Audio popping/crackling during playback of any track - terribly annoying

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sgdobbelaere
Posts: 2
Joined: 24 Aug 2015

24 Aug 2015

Hey folks,

So I'm a heavy Reason 8 user, and lately I've been having an issue that basically stops all creative motivation to work.
Any time I play back a song - whether it be with 1 track or a bunch - I get an annoying popping and crackling in the audio. Even if everything is turned down and it's not clipping.
I believe this has to do with cpu or soundcard, but I've been using this computer for years and it just recently started.

I have a 2010 17" Macbook pro. 8gs of ram. 2.8 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo.
I've tried reseting the PRAM. I've got 200gs left on my hard drive. I've cleaned out a lot of my junk.

Should I try getting an external soundcard with ASIO? Is that worth it for a Mac?
Any other suggestions?

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normen
Posts: 3431
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

24 Aug 2015

Generally setting the buffer size in the Reason Audio preferences to something like 256 or 512 avoids issues like these. 64 or 128 is quite low and might lead to crackles. Another thing you might want to check is if the audio input and audio output in the OSX Preferences Panel -> Audio is both set to "internal sound card" / "internal microphone". If two different devices are selected there (e.g. AirPlay or something else) syncing issues might occur.

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submonsterz
Posts: 989
Joined: 07 Feb 2015

24 Aug 2015

as above what normen said but only if you have changed something just previously to it starting put it back .
you say you've been using the computer for years and only just recently started ??.
what you don't say is if you have been actually using reason before no problems and it just started and it was fine before with reason !!.
now if it was then its as above if you have changed any buffers etc.
or it could be if you have not, had an update or some other software / driver install or adding a new piece of hardware that's adversely affecting your computer.
if none of that even, then your computer has another problem maybe failing hardware etc...
really you need to actually post a full help me and the full info, not half of it as really all people will do is stab in the dark at an answer, but when you know the chain of events and lead up to when it happened then its more simple to illiminate the problem :).
I can set my asio to as low as 2milliseconds on my pc which is a buffer size of 88 and I can get quite a fair bit in reason going before I run into problems in any way .
I mostly work with lots going on in projects at asio set to ten which is a buffer size of 440 I cant think of running into any problems using that size buffer at all.
I all ways work at 44.1 as its good enough for me too.

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Gaja
Posts: 1001
Joined: 16 Jan 2015
Location: Germany
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25 Aug 2015

Since you're on a mac there is no need to go looking for ASIO stuff. Are you running at 88.2 kHz Or 96kHz samplerate? Cause that is really CPU intensive and might lead to crackles. Also five years is pretty old for a computer, it may just not be powerful enough to handle R8.
Cheers!
Fredhoven

sgdobbelaere
Posts: 2
Joined: 24 Aug 2015

25 Aug 2015

Sample rate is at 44.1. I've tried buffer size anywhere from the lowest point to the highest... How do you set ASIO to 10?

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submonsterz
Posts: 989
Joined: 07 Feb 2015

25 Aug 2015

sgdobbelaere wrote:Sample rate is at 44.1. I've tried buffer size anywhere from the lowest point to the highest... How do you set ASIO to 10?
you click where my mouse is in the pic here (if it is on your screen that is).
remember if you have just started using re`s then you might have hungry re`s that are just draining your dsp heavily.
if so welcome to reason re dsp drain. :puf_unhappy:
asio pannel pic.jpg
asio pannel pic.jpg (325.98 KiB) Viewed 11192 times
lol never picked up my mouse in screen grab doh . you click if yours has it on the control panel you see above my asio settings box

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Gaja
Posts: 1001
Joined: 16 Jan 2015
Location: Germany
Contact:

26 Aug 2015

So did you install an ASIO driver on OSX?
Cheers!
Fredhoven

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normen
Posts: 3431
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

26 Aug 2015

There is no ASIO drivers for OSX and it would be pointless anyway as OSX has something like ASIO built right into the OS.

