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

Reply
998 replies

Jan 19, 2014 7:15 PM in response to js_buton_pusher

js,


Just to briefly jump in here...


You have to run everything from the external drive because as soon as the FD is accessed, the problem will return.. and the point of using an external boot drive is to prevent the FD from being used... which in turn prevents the FD software controller software working and the buses becoming overloaded... so you use an external drive with everything on it so the FD drive is not accessed or used in any way.


But given you don't have a Fusion Drive any more, that method and fix wont help you.... as it's just for FD iMacs... and not SSD iMacs.... which don't have that same issue.


So,


Do you still have this crackling issue when you use the FW port on your Focusrite? (via a FW to TBolt adaptor because I believe your iMac doesnt have a FW port?) It makes sense you will have an issue if you are using the USB2 port on the Focusrite because of the USB2/3 issue.... but FW should be unaffected using the latest drivers... given you have a SSD'd iMac now


Also, which specific Focusrite model do you have? I ask because there are specific beta fixes out now from Focusrite in regards to some of their models and Mavericks,..


See here for the latest beta releases...


http://beta.focusrite.com/releases/

Jan 19, 2014 9:44 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

Hello everyone , am back to share my experience and happy to report my problem is solved .


The Motu ultralight hybrid did solve my issue with soundcard and new SSD imac USB 3 issue . After getting a replacement from B&H photo , they helped me actually sort my problem , shipping charges overseas etc , covered most of it they are the best place to buy from no doubt. I recomend everyone to buy from them and trust their customer service superb.


Special thanks to Art of Sound for getting me on the right direction , thanks buddy you were very right , Audio Kontrol from Native instruments is badly configured compared to quality soundcards no wonder they have phased it out. I think they thought we cant fix it so they stopped it . using it on my windows 7 in past I always got crackles and pops recording through a mic it was so irritating and seemed so impossible and I thought maybe its my laptop cpu, and did all the tweaks you can imagine.


When moved to the new Imac it replicated all the pops and clicks combined with other problemsnot being a USB3 compatibe so it was not usable a bad experience.


While I do have to say I love all the other products that Native instruments offer , I use their soft synths and libraries in all my setup and love their work but for soundcards please avoid you will be disappointed speaking mainly for audio kontrol here from my experience...


It took me a long way to reach here I think about 3 months of aggrevation but if you got the setup right from the begining and had teh patience the new imac is suberb to the limitations i had with my previous laptop specs.


My isue addresses mainly the USB3 competibility on SSD not the fusion, thanks for everyone that tried to help and I hope somehow it gives hopes to others that there is a soultion after all and you will be very happy with your new Imac . 🙂



Jan 19, 2014 10:30 PM in response to Organik76

Hey Organik76,


Good to hear from you again and really good to hear you got everything sorted out and working for you 🙂


I assume from what you wrote, that you got a faulty Motu initially and once B&H replaced it all was good?


Also really glad to hear the B&H are still providing great service no matter where you are.... As you know i have bought quite a bit of gear from them over the years and like yourself, I highly recommend them....


Anyhow.. Thanks again for letting us know how things worked out...


Much appreciated!


Cheers..


Nigel

Jan 20, 2014 12:08 AM in response to The Art Of Sound

Her Art you are correct I got a faulty Motu that was locked up and gave me all sort of problems . It came in without the adaptor so had a bad jump start to begin with . As soon as I got the replacement all worked .


As you have mentioned earlier I still have to plug in the adaptor at all times for it to work with USB .


The firewire cable though did not work at all..it disconnects and does not recognize at certain times, which is not a problem for me at this point because I can confirm using USB while connected to the adaptor works just fine. 🙂


