gmp
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AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback - SOLVED
Anyone who has used the AVB Ultralite, please read this post and let me know if you have any clues as to what's causing this. I've been using the AVB Ultralite for 2.5 years with Platinum and I've always had the momentary audio glitch or pop, a few a week. If I'm recording an audio mix from my analog mixing console then I just back up a little and punch back in and it's fine. The other audio problem I've had at times is I get some bad crackles or distortion on playback and it's constant. The fix is to open preferences and look at the audio settings and hit ok. That usually clears it up or sometimes I have to close and reopen Platinum. All of these are irritating, but not too hard to deal with. But starting around 7/1/17 I started getting a far worse problem. I can record a vocalist and everything sounds fine while they're recording, but when I playback, the audio is full of crackles and it's permanently embedded in the wav file, totally ruining the whole performance. I've had input monitoring set up through the AVB mixer for 2.5 years, so what I hear on input gets routed to the output. So if something is distorting I can hear it while it's being recorded, except with this new crackle bug. I've done lot's of testing is here's what I've found out. It only happens on the first recording after I opened the song. If it doesn't happen then, then it won't all of a sudden start having a crackle recording. Every time it's happened, it appears that all inputs record crackles while recording. The crackles are always permanently embedded in the wav files, if I open another song and record, there will be no crackles, I can then go back to the original song and it won't record with crackles, yet the first recording will still have crackles. Or I can just close the song and reopen it and it won’t record with crackles again. So it seems to be an intermittent faulty song initialization of some sort. I'm beginning to wonder if this is all caused by lenses. I started using lenses in March. I first noticed the crackle recording in July, yet I may have had some and just thought it was an anomaly. Since July I've had it happen about 5 times and then starting about 2 weeks ago I started testing every day and it's happened about 4x in 2 weeks. To me it seems this is caused by a faulty initialization of the audio when first opening a song. That's why I wonder if the lenses are interrupting the initialization. I’ve also started using a custom theme in Jan 2017 and finalized it April 2017. Could that be causing it. I’m still using 2017.04. I had some problems with 2017.05 and 2017.06 I know it’s possible the latest Platinum version may have this fixed, yet I keep thinking about going for 2 years with no crackle problem like this. So I’ve stuck with 2017.04 until I can get to the bottom of this. I’ve not gotten any help from MOTU. It’s seems they’re pretty lame when it comes with PCs and Platinum. Yesterday I decided to turn the lens to None and see if that fixes the problem. If any one has any insight or ideas on what’s happening I’m all ears.
post edited by gmp - 2017/11/12 17:16:43
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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ryecatchermark
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 04:42:00
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I went through 6 months of hell with a MOTU 828x with Sonar Platinum. I tried everything I could find info on to optimize my pc and Sonar and the MOTU in order to get a stable performance. I was getting similar problems as you. MOTU support was being very helpful and we were in discussion on a regular basis, but in the end I had to sell the MOTU and buy a RME Babyface Pro instead. Once I hooked up the RME, all my random problems (not related to 3rd party plugins) went away for good. Only after I told MOTU that I sold my unit, did they reply to me saying they don't really give that much attention to the pc world... just mac. All this being said, I think there are some Sonar users out there that are having success with their MOTU interface. I hope you can find stability.
Mark K. Asus G752VY Laptop. Intel Quad i7 6700HQ 2.6 GHz. 32 GB RAM. NVIDIA GTX 980M. Windows 10 Home 64bit. MOTU 828x.
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ryecatchermark
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 04:45:14
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By the way... I was having your crackle problem with the MOTU even before lenses, so I don't think that is your problem.
Mark K. Asus G752VY Laptop. Intel Quad i7 6700HQ 2.6 GHz. 32 GB RAM. NVIDIA GTX 980M. Windows 10 Home 64bit. MOTU 828x.
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ryecatchermark
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 04:45:14
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By the way... I was having your crackle problem with the MOTU even before lenses, so I don't think that is your problem.
