Hi. I am running my N12 with my old desktop PC, Windows 8.1, Cubase 10, and everything works like a charm.

However, I have bought another and newer PC which runs Windows 8.1 Pro, and also Cubase 10. It has three firewire ports that I have equipped with cards with TI chipsets. The firewire ports work fine with my TC Powercore and my SSL Duende Mini's - but for some reason I get a "broken" audio stream when I use my N12 as audio interface (the audio has pauses or breaks every half second approximately).

The PC says that the N12 is working as it should. It is connected and recognized. But for some reason the audio has this constant "on/off" thing going on that makes it unusable.

Both these PC's have four cores. The old PC runs with 16 Gb of RAM. The newer PC runs with 32 Gb of RAM.

All firewire ports work with the TC Powercore and the SSL Duende Mini and I have done all the usual tweaks and used the utility tool from the Yamaha driver package "Tools for N12" to optimize the system as suggested by Yamaha.

The systems also runs completely fine with my Steinberg CI2 usb audio interface.

Would any of you have any idea what could cause the problem? It seems strange that I should have these problems with the same OS and general setup as my old setup. What could be different and cause this problem - what have I overlooked??

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. I would hate to loose my N12.

Cheers.

Just a quick reply because I’m probably wrong, but try increasing the buffer size or I think more likely try turning off wifi if you have it on. I seem to recall the n12 intermittently hating wifi. I don’t use my n12 anymore, but I sure had fun with it!

Hi Cabooter, I know it's been a while since you posted this, but is there a chance you could provide the exact legacy FW driver you were running on Win10 20H2?

I've only succeeded on running the N12 smoothly under Win10 1809, any further updates introduce sporadic droputs (I tried "some" legacy FW drivers with no luck, but maybe yours differ from mine?).

Firewire chipset is Texas Instruments (PCIe), no problems under MacOs Mojave.

Thanks in advance!

I really liked my n12 back in the day and personally believe that Yamaha would still be selling tons of these if they would have continued making them and keeping the drivers up to date with OS updates and moving to USB. Firewire was a Fad and a Bust IMO.
A 12-channel "side car" ie an exact copy of the mixer side of the n12 would have been cool, too!
However, it is what it is.

Daisy chaining two N12's should be possible with FW. Still quite happy with my N12, will only trade it for a RND5088....

Apologies for refreshing an old thread, but wanted to share my love for Yamaha N8 which I purchased in December 2023 for like £100 or so - works great with my MacBook Pro 2014 with Mojave OS via Firewire - very solid performance with software instruments I use (Native Instruments etc), even with moderate buffer size no clicks or glitches whatsoever. Very good mic preamps and usable EQ. And the reverb is simply amazing!

This is more or less the exact situation I'm in.. I get endless dropouts at every sample rate or buffer settings with my 3 N8's .(Originally had them when Windows 7 was the dominant OS and used them on an older machine before upgrading to the current machine below). On the new machine (below) It worked better in earlier versions of Windows 10. (Same firewire card used in both machines)

Current setup

Motherboard: Z690 Asrock Taichi
CPU: Intel i5-12600k
Ram: Kingston DDR5 - 32gigs
OS:Windows 10 PRO - Build 19045
Firewire card: 2 port card :Texas Instruments chipset
Interface 1: Antelope Audio Zen Studio - (Works perfectly)
Interface 2:RME Digiface USB - (Works Perfectly)
Interface 3: Yamaha N8 - ( 3 of them) - (Used to work good until updating windows 10)
DAW's: Cubase 12/ Studio One 6.

I've tried different firewire drivers as well to no avail...
How it works and has been working lately is that I can play audio for about 30seconds or so and then, endless dropouts after that.. Doesn't matter what I change, it happens everytime...

Latency Mon shows everything in the 'Green' just like it did before the updates in windows 10.. So i'm stumped as to what to try next..

Have you tried adjusting the buffer in the FW Driver Utility?

I had trouble with my N8 originally, and was advised to change the buffer to medium by Yamaha.

When I installed on my new W11 PC, I initially forgot this, and was getting drop outs no matter what size ASIO buffer I used.

Now working fine. I'm on driver 1.6.4 and firmware 1.07.

Hope that helps.

changing machine/computer is the problem i bought a yamaha n12 and have lots of computers the and cubase 12
HP Z400 i have 2 tried with different FW cards didn't make a difference both machines had drop outs and crackles even though they run xeon processors and 24GB ram.
I have 2 HP compaq elite 8300 small form factors that run perfect with the N12 i upgraded one to i7 just because it is really cheap to buy and upgrade
I also have a old xp system with duel core that runs perfect with the N12
with my experience messing around trying to get it working it will be the drivers that are picky with what system it works on. Even though they are compatible with windows 11 i have only used windows 10 and still get updates so the drivers are picky to the computer running them

I appreciate this is an ongoing thread but I have the opportunity of purchasing a second hand N12.

I come here not from a music perspective but rather, from the voice over recording perspective.

Using the firewire connection, can I record six individual mics from the N12 to six individual channels on my DAW (which is Reaper) but have post fader eq, compression and fader levels, ideally, also pan.

In other words, I want to be able to control the level from the faders on the desk, before it goes into the DAW.

I think I have gathered that eq and compression are post but it is the fader level on the desk that I am concerned about as looking at a block diagram, it appears the fader level occurs only after the signal goes into the DAW, that is, the firewire connection is before the fader.

Voice recording is a bit of a different animal to music recording. For example, if I have a 30 radio script to record with four voices and one of those voices has a line which projects more than the others, I want to be able to preempt that and duck that level before it goes into the DAW.

I have a Mackie Onyx 1620 with a firewire adaptor and regrettably, the firewire is pre everything - pre eq, pre pan and pre fader. In other words, totally useless for my needs. I know you can get a mod for it but I would prefer to find something that meets my needs without resorting to that.

If anyone can give me an answer, I would appreciate that.

I have recorded using mics before and I could easily set the levels with faders before the signal hits the DAW. Hope that helps.

Thank you for your reply. Was this using the firewire connection?

Yes, Yamaha N series is FireWire based.

hope you figured it out but i would choose hardwear mix then set the channels to A-in

This is a update on problems with pops and crackles and drop outs that have driven me mad on various pc's and laptops after reading the install info in tools driver folder. There is a folder named utilities there is a application ysfwutility.exe run it and choose s200 and change buffer size to medium once that is done it restarts your system.
After doing that i fixed any problems i have had previously with pops and crackles drop outs.
you do this after you have already installed the drivers obviously
This is a huge relief as i have lot's of different computers and have run into problems with the drivers everything would be great on w7 but w10 i found it would get the problems but this has fixed the problems.
It also does not any add any latency by changing to medium in the utility

Hi, i know its been a long time but , did you manage to fix this issue? Im having now the same problem with my N12. Cant find any solution on the internet.
thanks

HI, DID YOU MANAGE TO FIX IT?

IM HAVING THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM. PLEASE HELP .. THANKS