Logic Pro X Cracking / Popping During Recording - can't find cause

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Level 1

8 points

Logic Pro X Cracking / Popping During Recording - can't find cause

I've done a fair amount of searches through these forums and on google but I haven't found someone with the exact same issue as mine, as far as I can tell... I think I’ve narrowed it down to something happening in Logic or the Mac itself.

While recording I keep getting pop/clicks that make the tracks unusable - they seem to come at random and not at particularly loud points or anything like that. Its an electronic sound that seems to affect the whole pitch range of the sound - I can't EQ it out the mix (like someone turning on/off a guitar pedal say)

I also seem to be able to make the sound by touching controls the MacBook - clicking the mouse while recording makes a click, hitting the spacebar to start/stop recording makes the click, clicking anywhere into DAW while recording makes a click. Perhaps this physical cause could suggest it might be to do with static? But then why would it ALSO happen when I'm just recording and not touching the MacBook at all.

I've linked an example here:

I’ve eliminated most a lot of variables -

The amp I’m recording with doesn’t ever click by itself - I only hear the clicks in the playback
- I’ve also had clicking while recording vocals as well - though perhaps it was less frequent?
I’ve tried two different mics (condenser and dynamic)
Tried multiple XLR cables
Tried two different audio interfaces - one brand new (it clicked less at the start)
Tried two different USB cables
Tried in two different locations (at home and at the rehearsal studio - to make sure it wasn’t the electricity)
Tried with both the laptop plugged into mains and not

This leaves me with the computer / logic itself as being the likely cause of the issue. The USB ports look clean - I’ve heard you can get socket cleaner so I don’t know if that has helped anyone?

The clicks seem to be at the same places in the tracks during playback, and it comes out of both headphones and monitors - so its very much a click built into the track upon recording. Perhaps I also get isolated clicks sometimes during playback that aren’t to do with the recorded sound but these are less common.

The MacBook is almost 5 years old now (one the final models of the non-retina mac book pro) but its not running slow or presenting any issues and this problem came so suddenly that I feel like it must be something most specific than just an old computer.

Any advice on this would be v much appreciated!

Cheers

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 21, 2019 5:42 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Pancenter

Level 6

14,782 points

May 2, 2019 1:32 PM in response to skarlette16

A couple of things to try.

In Logic's Preferences/Audio:

Set I/O Buffer to 128 or 256 (higher values give the computer/Logic more time to work but increase latency.

Set Multithreading to "Playback Tracks".

Shut Logic down, do go the Apps folder single click on Logic and do a "Get Info". Set Logic to run in non Retina / Low Res mode. Reboot the computer.

Or (and?)

I believe that Macbook has dual graphics adapters, if so:

Go to the Mac's System Preferences and Disable Automatic Graphics Switching. This will force use of the discrete Radeon graphics adaptor.

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Answer 2

Apr 21, 2019 7:35 AM in response to timwannacot

Without seeing it, this may be off base, but you might try increasing your I/O buffer in logic audio preferences. If you’ve got it set too short, your professor might be struggling to keep up and popping. Happened to me before.

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Answer 3

May 1, 2019 8:31 PM in response to skarlette16

In logic audio preferences there’s an option to turn multithreading on and off. If I remember correctly, logic won’t split up processing of individual channels, but it will try to balance different channels on different processors. Try turning multithreading on if it’s off.

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Answer 4

Apr 21, 2019 7:35 AM in response to MargaretGS

*processor

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Answer 5

timwannacot Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 21, 2019 9:51 AM in response to timwannacot

UPDATE: you can hear an example of the popping on this track just after the 2.15 point.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ek-2NFRdZXllzR-Nbws1A5vsPh5cxoFq

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Answer 6

timwannacot Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 21, 2019 9:50 AM in response to MargaretGS

Cheers for this - it has seemed to help in some ways. I went back onto logic to try and export an example of the popping to link on here - but the track kept on making Logic crash and stop any playback (though no error message came up).

Changing the I/O buffer then made the project play again - what is interesting is that one track which I recorded just to capture the 'pops' then played back completely clean. Interestingly enough there were still other pops that happened at random (not recorded into the track as they happened at different times each time). But anyway, this seemed pretty positive so I went back to an old take which was very good but ruined by the pops, hoping that would also be clean - however it wasn't.

I tried removing effects, bouncing it in its place, exporting to another project - but still the pops stayed in the same place.

Perhaps now if I try to record with the higher buffer size it won't pop and I will just have to delete all those old files.

Interesting that it removes the pops from one track but not another - and interesting that just playing back a track can make logic crash - suggesting its very much a digital error but one that's manifesting itself in a few different ways.

Thanks for the suggestion and I will report back if I ever find a full solution.

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Answer 7

May 1, 2019 6:49 PM in response to timwannacot

I'm literally having EXACTLY the same problem. It's definitely the computer (not sure whether software or hardware) itself because this occurs for me without any external connections (headphones straight into the built in port and no MIDI devices or audio interfaces). I don't have a ridiculous amount of audio processing going on and my session only ever has about 10 tracks with MIDI and a couple of buses functioning at the same time, and it still happens even with the buffer size at 1024. Whenever I make edits during playback my track stutters, crackles, and pops exactly like that and it generally occurs in different spots each time and sometimes plays back completely clean. My CPU doesn't appear to be anywhere near maxing out (though I'm still frustrated as it maxes out quite easily at a lower buffer size), but I do notice though that one of the CPU threads seems to be a lot higher than the others at times (though this doesn't always happen either). I'm honestly just going to take my Mac in to the Apple Store because I've tried everything and it's still an ongoing issue. Will update if I find the source of the problem.

Specs:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

Processor: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics: Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

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Answer 8

kerochan

Level 4

1,071 points

May 2, 2019 11:34 PM in response to skarlette16

skarklette16 hi

I have exactly the same computer spec as you, I have no CPU spikes, and I have no clicks/pops.

I am wondering, do you and timwannacot have Fusion storage? this can cause pops and clicks.

and also what OSX are you on? I am on El Capitan with Flash storage.

I will point out I am Logic 10.3.2 also.

I know this may not help much and I hope you get it sorted, I wouldn't personally risk changing settings in the computer like disabling stuff, I would rather leave it to an Apple expert to do this.

Changing different buffer settings etc in Logic is fine.

Not sure about the processor struggling, I have also have Logic on 2 10 year old Macbook Pros, i.5 dual core, 4gb RAM. working fine, on Logic 10.3.2 and El Capitan.

I am leaning towards the problem being with the Latest Logic version, or the OSX

Is this a new problem since updating Logic or your OSX?

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Logic Pro X Cracking / Popping During Recording - can't find cause

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