Mark K. Asus G752VY Laptop. Intel Quad i7 6700HQ 2.6 GHz. 32 GB RAM. NVIDIA GTX 980M. Windows 10 Home 64bit. MOTU 828x.
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 05:03:35
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ryecatchermark
By the way... I was having your crackle problem with the MOTU even before lenses, so I don't think that is your problem.
There's 2 crackle problems. One that you hear on playback and it's constant until you reboot or something. The 2nd crackle problem is far worse. I can have a great singer in and have them record a great vocal, only to find it's ruined with crackles, that only show up on playback. During recording there were no crackles. Can you verify that you experiences both types of crackle problems
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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ryecatchermark
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 05:16:38
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Yes, I experienced both types of crackle problems... and other weird sounds which were totally random. There was never one single work-around that would fix the problem for me. If at all possible, try another audio interface. Even an old Roland ua25ex worked stable for me every time the MOTU was failing (I still use the ua25ex at my work office all the time). I highly recommend RME if you can afford it. The audio interface and its drivers are, at the very least, equally important as the computer itself and your DAW in my opinion.
Mark K. Asus G752VY Laptop. Intel Quad i7 6700HQ 2.6 GHz. 32 GB RAM. NVIDIA GTX 980M. Windows 10 Home 64bit. MOTU 828x.
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Unknowen
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 14:56:38
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Hum? I'm just wondering... I don't have this unit but sometimes things seem relevant.
Do you have your Clock set to internal?
If you have some type of Software like an internal mixer that goes with your interface check for clipping internally.
Are you using a power conditioner to power your gear?
Within the Windows/ control panel/ Device manager make sure that you have no other audio devices installed or just set to off.
Your "audio ins and outs" should only have your Audio device listed. Also look under Sound, video and game controller.
No other audio devices should be there except your device. Delete all others, otherwise windows will decide what to do for you. If your audio interface boots slow windows could be setting up crap drivers in the background.
I wound uninstall all audio drivers then reboot the computer. go to device manager and make sure there are not Audio devices installed. The reinstall your device and reboot. after that go back to the device manager and make sure all other devices are gone.
Hope something here helps! :)
peace!
Hay look, Somethings are not locked in stone... lol 3/18/2019
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ryecatchermark
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 16:14:10
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Thanks 11Dreams. In my case, I addressed all of the issues you listed (plus many others)... nothing cured the MOTU problem. The 828x hardware worked perfectly but it was confirmed that the problem existed because of MOTU's drivers not getting along with Windows 10 and Sonar. The same problems happened with Windows 7 as well. My MOTU 828x worked perfectly on an iMac with GarageBand, and not too bad with Harrison MixBus on the pc, but forget it with Sonar.
Mark K. Asus G752VY Laptop. Intel Quad i7 6700HQ 2.6 GHz. 32 GB RAM. NVIDIA GTX 980M. Windows 10 Home 64bit. MOTU 828x.
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 17:25:06
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11Dreams
Hum? I'm just wondering... I don't have this unit but sometimes things seem relevant.
Do you have your Clock set to internal?
If you have some type of Software like an internal mixer that goes with your interface check for clipping internally.
Are you using a power conditioner to power your gear?
Within the Windows/ control panel/ Device manager make sure that you have no other audio devices installed or just set to off.
Your "audio ins and outs" should only have your Audio device listed. Also look under Sound, video and game controller.
No other audio devices should be there except your device. Delete all others, otherwise windows will decide what to do for you. If your audio interface boots slow windows could be setting up crap drivers in the background.
I wound uninstall all audio drivers then reboot the computer. go to device manager and make sure there are not Audio devices installed. The reinstall your device and reboot. after that go back to the device manager and make sure all other devices are gone.
Hope something here helps! :)
peace!
