I will add to Mario comment... If the test unit is a "smaller" interface, it might be completely different game.
I have a small USB bus powered interface that works on laptop perfectly without external power plugged to it and laptop running on battery.
My larger, recording interface, while also advertised to "work" powered by USB, gives me all kind of glitches under moderate load, unless both, the unit itself and laptop plugged in.
Since buying this Interface, I have been exclusively connected to "Monitor 1 and 2" on the back panel.
Today, for grins, I connected to Outputs 3 & 4 and still get the glitch.
I'm thinking that either 1. Speedstep is the culprit and/or 2. The Tascam can't handle the newer technology of the i9 machine.
Generally speaking most failures be they mechanical, electrical, optical, software, human organizational or even biological happen at the juncture of 2 or more entities coming together and trying to interact. Common arthritis (at a juncture or joint) is an example. In this case it would be the i9/Tascam juncture.
Thinking back to what the Tascam engineer said about the unit running fine on Win 11 (which I know from my i5 experience) what he didn't say is that he has expeience running on a Win 11 i9 machine. Which is why I asked if anybody has success with i9s and audio interfaces.
If I didn't mention this before, absent the periodic crackles and noise, the audio quality is fine.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
For that reason, I still recommend the free DPC Latency Checker. It has a lot of tips! One caution: it has not been updated, so the readings you get in Windows 10 or 11 look way too high. Ignore that. The ‘new’ baseline is 1000. A perfectly tuned win 10 or 11 PC will read around 1050 to 1100, in the yellow. Using that as the new zero, track down the cause of the spikes. DPC runs and you see the spikes occurring. If, say, a spike appears every 35 seconds, or whenever you move your wireless mouse, you can start to track it down.
You most likely have one of three culprits: WiFi nearby, a wireless mouse, or some program that starts up with the computer and runs in the background. That could be all kinds of things, so you first go to startup programs and disable them one by one, reboot, and test. If that doesn’t do it, look for Services running that are not by Microsoft and kill those one by one and test. DPC can run throughout and you see the results within a minute. And kill Cortana too, just because.
Do you have a website for DPC Latency Checker?
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
FYI - Here is a screenshot of the app run on my machine.
Thanks Dan,
I had another over-seas call with Dell last night. I shared with the technician the research that we all have done and the diagrams I have produced. I mentioned Speedstep to him and he was unaware of this setting and what it does. So I shared a web article on the subject with him which he read. He consulted with his colleagues and said OK, let's disable it. I asked him about any system reliability hit I might experience and he said my reliability might be decreased 1 or 2%. [Of course I took that with a grain of salt coming from a guy that 5 minutes earlier had not even heard of Speedstep.] Clearly we are now in a realm that the Dell tech support people have little/no experience. But I achieved my goal of having them disable it rather than me which might have voided my warranty.
In any event, he disabled it and I haven't yet had time to play music and listen for glitches.
He plans to follow up with me again and has agreed to re-install Windows if the problem is not fixed. And if that doesn't work he will swap me a new machine.
We will see . . .
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
For that reason, I still recommend the free DPC Latency Checker. It has a lot of tips! One caution: it has not been updated, so the readings you get in Windows 10 or 11 look way too high. Ignore that. The ‘new’ baseline is 1000. A perfectly tuned win 10 or 11 PC will read around 1050 to 1100, in the yellow. Using that as the new zero, track down the cause of the spikes. DPC runs and you see the spikes occurring. If, say, a spike appears every 35 seconds, or whenever you move your wireless mouse, you can start to track it down.
You most likely have one of three culprits: WiFi nearby, a wireless mouse, or some program that starts up with the computer and runs in the background. That could be all kinds of things, so you first go to startup programs and disable them one by one, reboot, and test. If that doesn’t do it, look for Services running that are not by Microsoft and kill those one by one and test. DPC can run throughout and you see the results within a minute. And kill Cortana too, just because.
Disabling Speedstep did not fix the problem. Two glitches were heard, I captured the 2nd one.
Can anyone suggest a good interface for me to purchase, ideally one that has been validated on an i9 machine?
I don't need anything as capable as my Tascam but I would like at least 2 instrument inputs (for my bass and keyboard) and 2 outputs for monitor left and right. At least one 1/4 inch headphone jack would also be nice.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
BassThumper, do you have a mixer? If so it might be faster and cheaper to (1) enable your i9 computer motherboard's audio interface, (2) run your bass and keyboard audio to the mixer and (3) connect the mixer output to your computer audio in. Use the motherboard audio interface for awhile and discover if it glitches. If it doesn't the issue is not your computer but has something to do with the TASCAM.
