PurpleSunray wrote: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).Scotty wrote: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.
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
Scarlett Audio Interface crackling on playback
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- KVRAF
- 2945 posts since 23 Dec, 2002
Interesting, thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts. - Scotty
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- KVRer
- 1 posts since 21 Dec, 2018
Hey guys. I created an account for this board just to tell you this one thing: the issue of crackling and popping sounds during playback or recording is directly related to the USB controllers on your mainboard. Yesterday I installed an internal PCI-E USB card, plugged my Scarlett 18i20 into it and what do you know? No crackling, no popping, no latency issue, nothing. Just pure audio.
I strongly advise you guys to get one of those cards, too. I paid no more than 15 bucks for it and it was a extremely useful investment.
I strongly advise you guys to get one of those cards, too. I paid no more than 15 bucks for it and it was a extremely useful investment.
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- KVRAF
- 1929 posts since 4 Nov, 2004 from Manchester
Have you no black USB ports round the back of the board? Normally 2 X USB 2 ports on the back of any Z170 boards.
Mid board headers are often not intel controllers, could be tried with the right cable, but normally a poor second to using the rear black ones.
Mid board headers are often not intel controllers, could be tried with the right cable, but normally a poor second to using the rear black ones.
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- KVRer
- 2 posts since 29 Jul, 2010
has anyone had the issue with the 18i20 muting and unmuting randomly by itself? I just started having this problem any ideas? Windows 10 PRO i9 processor x299 gigabyte board ddr 4 ram connected to usb 3.1
CRAZY MAN
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- KVRer
- 2 posts since 29 Jul, 2010
DId you ever have your interface unmute and mute by itself before adding the usb card? also was it a usb 3.0 or 2.0 card that you installed and which ports are you using?
My 18i20 keeps muting and unmuting by itself
My 18i20 keeps muting and unmuting by itself
EagleeyeJones wrote: ↑Fri Dec 21, 2018 3:41 pm Hey guys. I created an account for this board just to tell you this one thing: the issue of crackling and popping sounds during playback or recording is directly related to the USB controllers on your mainboard. Yesterday I installed an internal PCI-E USB card, plugged my Scarlett 18i20 into it and what do you know? No crackling, no popping, no latency issue, nothing. Just pure audio.
I strongly advise you guys to get one of those cards, too. I paid no more than 15 bucks for it and it was a extremely useful investment.
CRAZY MAN
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- KVRer
- 1 posts since 19 Apr, 2020
I upgraded the Firmware in my Scarlet 6i6 and immediately started hearing persistent crackling noise with all audio played through the interface. I tried multiple installs, switching USB ports and a number of other solutions. What seems to have fixed it for me is to switch from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0. I'm guessing the new firmware targets a 3.0 connection.
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- KVRer
- 1 posts since 14 May, 2020
I encountered a similar problem recently. I didn't hear crackling in Ableton Live but I did on all other software where I was not able to choose for the AsioDriver. I checked the device properties and noticed that Default Format was set on "8 channel, 24 bit, 44100Hz" changing it to "2 channel, 24 bit, 44100Hz" or "1 channel, 24 bit, 44100Hz" solved the problem for me.
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- KVRist
- 459 posts since 17 Mar, 2005 from Bay Area
Sounds to me like a power issue. EDIT damn I didnt notice there were 3 pages here! lol I hope my comment helps someone.
Ive used the scarlett 2i2 gen2 for a couple years, along with my klipsch powered monitors and sub. The 2i2 was connected to my PC with USB, and took power from the PC over USB.
When playing games, producing music, or even just sitting at the windows desktop, audio distortions, sometimes a small pop, and hissing/swishing/digital sounds can occasionally be heard over the speakers. The monitors can be connecting using digital (USB) or analog, and the noise is consistent. Incidentally, I also solved a 'hummm' issue that was being caused by a fridge that was on the same electrical circuit as the speakers.