Clock is on Internal, the Ultralite does have an internal mixer. I have some pretty complicated routing set up with input monitoring, but no FX or real mixing. The mixer has been set up this way for years. I have it set a certain way and do all the mixing in Sonar. I don’t use a power conditioner, just surge protectors. In Control Panel Windows “Sounds”, I have it set so Win Media plays through the internal Realtec audio built into my motherboard. I have Realtec playing though “speakers”, which means I have a tiny little mini plug plugged into the back of my computer and it’s routed to my analog mixing console, coming up though an aux return. This way when I play a wav file or mp3, WIn Media comes up and plays it and I control it’s volume on my analog mixer with an Aux Return knob. Otherwise the sound will come though my Ultralite and into my analog mixer. If I have EQ, pan, or FX on that channel then I have to change that to hear the mp3 accurately. This is what I have set up under Control Panel / Sound / Playback: Speakers – 2-MOTU Pro Audio – default communication deviceOut 1-24 - 2-MOTU Pro Audio - ReadySpeakers – Realtec high definition audio – Default deviceRealtec digital output - Realtec high definition audio – ready I’m not sure why there are 2 listings for speakers. The 3rd listing is the one that allows wav files to play through Realtec. Occasionally the default device has mysteriously changed back to MOTU and I’d see a check mark there and the wav files then play though MOTU. Then I have to go to the 3rd listing and choose default device, then the wav files play again though the Realtec. When I choose default device for Realtec then MOTU changes to Default communication device with an icon of what looks like a phone on it. If I right click that, I can choose disable. I just tried that and now there are only 3 listings not 4. The top one disappeared that had MOTU and communication device. I hit cancel thinking it would return back to 4 listings but it didn’t. So I’m not sure if this is good or bad. I’d never use a phone or other communication device with my DAW, so maybe this is ok – not sure. Now when I open “Sound” there are only 3 listings in Playback
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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Joe_A
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 19:34:02
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With all the info going about I'm just taking another shot...if I go by what I'm reading above I think I see that the realtek is left active when you use the motu? That can cause issues with an on board audio active when outboard / AI is trying to be used with a DAW.
If I'm reading different than intended then ignore this 😊 and I'll go back to watching for the outcome..hang in there.
jambrose@cfl.rr.com Sonar Plat. Lifetime. Started in Sonar 4, each through 8.5.3PE. Scarlett 18i202nd gen., Edirol FA-101, M-Audio Firewire 410, AMD Phenom II 1045T six core processor, 8GB DDR3, AMD Radeon HD 6450, dual displays, 1.5 TB SATA HD, USB 2, Firewire 1394A, 1394B, 18/22 mixer, EV Q-66, Yamaha HS50M monitors, few guitars, Fender Cybertwin SE, Fender Cyber foot controller, Boss RC20-XL, misc pedals, etc. Win Home Prem 64 bit.
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Unknowen
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/18 23:24:13
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Wow! I don't really understand why you have your setup with a motherboard audio devise but I really think you should at least try running "recording" without the onboard. That is the problem... I think you need to decide if you want great recording or some other obscure setup. just saying, with all respect. :) you can always reinstall the onboard audio. Good luck :)
If I think of anything else I'll et you know.
peace!
Hay look, Somethings are not locked in stone... lol 3/18/2019
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/19 04:35:34
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11Dreams
Wow! I don't really understand why you have your setup with a motherboard audio devise but I really think you should at least try running "recording" without the onboard. That is the problem... I think you need to decide if you want great recording or some other obscure setup. just saying, with all respect. :) you can always reinstall the onboard audio. Good luck :)
If I think of anything else I'll et you know.
peace!
Thanks for your advice. I think I may try uninstalling the Realtec and see if that makes any difference. I've been using onboard audio for playing mp3's and wav files for many years with another sound card and Win 7 also. Jim Roseberry built this computer and actually has the AVB card too. He thought it was fine to use the onboard audio for Win Media. Yet I think it's a worthwhile experiment to see if it eliminates the crackles. Sometimes I will play an mp3 with Win Media player and set the tempo in Sonar in real time
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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ryecatchermark
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/19 05:21:47
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Another obscure problem I had with recording with the MOTU was while having "remove DC offset" enabled in Sonar's preferences. It would cause some weird low level crackles on mono tracks all the time. Unchecking "remove DC offset" fixed that problem. Someone from Cakewalk emailed me back and confirmed that was actually an ongoing Sonar bug. You could check your preferences.
