windows users with usb 3 ports.

Are there any win 8.1 users with usb 3 ports having stable audio with the ren?
Thought i'd ask to see if i can fault my system to something else other than usb 3 and win 8.1..

The macbook pro is fine and so are the other audio interfaces i use with the win 8.1 machine with usb 3 ports... only the ren audio inteface is not liking this particular setup...

It's the Ren driver. Doesn't work good with USB 3. I have had no problems on my iMac's USB 3 ports. But other Mac users have mentioned issues.

A couple suggestions I can offer is to remove the driver from you're computer altogether and reinstall it from the 1.7 updater. If you still have issues, disable USB3 in your BIOS!

DJ Hellfire wrote:It's the Ren driver. Doesn't work good with USB 3. I have had no problems on my iMac's USB 3 ports. But other Mac users have mentioned issues.

A couple suggestions I can offer is to remove the driver from you're computer altogether and reinstall it from the 1.7 updater. If you still have issues, disable USB3 in your BIOS!

It may has to do with the release date (model number) of that particular Mac.

I never had any trouble with my Mac Book Pro, late 2012 model.

dazastah wrote:Are there any win 8.1 users with usb 3 ports having stable audio with the ren?
Thought i'd ask to see if i can fault my system to something else other than usb 3 and win 8.1..

The macbook pro is fine and so are the other audio interfaces i use with the win 8.1 machine with usb 3 ports... only the ren audio inteface is not liking this particular setup...

Dazastah, have you tried a USB Hub with USB2 connections? It needs to be powered.


But before you do that, check if the jumper settings in your PC are correct (receiving the right voltage). It could also be in the BIOS settings. Have you ever done a chipset/ BIOS flash (update)?

I know K-Def has been having connectivity probs using his Ren with his PC with USB 3 ports.
He said connection keeps crapping out and that not using his USB wireless at the same time has helped.

But also, even though I have no personal experience in this, I gotta say I've definitely heard stories about people having issues using devices not originally made for USB 3 connected to USB 3 ports – and in that case, using a USB 2 hub has done the trick.

Try that: should be a very cheap and easy way to see if that helps.

in the words of my homeboi defarie

"if i said it once then i said it twice" **** win 8

DJ Hellfire wrote:If you still have issues, disable USB3 in your BIOS!

The pc(laptop) doesn't have the option in the bios. Word of warning anyone planning to buy any hp envy's and using the ren... Dont...(i've got other interfaces that work fine though.. rme uc)

Chillin wrote:But before you do that, check if the jumper settings in your PC are correct (receiving the right voltage). It could also be in the BIOS settings. Have you ever done a chipset/ BIOS flash (update)?

Yep its a laptop so can't do any jumper switching. Has the latest bios update from hp website.. updated all chipset drivers on the windows level.
I actually have a powered usb 2 hub lying around and will try that. I've been searching around to see if anyone online has hacked the bios to unlock these locked standard features but i could n't find anything...

DJ Hellfire wrote:It's the Ren driver. Doesn't work good with USB 3

i'd think with all computers moving over to usb 3, that this would kinda be a priority to fix now.
Thank you for the help and extra info!

Hey Dazastah, I have 99% stable audio on 8.1. I just went into my bios and turned usb 3 support back on, and the same problems I had on 1.6 with usb 3.0 returned immediately... As soon as I opened the mpc software there was ~half a second of latency despite being set to 64 samples, and some weird crackling/phasing sounds occured within 2 minutes of looping a seq..

Turned the usb 3 off again and it works a charm. Unfortunately I don't think that a USB 2 hub will help you if the problem is the same as mine - while the usb3 driver is turned off, I can run the ren smoothly through a 3 port or a 2 port, makes no difference... while it's turned on I get as much glitches through the 2.0 port as the 3.0 port....

dazastah wrote:i'd think with all computers moving over to usb 3, that this would kinda be a priority to fix now.

It seems to be up to Ploytec, as they seem to have supplied the drivers that Akai use for their audio interfaces, and not up to Akai themselves to provide the audio interface driver updates.

Not sure if that means that Ploytec have supplied the actual audio interface hardware, or parts of it, and if there are hardware incompatibilities that may mean it is not possible for them to sort out the USB3 issues, we will have to wait and see.

hehe http://www.ploytec.com/

check out the usb 2.0 audio junction device...
Look familiar ....

Been running the REN on Windows 8 since day one. My advice for the 3.0 usb port is:


STAY AWAY! Lol


The Ren does not play good with 3.0 usb ports. Use a 2.0 hub if you don't have 2.0 options. Not guaranteed to work. It all depends on your motherboard usb chip. There is a known problem with 1st gen usb 3.0 compatibilty and usb 2.0 controllers and audio input devices.

Check this article out. Might answer some of your questions.

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2012/06/usb-3-0-backwards-compatible-in-theory-but-some-audio-drivers-arent-cooperating/

dazastah wrote:hehe http://www.ploytec.com/

check out the usb 2.0 audio junction device...
Look familiar ....

Yes, so Ploytec supply the audio/MIDI interface, or at least the design of it and the drivers, and after the length of time that USB3 ports have been implemented on computers, can still not make it work with them, so it does not look promising to me for any chance of future USB3 compatible Renaissance drivers.

When I first saw that Ploytec seems to be a tiny operation, I thought oh okay so it's up to Akai to reverse engineer 3.0 support then... aka don't hold your breath

dazastah wrote:hehe http://www.ploytec.com/

check out the usb 2.0 audio junction device...
Look familiar ....

"Firmware updater via USB for programming future updates"


http://www.ploytec.com/usb2_audio_junction_192.pdf