Audio Popping after Lion Upgrade

The audio in iTunes started popping/muting after I upgraded to LION, and still persists under MOUNTAIN LION. It appears to be related to processor spikes. Never happened under Leopard or Snow Leopard.

It is worse if I have Airport Expresses/AirTunes devices enabled under AirPlay in iTunes. However, the audio coming out of the actual AirPlay devices is not affected, only the computer sound/speakers. Too much for the processor to cope with? Both computer speakers AND encoding to Apple Lossless for AirPlay devices? Maybe.

I wonder if it is a buffering/processing issue, and Apple just have ignored the older spec'd machines? I'm sure just a small increase in buffer size would make the popping/muting disappear, or at least much better.

Still waiting for a fix, without much hope. Perhaps it's just their way of forcing you to upgrade your machine. But then, who knows if a Quad Core i7 machine will be any better? I'd hate to buy one only to find that the popping audio still persists.

teefster,

Exactly what do I copy and paste in the AppleScript you provided? I don't really understand what to do.

The popping audio is still driving me crazy. Cheers,

Craig.

set ali_admin to {"USERNAME", "PASSWORD"} # Replace with Username and Password of local administrator (in quotes)

set ali_admincheck to count ali_admin

if ali_admincheck is equal to 2 then

tell application "iTunes" to activate

set ali_itunespid to do shell script "ps -axww | grep '[/]iTunes '| awk '{print $1}'"

do shell script "sudo renice -20 -p " & ali_itunespid user name item 1 of ali_admin password item 2 of ali_admin with administrator privileges

do shell script "renice -20 -u _coreaudiod" user name item 1 of ali_admin password item 2 of ali_admin with administrator privileges

end if

For the more security conscious, or those who don't mind the password prompt use:

tell application "iTunes" to activate

set ali_itunespid to do shell script "ps -axww | grep '[/]iTunes '| awk '{print $1}'"

do shell script "sudo renice -20 -p " & ali_itunespid with administrator privileges

do shell script "renice -20 -u _coreaudiod" with administrator privileges

10.8.3 completely fixes this, immediately after installing.

Hi Christopher_AppleJack,

I certainly hope you're right. This muting/popping whilst listening to iTunes on the computer audio system has bugged my OSX since Lion right through Mountain Lion 10.8.2 so far. Never happened to Leopard or Snow Leopard.

I will certainly try 10.8.3 when it's publicly available.

Cheers,

Craig.

10.8.3 DOES NOT FIX THIS, Christopher_AppleJacks.

My iTunes is still muting/popping. Processor spikes cause it.

Definitely NOT fixed. Has been broken since Lion, and continues into Mountain Lion. Leopard and Snow Leopard DID NOT do this. Same machine, just different operating systems for me.

Craig.

Christopher_AppleJacks wrote:

10.8.3 completely fixes this, immediately after installing.

Nope, it doesn't. I am running 10.8.3 on my MacBook Pro w/Retina and keep having popping audio in iTunes and online video viewed in a browser.

I am having the popping problem on my Mac Mini 10.8.3 ML. I never noticed in with Lion before I upgraded.

This is not a trivial matter. I use my Mac connected to an amplified speaker system, and the sound is really loud and sharp. I wonder if it might damage my speakers.

Apple, if you are reading this, understand that, based on my reading of threads going back to before lion, this has been a recurring problem. I am coming from a Windows/UNIX environment and I am a software engineer. I love my new Mac, but this problem NEVER OCCURED UNDER WINDOWS - and I am comming from a DOS history. There were occasional (once a year, for example) of such clicks/pops, but nothing like this consistent behavior throughout two generations of OS.

This should be concerning your developers and should be dealt with as a high priority bug. It affects your good name with audio professionals that depend on your quality product.

If you do not address this seriously and understand what is causing it, your next release may make it worse and you will have a really serious problem on your hands that you may not be able to fix quickly. It is obviously a bug, it is obviously intermittant, and you seem to have no idea what is causing it. As a software developer that would scare the s**t out of me.

This solved my problem - (My speakers popped / distorted terribly after starting audio playback, especially after being paused for a while - I use a Mac Mini [Lion] as a music sever, feeding an amplifier through a USB connected DAC): Under System Preferences, go to > Sound > Input tab. Here "Line in" and all the connected audio devices should be listed. Choose your audio device. The "Input volume" of my device ( the DAC) was set to max. I pulled the slider back and voilà, end of problem! (This volume level has no effect on my system's volume). I hope this helps...

I too am experiencing this issue. Mirrored my info to a different Mac mini, same problem. Not hardware therefore.

Maverics

Apple is strangely silent here. I got a new mac mini, fresh install not mirrored. Same problem occurs. This is sad, our company bought a bunch of these. Id rather use windows at this point.

not for me...

Thank you! This worked for me but I had to do it to output, not input.