gmp
I've done quite a lot of testing and the problem may be solved, since it's been a good while since I got the crackles. I think it was most likely my USB backup HD's that were connected.

Jim Roseberry said all those UDB HD's have a sleep mode built-in that you can't program to turn off and sometimes when you record audio to your internal audio HD, it first checks to see if all other HD's are awake, if not that can create a data flow interruption and thus a crackle. No doubt the Ultralite seems pretty finicky when it comes to USB devices. I also disabled Defender, who knows, may that was it. If I get any more crackles I'll post here. 

This is great to hear! Glad you got it solved! :)

Hi Gerry,

What you're doing sounds great, and I don't think latency is so important - unless you're playing soft synths.

It wouldn't work for me, as I play guitar through amp sim plugins - so I have to monitor through SONAR, otherwise I'll just hear "dink dink dink" (DI guitar) instead of nice distorted power chords 😉

I can't tell you for sure, but my new theory is that there is latency in the amp sims, and also in some other plugins that may be running on other tracks. I need to play around with turning of PDC and stuff, but I can't be bothered.
Usually the 10ms latency is fine, but sometimes it bothers me - so I'm not sure if it's just me, or if sometimes the PDC is adding more latency to the 10ms.
If I can play guitar at 64/48 (5.8ms) it's always good.

PS - I also have a lot of luck taking the safety buffers down to 16, but it doesn't give a lot less latency than just leaving it on 48.

After my last post, thinking I solved the problem, I got more crackles and did tons of testing. I used a new crackle test which was based on the Plat default template, I created an audio track and started my test recordings. All recordings sounded fine during recording, but on playback some had horrible crackles. This is what I was trying to solve
 
I first did all the Win updates and Plat updates 2017.10 and got crackles. I reverted back to a 4/22/17 image file where I was using plat 2017.01 and AVB Sept 2016 firmware and had no crackles. I tested it and it was fine - no crackles. I then updated to the new AVB firmware and got crackles.
 
I reverted back to my image file with all the latest Win updates and Plat 2017.10. With this setup the new firmware had crackles and the old firmware didn't have crackles.  I found out that MOTU has new AVB software as of 10/16/17. I updated to that new software and tried both the new and old firmware and the new firmware still gives crackles even with the new software. So I'll let MOTU know this.
 
It turns out that the Realtec is not causing any problems, so I can continue to use it to play wav and mp3 files. I did get a USB hub and I make sure I never have any USB HD’s connected while using Plat.
 
If anyone is wondering if the new firmware is not working right for them, just pay close attention as to if you even get recorded crackles. When this happens every recording after that has crackles until you close that CWP and open it again. During my crackle tests I would always get crackles after trying to record 25x or less
 

I've been running a MOTU 16A for about two years now without any of these hassles. I also didn't upgrade to the latest MOTU drivers either. My system was working flawlessly so I didn't bother. I recently had to perform a reinstall of Windows 7 64 bit and decided to install the latest firmware and driver. Big mistake - I now have the dreaded intermittent crackles embedded in certain recordings as well as losing audio evey now and then. I have to close SONAR and reopen before things return to normal.
 
I tried to work things out with MOTU support but even after trying various settings etc things are much the same.
 
I'm going to go back to the driver that worked and carry on with that until they fix this problem or at least acknowledge that there is a problem.
 
I don't know if any other MOTU users have rolled back to see if there is any improvemt. If anyone has tried this please post your experience.
 
Thanks
 
Peter.

PJH
I've been running a MOTU 16A for about two years now without any of these hassles. I also didn't upgrade to the latest MOTU drivers either. My system was working flawlessly so I didn't bother. I recently had to perform a reinstall of Windows 7 64 bit and decided to install the latest firmware and driver. Big mistake - I now have the dreaded intermittent crackles embedded in certain recordings as well as losing audio evey now and then. I have to close SONAR and reopen before things return to normal.
 
I tried to work things out with MOTU support but even after trying various settings etc things are much the same.
 
I'm going to go back to the driver that worked and carry on with that until they fix this problem or at least acknowledge that there is a problem.
 
I don't know if any other MOTU users have rolled back to see if there is any improvemt. If anyone has tried this please post your experience.
 
Thanks
 
Peter.

 
Thanks for chiming in Peter, I hope other MOTU users share their experiences also, especially with this latest firmware that's causing these embedded crackles. For me this new software is very good, better than the previous, but the firmware is bad.
 
In your case I'd definitely say go back to the old firmware and possibly the old software. I'd suggest trying my crackle test. In my case the bad crackle could happen on the 1st recording and maybe even as high as the 21st recording. I even setup a macro the keeps testing it about 40x and then it's easy to check each one for crackles.
 
The crackle problem only happens on the 1st recording of the file when you open it. If it passes that test, don't bother testing that file any more. Just close and reopen it. I'll tell MOTU about your experience and you can tell them about mine. The more of us complain the more they'll take it seriously and fix it
 

gmp

PJH
I've been running a MOTU 16A for about two years now without any of these hassles. I also didn't upgrade to the latest MOTU drivers either. My system was working flawlessly so I didn't bother. I recently had to perform a reinstall of Windows 7 64 bit and decided to install the latest firmware and driver. Big mistake - I now have the dreaded intermittent crackles embedded in certain recordings as well as losing audio evey now and then. I have to close SONAR and reopen before things return to normal.
 
