Scarlett Audio Interface crackling on playback

[Kaine]

The Focusrite (well a lot of brands still) can be picky on USB 3 and USB 2 hub plugged into a USB 3 port will be far worse.

If you can test a USB2 header off the board somehow, it might solve it.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/27230377 ... 096&crdt=0

[Gomox]

I tested it via the USB 2.0 header -> no improvements unfortunately.

[Kaine]

Run this http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon (direct link = http://www.resplendence.com/download/LatencyMon.exe ) please. Just install it, run and hit the start button.

Run it for between 10 and 14 mins, no longer or shorter please.

If it fails (it'll be obvious if it does!) please screen shoot the front page of the test (he "main tab"), then sort the "drivers" tab by highest execution and screen shot, then go to the "edit" menu (might be "tools" menu.... i forget) and click the "export to clipboard" option you see and then paste it to a .txt file.

Upload both photos and the .txt file to somewhere we can see it online and link it back to us.

This is designed to see if the drivers are bottlenecking. A common side effect is often your symptoms, so best we rule it out now where we can.

[Scotty]

Yesterday we fixed an issue with a Scarlett Gen 2 interface. The user had applied an overclock. Once the overclock was removed the issues, crackling, drop-outs ceased.

The Focusrite (well a lot of brands still) can be picky on USB 3 and USB 2 hub plugged into a USB 3 port will be far worse.

If you can test a USB2 header off the board somehow, it might solve it.

I have a usb header on my motherboard - what would be away to test it using that?

[Gomox]

Unfortunately I haven't overclocked any of my hardware.

[Caine123]

hmmm i wanna get a new motherboard Z170/z270 and i think i will have to check for 1 with USB 2.0 already onboard without an extra PCIe USB 2.0 card.

your asrock board only has usb 3.0/3.1 afaik?

[PurpleSunray]

hmmm i wanna get a new motherboard Z170/z270 and i think i will have to check for 1 with USB 2.0 already onboard without an extra PCIe USB 2.0 card.

your asrock board only has usb 3.0/3.1 afaik?

Get some on stock, will be really difficult to get one in a coupld of years...

Other option is to get an interface from a company that has their driver development pat down..
This is a software problem, no hardware issue (same hardware, Win7 => works, Win10 => blue screen).
Just try to google for "focusrite usb problem" .. then try again with "RME usb problem" or "Steinberg usb problem" and notice the difference

[Caine123]

hmmm i wanna get a new motherboard Z170/z270 and i think i will have to check for 1 with USB 2.0 already onboard without an extra PCIe USB 2.0 card.

your asrock board only has usb 3.0/3.1 afaik?

Get some on stock, will be really difficult to get one in a coupld of years...

Other option is to get an interface from a company that has their driver development pat down..
This is a software problem, no hardware issue (same hardware, Win7 => works, Win10 => blue screen).
Just try to google for "focusrite usb problem" .. then try again with "RME usb problem" or "Steinberg usb problem" and notice the difference

i got a 18i20 3 weeks ago, and it gives me probs on win7 too, my older focusrite was no prob but too small... well all the asus mainboards i wanna have have no PCI and USB 2.0 connections anymore :/ guess imma risk usb 3.0 and if it doesnt work imma send this focusrite to focusrite and they shall refund me or release the right drivers!

[Dominus]

I was an early adopter when the Scarlett series first came out years ago. I had it for 25 days and fought with their support and beta drivers and just had nothing but problems. (Blue screens, crackling, etc.) Returned it within the 30 day return window. The seller was pretty cool about it, as a lot of people had the same issues.

Paid a little bit more and bought a used RME unit, and have gone that route ever since. Never a single problem. EVER.

[Scotty]

It appears that few manufacturers have the resources needed to update and build good low latency drivers across platforms. It must be a very specialized skill set. It would be interesting to read something from coders who do this kind of work.

RME and Sonic - Core (previously Creamware) have been incredible with driver support.

I was an early adopter when the Scarlett series first came out years ago. I had it for 25 days and fought with their support and beta drivers and just had nothing but problems. (Blue screens, crackling, etc.) Returned it within the 30 day return window. The seller was pretty cool about it, as a lot of people had the same issues.

Paid a little bit more and bought a used RME unit, and have gone that route ever since. Never a single problem. EVER.

[PurpleSunray]

It appears that few manufacturers have the resources needed to update and build good low latency drivers across platforms. It must be a very specialized skill set. It would be interesting to read something from coders who do this kind of work.

RME and Sonic - Core (previously Creamware) have been incredible with driver support.

I don't do Windows audio driver development in particular, but a lot of low-level USB, audio and video stuff on Linux (Car Infotainment Systems).
From my experience, this problems are only related to how much focus the Company puts on quality vs. cost, time-to-market, ect. pp.
Working on automotive business this is kind of the top most priority. If you release buggy software into the Car, it will be buggy forever (unless they do a recall program). So time on a project usually splits like: 2 years of planning and prototyping, 1 year of development from zero to feature complete, 2 years of testing&bug fxing => Start of Production.
On such a project setup it doen't really matter if the USB driver dev did something wrong during prototyping - or maybe also during development. The bug will be found and fixed.

