Saffire Pro 40- Pops and Clicks.

[ReachMusicProductions]

I've read the focusrite recommended support sheet, I've done the windows optimizations for pro tools as well. All of a sudden I'm having pretty horrible popping and clicking while tracking bass guitar. All the buffer size options still promoted popping and clicking. Not sure what to do. I tried another firewire port on my PCI card and I tried a restart.

Pro Tools 10.3.6
Saffire Pro 40
Windows 7



Computer specs-

Case- Newegg.com - iStarUSA 3U Stylish Zinc-Coated Steel Rackmount Server Chassis Front-mounted ATX Power Supply (D-300-PFS)

Power supply- Newegg.com - SeaSonic X series SS-400FL Active PFC F3 400W ATX12V Fanless 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

MotherBoard- http://www.microcenter.com/product/3...el_Motherboard

Processor- http://www.microcenter.com/product/3...1155_Processor

RAM- Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2B1600C9

SSD (Main Drive)- Newegg.com - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Audio Drive- Newegg.com - Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Backup Drive- Newegg.com - Western Digital WD Green WD20EARX 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

PCI- (For saffire pro 40)- Newegg.com - SIIG 3-port 1394 (FireWire) PCI adapter Model NN-400012-S8

Wifi- Newegg.com - ASUS PCE-N15 Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n PCI Express 300/300Mbps Transfer/Receive Rate 64-bit WEP, 128-bit WEP, WPA2-PSK, WPA-PSK, WPS support

[EGS]

Try these 1 at a time:
1. Disable WiFi (i.e. do all AVID optimizations)
2. Get latest MixControl version
3. Make sure MixControl set to internal clock
4. Different FW cord. Test other FW devices.
5. Not sure about that WD Blue drive.

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by EGS

5. Not sure about that WD Blue drive.

Yeah blue drives not recommended and may not work at all

Have you ever had a good set up working with this?

What about rolling back to 10.3.3 or 10.3.4

[ReachMusicProductions]

Originally Posted by YYR123

Yeah blue drives not recommended and may not work at all

Have you ever had a good set up working with this?

What about rolling back to 10.3.3 or 10.3.4

Try these 1 at a time:
1. Disable WiFi (i.e. do all AVID optimizations)
2. Get latest MixControl version
3. Make sure MixControl set to internal clock
4. Different FW cord. Test other FW devices.
5. Not sure about that WD Blue drive.

1-3 Already completed. I need to try #4 for sure! Great point!


Have you ever had a good set up working with this?

What about rolling back to 10.3.3 or 10.3.4[/QUOTE]

Yes, generally pro tools 10 will run pretty optimally until I start running larger sessions with multiple VI's and AAX plugs. Rolling back won't be an option because I need 10.3.6 for the co install to keep PT11.

[ReachMusicProductions]

So I just moved the whole session onto my SSD only. Still getting clicks and pops on playback and while recording. Wifi card was already disabled since I'm hardlined to the internet, but I disabled the connection as well.

Not really sure where to go from here, buffer size doesn't seem to affect the problem. Really sucks. Maybe one of the "Optimizations" isn't working well with my machine.

Any ideas?

I also tried creating a brand new session, still getting popping and clicking while recording. I also made sure the clock was set to internal on the saffire mix control software.
Also tried a new session in Reaper, same problem. So we now know it's a saffire problem or something with the computer correct?

Also tried switching to the "Legacy Driver"- http://support.presonus.com/entries/...-switch-to-it-

To no avail!

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by ReachMusicProductions

So I just moved the whole session onto my SSD only. Still getting clicks and pops on playback and while recording.

You have to have two drives...it is not viable to run your session off your SSD (which i presume is your main o/s install).

This will cause clicks and pops...due to audio thruput issues.

Clock issues generally cause clicks and pops......


Try this.....Run w/o the saffire interface run your native computer interface. I am assuming your running windows...so make sure you have AISO installed on your machine.......

New session and see if you get the same things......same audio issues....

[ReachMusicProductions]

Originally Posted by YYR123

You have to have two drives...it is not viable to run your session off your SSD (which i presume is your main o/s install).

This will cause clicks and pops...due to audio thruput issues.

Clock issues generally cause clicks and pops......


Try this.....Run w/o the saffire interface run your native computer interface. I am assuming your running windows...so make sure you have AISO installed on your machine.......

New session and see if you get the same things......same audio issues....

I meant that I copied the session to the SSD, instead of running it off the WD Blue drive.

I also tried the suggested method, still resulted in pops and clicks. Thank you for your input though!

[Top Jimmy]

If you have the Saffire Pro 40 selected as the Windows audio device, that could be a problem. Change the Windows audio device to anything other than the Saffire and see if that resolves your issue.


Buttdialed by me & Tapatalk

[ReachMusicProductions]

Originally Posted by Top Jimmy

If you have the Saffire Pro 40 selected as the Windows audio device, that could be a problem. Change the Windows audio device to anything other than the Saffire and see if that resolves your issue.


Buttdialed by me & Tapatalk

Unfortunately still unresolved.
I cannot even begin to understand why this is all of a sudden acting up.

Just tried running a new session in PT11 as well.
I also played with the Firewire Latency setting in the mix control panel. Seemed to help reduce the clicking and popping but not by much at all.

[Bill Simmons]

Not sure if this helps any but we have 2 saffire pro 40s and an Octipre and every now and then I have to go into the Saffire mix control and change the clock setting to ADAT on our system. Still haven't figured out why it changes to "internal" on it's own. But I am also still pretty new at all this.

Macbook Pro
Protools 9
Saffire Pro 40 (2)
Focusrite Octipre