SOLVED: Dropouts with MOTU Audio Express with high CPU load

[StanTweedle]

Hi folks,

I have recently bought a MOTU Audio Express Hybrid which I have connected to my Lenovo X220 (2x2.5 GHz, 8GB Ram) running Live Suite 8.3.4 on Windows 7 Professional 64Bit.
MOTU drivers and firmware are up to date.

I am experiencing audio glitches / dropouts sporadically whenever Live indicates cpu load above 50 percent. As the cpu load increases, the problem gets worse until there is hardly anything but crackling when I reach 80 percent cpu load or so.

Latency is set to maximum already in the MOTU ASIO setup (1024 samples). I am really disappointed since I like the sound and feel of the MOTU. However, only 50 percent cpu load is unacceptable for me.

Any ideas / solutions / experiences with glitch-free audio interfaces when using Live 8 on Win 7?
I am still within my 30 days money-back period, thinking about returning the MOTU.

[miekwave]

Hi folks,

I have recently bought a MOTU Audio Express Hybrid which I have connected to my Lenovo X220 (2x2.5 GHz, 8GB Ram) running Live Suite 8.3.4 on Windows 7 Professional 64Bit.
MOTU drivers and firmware are up to date.

I am experiencing audio glitches / dropouts sporadically whenever Live indicates cpu load above 50 percent. As the cpu load increases, the problem gets worse until there is hardly anything but crackling when I reach 80 percent cpu load or so.

Latency is set to maximum already in the MOTU ASIO setup (1024 samples). I am really disappointed since I like the sound and feel of the MOTU. However, only 50 percent cpu load is unacceptable for me.

Any ideas / solutions / experiences with glitch-free audio interfaces when using Live 8 on Win 7?
I am still within my 30 days money-back period, thinking about returning the MOTU.

Update ALL USB drivers and make sure you have W7-64 SP1 installed.
You should be able to use your MOTU up to 80%cpu without notes cracking.
You might be having driver conflicts between different soundcards.

on ASIO4ALL pannel, disable ALL SOUNDCARD DEVICES except your MOTU.

Try running Ableton only on CH1/2 output only then reset.

On next restart renable ASIO4ALL and enable input 1/2 and output 3/4 reset Ableton and PC.

After your next PC restart your settings should be optimized without soundcard conflicts. Also, accoridng to your system spc, you should be able to stream audio at 512 buffer rate or less than 3ms latency without any issues until you reach 85%.

Also, if you are steaming samples from Hard disk laptop- bad idea, that makes pops and skips inevitable, make sure you are using an external drive for samples and steaming multiple audio tracks, otherwise youre killing your hard drive.

External SSD drives are best for Samplers and external 7200 rpm drives are best for steaming 32 audio tracks at 24bit 44.1khz
[USB 3.0 drives***)

[miekwave]

Oh almost forgot to mention -

Make sure your Laptop Power or Battery is set to 100% HIGH PERFORMANCE MODE when running ableton. Most laptops come with "Optimize CPU for Battery life" or similar enabled. When your Laptop is on "Low Power Mode" your processor is running on lower voltage and at slower peak speed.

Also another VERY VERY VERY important note - especially when you hit above 50% cpu is ventilation - you must provde sufficient air to escape vents when fans are blashing your cpu core - the hotter it gets the more processor faults will occur remember - COOLER CPU = FASTER PERFORMANCE

[glitchrock-buddha]

I doubt it's the motu. Live' meter isn't that accurate. I often see dropouts around the 50% mark, depends on what plug-ins I'm using. Doesn't matter the interface (I use RME or just the built-in audio)

[jtdj]

Buy RME, never skips a beat.

[StanTweedle]

After returning the MOTU and trying out a Focusrite Saffire 14 I ran into the same problems. This made me look further into the problem, suspecting the way my laptop handles the CPU being the root cause of the problem.

THE SOLUTION:

Turning off CPU parking in the registry (setting valuemax to 0 in all instances of the 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 key).

This has completely fixed the issue. I can now run Ableton to about 90% cpu usage with ASIO buffer size set to 512 without a glitch.

[solovox]

After returning the MOTU and trying out a Focusrite Saffire 14 I ran into the same problems. This made me look further into the problem, suspecting the way my laptop handles the CPU being the root cause of the problem.

THE SOLUTION:

Turning off CPU parking in the registry (setting valuemax to 0 in all instances of the 0cc5b647-c1df-4637-891a-dec35c318583 key).

This has completely fixed the issue. I can now run Ableton to about 90% cpu usage with ASIO buffer size set to 512 without a glitch.

From the bottom of my heart...THANK YOU. I've only been testing this solution for about an hour, but I did not have a single 'high-pitch tone plus audio dropout' that I've been suffering with using my MOTU firewire Ultralite and Toshiba Qosmio laptop. I'm really hoping this solves the problem permanently.

Question: without wasting too much of your time, can you explain in layman's terms why this solution of editing CPU parking in the registry works? Am I putting my laptop's cpu at risk?

Sincere thanks.

[fishmonkey]

Question: without wasting too much of your time, can you explain in layman's terms why this solution of editing CPU parking in the registry works? Am I putting my laptop's cpu at risk?

some info and a better way to turn core parking on and off here:

http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php

it's best to avoid hacking the registry if you don't need to.

[solovox]

Question: without wasting too much of your time, can you explain in layman's terms why this solution of editing CPU parking in the registry works? Am I putting my laptop's cpu at risk?

some info and a better way to turn core parking on and off here:

http://bitsum.com/about_cpu_core_parking.php

it's best to avoid hacking the registry if you don't need to.

I'll check this out--if I've already altered the registry should I bother with this application? Thanks in advance.