Massive problem with audio interface

I have a FW Edirol FA-66 Audio Interface and so far I've only noticed audio stuttering when playing in QuicktimeX

iTunes, Safari and system sounds are all fine but videos/audio from QuicktimeX causes the stuttering

I do have an iMac 2012 w Fusion Drive

This problem resolves if I use "internal speakers"

havent done any audio capture, garage band or logic pro to test the fa-66 on mavericks in those circumstances

I have a Tascam US122-L which is indeed an older one but since Lion there's been a problem with getting it started. Now the problem is that i can't chose another soundcard in the system audio settings than the built in one on my iMac!

Only in Logic, Guitar Pro and other programs in which i can alter the soundcard it really works fine...

iTunes can't seem to do that so i'm convicted to playing my music and movies on the speakers of the iMac 😟

Hi everyone,

I have the exact same problem with a i5 Hasweel iMac late 2013 with a FusionDrive.

With my Native Instruments RigKontrol 3 I have buzzing and crackling noise during playback AND I have a complete overdriven distortion ond the input channels after two or three minutes.

Also I have the exact same problem with my Apogee Duet Firewire Interface (Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter) inlcuding the problem, that the interface is complelty dropping out with a error showing up in the console that says something like

kernel[0]: FireWire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 Error.

Is there any solution for this problem right now?

Hello, I have the same problem.

Late iMac 2013 with Fusion Drive and latest Maverick plus an external Audio Interface attached. Playback of audio works only fine for a few seconds, sometimes a minute. Then I get high-pitched distortions which makes me fear that my monitor speakers get damaged. The audio source does not matter - whether it be iTunes, Logic or even Youtube-Videos - you get those distortions after a short while of playback.

There is a huge thread in this audio forum on that matter where people tend to think that the Fusion Drive is the source of the problem:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/877537-potential-audio-problem-ne w-imacs.html

To make it clear once again: the issue is that when you connect an external sound card/audio interface to the new iMac with a fusion drive, audio playback starts out clear and then after a short while totally degrades into static nothing.

I will call Apple Care on Monday and ask for a solution. I will return my iMac if there is no fix for the problem since I bought this iMac for producing music but I can't at the moment.

I have increased the buffer to 512 in Logic, since it runs without problems. I now use the Fireface UCX.

Regards

Alex

same problem with my imac late 2012 27" 3.2ghz i5 and the motu ultrilite. up to now i have no solution for this problem. the worst i can't use them never before. since from the first day. i attempt everything. from re-install to fresh install. resetting the nvram and pram. formatting the hd and make a fresh install from the operating system. using balanced audio cables and so on...but same problem all time. even my technological knowledge and know how which i have as electrical engineer couldn't help me. first i was lucky to have apple care in those situations. after get back the imac from the service provider i sadly decide nothing has changed. and they would told me it runs all fine. in meantime i testing my ni audio dj8 over usb. it's similar with the ultralite because the buzzing, clicking and noise is not so extrem as it is on ultralite. but it's here.

the curios with my macbook pro and my old imac early 2008 it runs and works fine without problems. for next week i have fixed a new date by the service provider. but then with my intercace, monitors to simulate this error and i hope they find the reason. perhaps i can tell you some news or solutions next week. i'm relly curious about it.

Same issue here. Using Mavericks. Fusion Drive. Late 2013 iMac. 32GB RAM and top of the line processor.

Line 6 Tone Port KB37 and DI-Gold audio interfaces. Updated Mavericks compatible driver.

Intermittent crunching sound when recoridng using GarageBand and unacceptable amounts of latency when recording real instruments. No problem with software instruments. Resolves for one or two tracks after switching interfaces then occurs again.

Never had similar problems using a MacBook Air and 4GB ram on Moutain Lion. Don't know if its a Mavericks issue or Fusion Drive, but the thread below has great detail and suggests it is Fusion Drive related. Applecare senior tech made me try to partition off a small amount of the fusion drive. Interestingly, Disk Utility wouldn't complete the repartitionand hung up while trying to remap the sectors. Ended up having to wipe the thing and reinstall the OS. Installed only GB and left everything else off. Same problem. The tech took the info and scheduled a call back for a couple of days from now. If they don't come up with a good solution I may dump the fusion drive entirely and just request at good old fasioned spinning disk.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5428602?start=0&tstart=0

Will post when the tech calls me back.