Mark K. Asus G752VY Laptop. Intel Quad i7 6700HQ 2.6 GHz. 32 GB RAM. NVIDIA GTX 980M. Windows 10 Home 64bit. MOTU 828x.
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dwardzala
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/19 16:29:19
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Have you updated the unit to latest drivers and firmware? There may have been a windows update that pooched something if you are using older drivers and firmware.
DaveMain Studio- Core i5 @2.67GHz, 16Gb Ram, (2) 500Gb HDs, (1) 360 Gb HD MotU Ultralite AVB, Axiom 49 Midi Controller, Akai MPD18 Midi Controller Win10 x64 Home Sonar 2017.06 Platinum (and X3e, X2c, X1d) Mobile Studio - Sager NP8677 (i7-6700HQ @2.67MHz, 16G Ram, 250G SSD, 1T HD) M-Box Mini v. 2 Win 10 x64 Home Sonar 2016.10 Platinum Check out my original music: https://soundcloud.com/d-wardzala/sets/d-wardzala-original-music
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/19 17:31:52
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ryecatchermark
Another obscure problem I had with recording with the MOTU was while having "remove DC offset" enabled in Sonar's preferences. It would cause some weird low level crackles on mono tracks all the time. Unchecking "remove DC offset" fixed that problem. Someone from Cakewalk emailed me back and confirmed that was actually an ongoing Sonar bug. You could check your preferences.
yes I have remove DC offset during record unchecked. This permanently recording the crackles is pretty intermittent. I've been doing a crackle test every day for 3 weeks. And the last crackle happened 10 days later. I have the latest firmware and software.
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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LLyons
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/19 20:25:14
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History: I did have a few problems like that back in 2015 with the 1248 and Windows 7. The firmware update that came out mid summer 15 took care of it. I then updated to a new machine and Windows 10.. I did get crackles on recording but it was tied to disk usage - and the culprit was antivirus scans, and a few Windows supplied tools that I tuned off. The windows 10, current MOTU driver, current DAW updates strategy worked flawlessly until about 5 weeks ago.
First - I do not know the culprit BUT I suspect it to be in the WUP sequence of events. I have tested this at least 3 times. Turn on the machine, bring up the DAW, then test record. If I got a crackle in test, I closed out the DAW, and re-booted. Bring up the DAW, crackling gone. Every time. I cannot tell if the sequence is WUP before install crackles, WUP during install crackles, or WUP and crackles after update, before boot - if that makes any sense.
Second - It seems to be happening the same way with my Presonus RM32ai interface, at least it happened a few nights ago.
Again - my single observations SEEMS tied to WUP to me. I can assure you it could be tied to disk usage too.
L Lyons DOS and Windows Pro Audio 2-9 from 12 Tone, Sonar 2, 2XL, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8.5, Producer, Producer Expanded, X1 Producer, X2 Producer, X3 Producer and now Sonar Platinum 64 bit - 2nd year Home Built Machine 32G Ram - Corsair Vengeance DDR4 Win 10 Pro Intel i7-6700K Gigabyte Z170-UD5 Thunderbolt3 - AVB ready Planar Hellium 27 touchscreen Limited connection to internet DAW use ONLY WAVES 9.2 64 Bit MOTU 1248 - Connect Thunderbolt MOTU AVB Switch Presonus RM32ai - Connect firewire 800 CS18ai - Connect AVB
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/19 20:54:32
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LLyons
History: I did have a few problems like that back in 2015 with the 1248 and Windows 7. The firmware update that came out mid summer 15 took care of it. I then updated to a new machine and Windows 10.. I did get crackles on recording but it was tied to disk usage - and the culprit was antivirus scans, and a few Windows supplied tools that I tuned off. The windows 10, current MOTU driver, current DAW updates strategy worked flawlessly until about 5 weeks ago.
