AUDIO - POP ... not cables for pro tools

[[email protected]]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Thanks for the extra info. Sadly more questions...

Has this gear ever worked OK together or with other interfaces/computers? If so what changed?

Do you get these pops and clicks with other media playback, say just using a local Windows music player?

And when testing that set the HW buffer size as large as possible.

Is the interface connected directly or via a USB hub? Make sure you try removing as many other connections/cables frnb/

Does this sound like typical misclocking pops and clicks... if you have heard that in the past you likely will know what they sound like (if not can you share a recording, like maybe make one with your phone).

Any chance it is some form of interference? Either radio frequency or coupled through the mains power? Refrigerators or thermostats switching on can sometime cause pops but that most commonly happens when tracking a guitar or bass

Is this unit under warranty still or can you return to the retailer? If that is an option, don't let that option lapse while trying out stuff.

• Brand new install end of june ...problem from the get-up
• Tested largest buffer
• USBc direct - tested adapter also
• I'll post a recording and link it next post
• It's on a dedicated power line direct from the main box - was used for the old computer without issue ...tried another outlet too
• AVID offered RAM...trying to avoid that
• Is there a link between the computer and the MBOX clock?

[[email protected]]

https://youtu.be/9ysJzeUG8Ek?feature=shared


This is the popping sound. Just trying to play you tube. The audio shows on S/PDIF output but not sure that has any impact. This is the same kind of popping it get when pro tools is engaged. It makes recording impossible




https://youtu.be/CYtBi5AurCM?feature=shared this is what latency mon flags...not sure if it's a proper test but it does detect the audio problem I experience

[junkgear]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING: There are no cables attached to inputs or outputs.


However, you tube is impacting the S/PDIF output meter.


It also shows on Internal 1&2...


Why S/PDIF out when nothing is connected

Are you sure it is S/PDIF? Is it possible that you have Loopback enabled in MBox Control? If you do, I would try disabling it.

Another thing is that in your video, you have both Youtube and Pro Tools running, so I'm guessing you are using the MBox as your default Windows audio interface. You can try to set Windows not to use the MBox as your audio interface, then try just Pro Tools alone to see if the pops go away.

It's also kind of interesting that in your video, you get an audio pop just about every time you click the mouse, which makes me wonder if the sample rate is switching back and forth since you are trying to share the interface.

[[email protected]]

Pro tools is not running

[[email protected]]

SAMPLE RATE is fixed and stable in MBOX ....does windows have options for sample rate?

[junkgear]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

SAMPLE RATE is fixed and stable in MBOX ....does windows have options for sample rate?

It certainly does. If you are on Windows 11, go to "System > Sound > Properties" for the device you currently have set as your Windows output device. Other versions of Windows allow you to set this as well, I just don't remember where in sound settings to look.

[[email protected]]

Originally Posted by junkgear

Are you sure it is S/PDIF? Is it possible that you have Loopback enabled in MBox Control? If you do, I would try disabling it.

Another thing is that in your video, you have both Youtube and Pro Tools running, so I'm guessing you are using the MBox as your default Windows audio interface. You can try to set Windows not to use the MBox as your audio interface, then try just Pro Tools alone to see if the pops go away.

It's also kind of interesting that in your video, you get an audio pop just about every time you click the mouse, which makes me wonder if the sample rate is switching back and forth since you are trying to share the interface.

I blocked windows from using any audio, and things have improved considerably. Gonna let this run for a while to verify. Still the odd pip but about 80% reduction. Going to restore original operating system and start again with a clean slate. Dell wants this done to veryfy the operating system.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING: There are no cables attached to inputs or outputs.


However, you tube is impacting the S/PDIF output meter.


It also shows on Internal 1&2...


Why S/PDIF out when nothing is connected

This is likely working exactly as expected.

S/PDIF Out has no way of telling if anything is connected, it's a dumb digital I/O port it just sends what it is told to. Likely you have output mirroring enabled in the MBox. That output will be clocked from whatever you have clocking set up to, presumably the MBox internal. But you tell us exactly what it's set to.

[Darryl Ramm]

Thanks for the video.

As Will mentions that correlation with the mouse clicks is very suspicious.

Can you test this again with Pro Tools, with absolutely nothing else accessing the device/driver. Widows sound is set to a different device, no other audio apps are running. As many as possible other apps all exited.

[Edit, and I see you already tried that... and so...]

If that still has issues with only one app accessing the interface I would work to exclude the graphics system/NVIDIA card/driver being a suspect.

Just to try something different switch to the Intel internal GPU.

Try the latest NVIDA driver you can get, including early release drivers.

I would try all that before doing busy work like reloading OSes.

---

[edit:] And assuming you are going to record stuff, you need to actually test Pro Tools doing that, and test at the HW buffer sizes you might want to track at. For playback only things Pro Tools silently defaults to a 1024 or 2048 size playback buffer (aka the "disk playback" buffer) regardless of the size you set for the H/W Buffer in the playback engine dialog. When you have a track in record or input monitoring Pro Tools routes that signal uses the low-latency H/W buffer size you are setting.

---

And just because Microsoft are wrecking their own products... as you get stuff set up make sure your user account/desktop is *not* using OneDrive.

[[email protected]]

So...good news bad news.


Good news ---- Following JunkGear query about mouse-click and popping, I blocked Microsoft from using any MBOX input or output, and after running for a bit, there was no popping. I started the protools project I used for the test record, and after a short run it appeared to be OK.



Bad News: Dell tech has been trying to resolve it from their side, and they had me run one of their remote fixes to resolve a driver issue. It wiped out AVID, and Ilok, and Link. Now ILOK won't let me use the licence.


So....I'll end this here, and when I get the machine running again, I'll start a new thread (PART TWO). Thanks for the help. I have learned a lot in a few exchanges