. If at anytime any of the above occurred, the same problem existed within WinAmp.

Various Recommendations from the internet:

1. Adjust Quicktime settings
2. Rollback Quicktime and/or iTunes
   
3. Turn off the EQ within iTunes
4. Turn off the Sound Enhancer within iTunes
5. Update drivers for M-Audio Firewire series
6. reinstall firewire card drivers.
7. etc, etc
   

After days of troubleshooting, I determined that it was basically a problem with either the M-Audio Firewire sound card or the Firewire bus itself.   Since my Dynex firewire expansion card was brand new from Best Buy...I figured it were the sound card drivers.   Nope.   Even the latest sound card drivers didnt fix it.

My Solution/Fix:

1. Return that P.O.S. Dynex Firewire expansion card
2. Replace it with a card that had the Texas Instruments (TI) Chipset. 
   

Voila.   Problem fixed.   Yea it costs a little more when it has a TI chipset but you get what you pay for and when you need stability for DJing, Studio Recording, Mixing, or Video editing via Firewire, using a name brand card with a reputable chipset manufacturer will be beneficial.   Why would you put yourself through the stress of trying to perform live with a possibility of distortion?

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Vestax has announced their new VCI-100 DJ MIDI controller. This controller is USB based and features 2 jog wheels. The jog wheel controls on the VCI-100 are constructed with high resolution pulse sensors, touch sensors, and acrylic platter mechanisms. This construction allows operations such as scanning, pitch bending, and scratching. 66 software parameters are assignable to the VCI-100's control section via USB MIDI IN/OUT. The crossfader curve is adjustable and the fader movement resistance is calculated on the fly by the VCI-100's CPU. This unit comes packaged with Native Instruments Traktor LE and is compatible with PC/Mac and any computer that supports assignable MIDI and USB. For more information, visit www.vestax.com.

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The Free SONAR 6.2 update adds new features to SONAR including MIDI input quantize, a Bit Meter VST plug in, and X-Ray Windows. It also enhances Active Controller Technology and AudioSnap, and is the first digital audio workstation to natively support Microsoft® Windows Vista. The SONAR 6.2 update is now available as a free download to registered SONAR 6.0 Producer Edition and Studio Edition Customers.

Get more information on the update.

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Apple is excited to announce, just in time for Holidays, that the smarter, faster, do everything MacBook now has the Intel Core 2 Duo processor! This means performance up to 25% faster, while still starting at the low price of $1,099! MacBook delivers the power of the Intel Core 2 Duo the latest generation of Intel processors and a slew of innovative features, including: a built-in iSight camera for video chatting on the go; iLife 06; Front Row; a glossy 13-inch widescreen display; even dual-display support.

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Native Instruments has released Traktor DJ Studio 3.1.1 as a free update for its digital DJ software.

Traktor DJ Studio 3.1.1 now offers:

• Undo functionality for playlists
• Ability to "lock" the playlists to prevent any changes.
• Improved User Interface with greater ability to customize.
• 30% performance improvements for Mac OS X to allow multiple decks with high-quality time-stretching and effects
• Newly implemented browser for the Beatport store to purchase new music releases using a single mouse-click.

The 3.1 update for Windows and Mac is now available as a free download for all registered users of Traktor DJ Studio 3 on the NI Website. Traktor DJ Studio 3 continues to be available for the special NI-Versary pricing of $119 until September 10, 2006. Mac Intel compatibility for Traktor DJ Studio will be introduced with a separate update, which is scheduled for release in the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2006.

For more information, visit Native Instruments Website.

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