First - I do not know the culprit BUT I suspect it to be in the WUP sequence of events. I have tested this at least 3 times. Turn on the machine, bring up the DAW, then test record. If I got a crackle in test, I closed out the DAW, and re-booted. Bring up the DAW, crackling gone. Every time. I cannot tell if the sequence is WUP before install crackles, WUP during install crackles, or WUP and crackles after update, before boot - if that makes any sense.
Second - It seems to be happening the same way with my Presonus RM32ai interface, at least it happened a few nights ago.
Again - my single observations SEEMS tied to WUP to me. I can assure you it could be tied to disk usage too.
I saw a Sonar post about a recent WUP, possibly even the current one, causing some problems. I've been leery of using WUP until I know what's going on with that. As for me I tend to do the WUP right before I install a new Plat version. Since I'm using currently 2017.04 I haven't had any WUP in a while. Unless MS has done some secret updates like they did last year that messed some of us up. Has the most current WUP helped what happened 5 weeks ago? What Win tools have you disabled?
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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Rob[at]Sound-Rehab
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/19 22:16:54
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1) Definitely use the latest drivers. MOTU made quite some changes which affected performance.
2) remember you need to set buffer settings so that they fit your system i.e. try not just with different values for the main ASIO buffer but adjust the host safety accordingly. If using direct monitoring via MOTU mixer you can use large buffers. Increase the host safety accordingly. One of the mistakes i made was being lazy and keeping it at 32 while just setting the main value higher or lower.
3) try a different USB port and/or unplug other USB devices. If you do not know how your ports are feeding into which USB root download a free software which will list what goes where internally. I had a problem that the A-PRO MIDI controller caused some audio crackles, discovered it by plugging USB cables to different ports. Reinstalling the A-PRO driver fixed it. Since everything had worked fine before I strongly suspect a Windows update causing the problem in my case!
GOOD TUNES LAST FOREVER +++ Visit the Rehab +++ DAW: Platinum/X3e, win10 64 bit, i7-3930K (6x3.2GHz), Asus Sabertooth X79, 32 GB DDR3 1600MHz, ATI HD 5450, 120 GB SSD OCZ Agility3, 2x 1TB WD HDD SATA 600 Audio-Interface: 2x MOTU 1248 AVB, Focusrite OctoPre, (Roland Octa-Capture) Control-Surface: VS-700C VSTi: WAVES, NI K10u, FabFilter, IK, ... (too many really)
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/20 04:31:45
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Good hearing from you Rob, I remember we had some good discussion s about MOTU before. I’m using the latest drivers and firmware from MOTU. I raised my buffers recently to help this problem. I’m now using 256 256. Since I’m a keyboard player, I don’t want to set the latency too high or it’ll make it hard to play with good timing. Shouldn’t that be good enough?
This crackle problem I have occurs with very low load - a few audio tracks and midi tracks, not much FX. IN fact my basic crackle test has no audio or midi (except drum loops). I sometimes get crackles with it and no load.
I just changed the USB port for the AVB. I’m using a USB 2.0 port. I think MOTU said 3.0 won’t help any. I did disconnect a 2T USB HD that is my wav file archive HD for all my songs. Let’s see if any of that makes a difference.
Can you tell me what free software which will list what USB goes where internally? Not sure if this is what you’re asking, but I think my USB ports are in pairs, which are linked in some way. I do have lots of USB stuff plugged in – 2 dongles, wireless keyboard, backup HD, 2 printers, midi interface. My computer is 2.5 years old and is a Jim Roseberry DAW
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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dwardzala
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/20 16:48:59
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I agree with Rob's statement about the USB ports. I had crackles and bad performance when I first got my MotU. I had all my music stuff plugged into a USB card. Moving to a USB port directly on the MB made all the difference in the world. If you have a Jim Roseberry DAW, you might contact him for some tech support on the USB ports. I think he offers lifetime support (or ping him in the hardware section - he doesn't venture up here much.)
