Scarlett 2i4 pops/drops/clicks

[emf1138]

I had a previous thread about all the issues with an older Focusrite scarlett causing pop and glitches. After exhausting the troubleshooting options, I ended up buying a new UA Apollo twin, thinking the Scarlett was crapping out. Welp, the pops and glitches are still happening! What could I be missing? I have brand new JBL 308ps and new TRS cables going to the apollo from the jbls. What else could be causing these hiccups??!

2013 Mac Pro, PT 2019.10, 10.13.4, Glyph USB 3 drives. I've tried various cache sizes and HW buffers too.

[junkgear]

I'm not the biggest authority on Macs, but have you tried the UA troubleshooting/optimization tips for Macs?

High Sierra Compatibility Info

Mac-Pro Late 2013 Thunderbolt Optimization

[JFreak]

Scarlett is USB interface and you are using USB drives, so maybe you could try copying a test session to internal SSD of your Mac Pro and disconnect the USB drives. See if it hiccups with less USB traffic.

[Darryl Ramm]

Why start another thread when there was some useful info in the other thread?

Here is the previous thread. http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=410781

If the click and pops are only happening on payback only, and not recorded in the DAW are are they coming from the DAW or something downstream?

Is it a bad cable/electrical connection? Did you try wiggling all the cables/connections? Bad headphones, or monitors, something nearby causing RF interference, something not so nearby causing interference and travelling on the power cables (fluorescent lights flickering, a refrigerator or other motor starting up), try getting *everything* disconnect you don't need (monitors/speakers, cables, disk drives, unneeded external video monitors, etc). Try with headphones only, try different phones, or if you don't have any try monitors only. Try headphones connected to the trashcan with Built-In Output and everything else removed.

What happens when you checked using Built-In Output as the playback engine? I think I asked that twice in the other thread.

If it's not downstream from the DAW then I would try a minimal Pro Tools system with base plugins installed only, starting with empty sessions, etc.

[emf1138]

I believe I did mention that with the scarlett device I did run a 1 track stereo session with no plug-ins and it was still popping and clicking, though not as bad. Haven't tried that with the UA. Didn't give the built-in a shot yet.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by emf1138

I believe I did mention that with the scarlett device I did run a 1 track stereo session with no plug-ins and it was still popping and clicking, though not as bad. Haven't tried that with the UA. Didn't give the built-in a shot yet.

I don't mean just no plugins in the session. I mean you troubleshoot this "properly" by moving all .aaxplugin files out of the plugin folder and trashing prefs and trying with just the standard Pro Tools plugins installed. A very quick test and the best way of excluding third party plugins.

[JFreak]

What he said. It is important, because PT loads all plugins into memory and even if your session is not using a bad plugin, one bad plugin loaded into memory can cause all kinds of random issues.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

I don't mean just no plugins in the session. I mean you troubleshoot this "properly" by moving all .aaxplugin files out of the plugin folder and trashing prefs and trying with just the standard Pro Tools plugins installed. A very quick test and the best way of excluding third party plugins.

What you are trying to do is make big bold steps to try to triangulate the problem. e.g. is it downstream of the DAW or if it's in the DAW is it a plugin etc... rare for clicks and pops there not to be caught and cause errors, but if it's happening it's possibly a plugin.

And if it's coming from the DAW and not a plugin and not fixed by trashing prefs, and trying new empty sessions etc. then you could spend forever trying to track it down. Instead of that I'd tend to go for broke at that point. Do a full clean test install of macOS in a container on the boot drive if there is space or on a spare external SSD. Install Pro Tools and ILM only and fully optimize the machine again.. and test with built-in output.

[emf1138]

Got it.