The end result and solution, for me, was to buy a newer focusrite scarlett 8i6 gen 3, which has an external power supply and better components, and was designed with minimizing the ground loop/signal noise that was so often present in the gen1 and gen2 scarlett boxes.
Ive installed the gen3 box 3 days ago, and I bought a set of balanced audio cables from the vendor at the same time. The ground loop noise (swishing, static, a pop here and there, glitching sounds) is now 98% reduced or gone.
Ground loops are easy to get these days, with so many devices taking power from the USB bus. Another way to solve a ground loop is to buy a electrical isolation tranformer, but that is a couple of $$.
This may/may not be your issue, but it sounds very, very similar. Ground loops can be tested by working around the audio interface and connecting various devices directly to your speaker/amp ins, then reconnecting the focusrite to those same inputs to see if you get the same noise from any source. Make sure your sources have their own power supplies, and not USB.
Ive used the scarlett 2i2 gen2 for a couple years, along with my klipsch powered monitors and sub. The 2i2 was connected to my PC with USB, and took power from the PC over USB.
When playing games, producing music, or even just sitting at the windows desktop, audio distortions, sometimes a small pop, and hissing/swishing/digital sounds can occasionally be heard over the speakers. The monitors can be connecting using digital (USB) or analog, and the noise is consistent. Incidentally, I also solved a 'hummm' issue that was being caused by a fridge that was on the same electrical circuit as the speakers.
The end result and solution, for me, was to buy a newer focusrite scarlett 8i6 gen 3, which has an external power supply and better components, and was designed with minimizing the ground loop/signal noise that was so often present in the gen1 and gen2 scarlett boxes.
Ive installed the gen3 box 3 days ago, and I bought a set of balanced audio cables from the vendor at the same time. The ground loop noise (swishing, static, a pop here and there, glitching sounds) is now 98% reduced or gone.
Ground loops are easy to get these days, with so many devices taking power from the USB bus. Another way to solve a ground loop is to buy a electrical isolation tranformer, but that is a couple of $$.
This may/may not be your issue, but it sounds very, very similar. Ground loops can be tested by working around the audio interface and connecting various devices directly to your speaker/amp ins, then reconnecting the focusrite to those same inputs to see if you get the same noise from any source. Make sure your sources have their own power supplies, and not USB.
Last edited by Milkman on Thu May 14, 2020 5:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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- KVRist
- 459 posts since 17 Mar, 2005 from Bay Area
And Ive tried my 2i2 gen2 and 8i6 gen3 on usb 2, 3, and 3.1 ports. No difference for me at least. I ran through all the troubleshooting I could think of a couple months ago when I experience noise like this, and changing USB ports/cables was one of them.
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- KVRer
- 1 posts since 17 May, 2020
hi all so found this thread after a ton of searching and almost a full week of troubleshooting on my end. i have a new 8i6 running latest firmware and windows, and experiencing the same issue.
Windows plays audio just fine UNTIL I open Ableton or any other program that detects the soundcard as a device. it doesnt need to be selected, just the mere fact of detecting it as an audio device seems to cause the crackling and popping.
the ONLY thing i've found that works so far is going into the BIOS and manually setting my PCIe to Gen3 and then using the MME/DX driver. keeping PCIe on Auto (Gen4) still causes crackling issues with the MME/DX driver.
so yeah, i think it's down to some combination of interaction with the PCIe bus and the USB drivers (possibly the firmware too).
Windows plays audio just fine UNTIL I open Ableton or any other program that detects the soundcard as a device. it doesnt need to be selected, just the mere fact of detecting it as an audio device seems to cause the crackling and popping.
the ONLY thing i've found that works so far is going into the BIOS and manually setting my PCIe to Gen3 and then using the MME/DX driver. keeping PCIe on Auto (Gen4) still causes crackling issues with the MME/DX driver.
so yeah, i think it's down to some combination of interaction with the PCIe bus and the USB drivers (possibly the firmware too).
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- KVRer
- 1 posts since 26 Jul, 2020
Hi everyone,.
