Static / crackling when record-enabling (w/ Sandra report)

[scadh]

I just finished building a brand new audio computer for a friend of mine, and am having an issue with Pro Tools when record-enabling audio tracks. A full Sandra report follows, but here are the basics:

Quad-core i5 processor, 8gb RAM, separate system and audio hard drives, M-Audio Delta 66, Windows 7 64-bit, Pro Tools 8.0.3 M-Powered. I have performed many, though not all, of the optimizations in the "Windows 7 Optimizations and Troubleshooting" guide in the Avid Knowledge Base. I have installed the newest W7-64 drivers from M-Audio for the Delta. I have not installed any other manufuacturer drivers for other components like the video card, dvd drive or motherboard components, so those are currently just "Windows default". The machine is not connected to the internet or any local network.

After installing the Delta drivers, I tested the setup by simply playing an audio cd (before installing Pro Tools). Everything worked fine. I attempted to install Pro Tools, but it hung up and never completed. I tried three or four times to install all three components simultaneously (Pro Tools, Digirack plugs, Creative Collection), and it hung up and failed each time. Lacking any better ideas, I tried to install them each separately over the course of three separate installs, and this time everything installed fine.

Everything works as expected in Pro Tools, except when record-enabling an audio track. When doing so, the audio will frequently crackle and pop. Sometimes it works fine for a few minutes, then suddenly starts to crackle again. Deselecting the record-enable button for the track and reselecting it will sometimes fix it temporarily, but it always comes back. It is constantly going in and out with no rhyme or reason. This happens at all buffer settings between 256 and 1024, and at every sample rate/bit depth combination from 44.1/16 to 96/24. This issue does not seem to be present when playing software instruments (Boom, Vacuum, etc), even when those tracks are record-enabled. When playing an instrument track and simultaneously input-monitoring a record-enabled audio track (SM58 plugged in to a mixer plugged into the Delta), the audio track will crackle when singing but the instrument plays fine. I am sure it is not the mixer, as the output can be routed to bypass the line to the Delta and go straight out the Control Room outs and it sounds perfect when doing so. It's definitely a software/driver issue.

It's extremely irritating. My buddy is a full-on home recording newbie with no comprehension of the fact that virtually all setups experience glitches. Not even professional systems run perfectly all of the time. So to him, it just "doesn't work" in the same way it wouldn't work if the power switch was broken. He doesn't "get" or understand the tweaking, massaging, pleading and praying that goes into streamlining and optimizing a system. So he's in borderline panic mode, though I'm trying to convince to him to simply be patient.

Any advice, assistance, hints, suggestions or miracles are much appreciated.



SANDRA:

SiSoftware Sandra

Computer
Model : Gigabyte P55-USB3
Workgroup : WORKGROUP
Host Name : Eric-PC
User : Eric

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz
Speed : 2.8GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 2x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 8MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 4 threads sharing

Computer
Mainboard : Gigabyte P55-USB3
BIOS : Award (Phoenix) F8 08/10/2010
Bus(es) : X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR3

Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte Clarksfield/Lynnfield DMI
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)

Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte Core Desktop (Lynnfield) UnCore
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR3
Channels : 2
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 665MHz (1.33GHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-10666CL9-4GBRL 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-10666CL9-4GBRL 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4550 (Microsoft Corporation WDDM 1.1) (SM4.1, 512MB DDR3, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor

Storage Devices
WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 596GB (C:)
WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 596GB (E:)
ATAPI iHAS424 Y (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : 31MB (D:)

Logical Storage Devices
System Reserved : 100MB (NTFS)
Audio (E:) : 596GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
System (C:) : 596GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Oct 27 2010 (D:) : 703MB (UDF) @ ATAPI iHAS424 Y (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Giga-Byte P55 LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8720F
Audio Device : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 High Definition Audio
Audio Device : Giga-Byte RV730XT Audio device [Radeon HD 4670]
Audio Codec : ATI (AMD) HDMI Audio
Serial Port(s) : 1
Parallel Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 4 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 2 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte JMB36X PCIE-to-SATAII/IDE RAID Controller
USB Controller 1 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 3 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 4 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Controller 5 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 6 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 7 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 8 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Network Services

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7600
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 4.9

[pianosound]

Hello scadh,,,I haven't seen many i5's and I myself am not a pc tech by any means. But when I 1st built my i7, some of the guys helped me with ram timings and cpu voltage. 9-9-9-25 seems a little high for ddr3 ram. I would check with the G.Skill web sight on that and also check in your BIOS that the cpu voltage is correct. I would sure hate to send you on a wild goose chase, so maybe some of these guys will let you know if I'm totaly off base. But other than that, as long as your vga is PT's supported (could cause a lot of problems!), I can't think of anything else?? By the way,,,, with W7 64 bit, why are you not using the 8.0.4 PT's drivers for W7, does the M-powered software not support it or something?? Also make sure that no software that came with your MOBO except for the needed drivers has been installed!!! Some of that bloat-ware will constantly run in the background and cause all kinds of grief!

