My ears are ringing from blast of white noise from Logic 9

Hi Guys 'n' Gals,

[Here a link|http://www.score2picture.com/noise/BLOWN.zip] to the PDF which I've updated with the latest replies to the questionnaire. It's a folder containing both the PDF and the .xls (Excel) file. As of today I will no longer have any free time to dedicate to this fact-finding project, which is why I've included the Excel file in the folder. Perhaps someone else can take over compiling the data.

At this time this thread is 3 pages long and has over 11,000 views. I think the number of views represents much more than a bunch of people on the internet rubbernecking at the scene of an accident. Still, no reaction from the company whatsoever. And hearing loss is nothing to be taken lightly or swept under the rug, as is the case here IMO. So I'll put it out there... What kind of reaction should the public reasonably expect from a manufacturer of artists paints which, by all accounts, has the capacity to blind the painter? Or an auto manufacturer who makes a car with faulty brakes? Should the reaction be silence? Eh, prolly not... So my suggestion is that if you want answers, call Apple, speak to Customer Relations, point them to this thread, and DEMAND answers.

Regards,

-=iS=-

iSchwartz,

So I got to experience another white noise blast today and this time I captured it. I saw it first again so I didn't have to get blasted. It happened the same exact way as last time (disk too slow - error). But this time I only had one audio drive (FW400) on the desktop so there was no other drive that could wake from sleep and possibly cause this.

There are 3 images to check out here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45518121@N08/4174891463/in/photostream/

Message was edited by: intermission

Good points, iS. This is how class action lawsuits get started.

As a longtime Apple owner (since 1986), I have to say I'm disappointed with the way things are going these days. The company seems less responsive when it comes to fixing minor glitches as well as serious problems. I spent $200+ to upgrade to Logic 9 and Snow Leopard. Several months have now passed, and that combo still doesn't work for me. I'm stuck with using Logic 8. In fact, I tried to reinstall Tiger to regain some stability, but it won't let me go backwards without running a clean install. I wish someone at Apple would take notice and fix these issues.

iSchwartz wrote:
Hi Guys 'n' Gals,

[Here a link| http://www.score2picture.com/noise/BLOWN.zip ] to the PDF which I've updated with the latest replies to the questionnaire. It's a folder containing both the PDF and the .xls (Excel) file. As of today I will no longer have any free time to dedicate to this fact-finding project, which is why I've included the Excel file in the folder. Perhaps someone else can take over compiling the data.

At this time this thread is 3 pages long and has over 11,000 views. I think the number of views represents much more than a bunch of people on the internet rubbernecking at the scene of an accident. Still, no reaction from the company whatsoever. And hearing loss is nothing to be taken lightly or swept under the rug, as is the case here IMO. So I'll put it out there... What kind of reaction should the public reasonably expect from a manufacturer of artists paints which, by all accounts, has the capacity to blind the painter? Or an auto manufacturer who makes a car with faulty brakes? Should the reaction be silence? Eh, prolly not... So my suggestion is that if you want answers, call Apple, speak to Customer Relations, point them to this thread, and DEMAND answers.

Regards,

-=iS=-

iSchwartz, Your screen capture shows the noise when it can be seen. The bigger problem is when you can't see it. When the waveform looks fine, but plays back with the white noise. Or when recording and the noise just happens without the disk too slow warning (although I think it does happen in this case because of a disk access problem). I have not had it happen in two weeks of heavy use. No rhyme or reason.

Have you experienced blasts of white noise while using Logic to record or play back audio?
• Yes

Under what conditions has the noise occured?
a) recording only


After recording audio, has the waveform overview ever looked normal but playback resulted in white noise?
• No

After recording audio, has the waveform overview ever appeared like a thick solid white bar that filled the entire waveform display (peak-to-peak waveform level)?
• Yes

Computer -- complete specs of your Mac, including:
• Mac Pro 8-core Early 2008
• 8 core 2.8 ghz
• 6 GB

OS
• 10.6.2

Logic
• Logic Pro 9.02

Frequency
• 3 times ( after that I went back to recording in 8 and Leopard. Clients for some reason don't like white noise in their headphones...)

Audio Interface
• Fireface 800
• FW 400


Hard Drives -- list each audio drive which you've used in the course of production and from which audio recording or playback has resulted in a white noise blast. Leave this part blank if you don't experience the white noise problem.
• Hitachi
• Internal
• Sata
• No
• Journaling: Off


As I record in the control room most often, I got to experience the white noise in headphones as well. Could really damage you're hearing. As a professional engineer this could put an end to your whole career and maybe your client's. This is a SERIOUS bug. No need to elaborate further.

Try THIS one on for size:
My white noise blast happened on a midi project (all midi) that I have been working on for over a month, and resaving regularly as I worked. Today has gone great, until I started to bounce in place to save on system resources.

Here's where it gets seriously weird: the white noise only occurs on the first third of all of the tracks, and then mysteriously disappears. AND, there aren't any waveforms to indicate the white noise. And even STRANGER, on certain tracks, the white noise is happening on sections where nothing is even recorded (i.e. BLANK SPACE!).

I don't have time to mess with it, so I have no choice but to take that section out and go to an earlier version of the song and edit that section completely separately. Annoying as you-know-what!

BillyboyAlberto wrote:
Try THIS one on for size:
My white noise blast happened on a midi project (all midi) that I have been working on for over a month, and resaving regularly as I worked. Today has gone great, until I started to bounce in place to save on system resources.

If you are using virtual instruments (ie: softsynths), it's only half MIDI, the MIDI tracks trigger VI, which produce audio output.