I tried to work things out with MOTU support but even after trying various settings etc things are much the same.
 
I'm going to go back to the driver that worked and carry on with that until they fix this problem or at least acknowledge that there is a problem.
 
I don't know if any other MOTU users have rolled back to see if there is any improvemt. If anyone has tried this please post your experience.
 
Thanks
 
Peter.

Thanks for chiming in Peter, I hope other MOTU users share their experiences also, especially with this latest firmware that's causing these embedded crackles. For me this new software is very good, better than the previous, but the firmware is bad.

In your case I'd definitely say go back to the old firmware and possibly the old software. I'd suggest trying my crackle test. In my case the bad crackle could happen on the 1st recording and maybe even as high as the 21st recording. I even setup a macro the keeps testing it about 40x and then it's easy to check each one for crackles.

The crackle problem only happens on the 1st recording of the file when you open it. If it passes that test, don't bother testing that file any more. Just close and reopen it. I'll tell MOTU about your experience and you can tell them about mine. The more of us complain the more they'll take it seriously and fix it
 

Thanks for the advice, gmp.
 
I have tried rolling back to the stable driver version (version 1.6) but the audio is completely distorted. The web browser also reports "no devices found".
 
I'm thinking that I'm going to have to go back the older firmware as well.
 
I'm just not sure how I go about this. Do you have any advice? Can you revert back to the older firmware using the latest driver? 
 
I'd appreciate any advice.
 
Thanks.

You can revert back to older firmware - by just "updating" with the older file.
Just check the readme files to see minimum firmware version for the older drivers.

PJH

gmp

PJH
I've been running a MOTU 16A for about two years now without any of these hassles. I also didn't upgrade to the latest MOTU drivers either. My system was working flawlessly so I didn't bother. I recently had to perform a reinstall of Windows 7 64 bit and decided to install the latest firmware and driver. Big mistake - I now have the dreaded intermittent crackles embedded in certain recordings as well as losing audio evey now and then. I have to close SONAR and reopen before things return to normal.
 
I tried to work things out with MOTU support but even after trying various settings etc things are much the same.
 
I'm going to go back to the driver that worked and carry on with that until they fix this problem or at least acknowledge that there is a problem.
 
I don't know if any other MOTU users have rolled back to see if there is any improvemt. If anyone has tried this please post your experience.
 
Thanks
 
Peter.

Thanks for chiming in Peter, I hope other MOTU users share their experiences also, especially with this latest firmware that's causing these embedded crackles. For me this new software is very good, better than the previous, but the firmware is bad.

In your case I'd definitely say go back to the old firmware and possibly the old software. I'd suggest trying my crackle test. In my case the bad crackle could happen on the 1st recording and maybe even as high as the 21st recording. I even setup a macro the keeps testing it about 40x and then it's easy to check each one for crackles.

The crackle problem only happens on the 1st recording of the file when you open it. If it passes that test, don't bother testing that file any more. Just close and reopen it. I'll tell MOTU about your experience and you can tell them about mine. The more of us complain the more they'll take it seriously and fix it
 

Thanks for the advice, gmp.
 
I have tried rolling back to the stable driver version (version 1.6) but the audio is completely distorted. The web browser also reports "no devices found".
 
I'm thinking that I'm going to have to go back the older firmware as well.
 
I'm just not sure how I go about this. Do you have any advice? Can you revert back to the older firmware using the latest driver? 
 
I'd appreciate any advice.
 
Thanks.

I’ve heard it’s best to uninstall the newer software first before installing the older software. I’ve had some similar problems with the audio being distorted and no devices found. Whenever you make a change shut down the computer and the AVB box, then reboot the AVB box and when it’s done reboot the computer.

 

A few times through this process I had to reset the AVB box to factory settings, but make sure you first save your device preset and your mixer preset and also write down the settings at the top of the device page, because some of those are not saved or restored. After you  return to to factory settings, load those presets back in to return your box to normal.

 

Return to factory settings only if you run out of options with rebooting and installing. There are a few little tricks to exporting and importing presets. let me know if you have any problems.

 

I saved all of my firmware and software files on my computer. If for some reason you need any of those I can give you a link to them to download from my MS Skydrive. After I was getting all these crazy things happen like you described, I installed the newest software and everything returned to normal. So I’m using the old firmware Sept 2016 and the new software Oct 2017

 

Let us know if everything gets back to normal for you – wish you the best!

Thanks so much for this gmp and jbraner,
So correct me if i'm wrong, you are running new software with old firmware? Are you having problems? 
No crackles or loss of audio? I was led to believe that you could only run the new software in conjunction with the latest firmware.

PJH
Thanks so much for this gmp and jbraner,
So correct me if i'm wrong, you are running new software with old firmware? Are you having problems? 
No crackles or loss of audio? I was led to believe that you could only run the new software in conjunction with the latest firmware.

Yes running new software with old firmware - No crackles or loss of audio. All Win updates, latest Plat