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

Deadphish42 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 16, 2013 10:58 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

Hi Art of Sound,

This is a little off topic but I just had a question my plan B if when they send me a new iMac and it doesn't work is to buy a MacBookAir to use untill they get the problem worked out. Why the air and not the Pro? becouse the air has the newer processor with the longer battery life and this is only a bandaid untill they can make the iMac work. But my question is does the Air(I figure the fully upgraded one) have the power to run Logic and Live with say three live inputs going into it at once?

Thanks for your time and if I should have put this question somwhere else if you dont mind pleas direct me.

Thankyou,

Deadphish

Pancenter

Level 6

14,782 points

Oct 16, 2013 11:15 AM in response to Deadphish42

Fair warning, MacBook Air models don't seem to have any trouble running Logic 9 but I've read quite a few posts of problems with Logic X on this and other forums. Logic X uses new graphics libraries and it this point there is added work for the GPU to perform and the MBA,s don't seem to fare as well as a comparable (standard) laptop.

AOL may want to chime in on this as he probably has more info.

Deadphish42 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 16, 2013 11:19 AM in response to Pancenter

Good to know. I have Logic 9 but there disks. and I want it to be able to run Logic X.

Thanks for the info,

Deadphish

Oct 16, 2013 11:25 AM in response to Pancenter

+1 @ Pancenter....

However, it's also worth noting that some MBPs have two different internal graphic cards... (switched using a setting in System preferences/display) and some people have reported better results using the "High Performance" card setting and others, the 'normal'/Better Battery Life" card setting.... which effectively means choosing between the high powered Graphic Card or the low powered but less demanding one...

Pancenter

Level 6

14,782 points

Oct 16, 2013 11:38 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

I knew some MBP's came with dual graphic processors, one hardware based and the low power one using mainly the CPU but that's not an option with MBA's is it?

Oct 16, 2013 11:45 AM in response to Pancenter

Pancenter..

No.. not with MBA's... My apologies.. I was thinking one thing.. and then typed another! 🙂

MBA's are, as you said, somewhat limited graphically, in order to save power/battery life I assume.. and while you can run LPX on a MBA.. LPX does seem to require more graphical 'horsepower' than LP9 to run smoothly and the MBA simply isn't designed for that purpose, in my opinion/experience.

Oct 16, 2013 12:42 PM in response to duzbelle

I've a very similar story. I'm having an identical problem with Garageband running on an iMac Sept 2013 version, 3.5Ghz Intel Core i&, 32GBs memory, Fusion drive, running OS X 10.8.5. Every time I just play Garageband either using a MIDI keyboard or the onscreen keyboard, even something as simple as the Grand Piano, I get clicks and clipping sounds.

I've nothing else running, I've zapped PRAM, reset Core Audio, removed MIDI drivers and reinstalled them, the works. No joy. I also installed a 3rd party Synth App (NLogPolySynth) from the AppStore to see if it was a problem just with Garageband, but nope, it is audible there too. CPU usage is fine. Nothing running in the background. Just glitches and clicks and so on.

Never even got as far as loading my Logic 9 discs 😟 (though in truth I'm going to get Logic X once this is fixed, no reason not to).

All other software works like a dream. Fastest non-work computer I've ever had.

Any thoughts?

Deadphish42 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 16, 2013 12:49 PM in response to Daniel Mac an Eala

Hi Daniel,

Sorry to hear about your problems with the audio. Sounds like the exact same thing that is happining to a few of us here. Is it random clicks, clips, pops and scratches?

I did all the same trouble shouting you did and some more. I just sent my computer back for a replacement. Nobody's been able to determine if its hardware or software or both there are some people here with the same computer that are not experiencing the problem.

I would get on the phone with Apple get it documented and start pushing for a replacement. Don't spend to much time setting it up it could be going back in the box very soon.

Good Luck let me know how things turn out,

DeadPhish

Pancenter

Level 6

14,782 points

Oct 16, 2013 1:10 PM in response to Deadphish42

Viewing recent developments I'm putting money on a firmware fix, it seems like a classic case of hardware devices sharing either the same memory address or other resources. (the PC equivalent of an interrupt request)

Oct 16, 2013 1:15 PM in response to Deadphish42

And sorry about your problems too. Sounds like it's impacting on a number of users, odd that it's hitting some and not others. I'll take your advice about getting it documented. Thanks,

Daniel.

Oct 16, 2013 1:17 PM in response to Pancenter

That makes a lot sense Pancenter.

duzbelle

Level 1

0 points

Oct 16, 2013 2:17 PM in response to Daniel Mac an Eala

...interesting, daniel. i had my imac custom configured similarly. im 3.5Ghz with a 3TB fusion drive. i have tested things at both 8G (shipped) and 32G (i added third party) of ram. are the fusion drives the culprits?

Deadphish42 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 16, 2013 2:23 PM in response to duzbelle

Hi duzbelle,

Good question.

I had mine custom configured with a 3TB fusion drive and 16GB of memory with the i7 processor. Nobody brought up the fusion drive before. What do you think Art of Sound? Yours is working do you have a fusion drive?

Next question - Would there be a way to test it?

Pancenter

Level 6

14,782 points

Oct 16, 2013 2:49 PM in response to Deadphish42

possible... sucking up bandwidth or putting a load on the bus system.

Oct 16, 2013 2:57 PM in response to duzbelle

That thought crossed my mind, but given that there's a significant number of machines, iMac and other, sold with it I would have expected this issue to appear well before now if it were a problem.

BTW, interesting that you me and Deadphish42 have the same configuration.

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clipping sound on new iMac when Logix X is running