GR4+Session I/O+OSX 10.6 cracking problem

Hi,

I'm using GR4 PRO and the session i/o interface on a MacBook Pro 2.8 GHZ with 4G of RAM. I'm having a strange problem whereby if I connect the session i/o after the system has already booted, I get really bad crackling/dropouts in the output.

This is how I have things set up:

Guitar -> Session IO
Session IO -> USB to Macbook
Session IO output -> Studio monitor

I know it's not a hardware problem because if I reboot the macbook and leave the session i/o plugged in it works beautifully, so I'm thinking it's a software issue of some type. Another thing to note is that if I make a recording of the guitar and then play it over my macbook speakers instead of through session io to the studio monitor, the recording has crackling/drop outs too.

 

Anyone? Any ideas?

 

Welcome =)

Wireless/network adapters disabled? If not, do so.

ew

 

So I disabled both airport and ethernet and still get the same issue.. Possible bad session i/o hardware?

 

I've been experiencing a similar issue, but don't know how to fix it. I'm running guitar rig through the rig kontrol, though, and on a 2.5ghz macbook pro with osx 10.6. I'm inclined to believe that it's not an issue with the hardware.

 

yeah same problem here. I find that if i have my laptop on over night and run lots of other apps, mostly email or ichat or safari, that the next day when i load up guitar rig i get the crackling. It never happened with GR3. Basically i have to do a fresh reboot of the laptop to make it go away. There appears to be a lot of apps that when running GR4 doesnt like. Would love to know if anyone has come across a fix other than a reboot and not running any other apps.

 

Hi Guys,

I'm having the same problems, but I think I've got something figured out, at least
for my problem.

I was doing my first recordings in Cubase LE (which came with GR Session) and I
started having these crackling noises. I came here, read through the forums, and
went back and disabled everything I could think of.

Rebooted, started Cubase LE again, and played a little, only this time there was no
noise. So I moved on to start my recording session again, but the crackling came
back again.

What I'm noticing, is the crackling doesn't start until I open Kore Player as a plugin,
or I recored a track of guitar, then go back and recored another track. As soon as
I open up another instance of GR, the crackling starts again. If I disable GR on my
first recorded track, it goes away.

It appears that I cannot run more than one plugin in Cubase without getting this
crackling noise, and once it starts, it kind of lingers on.

So, it's got nothing to do with network adapters, or anything like that (I don't think,
I've got them all disabled) and everything to do with ?

I can't believe it's my computer not being powerful enough, it is a bit old, but not
that old. Here are my specs:

Windows XP Media Center (SP2)
Athlon 64 X2 (T) 3800+ 2.0 GHz (2000 MT/s (mega transfers/second) Socket 939)
GeForce 6150 LE
Asus Motherboard: A8N-LA
Memory: 1 GB (2 x 512)
250 GB SATA Hard drive 7200 RPM
Realtek ALC 883 chipset (not using it, I'm running through the Session I/O)
10/100 Base-T networking interface

I'm starting to wonder if it is in fact an AMD issue here. It seems so far everyone
who's having this issue all have AMDs in their systems, is that not correct? If so,
who do we need to go to for a fix for this, AMD or NI?

If it comes to replacing the CPU, that means a whole new motherboard as well,
because the 939 sockets are only for AMD chips!

Peace,
Patrick

--- UPDATE!

Hi Again Folks,

Well, unfortunately I believe I'm having an CPU issue. The reason I believe this, is
because I loaded up Ableton Live and in the "Preferences" menu, they have a place
where you can simulate CPU load to test the system, and as soon as I get anything
over 41% load, I start getting this pulsing crackle happening over and over.
Anything under that, and it stays clean.

So, at this point, I believe it's got something to do with the AMD chips, at least my
AMD chip. It would seem to me that something like this wouldn't start happening
until I got around the 70-80% range, but maybe I'm expecting to much. I thought
for sure my 2.0 GHz dual core CPU would be enough to handle a little recording,
but I guess not.

So I guess I've got to save up another $400 or so and get an Intel processor and
motherboard combo somewhere.

Anyone have any ideas on what Intel processors will work best for GR, Cubase LE,
and Kore Player?

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Patrick

 

UPDATE AGAIN!

OK, I found something else that is pretty strange today...

I loaded up Abelton Live, and loaded EzDrummer to start playing around with some
drum tracks, and I started to get those popping and crackling noises again! I had
nothing else loaded, just EzDrummer, and after running through a couple of the
supplied grooves, I started getting the noises.