And if the VI use samples streaming from a hard drive it's even closer to user to actual audio tracks... at least as far as the computer is concerned.

pancenter-

I've been following this thread for a month or two now and I'm not sure if this is relevant or not but I'm posting it here in case it helps narrow down the cause of this problem. I have been experiencing the White Noise bursts, although I'm not using Logic. I have my suspicions that this is an OSX or Audio MIDI Core Audio bug.

Recently I have also been experiencing MIDI drop outs. I've discovered that by rescanning for MIDI devices in Audio MIDI Setup I can get it to see the MIDI device again and looking further into this I discovered a webpage that offers a solution to the MIDI problem: http://jnote.org/29

Anyway, it also states that the problem arises from upgrading from 10.4 to 10.5 (the route I took) or from using Migration Assistant as opposed to having a clean install.

I wondered how many of the people here have also upgraded to 10.5 rather than started with a completely fresh install of 10.5? It could be that upgrading this way is causing problems for both Core MIDI and Core Audio.

Recently I've noticed that the white noise is the result of OSX boosting the volume to ridiculous levels as opposed to random noise that might be generated just from a crash. I found that I was able to lower the channel level to almost zero so that the sound can be heard again. In this state all of the volume levels are much higher than expected. Is anyone else able to try this the next time this problem occurs in Logic?

crbn wrote:


Anyway, it also states that the problem arises from upgrading from 10.4 to 10.5 (the route I took) or from using Migration Assistant as opposed to having a clean install.

I wondered how many of the people here have also upgraded to 10.5 rather than started with a completely fresh install of 10.5? It could be that upgrading this way is causing problems for both Core MIDI and Core Audio.

I know in my case, the white noise is happening on a mac pro that came with OS 10.5 already installed. There was no upgrade to it.

Wow, there are so many configurations listed here that it's clearly not a hardware issue. After initially having the same problem working in Logic 8, I've had this occur when Logic is not open at all as well. I'm starting to wonder if this is actually a Core Audio issue. Either way, sign me up the the lawsuit!

I would be curious if anybody has encountered similar problems after migrating Logic projects to a different application using Core Audio? (DP, etc., not Pro Tools, of course.)

I have a similar problem since Logic 9 and 10.6.2,

Been using PT LE with Orig Mbox, Logic 8 with the Mbox and Presonus FirePod with no issues, all on a Quad Intel running 10.5.8.

Updated to a new Mac Pro 4,1 Nehalem system, and started it from scratch, formatted the HD and install 10.6, no migration assistant was used, a brand new user was created, fresh install of Logic 9. No prefs from 5.8 were moved. All fresh install..... The 10.5.8 system was grown from archive and install from 10.2 or 10.3, so I wanted a pristine system install on the new system.

Created a disk image after install of OS 10.6 and then another disk image was created after Logic and Final Cut were added. I then moved my audio and video drives over to the new system. Ran repair permissions on all the drives. Reboot.

Tried to play a few recordings from old system and it played just fine on the new Nehalem unit. Note; neither Mbox or Presonus was not hooked up, just played though the internal line out to amped speakers.

Today I try to record with Logic 9.1 my Presonus, and soon as I hit the input monitor button a 3/4 bar or 6.0 db level bouncing up and down shows up. I hook up the output from Presonus to the amped speakers with volume very low and hear noise sounding sort of like white noise, say more like bad static. The Presonus is sync'd up.

So fire up Logic 9.0.2, same thing. Quit 9.0.2 and load Garageband vers 5.1(398), same thing.

Hooked up my usb Mbox, and NOW it doesn't get recognized in prefs in Logic (any ver), GarageBand, or even Audio/Midi application in the Utilities folder(new vers in 10.6) doesn't see the Mbox. Although the Mbox shows up in the About this Mac under USB. The Presonus shows up in in About this Mac too.

The new 10.6.2 Audio MIDI setup vers 3.0.1 (3.0.1) does see the Presonus. Tried changing clock sources, and diff sample rates. No diff. Audio MIDI setup doesn't see the Mbox.

Bummer, might be moving back to the 10.5.8 old system, if this doesn't get fixed soon. I'll be watching , good luck to you all.

Its JUST a bummer not being able to create music and express one self easily.......

Update,

Changed the port from back to front for the firewire cable and now its working with Logic 9.0.2 and 9.1, hmmmmm

Didn't really do anything else, looks like its going to be an on and then off again thing.....

One other thing I forgot to mention, the new Mac Pro 4,1 don't have 400 firewire, only 800 so I had to purchase a 800 -> 400 to hook up the presonus.....


Good luck, will keep you updated

Update, looks like I have an issue with the firewire ports in the back, the ones in the front of the machine work fine.

So to recap, all apps; Logic, Mainstage, Garageband are working just fine, this was not an issue with any of Apples apps.....

I thought this sounded more like static than white noise...sorry for the confusion


Mag

Hi magnatar,

I had an odd problem recently, where none of the usb ports on my MacPro were working, except the port on the video monitor (????). Anyway, I zapped PRAM, and all returned to normal, and has been normal since.
You zap PRAM on my computer by holding down command option P R, starting computer and waiting for two chimes (or check a support note or call apple support).

Good luck,

Ray

I just got the blast of white noise in my headphones. I was recording takes in cycle mode. Using Macbook white (early 2009) 4 g ram, 500g hard drive 7200rpm. I am a new logic user. I used to use Ableton and I thought learning logic would help me avoid all the bugs I was encountering with Ableton Live. Wishful thinking. At least Live's bugs didn't cause hearing damage.

OSX 10.5.8, Logic 9.1