Pops/Clicks/Random Small Noises Driving Me Crazy on Renders

[Kompulsor]

I apologize for the stupid question, but this is driving me nuts.

For composing and analyzing music I use regular home speakers "Insignia" such as the ones below, with headphones plugged into them. The headphones are Sony MDR-7506, with the protective sheet peeling off.


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/insignia-2- ... ksdevice=c

My soundcard: M-Audio Delta AP 2496 (Audiophile)

I keep hearing small clicks/pops in random places on rendering. I need to find out if it's my music randomly creating small clicks, the sound card, or if it's a false alarm due to the speakers creating static.

This happens on solo vocals, sometimes when using the cutoff filter on some lead sounds, sometimes on distorted sounds.

Are the home speakers creating static? Is there a way to remove it? Is the soundcard creating it, or the headphones?

I tried plugging in a different set of earbuds into the same speakers. Some of the clicks went away, but some remain.

I have to use headphones for music production because I live in a small apartment. Can someone recommend a reliable, clean speaker system that will work with headphones and give good sound fidelity without any artefacts?

[arkmabat]

Asio4all

Download it and set play with latency live till it's sounding better.

[arkmabat]

Or are the pops at random everytime you play back?

[planetearth]

The problem isn't your speakers.

As arkmabat is suggesting, a better driver for your sound card may help. The soundcard you have should have ASIO drivers specifically written for it. You should try those first, and make sure your DAW is set to use ASIO as the input and output device driver. If you can't get ASIO drivers, ASIO4All may work.

If you'll provide more information, such as your computer processor and RAM; your OS, DAW and track count; and anything else you think is relevant (including the answer to arkmabat's question), we might be able to give you a better idea of what's going on and what to do to fix it. As it is, this just appears to be an issue of your soundcard's drivers.

Steve

[Kompulsor]

Thanks for the replies! Some details:

- PC: Dell Studio XPS 8000
- RAM: 16 GB
- DAW: FL Studio 10.0

Audio Settings in FL Studio. See below.



Important: Virus TI (hardware) is used. FL Studio's Latency Compensation is used to make it work with the project. Any audio setting must not interfere with the TI.

M-Audio Delta Audiophile (AP) 2496 Control Panel:

[planetearth]

[What happens if you increase the latency in ASIO? Do the pops and clicks disappear?

And if you still have your computer's on-board audio card (the Realtek) enabled, you should either disable it in the BIOS or at least in Device Manager. On-board audio cards (and their drivers) have been known to interfere with troubleshooting latency issues.

Steve

[Kompulsor]

You mean change the buffer size from 512 to something else? I can't. When I click either one of those arrows in Pic. 2 it goes back to 512, it's fixed.

[planetearth]

You mean change the buffer size from 512 to something else? I can't. When I click either one of those arrows in Pic. 2 it goes back to 512, it's fixed.

How long have the pops and clicks been an issue?

How long have you not been able to change the ASIO settings?

Can you disable the Realtek?

What is selected as your "playback tracking" driver?

And is there a reason you already have ASIO4All installed? (You shouldn't really need it for an M-Audio card.) That said, what happens if you use ASIO4All?

It appears you're not alone in not being able to change M-Audio's ASIO settings from within FL Studio--at least, you weren't alone in 2010, when this thread started: http://forums.m-audio.com/archive/index ... 18675.html

Finally, which OS are you using, and do you have the latest updates for FL Studio and your M-Audio drivers?

Steve

[hibidy]

As stated, I'd recommend asio4all and see what happens. FL even recommends this for asio units.

Personally, even my OMG super uber computer FL doesn't really run terribly well (even though many have tried to help) but, since so many people DON'T have problems, I'd default to trying the asio4all driver and see what happens before continuing.

[Kompulsor]

Thanks guys. When I select that "ASIO4ALL" option, the output completely stops, silence. Nothing is audible at all.

As you can see, I can't change a lot of options in that control panel.

M-Audio's soundcards seem to be "legacy." I looked on their website and they now list their soundcards as "legacy products" which means they no longer upgrade them. I believe I do have the latest drivers, but they haven't changed in years. M-Audio seems now to be focused on speakers and synthesizers.

Can someone recommend a professional, top-quality soundcard as a replacement for this one for recording (not the casual-consumer crap)? I can try it and see what happens.

[UltraJv]

Something isn't right. maudio drivers arnt locked to any buffer size. The up/down arrows change the size. You will probably need to exit FL to change it. Maybe the drivers arnt meant for your OS? You don't say what it is. I had that same card is a PC and its fine with Windows 7. Wifi or network can cause pops n clicks with any card. Have you tried running dpc latency checker?

http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

[metamorphosis]

You haven't answered whether the pops/clicks occur in the same places when you replay the songs, yet...

[hibidy]

I'm glad this got reupped by a spam bot.

I actually tried asio4all because someone mentioned that it cured the studio one spiky meter thing.

a) bullshit
b) I got all kinds of pops and clicks

So I want to apologize for recommending it.