DaveMain Studio- Core i5 @2.67GHz, 16Gb Ram, (2) 500Gb HDs, (1) 360 Gb HD MotU Ultralite AVB, Axiom 49 Midi Controller, Akai MPD18 Midi Controller Win10 x64 Home Sonar 2017.06 Platinum (and X3e, X2c, X1d) Mobile Studio - Sager NP8677 (i7-6700HQ @2.67MHz, 16G Ram, 250G SSD, 1T HD) M-Box Mini v. 2 Win 10 x64 Home Sonar 2016.10 Platinum Check out my original music: https://soundcloud.com/d-wardzala/sets/d-wardzala-original-music
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PJH
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/20 19:07:17
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I've had my Motu 16A for about 18 months and it's been pretty solid... until I updated to the latest driver and firmware. Now I'm experiencing the crackle that the others are having. MOTU has not been too helpful either. I don't want to roll back drivers etc but I might have to.
I'm still on Windows 7 64 bit.
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jbraner
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/20 20:27:17
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I have a Ultralite AVB too, and lots of posts in the hardware section.
I had some problems with the 64 bit audio engine being enabled. Try disabling that?
I get pops/clicks sometimes, but they're never written in to the audio files - they're just on playback.
When I have buffers set too low, it sometimes goes haywire and gets all distorted. I just go into the browser settings and change something (buffers or safety) then change it back. SONAR handles this, and it always fixes the problem.
I'd definitely try disabling the Realtor stuff.
Also, I've had good luck working with the MOTU support guys.
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Rob[at]Sound-Rehab
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/20 21:27:46
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gmp
Can you tell me what free software which will list what USB goes where internally? Not sure if this is what you’re asking, but I think my USB ports are in pairs, which are linked in some way. I do have lots of USB stuff plugged in – 2 dongles, wireless keyboard, backup HD, 2 printers, midi interface. My computer is 2.5 years old and is a Jim Roseberry DAW
Hi! What I used to visualize internal USB routings to USB root hubs was USB Device Tree Viewer. You might get from here or other download sites. It's free, some of the download sites that list it might be scam, though ... https://www.heise.de/down...vice-tree-viewer-86404
GOOD TUNES LAST FOREVER +++ Visit the Rehab +++ DAW: Platinum/X3e, win10 64 bit, i7-3930K (6x3.2GHz), Asus Sabertooth X79, 32 GB DDR3 1600MHz, ATI HD 5450, 120 GB SSD OCZ Agility3, 2x 1TB WD HDD SATA 600 Audio-Interface: 2x MOTU 1248 AVB, Focusrite OctoPre, (Roland Octa-Capture) Control-Surface: VS-700C VSTi: WAVES, NI K10u, FabFilter, IK, ... (too many really)
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Rob[at]Sound-Rehab
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/20 21:34:51
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PJH
I've had my Motu 16A for about 18 months and it's been pretty solid... until I updated to the latest driver and firmware. Now I'm experiencing the crackle that the others are having. MOTU has not been too helpful either. I don't want to roll back drivers etc but I might have to.
I'm still on Windows 7 64 bit.
Rolling back a driver is a piece of cake. Firmware rollback should be as simple as upgrade (yet I have not done that). Since these crackling issues are popping up everywhere "out of the blue" I strongly suspect that win updates (and possibly what it does to drivers that are installed) play a role in it. I had these issues a year ago with crackles printed to audio files. Meanwhile they are gone. I had them on playback 2 months ago, but only in high load projects, probably because I disregarded the host safety buffer ... won't update anything without a system image.
