New Serious Problem After Mac 10.13.2

[GrahamTheEmpire]

Hey All! First post here I'm really hoping you can help us.

We use Ableton as the brains for our live show. Have been playing shows for 6 months with no issues. After what might be a recent MacOS update, we're having a serious problem with Ableton. After approximately 4-5 minutes, the audio starts distorting. It comes on gradually and then gets worse until it's so garbled you can't hear it anymore.

If I change the sample rate, it resets. If I change the buffer size, it resets. Regardless of what I change to make it go away, it always gradually comes back on after 4-5 minutes. All CoreAudio playback from the Mac (iTunes, Chrome, etc.) all distorts too. If I close Ableton, all of the audio works just fine, so it's clearly Ableton.

CPU usage never exceeds 9%. We use flattened audio tracks and simple MIDI CC / Pgm sends out to an interface. Nothing complicated.

Audio interface is a Presonus Studio 192 (USB 3) on the latest drivers. Any thoughts on what might be going on? Reinstsalled Live 9 and didn't fit it.

I'm going to try to download Live 10 Beta to see if the issue is still there. Thanks!

[Pitch Black]

Sorry not a solution, but do you get the same issues if you use the mac’s audio hardware (headphone jack) instead of the PreSonus?

If you suspect it happened after the OS update, are there any system settings that could have moved to new defaults? Thinking Energy Saver / Notifications etc etc.

[fishmonkey]

is Ableton Live always the foreground application?

[GrahamTheEmpire]

is Ableton Live always the foreground application?

Yes it is. Close all background apps as well.

Update:

It seems as if the last Presonus driver / firmware update may be the change for when these issues began. Updated to their latest release as of 12/19 and we've had issues since.

Have found that if we set the sample rate to 48k and 2048 buffer, the issue goes away. Obviously, this is unacceptable latency to play with live. Wonder if there is some kind of leak that's leading to oversizing the buffer? As soon as the buffer is cleared, the issue goes away.

[kites]

Hey, was thinking about upgrading to the Studio 192. Did Presonu’s drivers over the months help improve your situation? Looks like they’ve updated practice every month up untill this month of May.

Would be interested if USB 3.0 works well with your system compared to 2.0.