The age old crackling problem

I just replaced my FocusRite Saffire Pro 14 with an M-Audio air 192|4 and I’m getting crackling no matter what settings I used. Trust me, I’ve tried them all. In a dream world, I’d like to have everything set to 48,000.

I have Audacity set to 48,000, WASAPI, Line 1/2 M-Audio, mono, Speakers M-Audio.

I have my Win10 control panel sound set to 16-bit 48,000 and the recording is set to 2-channel 16-bit 48,000.

I have my M-Audio air control panel set to 48,000 with a buffer size at 2048. I’ve tried them all but that is what it happens to be set to now.

In Help=>Diagnostics=>Audio Device, I get way too many devices. As far as I knew, I had only one, M-Audio. Any ideas?

==============================
Default recording device number: 1
Default playback device number: 3
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Input
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.09
Low Playback Latency: 0.09
High Recording Latency: 0.18
High Playback Latency: 0.18
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: Line 1/2 (M-Audio AIR 192 4)
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.09
Low Playback Latency: 0.09
High Recording Latency: 0.18
High Playback Latency: 0.18
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: Microsoft Sound Mapper - Output
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0.09
Low Playback Latency: 0.09
High Recording Latency: 0.18
High Playback Latency: 0.18
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
    352800
    384000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: Speakers (M-Audio AIR 192 4)
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0.09
Low Playback Latency: 0.09
High Recording Latency: 0.18
High Playback Latency: 0.18
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
    352800
    384000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: DELL S2715H (NVIDIA High Defini
Host name: MME
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0.09
Low Playback Latency: 0.09
High Recording Latency: 0.18
High Playback Latency: 0.18
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
    352800
    384000
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: Primary Sound Capture Driver
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.12
Low Playback Latency: 0
High Recording Latency: 0.24
High Playback Latency: 0
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 6
Device name: Line 1/2 (M-Audio AIR 192 4)
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.12
Low Playback Latency: 0
High Recording Latency: 0.24
High Playback Latency: 0
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 7
Device name: Primary Sound Driver
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0
Low Playback Latency: 0.12
High Recording Latency: 0
High Playback Latency: 0.24
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 8
Device name: Speakers (M-Audio AIR 192 4)
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0
Low Playback Latency: 0.12
High Recording Latency: 0
High Playback Latency: 0.24
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 9
Device name: DELL S2715H (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)
Host name: Windows DirectSound
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0
Low Playback Latency: 0.12
High Recording Latency: 0
High Playback Latency: 0.24
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    176400
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 10
Device name: DELL S2715H (NVIDIA High Definition Audio)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0
Low Playback Latency: 0.003
High Recording Latency: 0
High Playback Latency: 0.01
Supported Rates:
    48000
==============================
Device ID: 11
Device name: DELL S2715H (NVIDIA High Definition Audio) (loopback)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.003
Low Playback Latency: 0
High Recording Latency: 0.01
High Playback Latency: 0
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 12
Device name: Speakers (M-Audio AIR 192 4)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0
Low Playback Latency: 0.003
High Recording Latency: 0
High Playback Latency: 0.01
Supported Rates:
    48000
==============================
Device ID: 13
Device name: Speakers (M-Audio AIR 192 4) (loopback)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.003
Low Playback Latency: 0
High Recording Latency: 0.01
High Playback Latency: 0
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 14
Device name: Line 1/2 (M-Audio AIR 192 4)
Host name: Windows WASAPI
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.003
Low Playback Latency: 0
High Recording Latency: 0.01
High Playback Latency: 0
Supported Rates:
==============================
Selected recording device: 14 - Line 1/2 (M-Audio AIR 192 4)
Selected playback device: 12 - Speakers (M-Audio AIR 192 4)
Supported Rates:
    48000
==============================
Available mixers:
==============================
Available recording sources:
0 - Master
==============================
Available playback volumes:
0 - PCM
==============================
Recording volume is native
Playback volume is native

Are you getting [u]dropouts[/u]?

with a buffer size at 2048

Have you tried a bigger buffer or [u]increasing the buffer length in Audacity[/u]?

