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Massive problem with audio interface

Hi there.


I recently bought a brandnew iMac 27" Haswell i7. I encountered problems with my Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 audio interface. These are buzzing, clicking and noise immediately or after 3 minutes or so. I tried everything, re-installed the driveres several times, nothing, really nothing worked.


Then I bought an RME Babyface audio interface - and guess what? It's the same problem. I also have a massive sound noise after some minutes or the recording channel in Garage Band drops completely.


What is wrong here? I already tried using a different power plug, tried all USB ports, turned off WiFi, HDD sleep mode, etc. Nothing worked.


Do you have an idea?


I appeciate your help,

Adrian.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 25, 2013 1:29 PM

Reply
762 replies

Mar 21, 2014 12:39 PM in response to angelicHealing

I would appreciate anyone's help in walking me through these steps.

There are many people in this forum who have offered instructions on how to "de-fuse" that machine.


Before you do, know that 10.9.2 has fixed many Fusion related audio problems, and people are now "re-fusing" their drives.


Also, if you don't have the latest Focusrite drivers, you'll continue to have issues.


See HEREif you haven't updated your Scarlett already.

Mar 21, 2014 1:35 PM in response to dougwamble

Very interesting Doug,


That's the first time I've heard of any trouble with UA.

Perhaps I'm misinformed about the amount of control the Apollo has.


Has your friend been here?

http://www.uaudio.com/support/uad/compatibility


As far as Apogee... no, this issue has been causing havoc since October 2013 with many manufacturers' cards.


It's actually multiple issues. 10.9.3 allegedly addresses audio and video nightmare directly.

Mar 24, 2014 5:21 PM in response to derKlecks

I have a win to share, believe it or not.


After months of no audio interface on my late-2013 (Haswell/Crystalwell) Macbook Pro, I decided to experiement with a Tascam US-366.


I loaded the Mav-specific driver from the Tascam site.

I plugged in the USB.

I loaded the firmware....


...Works...Perfectly.


I've been using it for hours. No problems whatsoever.


I could almost cry.


I'll keep my fingers crossed that 10.9.3 doesn't inadvertently break anything that's currently working.

Mar 27, 2014 7:17 PM in response to derKlecks

I'm returning to this thread to express my extreme frustration and disappointment with Apple in both the hardware and customer support departments. These audio issues with the Fusion Drive are intractable even after being rolled back to Mountain Lion I've encountered signficant issues not just in recording but in clicks and pops in regular audio playback while browsing. I have had no option but to start the process to return the machine and get a refund.


Fortunately here in Australia consumer laws are strong and I have the rights for a refund for a defective product.


After taking the machine into the Apple Store and having a "Genius" confirm the fault, I've now been waiting a week for a response from the customer support team regarding the refund process and had to chase them up twice.


Such a shame that even after their own tech staff confirm the fault their own customer support is dragging their feet to simply continue the process of the refund I'm legally entitled to.


I'll likely never buy another Apple machine after this experience.

Mar 28, 2014 12:07 PM in response to derKlecks

Just brought the new iMac 3.4 i5 with Mavricks OS bulid in


I didn't have this probelm on mountain lion on any website when streaming and media players like

VLC player etc.


the sound on on the update on 10.9.2 is so bad


i have to put vol control on the iMac about 8 to 10 bars on the settings

before i just put 3 bars on mountion lion


its too thin and poor, now I have buy ex speakers to get better standard sound😠


does anyone have this issue?


its not a hardware issue Apple told me is a OS issue


hope they fix this on 10.9.3


plzzzzzz😟


this is on a standard drive 1 TB Serial ATA

Apr 1, 2014 6:39 PM in response to ilyasdesign

Hello! I have a terratec phase 26 USB audio interface and i have troubles in Maverick on MacBook Pro Retina.

I am profesional Musician and i'm using my Mac for live performing.On a windows laptop i had no issues but on my MBPr i have drop outs.

Do you guys think it's because the interface is an old one or is this the USB 3 combatibility in Mavericks?

I have read a lot of threats with same problems about USB 3 ports and USB 2 audio cards.

What do you think?

Apr 2, 2014 2:36 AM in response to pliktro

the issues Mavericks OS and not the hardware issue etc

you have to wait for 10.9.3 update if they fix the sound issue!


If your port on your on your laptop is USB 2 ports, you won't get the speed of USB. 3

only the speed of USB 2


i had no issues with mountion lion when it came to sound etc


plus third party software in music terms some might not be combatibilite with drivers etc

with Mavericks!


Apr 3, 2014 1:37 PM in response to gasaert

Hi gasaert,


I see you've got an early 2009 iMac and you had also trouble with audio interfaces with your new iMac..


And I'm just trying to draw upon others experience looking for help in my let's say special case.

I've got an early 2008 24" iMac whose logic board has apparently packed and cannot recognise its built-in soundcard anymore (that is what I was told at the apple store. Also I had reset my computer pram, nvram and did every possible test both by myself and with some Genius at the apple store. So I'm assuming they are right in their diagnostic)


I was given two different options


1- Fixing the logic board which I ruled out straighaway given the age of my computer.


2- buying an external device in order to pass over the logic board failure


The thing is I have no idea about which device I should buy. I've also seen that you've got a Behringer fc202 and I was wondering whether this device is just what I need or I also need a mixer only for getting a sound output.
I don't know what to do...


Any thoughts/ideas/advice will be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.
Luis

Apr 6, 2014 7:27 PM in response to derKlecks

Okay so my Komplete Audio 6 was working this morning... unplugged it and it stopped working. Tried everything. Decided to go grab a driver install and update it. restarted and it works now.


Running on OS X 10.9.2, Retina 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 16gb Ram 512 flash storage


For others having the problem, try just grabbing a driver and a update from the website.


Hopefully this issue doesn't come up again, really nice to have a new laptop... been 7 years.

Apr 6, 2014 8:54 PM in response to Community User

I've noticed something over the last while that may shed some like on what's going on here. On my system how well my audio card (apogee duet firewire) performs with Mavericks seems to be related to the number of peripherals I have plugged in at any given time. With my computer (a 2013 15" MacBook pro non-retina version) I have 2 USB 3, ports, 1 firewire 800 port and a thunderbolt port. My duet performs far better if I use it with just a midi keyboard and a Logitech USB trackball plugged in at the same time. If I added a forth device, an external hard drive for instance, I get audio distortion. So now I'm wondering if this might have something to do with the mavericks ability to alocate bus power. I did not have this problem with Mountain Lion. The other thing that make me think this might be a problem is that on my computer if I leave a maxed out number of peripherals plugged in when I shut down, I'm often greated with a black screen on start up. I took it into Apple and they found nothing wrong with the computer but then it didn't have 4 peripherals plugged into it when they tested it. I'm not sure this is related but it might be worth looking into. I did send this to apple via feedback.

Massive problem with audio interface

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