PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Help! Tech S.O.S (Off topic) Intermittent Crackle and Noise [Resolved]

Problem Statement:
Intermittent and random problems are the toughest to solve. I'm experiencing intermittent noise, static and crackle when I play any audio. The crackle will last for only a fraction of a second or so and the music will smoothly continue as if nothing happened. The crackle seems to be on top of (external to) the music as opposed to being in the music. The source of the music could be a Studio One track, an MP3 file being played by Windows Media Player or a YouTube video on the web. The crackle may happen only one, two or three times a day but if I happen to be recording my bass or keyboard it will throw me “out of the zone”. The crackle has happened once while I was recording and did not appear in my recording.


Background:
I recently made 3 major changes to my system.
1. I upgraded my i5 machine to an i9
2. BiaB 2023 UltraPak is now installed on an external drive; not on the C: drive
3. I upgraded from Studio One version 5 to version 6


With my older i5 machine I never experienced noise or crackle . . . ever.

Over the past couple weeks I’ve spoken to 2 Dell Tech Support engineers and 1 supervisor (all based in India) and although they are motivated to help me they are not audio engineers and seem baffled. They and I confirmed/installed the latest audio and Tascam drivers, disabled NVIDIA and set the power option to “High Performance” all to no avail.

I also notice a strange symptom that may be related. For no apparent reason, an F: drive Windows explorer window will appear unexpectedly even if BiaB is not running. The only thing on F: is BiaB. If I close this window, it will magically reappear at a later time. It’s as if this window wants to be active all the time despite me shutting it down.

Next Steps:
I’m thinking my next steps are
1. Solicit suggestions from this forum
2. Disconnect the F: drive for a few days to see if this helps
3. Contact Tascam (they have shown lukewarm interest to help on past questions)
4. Contact JBL
5. If required, re-contact Dell Tech Support again


There are smart people in this forum like Mario who solved my “M on the diagonal” bass panning issue so I’m hoping some suggestions will come in for this problem.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Check to see if the Tascam has an update. My Presonus equivalent crackles and pops when it wants updating.

...Deb

As some OSs open a window to a newly-connected external drive, that might point to the physical connection, or possibly a conflict issue with the drive. I'd be tempted perhaps to try it on a different USB port, or do as you say and remove it for a while to see if it changes anything.

Good idea Deb, this was one of the 1st things I verified.
According to their website, I'm up to date.

Thanks for the input Gordon.
I have disconnected the F: drive altogether to see if the problem goes away.

The Dell website has a utility application named the Dell Support Assistant. The application must be downloaded and installed onto your computer. The application scans your computer hardware and installed hardware drivers. The application then offers to install the latest verified version of any hardware drivers that are newer than what is installed on your computer.

Dell has become aggressive with testing and offering new hardware drivers to keep ahead of malware and Trojans. I'm finding motherboard bios and motherboard support chips are updated quite often.

It's possible the issue you're experiencing has an undocumented hardware driver fix.

Hey Jim, we are totally on the same page.
I have SupportAssist installed and I have used it to optimize/update my system.

My latest thinking is that the Tascam Interface may not be connected to the most ideal USB port. I have a USB 3.2 Gen 1, a USB 2.0 with Smart Power On, and a couple USB Type Cs. Hopefully it's that simple.

And as you alluded to, a complete virus scan wouldn't hurt.

Good info so far. My number one idea was already discussed, remove that F:\ drive. Hopefully you're able to hit your PC specs to find out the best USB port speed-wise.

If what you've done so far is not working maybe tweak the buffer size on the interface.

Your describe the problem well. Check you assignment of audio conversion rate: 44.1 kHz versus 48 kHz audio. You have a mismatch. They have to match on your PC application and on the audio device used.

"Windows explorer window will appear unexpectedly even if BiaB is not running. The only thing on F: is BiaB."

This likely related to either the faulty drive, which connects / disconnects (unlikely) or to your Power Management settings for USB which puts drive to sleep and then wakes it up, which sparks an idea about your Tascam.

Are your Power Settings set to Maximum Performance?
There is a setting in advanced Power Menu that deals with USB
It is named: USB SELECTIVE SUSPEND SETTING

If it is "enabled" try "disable" option to give full power to USB port, see if it solves at least one of the issues.

P.S. Try a different USB port.

Thanks Steve (your mamma named you well)

BiaB and the F:drive have been exonerated in this. I disconnected the external drive and the glitches still happen.

Regarding the buffer size, you didn't say which way to tweak. I'm thinking bigger is better. So I tried, 512, 1024 and 2048. Each setting produced the crackle. I'm currently running at 128 . . . and it just glitched. It seems like I'm able to get it to glitch easier now.

Also ran a full virus scan . . . squeaky clean.

Thanks Dan, but I'm not fully following your thought.

My sample rate is at 44.1 kHz as reported by my interface software. You can see this in my reply to Deb.

I see no 48 kHz anywhere.

Why do you say I have a mismatch?

What do you mean by my "PC application" and the "audio device"?

If PC application you mean Studio One, I believe Studio One grabs the sample rate from the interface software. And Studio One shows 44.1 kHz.

If PC application you mean Windows Media Player, I can't see how to display it.

When you describe "...Intermittent and random problems ... experiencing intermittent noise, static and crackle when I play any audio. The crackle will last for only a fraction of a second or so and the music will smoothly continue as if nothing happened." That screams audit conversion rate mismatch.

You tell you have looked everywhere, but have you?



In Win 11 you need to set Studio One to the same sample rate as your Taskam and as your Windows drivers for your Audio Card.

Go to the Win 11 Search and type "Sounds". You will see this. Is you audio card set to 44.1K or 48K?

PC Settings-->System-->Sound-->Advanced-->More Sound Settings

- Highlight your audio device
- Click Properties
- Go to the advanced tab.

This is the Windows settings that MusicStudent means by "PC application".

EDIT: Dang it Dan!!!! You replied at the same time....

I would have been quicker, but for all the typos I had to fix.

Hey Rusty, BiaB and Drive F: have been exonerated because I disconnected the Drive F: USB cable at the PC USB port and the glitches still happen. So we can't blame F:

You have a good idea about trying a different port. I inserted my printer USB cable into the USB port that has been connected to the interface. And inserted the interface cable into the USB port that has been feeding the printer. I sent a page to the printer and it printed fine. Then I fired up Studio One and played a song. The song played perfect with no glitch which is hopeful but says very little. It may take some time for the glitch to appear because it's an intermittent issue. Thanks for suggesting this . . . we'll see if it's a permenant solution.

OK Dan, I get now what you are saying. See below for my settings (44.1 kHz).
And if I hit "Test", I get the chimes thru the monitors.
Sorry for being slow.

Bass Thumper,
Your "power settings" should be set to Maximum Performance in audio recording computer. With the specs you got, if you don't have that set to Maximum, is like driving a Ferrari at 25MPH on highway.

Check in two places, Recording AND Playback.

Is this what you mean by "power settings" ?
If so, the Dell engineer suggested the High Performance setting a few days ago when I showed him the Tascam message shown above in the Setup Diagram.

PS> Your idea of swapping USB ports is still holding steady . . . no glitches so far.