derKlecks

Q: Massive problem with audio interface

Hi there.

 

I recently bought a brandnew iMac 27" Haswell i7. I encountered problems with my Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 audio interface. These are buzzing, clicking and noise immediately or after 3 minutes or so. I tried everything, re-installed the driveres several times, nothing, really nothing worked.

 

Then I bought an RME Babyface audio interface - and guess what? It's the same problem. I also have a massive sound noise after some minutes or the recording channel in Garage Band drops completely.

 

What is wrong here? I already tried using a different power plug, tried all USB ports, turned off WiFi, HDD sleep mode, etc. Nothing worked.

 

Do you have an idea?

 

I appeciate your help,

Adrian.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 25, 2013 1:29 PM

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Q: Massive problem with audio interface

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  • by acrophilia,

    acrophilia acrophilia Nov 11, 2013 7:38 PM in response to derKlecks
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    Nov 11, 2013 7:38 PM in response to derKlecks

    Same issue here.  Using Mavericks.  Fusion Drive.  Late 2013 iMac.  32GB RAM and top of the line processor.

     

    Line 6 Tone Port KB37 and DI-Gold audio interfaces.  Updated Mavericks compatible driver.

     

    Intermittent crunching sound when recoridng using GarageBand and unacceptable amounts of latency when recording real instruments.  No problem with software instruments.  Resolves for one or two tracks after switching interfaces then occurs again.

     

    Never had similar problems using a MacBook Air and 4GB ram on Moutain Lion.  Don't know if its a Mavericks issue or Fusion Drive, but the thread below has great detail and suggests it is Fusion Drive related.  Applecare senior tech made me try to partition off a small amount of the fusion drive.  Interestingly, Disk Utility wouldn't complete the repartitionand hung up while trying to remap the sectors.  Ended up having to wipe the thing and reinstall the OS.  Installed only GB and left everything else off.  Same problem.  The tech took the info and scheduled a call back for a couple of days from now.  If they don't come up with a good solution I may dump the fusion drive entirely and just request at good old fasioned spinning disk.

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5428602?start=0&tstart=0

     

    Will post when the tech calls me back.

    Good luck.

  • by JonnyK.,

    JonnyK. JonnyK. Nov 12, 2013 3:04 PM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 12, 2013 3:04 PM in response to derKlecks

    I have the same problem.

     

    New 2013 iMac. 27" Haswell 3TB Fusion Drive.

     

    Motu Ultralite MkIII (firewire only going through the thunderboldt adapter) Same issues that everyone else is having.

     

    Called MOTU about it. They said it's Fusion Drive that's causing the problem.

  • by stompyj,

    stompyj stompyj Nov 12, 2013 7:05 PM in response to Toni Montana
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 12, 2013 7:05 PM in response to Toni Montana

    Same issue.

     

     

    Late 2013 iMac 27" w/ 1TB Fusion Drive, my babyface has the same issues.

     

    I installed mavericks on an external USB drive and all my audio issues went away.

     

    Huge bummer.  I hope there's a fix coming from Apple.

  • by JonnyK.,

    JonnyK. JonnyK. Nov 13, 2013 8:55 AM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 13, 2013 8:55 AM in response to derKlecks

    Based on what I've read, I've come up with a fix that works for me until Apple jumps in.

     

    1. Go to Disk Utility and Partition your drive.

    2. Install Mavericks on the Partition.

    3. Transfer the information from your existing HD to the new partition.

    4. Everything related to audio works again, but now you have no benefit of the solid state drive.

    The solid state/HD connection only applies to the "main" partition.

    If you switch away from it, you get none of the benefits and none of the problems.

     

    I'm planning on working this way until a firmware fix comes for macs with fusion drives.

    Everything I'm working on gets uploaded to dropbox and so when the fix for fusion drive comes, I'll switch back to my old partition and anything that I've been working on will just get pulled down from dropbox and I won't miss a beat.

     

    I hope this helps everyone else who's struggling right now.

  • by Toni Montana,

    Toni Montana Toni Montana Nov 13, 2013 12:26 PM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 13, 2013 12:26 PM in response to derKlecks

    service provider the second one...within three weeks

     

    I'm looking forward to friday. what the result is after the repair service has checked the imac's audio setup in realtime. but this time i must personally bring over the imac and all hardware components. the whole back and forth excites me now. also because so far no solution came from apple too.

    on a closer look you see definitely the traces of repair from the first time. which make me angry after I noticed it. because there's no solution come out on friday. the trend is definitely going to resell this imac and buy another one. those cosmetic defects by an half year old device are not a good selling point.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     


  • by musikmakerz,

    musikmakerz musikmakerz Nov 16, 2013 6:32 AM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2013 6:32 AM in response to derKlecks

    POSSIBLE FIX:

     

    I just bought the late 2013 iMac 3.5GHz i7, 16GB RAM with the 3TB fusion drive and could not get the Focusrite Liquid Saffire (connected via the firewire to thunderbolt adapter) to work more than a minute wihtout the audio just stopping.  This was with any application; Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Live 9, iTunes etc. 

     

    If I changed a setting on the Focusrite MixControl (essentially reseting the audio interface) audio would come back but within a few seconds it would stop again - even though the application playing the audio was still functioning fine and if I switch to the built-in audio eveything would play fine. I have not been having the audio degregation problem like a lot fo people - just the audio would stop.