I had the same issue as well, using a 2i2 Gen2 with a high spec Win10 laptop with only USB3 ports on it.
I managed to get rid of all of the crackling/pops.
The solution for me was just to reduce the buffer size. The amount of crackling directly correlated to the buffer size - At 16 there was quite a lot, at 128 not so much but still there, and at 256 it's completely gone.
This gives me a 12ms delay, which I haven't had an issue with so far. Will keep on going with this solution unless I find the delay to be an issue.
I had the same issue as well, using a 2i2 Gen2 with a high spec Win10 laptop with only USB3 ports on it.
I managed to get rid of all of the crackling/pops.
The solution for me was just to reduce the buffer size. The amount of crackling directly correlated to the buffer size - At 16 there was quite a lot, at 128 not so much but still there, and at 256 it's completely gone.
This gives me a 12ms delay, which I haven't had an issue with so far. Will keep on going with this solution unless I find the delay to be an issue.
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- KVRist
- 130 posts since 12 Oct, 2020
CRACKLE FIX:
I had mad crackles even when the interface was unplugged from USB.
Had a chat with Focusrite tech support, SO HELPFUL
He suggested it could be the PSU, I bought a new one online and bang problem gone !
When you have issues sometimes worth checking the simple stupid solutions...
Thanks Focusrite !! My Scarlett 8i6 works again perfectly!!
I had mad crackles even when the interface was unplugged from USB.
Had a chat with Focusrite tech support, SO HELPFUL
He suggested it could be the PSU, I bought a new one online and bang problem gone !
When you have issues sometimes worth checking the simple stupid solutions...
Thanks Focusrite !! My Scarlett 8i6 works again perfectly!!
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- KVRer
- 1 posts since 26 Dec, 2020
I had the same problem with my Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen just a few hours after unboxing after screwing around with some software and I am still not sure what the issue was. I was able to solve the crackling sounds coming through my headphones (I'm assuming this would work for monitors as well) by uninstalling both the asio4all driver and the focusrite driver I had installed and then reinstalling both. Hope this helps and Merry Christmas.
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- KVRian
- 791 posts since 24 Apr, 2008 from USA
I had many focusrite interfaces before, always had issues with them.
Last one I tried was scarlet 18i8 mk2 I think i it was crackling when I had the focusrite mixer open, closing the mixer completely solved the problem.
My advice: don’t but focusrite interfaces.
Last one I tried was scarlet 18i8 mk2 I think i it was crackling when I had the focusrite mixer open, closing the mixer completely solved the problem.
My advice: don’t but focusrite interfaces.
Macbook M1 Max 32GB Ram Cubase 12
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- KVRist
- 32 posts since 4 Nov, 2020
Have you tried installing a previous version of the driver? sometimes installing the latest update only causes problemsGomox wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2017 6:37 pm Hey guys
I've tried different (usb) drivers (scarlett-mixcontrol-1.8, Scarlett MixControl-1.9b4). I've been in contact with the support but unfortunately they've gone quiet for 2 weeks now. I tried all available USB ports on my computer. Also when I try to switch to the Focusrite driver in Cubase I get a BSOD "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" by UAC2Audio.sys
Does anybody have any tips on tricks on how to deal with this?
You can find all relevant information like my settings, setup, latency tests etc. here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
EDIT1: Minidump of the bluescreen that occurs whenever I change to the Focusrite driver in Cubase 8: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B19faT ... sp=sharing
EDIT2: I tested it via the USB 2.0 header -> no improvements unfortunately.
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7 6700K
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 16GB DDR4-3000
Motherboard: ASRock Z170 Extreme4
Graphics Card: 8192MB ATI AMD Radeon R9 390 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner)
Storage: 465GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB (SSD), 465GB Western Digital WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2 (SATA), 1863GB Western Digital WDC WD20EZRZ-00Z5HB0 (SATA)
CPU Fan: Scythe Mugen 4
Power Unit: bequiet! Straight Power 10 600 Watt
Case: Cooltek Skiron
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