Bug reports & end-user support for Akai's MPC Software 'controllers' including the new MPC Studio 2, the MPC Touch, MPC Renaissance & original MPC Studio and MPC StudioB lack.
By dazastah Sun Jun 15, 2014 6:25 am
Yeah reafirr is pretty much what i use.. Dont use any other things for eq.. i use a lot of the js effects.. i love the 1136 compressor..

You could possibly use the mpc ren as a midi controller for reaper. Midi assign tab to transient to one of the function keys.... I've got those assigned to the keyboard board.. keyboard get's used 90 percent and mouse 10 percent in reaper... REpear has smooth seek( i use it with region playlist and treat regions as seq like on mpc.. creating and duplicating regions are so easy.)

The batch rendering is also crazy, stemming is amazing. The naming wildcards... Man We could go on and on....
By evilthree Sat Aug 09, 2014 4:49 am
I can confirm turning off USB3 controller in the bios fixed the crackle issues for me as well. This is on a dell precision m4800.

I was getting crackles after a few minutes of using Ren. I could stop it by turning ren off and back on or changing the audio interface values then back (like 44 to 96) but it would eventually come back. Or I could use my other audio interface with no problem. Really glad I found this post about disabling USB3 controller.



Triple-X wrote:Yep.. two different issues are being discussed here.

The issues that Kipperi and Bearhead posted are typically related to buffer underun, or in the case of the MPC ASIO, and in my personal experience.. are actually issues with the ploytec USB driver. In most cases I have seen, and in my own battles, this came down to incompatibility with USB3 controllers of some kind. I've personally had the Ren on 3 different PCs. Two with USB3, one without.. Only the one without usb3 worked without issue. My newest PC.. a brand new i7 4770K 16gb ram, SSD, 4TB raid0, watercooled monster, even had this issue. UNTIL I disabled the intel usb3 controller via the chipset options in the BIOS. Then.. no problems. BTW.. as far as the comment of "maschine has no pops n clicks" .. I challenge you to use the MPC ASIO driver and Rens interface(especially with USB3) and see how you fare.

On the other hand, some of you are describing the zero crossing issue. And despite a few of you saying its not that.. and that you actually turn off "snap to zero" and manually 1x in on the zero crossing of a sample.. we still need audio samples that you claim you have DONE THAT ON.. for other users to test.

This is NO different than fades in a full fledged DAW. Even the slightest fade at the start and end of a sample or audio region cant prevent these little pops you are referring to.
By dazastah Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:37 am
evilthree wrote:I can confirm turning off USB3 controller in the bios fixed the crackle issues


Wish i could do this... Some laptop's dont have the option... some do... I dont... Not really a issue but it means i have to use another soundcard instead.. Which defeats the purpose of the ren for me live anyway... (The ren was good because it was just one device... Otherwise i could just use the studio with another soundcard)

It's the asio driver for the ren that needs updating... My other soundcards dont do this... I own steinberg ur44 ur 28m and rme fireface uc... They all work very well on the pc and mac...
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By fdodds Sun Aug 17, 2014 8:12 am
I built a new pc and was getting crackles, thanks to this thread I tried turning the USB 3 off in the bios and it's working well now. Thanks guys, good lookin out.
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By LarryB Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:31 am
anyone use their ren or studio with a mac still having this issue?

it happens when i record through vinyl randomly, it will come and go..

and then most of the time the crackling/popping is present when i chop the sample at the beginning or end of each chop...

i have to adjust the attack/decay to get rid of it most of the time still..

and its not just IN the mpc program, if i leave the pops in the song, and export the song, they will be in it..

havent seen anywhere online to turn off this usb3 for mac, bc apparently its working for windows/ren users ..(/im not even sure if were dealing with the exact same problem but i believe we are)

blah

:(
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By LarryB Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:37 am
its so weird too, because

say im recording in vinyl, and im NOT hearing the crackling, if i adjust the sample rate i will hear the crackling occur but stop and sound normal about a couple seconds after.. so adjusting the sample rate made the crackling occur but then it basically corrected itself and the crackling stopped.. (then it will randomly come back at any given moment lol.. basically which is the problem)

sooooo, yeah :?
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By SimonInAustralia Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:39 am
I have read that there is a way to hack the Mac OS to force it to run it's USB communication using the USB2 protocols.

