Audio crackling/pop

[graeme75]

Help- being driven slowly mad
Over the last 2 days I’ve had an issue with audio pops /crackles in Reason on my main PC (desktop)
It doesn’t happen immediately and is not constant but every 6-7 secs or so - enough to be a put off.
However any other audio (iTunes, You tube etc) no crackles at all

What I’ve tried so far
Tested Reason files on different laptop - no crackles
Changed buffer settings of audio card (Scarlett solo 3rd gen) - still crackles)
Latest driver - (still crackles)
Windows update (still crackles)
It’s as if the pc is struggling to run Reason (never has before) and the file only had 1 Dr Octorex and 1 Subtractor and no DSP meter

Totally stumped. Appreciate any advice

Cheers
Graeme

[jam-s]

Have you checked if the crackles are also there after doing a full fresh reboot? It might be some driver issue in combination with hibernation.

[A.sch3]

Sounds like a parasite program or service doing stuff in the background and messing up the Audio buffer for some reason.

Try this procedure (with option 2 : disable All services except the windows ones) : https://www.microcenter.com/tech_center ... windows-10
After reboot, you'll have no programs as service except the windows stocks ones, so you may have some software for your PC not showing up, but this is normal.
(To reverse this operation, simply do the same procedure but "select all" this time.)

Open Reason and try again to play your project.

If no changes, then i don't know, you could try perform a "in-place" upgrade : https://www.thewindowsclub.com/perform- ... ce-upgrade
This procedure will keep all your files and programs untouched but will re-install every windows files so if you had any corruption or stuff like that, it will be fixed.

If it works, that mean you have a service messing up the audio. How to find which one ? Well, we'll talk about that later.

[JC1]

Alright so this might be stupid cos I'm just as clueless more so than anyone, but have you checked the cabling from laptop to speaker / system.

I only say it cos my cable isn't the best and sometimes it either cuts the left speaker off or goes lower volume or crackles too so I need to fiddle around with it a bit to get it to sit properly in the cord inputs to fix it.
Other than that, if it seems it's struggling to run reason there's a program or a service that's happening in that background that's overloading the CPU or memory or something.

That's all I got lol. Hope you get to the bottom of it though!

[fullforce]

I miss the snap.

[Loque]

Check Performance setting in the OS and set to high performance. Otherwise the CPU may slow down to save energy.

[Heigen5]

I had crackles stopped when I took all the system saving settings to off. Your case might be different. Good luck!

[Aquila]

Are you using the Scarlett ASIO driver or just the standard WDM driver? The latter is notorious for being inefficient for DAW work.

If you're using the ASIO driver, try an alternative like ASIO4ALL and see if that changes anything

[graeme75]

UPDATE -

So after a frustrating weekend I'm not really much further forward.
This is what ive done so far in addition to making sure have latest drivers, diff cables, diff USB ports, diff projects etc.
All audio works fine (iTunes, YouTube) except when using Reason 12. Its not always immediate but like Pringles once it pops it never really stops (click, splutters etc)

1) Booted with no start up apps other than essentials - no change
2) Put my laptop in place of my desktop connected to soundcard/speakers - better but still crackled (laptop is not the most high spec)
3) Tried using my Spider V amp as audio interface and crackled through there
4)Tried just using headphone output on Scarlett and still crackled (monitors turned off)

What has worked best so far is when I tried a macbook (not making this mac v PC), didnt seem to be any splutters at all

So i feel im going in circles but :
seems not to be issue with actual soundcard as fine on mac
seems not to be monitors as crackles through headphones
seems not to be projects as work fine on diff machines (and glitches are in different places)

So its looking like may need fresh install of Reason and/or Windows 11 (which I'm trying to avoid)

Anyone got any other ideas?

Cheers for all the help so far

[Popey]

I would go through the steps here as it could make a difference. I had a similar issue years ago.

https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/ ... Windows-10

[tarsiidea]

One possibility is that one of your ram sticks is faulty. I had a similar issue happen with windows and it turned out to be that. Try remove all but one ram stick at a time and see if the crackles disappear.

[graeme75]

UPDATE 2

As I had the time, I decided to go for the nuclear option and reset my PC and reinstall stuff.
So I reinstalled Windows 11, and all updates
Did all tweaks for audio in Win 11 (performance plans etc)
Resintalled Scarlett Solo drivers
Resinstalled Reason 12 (and initally no REs)
and.... no difference.

