Ableton Forum

Ive had the Blackjack for about 2 months already.

Recently I purchased a MicroKorg and when im recording audio through the blackjack, I notice a lot of clicks and pops. Same when I plug in a mic.

This is really annoying. Sucks that you pay for something that doesnt even work like its suppose to.



does anyone have a Blackjack and has experienced the same issues?

is there a way to reduced all the clicks and pops? or am i totally f'd?

Hello,
Are you on PC or Mac ?
If you're on pc, do you have the latest drivers from mackie ?
Which buffer size ?
I have one, and it work perfectly on my mac.

Im on a mac.

I have it on 512.


when I use plug ins it works perfectly, but when im recording through the ins its when the problems happen

Also, which OS X are you running?

hello, sorry for the late reply
i'm using it on 3 different mac
two on 10.6.7
and one on 10.5.7

i'll do further testing to see if i get problems, and keep you informed.
So far, so good...i'm loving this soundcard..

Im messing around with the buffer size. The thing is that sometimes it does it a lot, sometimes a little and sometimes not at all.


Ill update you as well.

hello again, just did a few recording tests with differents buffer size (64/128) =no problems at all, clean recording, no pops, no clicks, nothing..

i hope you'll find the culprit and a solution...because it's a very cool soundcard on mac and it sounds really good..

Hello valentin,

I am not currently a user of ableton, I was just browsing the forum and noticed your thread.

I recently got the onyx blackbird with a 2011 macbook pro, it works great so far (only have had it for a few days) and I can set the buffer down to 64 with no issues on audio recording (midi not tested as of yet).

The only thing I can add to this thread is that you maybe running into hard drive write issues (recording on internal drive, drive constrained due to insufficient space for write speed, external drive constrained) or that your Mac is older and cannot keep up with what the blackbird is doing. I had an older macbook ala 2007 that I sold a few months ago so that I could afford the new macbook.

Best wishes~

okay, I did further testing.

(I have MacBook Pro)

I thought maybe it was the other devices I have connected. It hard to find out when the pop and clicks happen because its like they come in whenever they want to.

So I did all the testing on my headphones.

First i turned on my monitors. Still noticed the pop. Turned them off and still a pop.

Then I deciced to record the audio. I got some of the "pops" recorded and noticed this. the Pop part was a little tiny seconds of silence, the wav looked like this for example. ^^^^^^-^^^^

So i went on further testing, disconnecting all Midi devices connected. unpluggin everything from the outlet and still the little pop was still there.


I dont know how I thought of the next one, but I decided to turn off my ceiling fan. I did this while still holding down a note on my MicroKorg. I noticed that pop. So i turned the fan on again and off and on and off and so on. and everything I hit the switch on or off, that pop was there.


So after all the on and off switching. I thought maybe that pop happens only when the fan is on. (( just started turning the fan on, Arizona is a hot place) but still a pop there.


I was really frustrated at this point because, it has never done this before. This just started doing it recently until I realized, it started doing it when I moved the laptop to a different place. So I moved the laptop backs to its original location and.....


success!!!!!!!!!



I still would like to know, why does that little pop happen when the ceiling fan turns on or off. maybe bad wiring?


thanks for all your input guys.

bad news and good news

good news is. its the blackjack that has the problem

bad news is, the pop is back and.....

its actually my MacBook Pro that cuases the pops.

I googled it and its a problem with MacBook Pros.

Im going to update my software and see if that solves the problem if not, I still have warranty on it and I shall send it to hopefully fix this.



ill keep you guys posted.

which macbook pro do you have ?

i did the test on my own 13" 2011 core I5 macbook pro and my wife's old white macbook from 2006 (core 2 duo)
and no problems...
Strange...