Good luck,,,,,, Mike

[mhelm01]

Are you expiriencing this problem when no VIs are present? If not, you might want to try bouncinging the VIs to an audio track and then making the the instrument tracks inactive. You only have two hardrives, and streaming samples from either your system drive or your audio drive may cause problems.

[TCM]

You may also want to check this:

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Keep in mind this is for Vista and higher!

[scadh]

Originally Posted by pianosound

Hello scadh,,,I haven't seen many i5's and I myself am not a pc tech by any means. But when I 1st built my i7, some of the guys helped me with ram timings and cpu voltage. 9-9-9-25 seems a little high for ddr3 ram. I would check with the G.Skill web sight on that and also check in your BIOS that the cpu voltage is correct. I would sure hate to send you on a wild goose chase, so maybe some of these guys will let you know if I'm totaly off base. But other than that, as long as your vga is PT's supported (could cause a lot of problems!), I can't think of anything else?? By the way,,,, with W7 64 bit, why are you not using the 8.0.4 PT's drivers for W7, does the M-powered software not support it or something?? Also make sure that no software that came with your MOBO except for the needed drivers has been installed!!! Some of that bloat-ware will constantly run in the background and cause all kinds of grief!

Good luck,,,,,, Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your input. The RAM voltages are all default, I didn't overclock anything at all. Nonetheless, I'm running short on ideas so I will definitely give that a look.

I actually did upgrade to 8.0.4 and the issue was still present. I have since rolled back to 8.0.3 because I assumed it to be more stable and I didn't want to try to track down this issue while simultaneously dealing with any new issues introduced by 8.0.4 that maybe haven't been identified/solved by Avid and the community yet.

I didn't install any of the motherboard software (not even the drivers) for that exact reason. I am going to selectively install some drivers from the disk, I think, provided that I can do so bit by bit rather than some bloated installer that will include God knows what.

Thanks again for your help!

Steve

[scadh]

Originally Posted by mhelm01

Are you expiriencing this problem when no VIs are present? If not, you might want to try bouncinging the VIs to an audio track and then making the the instrument tracks inactive. You only have two hardrives, and streaming samples from either your system drive or your audio drive may cause problems.

Yes, it happens even with a single audio track straight out of the master fader.

I didn't realize that streaming samples from the system drive would be a problem (I have been doing so on my own system for a long time and have never had a problem). I thought that would only be an issue if they were steaming from the audio drive.

Thank you for the suggestion! If all else fails, perhaps I'll uninstall the Creative Collection entirely and see if the issue persists.

[scadh]

Originally Posted by TCM

You may also want to check this:

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Keep in mind this is for Vista and higher!

What an excellent tool! The explanation of the ways in which the CPU can be interrupted while processing audio is worth the price of admission by itself (especially since admission is free!).

I can't wait to get home and try this on my friend's system as well as my own. I can see this being extremely useful in tracking down the issue. Thank you very much!

[scadh]

My issue described in the opening post of this thread persists, but I have narrowed down the potential causes and found a relatively easy workaround (though it only works for a few minutes).

The crackle occurs only when an audio track that has its input set to a channel from the Delta interface (doesn't matter which) is record enabled. It happens at all sample rates, bit depths and buffer settings. When it occurs, simply changing the buffer setting to something else fixes it for five or ten minutes. After a few minutes it will suddenly come back out of the blue with no obvious "trigger". One second you're singing and it sounds great, the next it just start crackling mid-sentence. It makes no difference what buffer setting you change to, any of them will solve it for a short while. The system is beefy enough that it handles 64 no problem, sounds great, no dropout or anything -- then it suddenly just crackles again. Switch it to 128, 512, 1024, anything, doesn't matter. It will work for a few more minutes then start crackling again.

I've run out of ideas. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Pro Tools and all drivers, implemented every troubleshooting/performance optimization tip I can find, lit some incense and sacrificed four live chickens in the name of Baphomet, you name it. I can't make this crackle go away. I feel bad because I promised my buddy a system that really smokes -- and it's right on the cusp but we can't quite get over the hump.

Any tips, hints, unfounded rumors, wild guesses or recommendations for prescription medication would be GREATLY appreciated.

[TCM]

Originally Posted by scadh

lit some incense and sacrificed four live chickens in the name of Baphomet, you name it.

That explains everything!
It is supposed to be 4 bottles of red wine to Orpheus.


Well, did you try a different M-audio interface, just to rule out the problem is interface related.

[scadh]

Originally Posted by TCM

That explains everything!
It is supposed to be 4 bottles of red wine to Orpheus.


Well, did you try a different M-audio interface, just to rule out the problem is interface related.

Well, let's not get carried away now! Four chickens is one thing, but no way no how is anyone -- deity or not -- getting their grubby paws on my wine. Actually funny that you mentioned wine --the buddy for whom I built this system and I go to the most awesome white-trash free wine-tasting EVER each month. It's amazing. :)

Returning to the issue at hand... no I have not tried another interface. I have an AP192 in my system but am hoping to avoid the hassle of pulling it out. Additionally, every test we have done of audio that doesn't go through Pro Tools (i.e. mixer direct to the studio monitors, audio cd in Media Player, etc), has performed flawlessly. The Delta, mixer and cables are all new.