Again audio crackling but in random places and can then reload and plays back fine, tried jusy javing a dr octorex and subtractor - really light no DSP. No other audio I have tried pops/clicks
iTunes - fine
Ableton 11 - fine
Cubase SE - fine
YouTub/Web - fine
Even Reason Rack plug in via Ableton Live is fine

This has me demented so any help greatly appreciated

Cheers Graeme

[Popey]

UPDATE 2

As I had the time, I decided to go for the nuclear option and reset my PC and reinstall stuff.
So I reinstalled Windows 11, and all updates
Did all tweaks for audio in Win 11 (performance plans etc)
Resintalled Scarlett Solo drivers
Resinstalled Reason 12 (and initally no REs)
and.... no difference.

Again audio crackling but in random places and can then reload and plays back fine, tried jusy javing a dr octorex and subtractor - really light no DSP. No other audio I have tried pops/clicks
iTunes - fine
Ableton 11 - fine
Cubase SE - fine
YouTub/Web - fine
Even Reason Rack plug in via Ableton Live is fine

This has me demented so any help greatly appreciated

Cheers Graeme

Is your audio buffer size different when running reason than it is when running live? Based on live being fine when running the RRP that is perhaps something to check as it may be set smaller in reason.

[graeme75]

I’ve even set the buffer to max in R12 but still no difference

[Popey]

I’ve even set the buffer to max in R12 but still no difference

No worries it was the last thing I could think of. Hope you get it sorted in the end.

[graeme75]

Hi all

This is to summarise everything ive done prior to an earlier post. Can anyone please shed light on this?
All of a sudden I was getting random glitches, pops crackles on my desktop PC in R12, even when running something really light say 2 devices (Dr OctoRex and Subtractor) The glitches were never in the same place.

Checked all the ususal (buffer size, USB ports, cables, checked memory, power plans)

Hooked my Laptop (PC) up to my sound card and monitors, ran R12 fine no glitches or pops
Hooked Macbook Pro up to my sound card and monitors, ran R12 fine no glitches or pops
Ran Live 11 with RRP and fine no glitches or pops

Decided to reset my dektop PC and start afresh (reinstalled Win 11, sound card, drivers, R12). Changed power plan and USB settings for working with audio
Ran R12 with a couple of devices and still the same glitches, stutters, pops etc.
Again tried with laptop, Mac and RRP and they ALL were fine

Something is causing a conflict in stand alone R12 on the desktop machine and Im not sure how to go about or where to start that process. Can anyone help please?

Cheers
Graeme

[Noise]

Hey, long shot, but you could try to run the latencymon and start the monitoring tool.
https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

[rcbuse]

Have you adjusted your sample rate and increased your buffer sizes in Reason Preferences ?

[graeme75]

Will try latencymon

I’ve reduced sample rate from 48k to 44k and increased the buffer (even 1024) and no difference

[Loque]

Merged the threads, because it is still the same problem.

Please do not create new threads if it is the same problem.

[walgrafix]

i had this problem in my studio one year all the time! i re-installed windows 10 on all my devices and the problem completely disappeared... i think the real disaster is windows 11 and if you look around the web you'll find that audio problems are a plague on win11. I had to downgrade NEVER HAVE A PROBLEM

[tomusurp]

yeah maybe try reverting to windows 10

[nebraskafire]

I have kind of the same issue. Most of the time I start Reason I have a latency problem. I have to got to the settings open my sound card (Tascam i208) menu and I have to move the buffersize from 128 to 128 (its a slider so I move it to 64 and back to 128) then the latency is solved. After a while I get pops and crackles and I have to do the same thing and the pops and crackles are gone. I wrote the support about it but they couldnt help.

I dont know why it happens because I also work in Cubase and Reaper and I never had an issue like that in those programs. It just happens in Reason. So I guess its not the sound card. One thing I noticed what makes it a bit better is to have the power setting on high or ultra (but its hidden in Windows 11) and keep your graphic card driver up to date.

[Turatillad1964]

Check your computer's CPU performance while running Reason. Open the Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc on Windows) and monitor the CPU usage. If the CPU is consistently maxed out or spiking during playback, it could be causing the crackling. Close any unnecessary background processes or applications to free up system resources.
house of hazards

[SynthGang]

I tried to track a couple vocalists today and had to switch to Pro Tools because even just playing back audio I was getting all kinds of crackling and popping. My computer wasn't even breaking a sweat in terms of performance (I'm running an AMD Ryzen 9 5900x with 64gb of RAM DDR4 running @ 3600mt/s).

This has been the case with Reason for the last couple of months now - I barely use it anymore and it makes me sad to be honest. Even more so it makes me frustrated and it makes me regret upgrading to 12 at all. Version 11 was faster in every way (especially the browser). If I dare look at another program Reason will reward me with crackles and pops (lol).

Meanwhile Pro Tools (of all programs - I'm on version 2023.9.0) has zero issues. I have DaVinci Resolve open with 2 hours of 4K footage shot in SLog3 and can literally edit with Pro Tools recording in the background - am I missing something?

Are any of you guys out there only using it as a plug-in?