I've noticed in all your graphs so far there is a small blip just prior to the big glitch. I don't know what that's telling us but the graph is trying to tell us something.
Tascam is asking computer: -Hey man, give me a six pack of that fine Yuengling. Computer says: -My mama said I can only give out 2 at a time....
Two weeks later....
Sexy red Focusrite shows up. -Hey computer! I am so cool, I have multiple personalities, they even gave me two driver licenses! Give me a six pack of that fine Yuengling!
Computer replies: -Look dear, I can give you 2 bottles per person. That is what my mama told me. So you get 4 bottles instead of 6.
Two weeks later... level 2 Dell rep shows up.
-Hey computer why you don't want to give more than 2 bottles per these fine characters? -My mother.... -STOP please. Your mother passed away 25 years away and you inherited this bar. No more playing games and throw that hand written note down the drain.
----------------------------------------------
What you can try... Get a free screen recording software. Open Task Manager>Details Start playing YouTube or whatever you are playing for testing purposes. Pull task manager to the front so you can see what is happening. Start recording until spike happens. That way you can pinpoint which process is causing that and know if it is Tascam or Dell wasting your time. What other spectators of the thread think of this idea? I know there is a bunch of "Event recorders". But I think what I offered is more user friendly.
Testing audio while running a screen recorder is a good suggestion, Mischa.
I still would very much like to see what happens with two minutes of the DPC Latency Checker and nothing else running.
Did anyone notice that graph of the CPU spike looks like it coincides exactly with Ethernet activity? Perhaps something is trying to call home. Temporarily shut down your Internet and test again.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Matt, One of the things Steve tried is put computer in Airplane mode and glitch was still there. So I think we safely can rule out Bluetooth, Wifi and Ethernet related issues.
OR maybe you are right and some process IS trying to "use" Ethernet, even when it is disabled?
Matt, One of the things Steve tried is put computer in Airplane mode and glitch was still there. So I think we safely can rule out Bluetooth, Wifi and Ethernet related issues.
OR maybe you are right and some process IS trying to "use" Ethernet, even when it is disabled?
Misha, what if he is connected to the Internet via hard wire? Airplane mode is only for wireless connections. Also if the Ethernet card is not disabled there might be some component trying to call home. I have had this in happen to me in the past.
My boss calls me "the computer". Nothing to do with intelligence. I go to sleep if left unattended for 15 minutes.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
Yes, I think you both maybe right. Even if it is not actually connected with hard wire. It is a simple test to disable it temporarily and run test to rule it out.
BassThumper, do you have a mixer? If so it might be faster and cheaper to (1) enable your i9 computer motherboard's audio interface, (2) run your bass and keyboard audio to the mixer and (3) connect the mixer output to your computer audio in. Use the motherboard audio interface for awhile and discover if it glitches. If it doesn't the issue is not your computer but has something to do with the TASCAM.
I've noticed in all your graphs so far there is a small blip just prior to the big glitch. I don't know what that's telling us but the graph is trying to tell us something.
Hmmm, I must say I don't fully understand your idea but I can appreciate that you are an out-of-the-box thinker.
As it happens I do have a small 6 channel mixer that before the pandemic we would get together with friends and jam. Input CH 1 would be my bass and input CH 2 would be a mic for my wife to sing into. The output would be sent to my bass amp. It actually worked pretty good.
Where you lost me is "connect the mixer output to your computer audio in".
And of course if simply buying another interface is a more direct/definitive approach, that may make more sense.
I called GuitarCenter today and asked to talk to the most smartest, geekiest, nerdiest, techno-dude in the shop. So I was connected to Andy who said this screams of a buffer size problem. Of course I told him I ran at 128, 256, 512, 1024 and 2048 samples all of which caused glitches. He had no other suggestions other than to tell me they have a 45 day return policy.
I should be able to hook up a new interface, test/experiment for a week and (if it glitches) get it back to the store with 2 weeks to spare. If it doesn't glitch, I keep the new interface and throw the Tascam in the closet in case a software update comes along in the future.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
BT, Shiny new interface. Sure. Can you make us happy, temporarily disable Ethernet adapter, put computer in airplane mode and try to fish for a glitch one more time?
There might be a piece of software that is "sending statistics" or similar that is causing this. You went pretty far. These are peanuts. (But very well could be the culprit)
FYI - Here is a screenshot of the app run on my machine.
Here are my DPC Latency Checker results. Studio One was open in the background but not playing music.
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677 BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
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