There are some suggestions [u]here[/u].

…Usually the problem is “something else” interrupting the audio or “hogging” the system for a few milliseconds too long, and you get buffer overflow.

There is a FREE online book about optimizing your computer for audio called [u]Glitch Free[/u].

No, I’m not getting dropouts.

I have my buffer size in Audacity set to match the M-Audio control panel setting.

Yes, it must be something else because the crackling comes and goes. At times, the crackling is gone but it always comes back within a minute or so. However, nothing else is new. I simply swapped out one box for another. anything going on behind the scenes has always been there with Audacity and the old Saffire pro.

I’ll read through the links you sent me. I tried Transport=>rescan and all has been well for a few minutes (fingers crossed).


_NOTE: The reason I switched was because FocusRite eventually punted on creeping latency. I would record for hours with no latency but, after a few hours of leaving my pc unattended, the latency would come back. I had to crawl under my desk, unplug the usb, plug it back in, restart the mixer control panel, change the rate to anything, then change it back to 256 and latency was gone.

Now, with the crackling, I tried to call M-Audio but, as soon as I mentioned Audacity, they basically hung up on me. They want me to troubleshoot with Ableton but I don’t know how to use it and they don’t know how to use Audacity. So, M-Audio will be of no help._

One thing of note is the FocusRite Saffire was firewire and this m-audio air is usb.

Firewire was designed to consistently give low latency and fast throughput independently of CPU load.

USB is dependent on CPU availability. When the CPU is under high load, USB performance can suffer. This is sometimes a problem for people that are recording game play, but can affect anyone that is running CPU demanding tasks at the same time as recording.

I think the USB thing is the leading suspect right now. I’ve read that glitch book and made all recommended adjustments and, unfortunately, the crackling came back after about 3 minutes of playing audio in Audacity.

Now, I am certain that playback in other apps like Chrome and WMP are not affected … there’s never crackling there.

However, there is one other app, Albelton that crackles during playback!!! I’ve isolated this and Abelton crackles when Audacity is or isn’t running and vice versa.

Why then do both DAWs crackle during playback?

I know you said you tried lots of options, but just to check, did you try with “host” set to “MME” in the Device Toolbar?

I did try that before but, when I did, I couldn’t play. The cursor would just wobble and go nowhere.

However, just now, I tried it again and, after all the recent changes and reboots, I can now play with this setting. I’ll loop back to see when crackling comes back but, if you don’t hear from me again…

we can only hope, right.

Great news … CRACKLING is gone. Unfortunately, I can longer record. Now I’m getting another age-old error “error opening recording device -9999”. The log file seems to be complaining that LAME and FFMPEG cannot be found but they are right where they’ve always been for the past 10 years.

14:14:29: Audacity 2.3.1
14:14:29: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
14:14:29: mLibAVFormatPath (‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll’) is not empty. Loading from it.
14:14:29: Looking up PATH environment variable…
14:14:29: PATH = ‘C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH;C:\Users\Daddy\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;’
14:14:29: Checking that ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity’ is in PATH…
14:14:29: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
14:14:29: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll’.
14:14:29: Error: Couldn’t find symbol ‘avutil_version’ in a dynamic library (error 127: The specified procedure could not be found.)
14:14:29: Error: Couldn’t find symbol ‘avcodec_version’ in a dynamic library (error 127: The specified procedure could not be found.)
14:14:29: avformat not monolithic
14:14:29: Loading avutil from ‘avutil-52.dll’.
14:14:29: Loading avcodec from ‘avcodec-55.dll’.
14:14:29: Loading avformat from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll’.
14:14:29: Actual avutil path C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avutil-52.dll
14:14:29: Actual avcodec path C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avcodec-55.dll
14:14:29: Actual avformat path C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll
14:14:29: Importing symbols…
14:14:29: All symbols loaded successfully. Initializing the library.
14:14:29: Retrieving FFmpeg library version numbers:
14:14:29: AVCodec version 0x373466 - 55.52.102 (built against 0x373466 - 55.52.102)
14:14:29: AVFormat version 0x372164 - 55.33.100 (built against 0x372164 - 55.33.100)
14:14:29: AVUtil version 0x344264 - 52.66.100 (built against 0x344264 - 52.66.100)
14:14:29: FFmpeg libraries loaded successfully.