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submonsterz
Posts: 989
Joined: 07 Feb 2015

26 Aug 2015

normen wrote:There is no ASIO drivers for OSX and it would be pointless anyway as OSX has something like ASIO built right into the OS.
ahh well I stopped using macs after power macs .... so I wouldn't know as I wouldn't touch an apple product ever again.
quick fix ditch mac buy a decent pc :).
none of what I said about asio obviously matters or counts for op as I didn't read he is on mac lol ....

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normen
Posts: 3431
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

26 Aug 2015

submonsterz wrote:ahh well I stopped using macs after power macs .... so I wouldn't know as I wouldn't touch an apple product ever again.
quick fix ditch mac buy a decent pc :).
none of what I said about asio obviously matters or counts for op as I didn't read he is on mac lol ....
Yeah, I got a PC just for gaming and I thought it would be smart to set it up as my external Reason PC as it has a pretty beefy processor. When after three days I finally had all MIDI drivers, audio drivers and internal windows settings working so that it would perform good for Reason I knew again why I turned my back on PCs xD If I had done that as paid work I could have bought two Macs for that price ^^

thotbott
Posts: 97
Joined: 22 Jan 2015

07 Jul 2017

sorry to pull up an old post but this is happening to me now with 9.5 with 0 dsp load and updated drivers :?

OverneathTheSkyBridg
Posts: 377
Joined: 15 Jan 2016

08 Jul 2017

thotbott wrote:
07 Jul 2017
sorry to pull up an old post but this is happening to me now with 9.5 with 0 dsp load and updated drivers :?
I'm getting this as well...., kind of regretting my upgrade in all honesty but moreso because I should've put those resources into a newer computer. I'm using a 2009 27" iMac with a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of RAM. I actually had bought more RAM but removed it as Reason was crashing lots after I put it in. Not sure if I should just downgrade to 9.2 before they put VST support in. My audio interface is a Saffire Pro 40 and I'm set at 44.1khz audio. I've played with the buffers and it helps, but only temporarily.

OverneathTheSkyBridg
Posts: 377
Joined: 15 Jan 2016

11 Jul 2017

Update: I think I figured out the problem here. I turned off both hyperthreading and multicore audio rendering and NO PROBLEMS at all! I see a slightly larger DSP load, but my sound doesn't go to shit so I'm fine with it.

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ejanuska
Posts: 680
Joined: 27 May 2016
Location: USA

12 Jul 2017

OverneathTheSkyBridg wrote:
11 Jul 2017
Update: I think I figured out the problem here. I turned off both hyperthreading and multicore audio rendering and NO PROBLEMS at all! I see a slightly larger DSP load, but my sound doesn't go to shit so I'm fine with it.
That is weird, you hobbled your computer and it runs faster.

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Oquasec
Posts: 2849
Joined: 05 Mar 2017

20 Sep 2017

I notice asio4all gives me a huge improvement over company made asio drivers when it comes to reason 9.5
So I guess I will stick to asio4all.
Producer/Programmer.
Reason, FLS and Cubase NFR user.

djs
Posts: 98
Joined: 29 Jan 2018

09 Feb 2018

I had this issue with Windows 10. Computer specs are higher than average, but the ASIO audio was choppy and popping even at 44100/512 samples. Tried all different ways to resolve the issue, reformatting the hard drive, uninstalling programs, updating drivers, audio video troubleshooting, RAM analysis, you name it.

The issue was the battery settings in the right taskbar. The slider was set closer best battery life and switching it to best performance cleared the problem. Now no popping or audio issues with 44100/64 samples. Hope this helps others.

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miscend
Posts: 1955
Joined: 09 Feb 2015

08 Mar 2018

I was getting this very same problem all of a sudden on PC after I made a few BIOS adjustments. Just for reference if anyone Google’s this issue and finds themselves on this page. The solution is too turn off all power saving features in Windows. Set sleep to “never”.

By the way it’s funny how this isn’t an issue in Mac OS. On Macs turning on power saving has no hit on DSP and as a bonus will reduce your carbon footprint on the earth.

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