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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

Jul 12, 2014 7:36 AM in response to benwiggy

We must pray to the gods of Yosemite. I will say that I am not having audio streaming issues, like a radio station streaming app like Radium or YouTube videos. But the recording issues through USB I find consistent across different apps. Updates to Mavericks have corrected issues I've had with a USB microphone, the Blue Spark Digital mic.


What I find interesting is when I go to the Apple store or talk to anyone from Apple on the phone, no one knows about these issues we discuss here. There are now 47 pages of complaints in this one discussion thread but any sort of tech support seems to be clueless that the issue even exists. That ****** me off.

Jul 21, 2014 7:04 AM in response to derKlecks

After having a similar problem (Stream/computer lockup for moments on my Haswell based rMBP) I have been working with Native Instruments for months.

FINALLY i got the right guy and he told me that the Haswell based Macs have a fault in their USB3 chipsets that stops them from working correctly with many USB2.0 sound devices. After months of them having me use different latency settings, and other malarkey, I finally managed to get a tech who gave it to me straight. Native Instruments has been working with Apple to get this fault addressed, but being as this is effecting legacy products more than contemporary ones, NI does not expect resolution soon.

Jul 21, 2014 7:38 AM in response to weggendekker

From what they told me, USB3.0 and Thunderbolt devices should work fine.


In my case the Native Instruments "Audio 2" was what was running into the problem. But I was assured that I should avoid the issue by using the Native Instruments "Audio 2 MKII". I would have been pretty angry to get the "just buy the new product" answer, but being as I already had an MKII, I didn't have much reason to gripe.


I'm going to call Apple, though, because they had assured me on a support case that I'd opened that this was definitively the Application Developer's problem.

Aug 20, 2014 3:17 PM in response to gasaert

Late January I added my voice to the many people who had experienced issues using audio with a late 2013 iMac with a Fusion drive. I had seen many reports that subsequent patches to Mavericks had fixed tho issue. I had split my Fusion drive which had fixed the clicks and drop-outs. Yesterday I finally got around re-creating the Fusion drive in the hope that the original problem was resolved. And I am glad to report that it has fixed my issues! I finally have the iMac I was meant to have bought. Been streaming for iTunes for the last two days and did some basic playback testing with Cubase. So far, no problem whatsoever. Note that I am using a Firewire audio device (Phonic Helix Board 12 Firewire MKII).

Oct 15, 2014 7:52 AM in response to derKlecks

Hi!


I figured this was a 10.9.5 problem as my 1818VSL drivers were compatible with 10.9.4 at most.

I own an iMac 2011 with no fusion drive.

I did a complete format and reinstalled 10.9.4 from 10.9.5 and still the same problem.

The only solution I have right now and I have tried everything is to skip the driver for my interface.

The 1818VSL is class compliant so it's possible to run without a driver.

I get no input monitoring only software monitoring which is a real shame but it's working. No clicks or anything just beautiful recorded audio.

For those of you who has the ability to run your interface without a driver I suggest you do.

In the meantime, Apple:

This is a total outrage, disappointment and unprofessional way of handling this.

If you insist on making designer electronics then for f**k sake make sure the "guts" work first before you even consider the body.

Studio's are at a halt all over the world because of your Airplay, Notification, Facebook crap. Make a system that works and don't even bother catering to the makeup blogging self involved tweeters. They have apps for that. Its not an ideal system requirement.

Fix.

Nov 17, 2014 4:19 AM in response to derKlecks

Hello,

I've just found this thread and immediately thought about my problem as well, but I have late 2008 Unibody Macbook with 8GB RAM and 7200RPM HDD.

The hole problem is that when I connect my DAC over either USB or optical toslink I can hear that distortions and clicks, especially when playing 24/96 or when I pause the music. Do you think it might be related to this core audio bug? I can hear the same on 10.7.5 as well on Maverick - I have one small partition on the same drive with both.


Description of the whole story:

http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?35018-Caiman-MKII-check-if-you-hea r-the-noise-please


Thanks a lot for your suggestions,

Krzysztof

Massive problem with audio interface

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