Level 1

5 points

clipping sound on new iMac when Logix X is running

I just got the new iMac that was released two weeks ago yesterday. All I did was set it up with Logic X, Main Stage, and Aperture all from the app store. nothing else was put on it. I opened up logic just to check it out and see how much faster the performance would be. I just wanted to give it a quick test and played some apple loops I immideatly noticed it was making a clipping sound randomly. The meters were not peaking everything was in the green and if you turned down the gain the clipping just got quiteter. I called apple support thinking it was a hardware issue. They had me do some trouble shooting like playing the same loops through quicktime and the clipping persisted. they also had me play a youtube video to see if I could hear the clipping. It wasn't as noticible but it was there. Apple decided that it would be a good idea to reformat the computer tomorrow and start over. Sounded fine to me seeing how I didn't have much installed yet. I did a little more trouble shooting on my own after I got off the phone with apple. First I made a copy of three apple loops and put them on my desktop then restarted the computer. Then after a fresh restart and nothing running I opened one of the apple loops off the desktop with quicktime player and it sounded great no clipping. Same with You Tube. I then opened Logic Pro X. Did nothing with it but minimize it. I then went back to quick time player and tried to play the loop again. This time the clipping was back. Same with You Tube.

My conclusion for some reason when logic is running the audio makes a random clipping sound no matter what audio program you play the audio through. (Clipping sound comes out of the internal speakers as well as headphones)

All of my software is up to date.

I am running:

27" iMac

3.5GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

If anybody has experienced this same problem or has any recomendations they would be greatly appreciated.

I am going to reformat in the morning and try and start again.

I will post my results

Thank you,

Aaron

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 8, 2013 11:22 PM

998 replies

Wound

Level 1

0 points

Nov 17, 2013 6:42 AM in response to Al_de_Baran

The difference may be that I asked within the 14 days?

Wound

Level 1

0 points

Nov 17, 2013 6:46 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

Thanks Art of sound. I did not realise there was a different problem too. I thought it was regarding my issue.

Apologies for any confusion.

Nov 17, 2013 6:49 AM in response to Wound

No problem Wound....

Cheers...

Nigel

Nov 17, 2013 7:07 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

hey

i just wanted to share a little update:

so i split my fusion drive yesterday and today i've been reinstalling my system etc.

while installing logic i was listenting to music continuously in Spotify, not a single click or pop..

so a few hours ago i started logic and opened a project that i have been unable to add guitars to because before my audio interface would just crush the sound as soon as i tried plugging something in.

anyway, i have been running it now for several hours, i have made several midi and audio recordings - without a single click pop or audio dropout.

so just to recap, the issues i had before was:

1. clicks/pops on internal audio

2. clicks/pops on audio interface over usb (apogee one), finally resulting in compleate death of audio in the whole system

3. when trying to record audio via usb interface, the sound would be completely "bitcrushed"

I am happy to say that every single one of those issues are gone after splitting my fusion drive. and on top of that, while working in logic, i have been copying loads and loads of data over the usb bus as well from an external hard drive.

it is a bit strange, as i actually exptected the usb related problems to stick around, but they haven't, everything works exactly as expected now. so finally i have a better setup than before i upgraded my machine. 😉

Nov 17, 2013 7:21 AM in response to Community User

That's good news Kenny 🙂 Thanks for reporting back..... It is another confirmation of one of the two temporary Workaround fixes for this issue.. (The other workaround being booting from an external HD)

The USB Audio Interface issue doesn't affect every USB2 Audio Interface plugged into a USB3 port as some Interfaces have updated drivers/firmware that already fixes the issue or were written/designed correctly as per the guidelines in the first place...

I didn't have any issues using my Motu Ultralite Mk3 Hybrid (Both FW and USB2) via it's USB2 connector and the USB3 port on my 2013 iMac without FD fitted.. using the latest Motu drivers...

Nov 17, 2013 9:22 AM in response to Deadphish42

I just booted my 2013 iMac with FD from an external USB drive and have been playing music for a while now without dropouts. I have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 firewire interface. So this clarifies that the fusion drive is causing the problem in this case.

I'm going to contact my retailer tomorrow and ask about my options on switching out the computer for one with SSD.