     

    When the audio stopped, in the console this error would appear: "ERROR: FireWire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 PCI: handleUnrecoverableErrorInt"

     

    I've been trying to fix this for two day - wrote to Focusrite and had no reply yet and then came across this forum. By chance on another forum someone mentioned in passing the "Prevent App Nap" check box in the application info box - so I checked this on my MixControl software, Logic Pro, Pro Tools and Live 9.  Logic Pro has been playing in loop mode all night and the audio did not cut out - it is still playing when I woke up this morning.  I have not tried recording yet but I think this may have fixed the problem.  Has anyone else tried this to success?

     

    Please let me know if this works for anyone else.

  • by Johnny Shakes,

    Johnny Shakes Johnny Shakes Nov 17, 2013 3:05 PM in response to musikmakerz
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2013 3:05 PM in response to musikmakerz

    Did not work for me.  Audio stopped after 1 minute

    I have a brand new iMac i7, 32 gigs RAM with 3t Fusion drive.

  • by Rafael S,

    Rafael S Rafael S Nov 17, 2013 3:11 PM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2013 3:11 PM in response to derKlecks

    Didn't work for me either.

    I got some instructions from apple support though, which unfortunatelly hadn't the chance to figure out.

     

    Anyone who wants to check this:

     

    1. Test in a new admin user<- helps to make sure that the problem is system wide.

    2. Reset SMC-solves physical issues with the connection

    3. Start in safe mode with usual user then restart normally. Test the audio interface again.

    4. reset NVRAM. Gets rid of persistent preferences that might cause issues with audio output.

    5. Reinstall Mavericks and test.

  • by JonnyK.,

    JonnyK. JonnyK. Nov 17, 2013 3:29 PM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2013 3:29 PM in response to derKlecks

    Like I said before, if you take a half hour and partition your drive with a fresh install of mavericks, you can get back to work until apple fixes the problem. Something is really wrong and this is probably affecting, at least, all iMacs with fusion drives.

     

    Now, while I'm trying all these different methods to fix the problem, I still have a working system.

     

    This is probably not something that every individual is going to need to fix by manually following advice from AppleCare.

    They're going to issue a fix in the future, but my guess is that it won't be soon.

     

    People who know what an audio interface is are not a part of Apple's target market anymore.

  • by erik lodewijk,

    erik lodewijk erik lodewijk Nov 19, 2013 4:58 AM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 4:58 AM in response to derKlecks

    Hi guys,

     

    I have the same problem. Just got the new Imac 27" haswell I7 16GB ram and fusion drive, running Mavericks. I got the POD UX2 installed all on the new Imac and nothing but problems. Just tried installing everything on my older macbook pro running on Mavericks and no problem at all.. This bothers me becuase I got the new Imac basically to record and produce music, I will get in touch with apple support and see what kind of solution they can provide with. Just wanted to post a comment as it is defenitely not Mavericks.

  • by acrophilia,

    acrophilia acrophilia Nov 19, 2013 7:03 AM in response to erik lodewijk
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 7:03 AM in response to erik lodewijk

    Just an FYI.  Line 6 is collecting information on this.  They know about the problem. You may want to call them as well to give them some additional data. 

     

    Good luck.

  • by south_,

    south_ south_ Nov 19, 2013 7:17 AM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 7:17 AM in response to derKlecks

    Exact same issues again... late 2013 iMac, fusion drive although some reports of this happening on late 2013 models regardless of drive type. Very frustrating - not even sure if apple is acknowleding the issue.

  • by erik lodewijk,

    erik lodewijk erik lodewijk Nov 19, 2013 7:55 AM in response to derKlecks
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 7:55 AM in response to derKlecks

    just came of the phone with apple support, tried a lot of things but no improvement. They have been very helpfull really, they are going to escalte this and discuss it with an apple engineer. Hopefully I will know more in a couple of days. Will come back if any news.

  • by theryanpaul,

    theryanpaul theryanpaul Nov 19, 2013 1:50 PM in response to JonnyK.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 1:50 PM in response to JonnyK.

    Jonnky K Did the fix you described work? with the partitions?

  • by JonnyK.,

    JonnyK. JonnyK. Nov 19, 2013 2:01 PM in response to theryanpaul
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 19, 2013 2:01 PM in response to theryanpaul

    YES theryanpaul. I'm able to work right now.

     

    I just finished a project in Reason today using my Firewire only MOTU Ultralite mk3.

    I have a brand new 27' Haswell iMac with a 3TB Fusion Drive.

     

    On the partitioin that has the SSD, I cannot get my audio interface to work.

    On the partition without the SSD, everything works fine.

     

    Hope this helps everyone until there's a fix. The problem is not thunderbolt or mavericks. It is FUSION DRIVE.

    Here's my previous insructions on what has worked for me:

     

    "1. Go to Disk Utility and Partition your drive. (IT TAKES A LONG TIME. JUST WAIT)

    2. Install Mavericks on the Partition.

    3. Transfer the information from your existing HD to the new partition.

    4. Everything related to audio works again, but now you have no benefit of the solid state drive.

    The solid state/HD connection only applies to the "main" partition.

     

    If you switch away from it, you get none of the benefits and none of the problems."

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