Crack Monster!

I [fired up the Ren yesterday evening during a session. Nothing but crackles, and strange phase sound.

Forced to use Logic to get the session done.

i had this problem with my new computer. disabling the usb 3.0 driver in the computers bios got rid of most of the problem, but after 20 minutes the audio starts losing sync and crackles come back in. restarting the ren fixes it up. I was also having trouble I think stemming from a logitech keyboard.

I'm hoping that the 1.8 update addresses whatever is causing these problems. many other users have the same thing, some speculate that the driver by ploytech needs to be updated for windows 8.

I bet it is that adapted Ploytech POS driver. Well before the Ren even released I half jokingly said I bet Akai adapts a Ploytech driver in response to at the time our resident Akai unpaid Yes man/troll/village idiot.

After the Ren released I forgot all about it, but another member pulled out the 9 month old quotes from me. I was just thinking, aww man I hope this doesn't cause all these Ren adopters issues.

I don't use a Ren but I've had three different interfaces with adapted Ploytech drivers and every one of the would lose sample rate sync and just crap out in the middle of doing basic things with low USB stack CPU load.

Again I don't use the Ren, and I used to use ASIO4All in place of the Ploytech adapted drivers, which I've heard doesn't really work on the Ren. If other USB devices seem to be contributing to the issues, maybe try to look at your computers USB bus architecture. Figure out which port has the shortest line to the motherboard. I had that minimize issues with Ploytech and other drivers in the past.

in addition to what Metatron said in regards to tweaking system


set priority for Applications and Processes

adjust Processor Scheduling

also when possible plug in to the ports directly on the motherboard as opposed to port extenders - e.x usb ports on the front of your computer case

Only happened to me once; that was because I mistakingly used a wrong power adapter.

He is running Logic, so using a Mac, and I am not sure if you can change USB settings on a Mac, easily, if at all.

If running Mac OS X 10.9, try the Beta driver for the Renaissance on 10.9, from the Akai website.

Try increasing the audio buffer size in MPC Software preferences/audio.

My specs:

Early 2011 MBP
Mac OSX 10.9.4
16 gigs of ram
2.2 ghz i7

MPC Ren 1.6
Beta drivers

Did you try increasing the audio buffer size?

Is the Renaissance connected directly to a USB port on the Mac?

SimonInAustralia wrote:Did you try increasing the audio buffer size?

Is the Renaissance connected directly to a USB port on the Mac?

Yes, and yes.

This is the second time I have had a client in the studio and had to turn the MPC Ren off, and use something else. Weird.

I think I'm done with this thing for a while..... maybe forever.

if you open it as a plugin inside another DAW, how does it act?

Maybe you just need to run a different audio interface with it, until they maybe sort this shit out?

SimonInAustralia wrote:Maybe you just need to run a different audio interface with it, until they maybe sort this **** out?

Tried that during the session, with a Apogee Rosetta 800 (via firewire). No dice, and the Apogee is Core Audio compliant.

FatGyver wrote:if you open it as a plugin inside another DAW, how does it act?

I have not had the crackle problem with the plugin version, but I bought this to use it standalone.

charlieocali wrote:

FatGyver wrote:if you open it as a plugin inside another DAW, how does it act?

I have not had the crackle problem with the plugin version, but I bought this to use it standalone.

Right. I asked because i know a friend who has a Ren and he says it's real bad with USB3 but works fine with USB2. Try with a USB2 hub.