This kind of working mode is not common for software devlopment (it's clearly comming from the automotive world).
On software dev they are more like:
You cannot expect me to test my driver on oHCI/uHCI/eHCI AND xHCI on Win7, Win8 AND Win10.... I cannot test every release with USB Hardware Verfier Tool ....... tooooooo much ... so I test here on my PC and if it "works for me" it will work for everyone (most likely, or not).

My assumption is simply that RME puts a much stronger focus on quality like i.e. Focusrite.
They don't need any super-guru-special-driver-devs, if they do 1 year of testing instead of 1 week and if they release monthly driver updates, instead of release-once-and-forget

[Hooj]

I've had problems w/mine too (crackling, popping, apps crashing etc). I'm throwing it in the trash and getting a RME. I was an idiot for not shelling out the extra $ and getting a quality product from the start!

[pethu]

My $80 crackle solution (or so it seems right now anyway, with many thanks to this thread and others on KvR). Apologies for long-windedness:

I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface, and just built a new mega(ish) computer using the latest(ish) tech: An Asus Z170 Gaming Pro motherboard (which has on-board USB2 headers), 32 MBs of DDR4 RAM, an Intel Core I7-6700, 4GHz CPU, Windows 10 and what have you. All the basic precautions taken for Windows: I prioritized backgrund tasks, disabled power-saving features, etc.

Should be good enough for audio, right? The result? Slightly MORE crackles at slightly LESS load in Reaper 5 (@48KHz, 24-bit) than on my previous computer. So, initial disappointment!

Having read here about compatibility of audio interfaces with USB 3.0/3.1 vs. USB 2.0, i did some experiments, and quickly found the following: For me, it was not about the CPU. It was not about the memory. It was all about the I/O paths! So, my experiences:

1. Don't trust USB 3.1 with ANYTHING (except perhaps high-speed storage) as of yet. I got stutters, crackles, hangs when trying to use the 3.1 port... you name it! (Also, trying to attach a 3.0 USB active extension cable to the 3.1 port for other purposes caused an irretrievable system error and forced a system restore!)

2. Don't trust USB 3.0 handling Focusrite Scarlett interfaces properly. More unexplained crackles at low loads ensued (though no outright hangs).

3. Using the motherboard USB 2.0 port, I got decent results, but still equal to or slightly worse than my old computer... even at a 256 sample buffer, I would get occasional crackles on the most demanding "ultra-modern" synths like Softube modular, 12-voice unison patches on Matrix 12 V, Strobe 2 and the like.

4. SALVATION: The StarTech "7-port PCI Express Low Profile High Speed USB 2.0 Adapter Card" (which has a VIA chipset according to the, err, printing on the chip). Putting the Scarlett interface on this let me lower the ASIO buffer for the Scarlett card from 128 to 64 whilst getting NO crackles whatsoever on the most extreme tests! (Like the 256-voice Pianoteq "Arm across the keyboard with sustain pedal down" test... )

5. I will never ever completely trust my setup handling Focusrite interfaces properly with other stuff hanging off of even this extra USB 2.0 hub: I.e., if I tried putting the progressive GPP-3 piano pedal controller on the same hub, crackles! I seem to be getting away with attaching the iLok dongle there, though, so the extra ports are not completely wasted...

There you go. I love the Focusrite 2i2 in every other way but the drivers, and $80 seems to have solved my problems for now - quite a bit more cheaply than buying a new and more expensive audio interface.

(PS: the offers from my standard H/W suppliers with regards to dedicated USB 2.0 cards seem to be getting severly limited, so it might just be a good idea to pick up a card while they're still around!)

[tunafish88]

My $80 crackle solution (or so it seems right now anyway, with many thanks to this thread and others on KvR). Apologies for long-windedness:

Snip---

4. SALVATION: The StarTech "7-port PCI Express Low Profile High Speed USB 2.0 Adapter Card" (which has a VIA chipset according to the, err, printing on the chip). Putting the Scarlett interface on this let me lower the ASIO buffer for the Scarlett card from 128 to 64 whilst getting NO crackles whatsoever on the most extreme tests! (Like the 256-voice Pianoteq "Arm across the keyboard with sustain pedal down" test... )

I use the same test with Ivory and Ravenscroft 275 as well. Glissandos up and down the keyboard with the sustain pedal down, or pumping it, really separates the men from the boys. I call it "The Pop and Crackle Test".

[PurpleSunray]

There you go. I love the Focusrite 2i2 in every other way but the drivers, and $80 seems to have solved my problems for now - quite a bit more cheaply than buying a new and more expensive audio interface.

Same here. I have two Focusrite interfaces here that are not in use anymore due to driver issue...
I was already thinking about to reverse-engineer that shit and spin off an open-source project for building an open alternative to the Focusrite drivers. Started to look at it high level.. the Scarlett is a Class Compliant USB Device, so supporting that shoudn't be that difficult.. but the Saffire is not. It uses some proprietary stuff, which needs lot of time to reverse-engineer.. so I lost my motivation and did not continue with that idea ..