Ableton Crackling Noise on recorded audio.

[Higgs Bason]

Hi

I've been having big problems with Ableton ever since I've had it really, First I had it on a Quad core Pc "I Had crackling whenever I tried recording vocals and it seemed to come and go", Thought my the Pc isn't good enough so I went out and brought a Mac, but the Mac "Still Had Crackling on anything I tried to record into it live".

Anyway so at this point I thought it must be my Audio Interface what was a Focusrite Saffire USB 6, So I upgraded it to a MOTU Ultralite MK3 Hybrid, what isn't a totally cheap one, anyway still crackling. I sent it back and I now have a new what's just come out Scarlett 18i20, what is the last point of call to it really being a problem with the interface, I don't think it is.

I've turned my attention to the microphone and cables, I've tried 3 or 4 and the same thing happens. I've gone through online message boards and found lots of people that have had the same problem but no clear answers to it, just "It's the buffer size or sample rate", I find I can work on a song for about 30 minutes to an hour at a time before the noise starts to kick in then I have to give up.

I've watched all the video's and set my buffer size up, sample rate correctly, I really cant think of anything I'm missing but I'm at the end of my tether with it now, I just want it to run smoothly... If it never had this problem I'd be quite happy with it.

Have you any idea's how I can stop this noise, it's got to be Ableton it's self, I've tried everything. I don't really want to because I've learned the basics of Ableton now but I'm going to have to get a trial of Cubase or Pro tool 11 so see if they run without this problem. I've spent quite a lot of money trying to get rid of it so hopefully you can understand my frustration.

Hopefully you can help

Mac - 2.7 GHz Intel i5, 8Gb of ram

I've had 3 interfaces : 1 Forusrite Saffire 6 USB

2 MOTU Ultralite MK3 Hybrid

3 Scarlett 18i20

[Higgs Bason]

Help!! Anyone know about this or is it all a bit hush, hush!

[decoded_]

I borrowed a friends Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 last week and found I was getting crackling on recordings when listening to them after, using Soundforge on a Win7 PC. I didn't try recording with Ableton Live. Anyway I found the cause and solution. I had Soundforge set to record at 16 bit 44.1. The Focusrite unit operates at 24 bit when using its ASIO drivers. Once I changed Soundforge to record at 24 bit, no more crackles. What bit rate do you have Ableton Live set to for recording?

[lyovino]

If it's any consolation, I have a Apogee Ensemble and from time to time (erratic) I have to restart Live to get rid of it. Some nights I can go without it happening, I just never know.
Before the Ensemble I had a MOTU and had the same issue. Just save your work and restart Live. But yes, this is annoying and shouldn't be. My spec are in my signature..

[Schmidi]

Guys, I was having this crackling with my Scarlett 8i6 on any recordings from external (non VST) sources too. This was such a frustrating problem because this is otherwise a really good budget soundcard.

I started to see a pattern in the tech support advice that I saw online (both from Focusrite and others), which was to plug this device in on it's own USB port. I tried a bunch things that did NOT work: changing USB ports, unplugging all other USB devices etc.

Last night in desperation I plugged it (and only it) into my powered hub http://www.belkin.com/us/F5U234-Belkin/ ... PCHUBS4PPH and got clear, crackle free recordings!

Hope this helps somebody,

Schmidi


PS there seems to also be a pattern in this crackling occurring on "Sandy Bridge" Intel processors....hmmm