GOOD TUNES LAST FOREVER +++ Visit the Rehab +++ DAW: Platinum/X3e, win10 64 bit, i7-3930K (6x3.2GHz), Asus Sabertooth X79, 32 GB DDR3 1600MHz, ATI HD 5450, 120 GB SSD OCZ Agility3, 2x 1TB WD HDD SATA 600 Audio-Interface: 2x MOTU 1248 AVB, Focusrite OctoPre, (Roland Octa-Capture) Control-Surface: VS-700C VSTi: WAVES, NI K10u, FabFilter, IK, ... (too many really)
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LLyons
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/20 22:19:04
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That's a good idea for a system image Rob.
I am suspecting more and more, its WUP. I just started getting drop outs which were a thing of the past. Theres a post concerning this, active in the past day or so. I could be wrong, as I am NOT system literate, unless its a mainframe - pretty good with those... :o)
Take care
L Lyons DOS and Windows Pro Audio 2-9 from 12 Tone, Sonar 2, 2XL, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8.5, Producer, Producer Expanded, X1 Producer, X2 Producer, X3 Producer and now Sonar Platinum 64 bit - 2nd year Home Built Machine 32G Ram - Corsair Vengeance DDR4 Win 10 Pro Intel i7-6700K Gigabyte Z170-UD5 Thunderbolt3 - AVB ready Planar Hellium 27 touchscreen Limited connection to internet DAW use ONLY WAVES 9.2 64 Bit MOTU 1248 - Connect Thunderbolt MOTU AVB Switch Presonus RM32ai - Connect firewire 800 CS18ai - Connect AVB
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/20 23:18:43
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As many USB issues causing pops and crackles, I'm thinking seriously of getting a USB hub. When I got the computer from Jim Roseberry he had the AVB Ultralite and a USB hub, so maybe that's why he's not had as many problems. I'll get in touch with him.
A few months ago I was not leaving my 2T wav backup HD connected like I have been lately. So possibly disconnecting that will solve it. I'll look into the USB freeware to see what's going on also.
I do have tons of Acronis image files of my boot drive and may even consider going back to Jan of 2017 when I had 2017.01, which I used for about 3 or so months. It was one of the most problem free versions of Plat I've used.
I'll hold off on any WUPs until I hear what's going on with everyone. As of now my WUPs are from April.
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/21 04:52:03
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jbraner
I have a Ultralite AVB too, and lots of posts in the hardware section.
I had some problems with the 64 bit audio engine being enabled. Try disabling that?
I get pops/clicks sometimes, but they're never written in to the audio files - they're just on playback.
When I have buffers set too low, it sometimes goes haywire and gets all distorted. I just go into the browser settings and change something (buffers or safety) then change it back. SONAR handles this, and it always fixes the problem.
I'd definitely try disabling the Realtor stuff.
Also, I've had good luck working with the MOTU support guys.
I unchecked the 64 bit audio engine. I hope that helps. Do you know what the 64 bit audio engine does? Currently I'm using 256 256 as the buffers
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/21 04:54:56
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PJH
I've had my Motu 16A for about 18 months and it's been pretty solid... until I updated to the latest driver and firmware. Now I'm experiencing the crackle that the others are having. MOTU has not been too helpful either. I don't want to roll back drivers etc but I might have to.
I'm still on Windows 7 64 bit.
Yeah I'm wondering if the firmware update could be causing it
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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jbraner
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/21 09:27:43
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Hi gmp, I unchecked the 64 bit audio engine. I hope that helps. Do you know what the 64 bit audio engine does? Currently I'm using 256 256 as the buffers I would actually make the safety buffer *smaller*. It's counter-intuitive, but the safety buffer works better at 64 or less. You can even try it at 16 with that 256 setting for buffers. It's easy enough to try out - and SONAR lets you change these things on the fly. Yeah I'm wondering if the firmware update could be causing it You can "downgrade" the firmware. Just download the file, and point the browser to your older file. I've done it - it works just like "upgrading". Also - when you change your actual drivers, go in to control panel and uninstall the old one first (I always reboot after this too). There was a point last year where they changed the name of the driver 9and the files it was using) and mine was getting confused sometimes. The support guys said to always uninstall the old one first. You really have nothing to lose - trying different driver versions. it only takes a couple of minutes and a couple of reboots (each time). I unchecked the 64 bit audio engine. I hope that helps. Do you know what the 64 bit audio engine does? There are a million threads and discussions on this...
