Audio pops / clicks when adjusting knobs, esp. for reverb

AaronShaver · Post by **AaronShaver** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:24 pm

I think this is just because I have an old CPU (P4 2.8 GHz), but I notice that certain effects like reverb will cause pops/clicks when I move the knobs for their parameters. These get recorded into the track.

I have the ASIO4ALL driver installed at my latency is pretty low (13 ms for input, 13 ms for output), so I don't think that's it. I've tried sliding the samples to a higher value to no effect.

Am I pretty much stuck with this problem until I get a better CPU? Anyone else have this issue who found a workaround?

Thanks.

doddolfur · Post by **doddolfur** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 1:10 pm

hey this is exactly what I've been having problems with. I don't think it's your CPU since I have the same problem with a brand new Imac bought only few months ago. I posted a thread about this earlier with no responds. Anyone here that can help or has solutions?

here is my previous post about this topic:

Hey guys

I'm trying to do an effect with a kick drum in the ending of one of my songs, but it's not going so well since simple delay keeps making cracks and clicks when I automate him to do something. I have a sample of this so you can hear it. Just thinking if anyone has suggestion of how to get around this maybe differently or if you've had the same problem and what your advice would be.

Thanks

here is the sample

http://www.doddolfur.com/abletonkickdelay.wav

I did draw the automation into ableton so the delay effect would appear only once in a while. Mapping it to a knob is even worse, what's going on here!!

AaronShaver · Post by **AaronShaver** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:45 pm

Thanks, doddolfur.

Looks like an email to support is in order. I would do it, but I'm extremely busy at the moment.

fly* · Post by fly* » Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:38 pm

I have the ASIO4ALL driver installed at my latency is pretty low (13 ms for input, 13 ms for output), so I don't think that's it. I've tried sliding the samples to a higher value to no effect.

try pulling the latency up....it should sort out the problem.

ollyb303 · Post by **ollyb303** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 12:58 pm

clicks and pops, etc are almost always due to the buffer size being too small. Make it bigger (which will incur a slightly higher latency obviously) and I'm betting it will go away.

AaronShaver · Post by **AaronShaver** » Tue Nov 18, 2008 5:35 pm

ollyb303 wrote:clicks and pops, etc are almost always due to the buffer size being too small. Make it bigger (which will incur a slightly higher latency obviously) and I'm betting it will go away.

No, it doesn't. I tried increasing to 2048 samples (the maximum) on ASIO4ALL and it makes no difference.

kleine · Post by **kleine** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:04 am

Hello,

Some parameters aren´t "smoothed" per design - e.g. the manual "time" mode for Simple Delay or Reverb´s "size" parameter.
Still, you can automate these parameters but they can introduce crackling when doing so.

Best,
Christian

AaronShaver · Post by **AaronShaver** » Wed Nov 19, 2008 6:10 pm

kleine wrote:Some parameters aren´t "smoothed" per design - e.g. the manual "time" mode for Simple Delay or Reverb´s "size" parameter.
Still, you can automate these parameters but they can introduce crackling when doing so.

Thanks. So this sounds like a known and acceptable limitation of Ableton.

kirkunit · Post by **kirkunit** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 2:10 pm

I also had a crackling problem when turning the knobs, but I can't remember if they were recorded on the track...
Anyway, I solved it by turning the AGP bus speed in the BIOS from 8x to 4x... go figure.