Hey Pancenter thanks as you tried helping everyone in the thread as well. 🙂

Jan 20, 2014 6:13 AM in response to js_buton_pusher

Yes js_buton_pusher, to confirm what Art of Sound has already said, I am indeed running everything off of the external hard drive. When I first got the iMac in late November I spent days upon days reinstalling all of my various plugins (Komplete 8, Maschine 2, Trillian, IK Multimedia, BFD2 & BFD3, Ableton Live 9, Logic X etc etc etc) to the 3TB internal Fusion Drive. But of course this drive proved to be the source of the audio problems and was useless for recording. I spent most of December, including a lengthy vacation, trying to work around the problem like most people on these forums. After trying literally every combination of ins/outs/cables/interfaces/external and internal DACs/etc I realized nothing was going to solve this problem as long as the FD was in use. If I absolutely needed to get reliable audio into Logic I had to use my 13" MBP with the UFX ... no pops or dropouts but certainly inconvenient since the screen is tiny and the smaller hard drive doesn't have all the installed plugins (it was never intended to be used for audio production). So, after reading that someone else here had luck booting from a cloned OS/FD on an external drive I eventually tried that .. and it worked flawlessly. If the public 10.9.2 or later fixes the problem 100% (not 90%) I will gladly go back to the internal FD and use the external drive simply as backup. I would prefer this of course as I'd like to take advantage of the FD benefits, afterall that's why I bought it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Jan 23, 2014 9:03 AM in response to Deadphish42

Hi everyone,


also with my Korg Kronos X, the USB connection to my brand new Late 2013 iMac (no Fusion drive) doesn't work properly. Sounds from the Kronos to the iMac are completely overdriven and distorted most of the times. The other way around there's no distortions but dropouts. However, there was also a short period of time where things seemed to work out almost fin, without me having changed anything. Now it's back to not working again.


As I have no Fusion Drive, this can't be the issue. Also I have installed the Korg drivers dating from december 2013, allegedly being compatible with Mavericks. Using a powered USB 2.0 hub between the devices did not make any difference.


Apple support suggested I check back with Korg. While I am doing this, are there any other hints on what I could try?


What I have tried so far: Set the iMac back. Download the latest Kronos firmware (version 2.1.1. ) and drivers ( Korg_USB MIDI Driver_1.0.7_For_Mac ) . The device is recognized by the iMac as audio and as a midi device. The sample rate is set to 48,000 Hz everywhere. I've tried with another USB cable. Likewise, I have tried to use a USB hub between the two devices.



Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.



System configuration:

Kronos X V. 2.1.1.

iMac 27 '' , Late 2013 , 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR 3 , OS X 10.9.1. The iMac doesn't have a fusion drive.

Jan 26, 2014 6:33 PM in response to Deadphish42

Got an external drive and cloned my FD over to it. Seems to be working but I haven't done a lot of testing and won't have time for another week (leaving on a trip), but what I can say is that the external drive is so much slower; I miss the FD. I surely hope Apple gets this all worked out so the FD can be used with external audio devices. For recording in Logic I suppose this won't be a problem but for many other things the longer wait time is quite noticeable.

Jan 31, 2014 6:07 AM in response to Deadphish42

I chatted with apple last night and the representative was unaware of the issue. It popped up with my new 27" imac i7 3.5ghz / 3tb fusion drive using an RME Fireface UFX through either USB or Firewire (through a thunderbolt display). Can't even watch a youtube or listen to music through my card...


Listening through the iMac speakers/headphone jack, no issues.


Ok i've only been distrought for 2 days, unlike some of you guys who are at it since November, but it's time for a fix...

Feb 3, 2014 2:01 AM in response to Pooshoes321

10.9.2 Beta 4 was released.

http://www.cultofmac.com/264744/os-x-mavericks-10-9-2-beta-4-now-available-devel opers/

According to this website, it means that the public release will arrive soon (this week maybe), meaning that our problems will officially end (I had the opportunity to test the Beta 2 and everything worked fine with Apogee Duet Firewire via thunderbolt, Fusion Drive 1TB).

Feb 3, 2014 2:39 PM in response to Pancenter

Apogee provided an update for Quartet/Maestro 2. Unfortunately, it didn't resolve the freezing problem or compatibility issues with Mavericks on my SSD iMac.


So I exchanged the Quartet for a Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo. So far no issue with audio playback. Will try some recording this week.


BTW. For audio playback, the Apollo sounds much better than the Quartet or my 1st generation Apogee Duet FW ever did on my previous Macs. Better sound stage, tighter bass and more overall clarity. Sounds solid.

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clipping sound on new iMac when Logix X is running

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