Nov 17, 2013 9:48 AM in response to Deadphish42

I have booted my 2013 iMac with FD from an external drive and I have the same issues as if I booted from the internal FD. This is with an apogee duet FireWire AI. It exhibits the bit crushed audio and drop outs along with the other annoying abnormalities. This is very frustrating and my calls to Apple have been a waste of time. Anyway, now I am trying to understand why I have the same issue with External Drive as I had from the internal drive. Before I go down the splitting of the FD does anyone know how to unmount the internal drive? I have a feeling the fusion drive is doing its fusion drive thing even when it isn't a boot drive and I wanted to test if unmounting the internal drive would solve my problem. Thanks.

Deadphish42 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 17, 2013 9:49 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

Hello everybody,

I was looking around for that belkin thunderbolt hub for $300 on amazon and came across a cheap thunderbolt to USB2 hub 10 bucks and some change.

http://www.amazon.com/Kikkerland-Thunderbolt-USB-Hub-US028/dp/B007V0ITQ4/ref=sr_ 1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1384708291&sr=8-8&keywords=belkin+thunderbolt+hub

I have no idea if that might help or not. But for ten bucks and amazons excellent return policy it might be worth a shot.

As for some of the people feeling under the gun with regards to apples 14 day return policy. I am having my third 2013 imac delivered tomorrow. After the second one produced the same results as the first one. I figured I was pretty much at apples mercy with nothing more to do but wait for a fix. I did make a request from them that I didn't think was unfair or unreasonable. I asked if I kept this second imac and waited for a fix would they reset my warranty to the day the problem is resolved. They got back to me and said they could not change the warranty date. I told them thanks for trying and please send me a replacement. They have no problem doing that. So when the new one arrives tomorrow I will test it and if the results are the same I plan on getting a extra external HD and setting up on that to boot from and just keep replacing the imac until they get it all worked out. Handling it this will require you to let apple put a hold on your CC for the replacement computer until they get the old one back. It is a bit of a hassle but I just believe that my warranty should start when my computer starts working. I can't see letting the days drop of my warranty while I wait for a undetermined amount of time for apple to come out with a fix or officially address the problem.

Good luck everybody,

DeadPhish

jwweeks

Level 1

0 points

Nov 17, 2013 9:59 AM in response to Pancenter

Hey Pancenter,

Thanks for the reply. When I open Audio MIDI setup I just have the Built-In Mic as an input option - no sign of a digital input.

Nov 17, 2013 10:12 AM in response to timman6127

Tinman,

I understand from Apogee that there is a further compatibility issue with some Apogee AIs (Both FW and USB) and Mavericks that is currently awaiting a fix/updated driver etc.. from Apogee themselves.

As to your question about unmounting the FD drive.... There is no manner to physically dismount the FD drive (unless you physically disconnect it hardware wise, internally!) but that shouldn't be needed anyhow as the FD, once you boot from an OSX ext disk, doesn't access the FD except if you access files stored on it. I have personally tested the ext boot method now with three of my clients and in each case the issue was resolved. As I said, i think your continuing issue is related to the driver problem and Mavericks which Apogee are currently researching and working on to resolve...

Nov 17, 2013 10:07 AM in response to Deadphish42

Deadphish42 - Regarding the Thunderbolt USB hub... That device is a thunderbolt shaped USB hub not a Thunderbolt interface USB hub. Looks like some people didn't get what they expected.

Nov 17, 2013 10:11 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

Thanks "The Art of Sound", at least I'm not going totally crazy!

Wound

Level 1

0 points

Nov 17, 2013 10:11 AM in response to Deadphish42

That's not a "thunderbolt" hub...it's a USB hub shaped like a bolt. :)

Nov 17, 2013 10:15 AM in response to Wound

Wound wrote:

That's not a "thunderbolt" hub...it's a USB hub shaped like a bolt. :)

*chuckle*

That's a real sneaky bit of 'marketing' which could easily be misunderstood.. as apparently it has for several people..

Nov 17, 2013 10:16 AM in response to timman6127

timman6127 wrote:

Thanks "The Art of Sound", at least I'm not going totally crazy!

You are welcome Tinman...

Btw.. I updated my original reply to you slightly....

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clipping sound on new iMac when Logix X is running