Now, what strikes me strange about all this, is that before I purchased GR 4 Session
and installed it, I was using Abelton Live and EzDrummer, running through my crappy
RealTek HD sound card, and having no problems at all.

So, I'm not so convinced it's an AMD issue any more!

Something between installing GR 4 Session and now has screwed up things on my PC.
I have not done anything else, just install GR 4 Session, Kore Player, Cubase LE, and
the Kore Pop Drums sounds that came with GR 4 Session.

I'll post back if I can hunt down this issue.

Patrick

 

Similar problem with GR4

I am experiencing a similar problem with GR4 (just upgraded) . . . crackling and drop offs. I have the GR session I/O connected to HP Notebook. AMD Turion(tm) x2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-70 2.00 GHz with 4 GB ram. This problem was minor with GR3. So I question if it is the processor.

I have attempted all the tweaks including removing the battery and running the DPC Latency Check while disabling numerous devices with little or no improvement. I have increased the latency to high and this helps a little.
\
I do notice an improvement when I use headphones (rather cheap ones at that). So if I want to blast my ears all day I guess that is one work around to improve the sound somewhat.

Gary

 

OK, so it turns out to be a latency issue after all, so I guess my processor is not
really big enough to handle what I'm wanting to do.

When using GR 4 Session in a stand alone setup, everything seems pretty good.
Overall latency is right at 9ms. Unfortunately, I have found out that I cannot run
the ASIO driver this hard when using it as a plugin and multiple instances. I actually
have to use GR in low setting instead of high, and set the ASIO latency tool to a
higher (lower?) setting to get it to work, and be able to use 2 instances at once.
If I try another for say, lead guitar tracks, then I start getting the crackling noise.
The more I add, even different plugins like EzDrummer or anything else, it just
gets worse.

So, I guess I'm back to the CPU/Motherboard upgrade.

I haven't figured out how to do it yet, but one work around should be to record the
guitar tracks or whatever else with the effects you want on them right to the track
so you only have one instance opened at any one time. There's got to be a way to
do this.

Patrick

 

Another chime in - I am having pops, distortion, and dropouts as well w/ my Sesson I/O in Windows - Have heard it in both Vista SP1 and 2, w/ both DirectSound and ASIO drivers - not just when running Cubase and/or Guitar Rig, but also Itunes and Winamp.

Could possibly be the DirectSound and/or ASIO settings, but i'm not convinced. Made some latency changes to see what I can find.

Also, running Quad Intel (Q9550), not AMD, 4G of ram. Speakers are M-Audio's BX5A's, and are new, so I don't believe them to be an issue. Video card is Radeon 6400HD w/ updated drivers.

I did have my wireless card running the last time this occurred, so i'll have to disable that for a while as well and see if the issue occurs again.

Also going to check Processor usage at time i hear the distortion to see if there's a correlation.

Any other Windows users w/ same problem?

 

same cracking!

I am using windows Vista SP2 on my laptop (2.5GB DDR2 Ram 1.73GHz Dual core) and I am having the same problem! Its rather irritating, I am using Adobe Audition and using GR4 as a plugin I've messed with the latency a lot, but that only helps a little. even when I use GR4 as standalone I still come across the issue once and a while.

I know it can't be cpu, I have done much more cpu intensive things than running Adobe and GR. And I also know it is not a CPU issue because i have no problems with my XP desktop that only has 1 GB DDR ram and a pentium 4 2.8GHz processor! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!

 

Hi,

I have a very similar problem, I just acquired a MacBook Pro 2,66 GHz 4 GB ram , Mac OS X 10.6.2.
GR 4 Pro, Rig Kontrol 2.
After using the Mac for a while (which involves connecting and disconnecting it to our company's ethernet) I get a permanent crackling with Rig Kontrol (either with Guitar Rig or with ableton live without any guitar rig started). When I reboot the machine the problem is gone away. Logging off and on or disconnecting/reconnecting the rig kontrol is not enough, I really have to reboot the machine, which is a bit annoying, especially when you have other work open.
I have 99 % cpu idle and killing all other applications does not seem to help.
I have yet to detemine what action exactly causes the problem, but
all this leads to the strong suspicion that it's the kernel driver for the Rig Kontrol which somehow gets into trouble. Killing/Restarting NIHardwareAgent does not help, either. Do you have any suggestions how I could debug this, any more information needed? I'd really like to get rid of this problem.

Greetings,
Michael