Hmmm… somehow … and it wasn’t me … Windows was set to 32-bit 48,000 and not 16-bit 48,000 for both recording and playback.

So, MME was great until I recorded and then there was over 300ms latency. That is too much when relying on the playback line for cues. So, I switched back to WASAPI and …


THE CRACKLING IS BACK.

For now, I must record in WASAPI whenever there’s a break in CRACKLING. If I perform through the CRACKLING, the playback seems normal but, if the CRACKLING is bad, the backing music slows down noticeably.

Playback and editing can then occur using MME. Strange but we need to find a way to fix this eventually.

That is too much when relying on the playback line for cues.

You said magic words there. What else do you have running on your machine? This isn’t just you and Audacity is it? I was going to suggest stop recording on your computer, but you can’t, can you? You’re part of a theatrical production.

Describe it.

Koz

If the other side doesn’t need to hear you, you can record your voice on a stand-alone sound recorder. I have a Zoom H1n and an older H4. People on the forum have successfully used H2, H2n and H5 recorders. The older H2 is legendary for producing terrific sound way better than you would think. Used H2s are selling for new prices on eBay.

Combine the sound files in Audacity later. If you get timing or cue differences, those are usually constant and can be fixed simply with the Time Shift Tool and Effect > Change Speed.

That’s my H1n.

That’s my H4.

That’s an H2 in the middle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVec_RPwuc

Koz

Thank you Josh Turner.

That’s an H6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OxP5nrI6u8

Koz

As you have already figured out, this is all normal…

As you have already figured out, this is also all normal. Audacity converts everything to 32-bit float to preserve integrity.

Did you ever post a 10-second WAV sample of your crackling problem ?

The crackling doesn’t affect recording, so, I cannot collect a sample. The crackling only occurs during DAW playback from Audacity or Ableton. Playback doesn’t crackle in any other app (WMP, Groove, etc…).

backing music slows down noticeably.

Backing music? Are you overdubbing? Singing or playing to a backing track?

The setup for overdubbing has you making a plain, ordinary recording, and then a plain ordinary playback of the backing track before you try to combine them. Did that work OK? You can look down the Audiobook forum postings for all the computers that won’t make a simple voice recording.

During overdubbing, the machine has to play the backing or rhythm track to you absolutely perfectly and then record your voice or instrument absolutely perfectly all at the exact same time. It’s one of the most stressy things the machine can do because there are no wait times. There is no “Hang on a minute while I mess with my hard drive.”

Do you have a spinning metal hard drive or a Solid State Drive? Can you hear it ticking in there?

If it’s spinning metal, then it’s a terrific idea to do a health check and defragment so Audacity doesn’t have to go looking for clean, organized, open drive space during the song.

That and turn off the network and shut down anything else during the performance. This is a stunningly bad time for Windows or anything else to go looking for an update without telling you.

Let us know of any of these steps changes the noises. If you do something that makes the noises worse, it’s super important to know that.

Koz

The crackling only occurs during DAW playback

Ding!

Are you using wireless headphones and/or cloud storage? Audacity hates both of those.

Koz

Koz, I’ve tried disabling just about anything I can disable to no avail.

Attached is the “crackling.mp3” recorded from my phone demonstrating the issue. You can hear the crackling but also notice the tempo also slows down.