Good luck.

I have the same problem.

New 2013 iMac. 27" Haswell 3TB Fusion Drive.

Motu Ultralite MkIII (firewire only going through the thunderboldt adapter) Same issues that everyone else is having.

Called MOTU about it. They said it's Fusion Drive that's causing the problem.

Same issue.

Late 2013 iMac 27" w/ 1TB Fusion Drive, my babyface has the same issues.

I installed mavericks on an external USB drive and all my audio issues went away.

Huge bummer. I hope there's a fix coming from Apple.

Based on what I've read, I've come up with a fix that works for me until Apple jumps in.

1. Go to Disk Utility and Partition your drive.

2. Install Mavericks on the Partition.

3. Transfer the information from your existing HD to the new partition.

4. Everything related to audio works again, but now you have no benefit of the solid state drive.

The solid state/HD connection only applies to the "main" partition.

If you switch away from it, you get none of the benefits and none of the problems.

I'm planning on working this way until a firmware fix comes for macs with fusion drives.

Everything I'm working on gets uploaded to dropbox and so when the fix for fusion drive comes, I'll switch back to my old partition and anything that I've been working on will just get pulled down from dropbox and I won't miss a beat.

I hope this helps everyone else who's struggling right now.

service provider the second one...within three weeks

I'm looking forward to friday. what the result is after the repair service has checked the imac's audio setup in realtime. but this time i must personally bring over the imac and all hardware components. the whole back and forth excites me now. also because so far no solution came from apple too.

on a closer look you see definitely the traces of repair from the first time. which make me angry after I noticed it. because there's no solution come out on friday. the trend is definitely going to resell this imac and buy another one. those cosmetic defects by an half year old device are not a good selling point.

POSSIBLE FIX:

I just bought the late 2013 iMac 3.5GHz i7, 16GB RAM with the 3TB fusion drive and could not get the Focusrite Liquid Saffire (connected via the firewire to thunderbolt adapter) to work more than a minute wihtout the audio just stopping. This was with any application; Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Live 9, iTunes etc.

If I changed a setting on the Focusrite MixControl (essentially reseting the audio interface) audio would come back but within a few seconds it would stop again - even though the application playing the audio was still functioning fine and if I switch to the built-in audio eveything would play fine. I have not been having the audio degregation problem like a lot fo people - just the audio would stop.

When the audio stopped, in the console this error would appear: "ERROR: FireWire (OHCI) Lucent ID 5901 PCI: handleUnrecoverableErrorInt"

I've been trying to fix this for two day - wrote to Focusrite and had no reply yet and then came across this forum. By chance on another forum someone mentioned in passing the "Prevent App Nap" check box in the application info box - so I checked this on my MixControl software, Logic Pro, Pro Tools and Live 9. Logic Pro has been playing in loop mode all night and the audio did not cut out - it is still playing when I woke up this morning. I have not tried recording yet but I think this may have fixed the problem. Has anyone else tried this to success?

Please let me know if this works for anyone else.

Did not work for me. Audio stopped after 1 minute

I have a brand new iMac i7, 32 gigs RAM with 3t Fusion drive.

Didn't work for me either.

I got some instructions from apple support though, which unfortunatelly hadn't the chance to figure out.

Anyone who wants to check this:

1. Test in a new admin user<- helps to make sure that the problem is system wide.

2. Reset SMC-solves physical issues with the connection

3. Start in safe mode with usual user then restart normally. Test the audio interface again.

4. reset NVRAM. Gets rid of persistent preferences that might cause issues with audio output.

5. Reinstall Mavericks and test.

Like I said before, if you take a half hour and partition your drive with a fresh install of mavericks, you can get back to work until apple fixes the problem. Something is really wrong and this is probably affecting, at least, all iMacs with fusion drives.

Now, while I'm trying all these different methods to fix the problem, I still have a working system.

This is probably not something that every individual is going to need to fix by manually following advice from AppleCare.

They're going to issue a fix in the future, but my guess is that it won't be soon.

People who know what an audio interface is are not a part of Apple's target market anymore.