Fixed - New Push 2 = crackle!

[malenko]

Hi,
Just got push 2 today and I am getting serious crackle! and I can't get rid of it.
My cpu is barely getting above 10% and its crackling badly.
I use Focusrite Saffire external card and have tried all of the latency settings and no joy. Even tried the generic ASIO driver which is worse!
I've also had delay compensation and reduced latency when monitoring switched on but nothing seems to get rid of it.
Never had this problem before, and when you turn Push off it disappears.

Anyone got any ideas as it is unusable as is.

Many thanks in advance.

[Stefan Jantschek]

Hi Malenco

We had the same problem here and we found an inexplicable solution.
Maybe you can try if that can help you too?

Try to install an external midi port.
It could be a virtual one as well:

http://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html

Activate that one in live´s preferences.

I am really curious if that might work for you also...
Could you please tell us your experience?

At the moment nobody can explain why that worked here...
And it could help investigate...

[malenko]

Thanks Stefan for the idea but that is way above my knowledge of what to do and how to use. Besides I should not have to be doing such a thing to make this product work correctly.

After a long time last night and this morning of trying different things I think I have possibly come to the conclusion that it is a faulty unit.
I have updated everything, disconnected my other two controllers, tried without mains connection, swapping usb ports, and a few other things which I cannot remember and nothing has worked.
My conclusion is that its Push's display that is causing the crackles. If a waveform is showing, that is when it's at it's worst. By selecting a static display it stops. But when an encoder is turned and you see it turning in the display this also produces the crackles.

I think it's time to contact support, anyone else had this problem?

Cheers

[Stefan Jantschek]

Hi Malenco,

We had exactly the same experience, somehow it felt like a MIDI/controller signal is affecting the audio stream.
This is why i reply to your post.
I had a long mail exchange with support team and they did the best they can without solving the problem.
None of us could really retrace what´s going on, and my workaround was more kind of an accident beyond comprehension.

I can truly understand if you don´t want to try my suggested workaround - yeah, it´s still a workaround -
although it is less complicated as it might look like,
and you want to exchange the unit.

But if you decide to try my solution, i am here to assist...

If you change your Push 2, could you please tell me if that solved the problem for you?

Thanks!

*S.

[malenko]

Hey Stefan and thanks again.

I've just tried your workaround, even though I have no clue what I am doing but it still hasn't worked.
Do you have to select in Live, the loopMIDI Port, track sync remote, all to ON in both input and output? And how is it set in advanced in loopMIDI?

Cheers

[malenko]

BTW I am convinced it is due to the display. If a loop is started with the waveform showing and scrolling = definite crackle. If the loop is started with display in browser mode for example = NO crackle at all, until the display is changed, even when scrolling through the browser.

[Stefan Jantschek]

Here i just had to select loop-midi input "ON" for tracks, remote and sync stay "OFF".
Same for Push 2 (2) Input.
No need to change anything in the prefs of LoopMidi.

Thanks for let me know that it didn´t work in your case.
I hope it was not too much effort to try.
LoopMidi can be easily uninstalled without any residues

I know that usually this is asked first, but
can you tell me something about your system specs?
Notebook/Mainboard/OS etc?

Thanks,
*S.

[malenko]

No worries, I gave it a go as I'm desperate to get this awesome unit working correctly.

Yeah my specs are -

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (although I run in 32)
Intel i7 3.4Ghz
6 GB RAM
Focusrite Saffire PRO 24
Icon Qcon PRo controller
Novation Remote ZeroSL controller.

[Stefan Jantschek]

No worries, I gave it a go as I'm desperate to get this awesome unit working correctly.

Exactly!

Even though i had to go thru hard times with my new Push,
and even though i desperately miss some PXT-Functions i was used to,
Push 2 deserves to be loved!

I wish you all the best for your relationship with it!

Greets,
Stefan

[malenko]

After contact with the Abe's and their helpful suggestions it is finally fixed.

It was suggested to update graphics drivers as the push uses a lot of resources for its display which I did not realise. My driver was up to date and my computer is pretty powerful so thought it couldn't be that.
Then went through usual process of completely removing other controllers etc but still no joy.
The next step suggested was to completely reset Live which I really did not want to do but while I was investigating I had a loop playing in background to keep check on the crackle, I noticed it had almost gone after closing a second window on my second screen. That made me realise it was probably a graphics problem and to run push I would have to only use one screen which was OK as push is so great in not having to look at the screen. But then with just a simple loop and nothing else, I added a very slick looking plugin and the crackle came back so it was a definate graphics problem.
So after looking into new graphics card s and being on the verge of buying one, I just thought I'd check the amd Radeon website to make sure there wasn't a driver update. There wasn't, and amd have said that my card was no longer going to be updated cause of its age! (It's only 5 year) but, they did have a final beta for everyone to try, so I gave it a go and hey presto, crackle completly eliminated!

Soo glad it's gone as really loving push and really glad it was just something simple!
So if your suffering the same, check your graphics.

Thanks ableton and thanks Stefan for giving me something to try. Perhaps that may be your problem too

[Gregthal]

Hi Malenko.
I bought recently a new focusrite 6i6. I have now a pb of kind of 'micro cuts' or 'dis synchro' every 15 or 20 seconds when my push 2 is on. It could be very usefull for me that you explain what kind of crackle you encountered.
Thank you very much