Mbox2 USB Crackle and Noise

[stuseattle]

I've searched the forum and seen the other posts but this is driving me crazy. I have the Mbox 2 interface, the one that connects via USB.

It has a violent cracking/popping sound when I try to use it . . . using the headphone jack to monitor.

- Computer is iMac Core 2 Duo running 10.5.7;
- Pro Tools 8 w/whatever the latest upgrades are;
- Nothing special in plug-ins . . . I mean, after all, you can barely do anything on this thing with the usb connection, unless you love the constant visits to the playback engine dialog box;
- ProTools does not have to be running for crackles though the crackles really come alive when music is running through the interface

- Relaunched
- Rebooted
- Replugged (including different usb cable and port)
- Nothing else running

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I do most of my stuff with our 002 setup, which works fine, but really want to be able to listen with this unit too.

stu

[JazzyJ]

Try using the mbox to listen to a song playing in Quicktime player.

See if it still cracles then.

See if you can try it on another person's machine, PC or Mac.

You need to establish whether it is a software or a hardware issue.

or

Uninstall PT, reboot and reinstall, then test.

Good luck

[rockerazo]

I have a similar problem, I have a Mac Pro 13 inch laptop >>PT 7.4 No problems in Mac , and no problems with the other programs in Windows (yes now you can open windows in a Mac) ===BUT!! everytime I play any sound file in PT 7.4 i hear this crackling noise from my M-Audio Premobile sound card???? i already tried all the upgrades from teh M-Audio page, i unchecked already the RTA checking from the playback engine and nothing seems to work????
Can anybody help me out here pleaseee!! :-( It is very frustating that I can not use my pro Tools in Windows :-(

[stuseattle]

Originally Posted by JazzyJ

Try using the mbox to listen to a song playing in Quicktime player.

See if it still cracles then.

See if you can try it on another person's machine, PC or Mac.

You need to establish whether it is a software or a hardware issue.

or

Uninstall PT, reboot and reinstall, then test.

Good luck

Music seems to play through the unit all right, without any crackling. It now only appears to happen when Pro Tools is launched.

stu

[stuseattle]

Actually, forget that last post...

I finally got around to rewiring everything around the computer, made sure that, for this test, the Mbox 2 was the only thing using usb, and relaunched ProTools LE. Using the headphones jack of the MBox 2, just to make sure it wasn't a wiring thing from the unit to the amp, I opened a session, hit play, and sure enough everything's crackling and fizzing . . . sounds sort of like a quiet version of Rice Krispies.

I quite Pro Tools . . . the crackling remains;
I launched iTunes . . . crackling remains;
I unplugged the USB cable and replugged . . . still hear some crackling, though not as much, even though nothing's playing.

Next up . . . I'll try swapping out the usb cable.

stu

[Mike Schmidt]

I work at Vancouver Film School for the Sound Design Department (running Mac OS 10.5.8) and we recently lent 5 MBox's to the Game Design campus which are running Windows.

Upon receiving the units back, all of them are displaying this crackling sound out of the headphone output (changing the volume adjusts the noise). This crackling is present as soon as the MBox is turned on.. even on the Mac login screen.

Guessing that it's firmware related... perhaps Windows did something to the MBox that is now not happy on the Mac side...

I've tried updating the firmware on the Mac side, but it's already up to date, so the updater doesn't do anything.

Anyone else experience something like this?

[Brodad]

I fixed my crackling noise by changing my dverb plugin to the air mono reverb plugin. I don't know what all you are using for plugins in your session but you might want to start by taking them out and see if crackling noise stops.

[Mike Schmidt]

Upon further research and closer inspection, it seems like reason for our particular problem is a bad USB port. The noise persists as soon as the unit is powered on (even while on the Mac login screen), regardless of what operating system (MacOS/WindowsXP(Bootcamp), and regardless of what software is running.

I can reduce/eliminate the crackling by pushing on the USB cable/connection... which definitely leads me to think it's the physical connection (bad/cold solder point from connector to chip board or something)

[lemonkid]

I remember that I had such a problem too. It was related to the output on the mBox-1. When I closed it the cracking stopped. When I disabled the input on all channels It also stopped.

For me operating that way was no problem since I did all my recordings on the road with other equipment. However moving the mouse could give an annoying crackle with the output and the input channels open.

See if the crack comes from 'outside' your computer by closing the input. That way you can exclude your computer as the cause.

[chrisduncanaudio]

I found the USB port on the computer to be the problem. Switched to a different one and the problem seems to have disappeared.