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gmp
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Re: AVB Ultralite - permanent crackles revealed only on playback
2017/10/22 04:19:05
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jbraner
Hi gmp,
I unchecked the 64 bit audio engine. I hope that helps. Do you know what the 64 bit audio engine does? Currently I'm using 256 256 as the buffers
I would actually make the safety buffer *smaller*. It's counter-intuitive, but the safety buffer works better at 64 or less. You can even try it at 16 with that 256 setting for buffers.
It's easy enough to try out - and SONAR lets you change these things on the fly.
Yeah I'm wondering if the firmware update could be causing it
You can "downgrade" the firmware. Just download the file, and point the browser to your older file.
I've done it - it works just like "upgrading".
Also - when you change your actual drivers, go in to control panel and uninstall the old one first (I always reboot after this too). There was a point last year where they changed the name of the driver 9and the files it was using) and mine was getting confused sometimes. The support guys said to always uninstall the old one first.
You really have nothing to lose - trying different driver versions. it only takes a couple of minutes and a couple of reboots (each time).
I unchecked the 64 bit audio engine. I hope that helps. Do you know what the 64 bit audio engine does?
There are a million threads and discussions on this...
Thanks for the info John. Yesterday I unchecked the 64 bit precision engine and today, I did the crackle test and it did crackle, so in my system setup it appears that the 64 bit precision engine doesn't affect this, yet maybe it will affect those momentary pops and glitches we've all gotten on playback. But for now I need to figure out the more serious crackle problem that can totally ruin a good vocal. I went ahead lowered the safety buffer from 256 to 64 to see if that helps like it has you. Lowering that number does improve latency and the total round trip msec. The tech at MOTU suggested to raise those numbers. So in your system did you definitely see an improvement with lowering the safety buffer? I agree it’s counter-intuitive, yet if it works, then it works. I did talk to Jim Roseberry today and he’s not really sure why I’m having the problem and felt the onboard Realtec audio shouldn’t be a problem. He said about 12 years ago that was the consensus to disable that, but as far as testing it’s worthwhile to see if disabling it does help. He’s never had the crackles be written to a wav file like I have, yet he’s also had a USB powered hub. Since they only run about $15 it’s another worthwhile experiment, especially considering many have reported USB problems with MOTU products. I have 9 USB devises connected. He also said that all USB external HD’s do go to sleep and there’s no way to change this and even if I’m not using it, it can interrupt the data flow, because my audio HD may wait until the USB HD wakes up before saving data. There’s no way to change this with programming the USB HD. So it’s best to have them disconnected when recording audio. So I’ll try that too. I’ll also disable Defender. He said with a DAW that you have no email or browsing, you don’t need anti-virus as long as you’re careful. I have tons of Acronis image files and am a backup fiend every night. I’m still wanting to know if the current WUP is ok, since some have reported crackle problems lately. I may decide to update everything
Gerry Peters Midi Magic Studio http://gprecordingstudio.com/ Album Productions and Songwriter Resources Cakewalk By Bandlab, Platinum 64 + 32 bit, Studiocat AsRock Z97 motherboard, Haswell CPU 4790k @ 4.4GHz, RAM 16GB DDR3/1600, Windows 10 Pro all updates including optional, MOTU AVB Ultralite sound card/Midi interface/Dig mixer, onboard Video HD4600. Midisport 2x2 midi interface, Vienna Instruments, Ivory II piano, Komplete 9, Superior drummer. 5 HD's - OS drive 250GB SSD, Samples drive 1 500GB SSD, 3 data HDs - total of 6.5T
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