But those mentions seem to be from a couple of years ago, when these issues seem to have started happening with lots of different USB2 audio interfaces, after USB3 ports started to be implemented, and not sure if it applies to all audio hardware, or not.

Something to do with modified kext files, or alternative kext files, but not really sure.
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By LarryB Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:50 am
ps
the settings i found the popping/cracks occured for me on my mac the least

sample rate : 44100hz
audio buffer size : 384 samples (8.7 ms)
latency adjust : 784


from the beginning, i knew it was a software/cpu issue, if you had the exact problem ive been having youd also know right away i feel like, so, my thoughts are that most of these people experiencing this are using a mac with low ram, and "improper" sample rates/buffer sizes.. idno

i know the sample rate and buffer size is low.. but i feel like my 3gb 2009 mac just cant handle anymore maybe?

listen ive got an ear for music, but im a stoner, and im not so technically savvy hahah so if i sound retarded right now, ....fug you!

holla
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By LarryB Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:51 am
and simon i was doing some researching and i found something along those lines as well.. i dont trust myself to venture into those waters though but well see lol
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By LarryB Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:00 am
and hey, when im sampling vinyl, and the crackling/popping etc occurs, this is what it sounds like...again this will fade in and out.


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By fdodds Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:45 am
Hey LarryB. Sucks that you're experiencing this issue. One thing that jumps out to me is that your audio buffer size seems to be a strange number. Maybe try setting it to 512 samples or 256 samples.

I've gone on and on about audio buffers but just to make clear, a higher buffer is better for a slow computer (but it also means lag between hitting the pad and hearing the sound). If your computer is going slowly and crackling the first thing to do is to try a higher buffer size.

btw the crackling you're experiencing sounds to me like audio tearing, which is usually a case of not a fast enough computer for the buffer you've set. the crackling and phasing sounds that I was getting from the usb 3.0/windows 8 issue was a little bit different to that (i think the issue for win 8/usb 3 users is something to do with the sample rate sync on the ploytech ren driver, because while i was running the ren's audio into reaper, reapers audio would stay synced and clear while the ren's input would go more and more out of sync with greater lag and crackling as time went on)

A DAW's buffer size controls the size of the hardware cache used to handle host based tasks.


What this means in practical terms:

1.Lower buffer sizes reduce monitor latency when recording and monitoring live input. (less lag for recording but you need a faster computer)
2. Higher buffer settings allow for more real-time audio processing such as plug in effects. (more lag but less crackles when your running lots of stuff)


So try a higher buffer size, and try one that is 128/256/512/1024. its just a hunch but there might be something in the os x audio system that expects a sample rate that is evenly divisible, and the mismatch could be causing the noise your getting
Last edited by fdodds on Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
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By fdodds Fri Aug 22, 2014 7:49 am
With win 8 users going into the driver settings and changing the buffer seemed to resync the audio and caused the crackles to stop, but as the sync went out the crackles would return.

trouble is this is very similar to what would happen if your buffer is too small as well, when you go into settings the buffer would reset and the crackling stops, but as soon as the buffer fills up again you're going to get crackles.
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By SimonInAustralia Fri Aug 22, 2014 8:12 am
fdodds wrote:I've gone on and on about sample rates but just to make clear, a higher sample rate is better for a slow computer

:hmmm: Ummm, no.
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By fdodds Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:31 am
i meant buffer size, edited my post
By Nubian Mindz Thu Apr 28, 2016 12:05 pm
Bumping this as there's some good info which is currently relevant.