MC wrote:alex1 wrote:I'll start you off: The Fireface UCX is not usable on a 15" i7 2016 MacBook Pro with High Sierra 10.13.3 (and .4).
We have this exact machine (16 GB RAM, ATI graphics), and the UCX works without any noticable problem on it. We also tried all 4 USB-C ports (you did not mention which one you use). We usually use a cheap Aukey hub for USB connection, but also tried the original Apple one.
Well that’s very interesting to hear. Are you suggesting that it’s my individual copy of the MacBook Pro (and presumably the copies childrenof9 and his colleagues) which is at fault?
MC wrote:It would be nice if you could also accept the fact that the UCX works on this machine over here.
I’m happy to believe you. It would be interesting to try to identify the differences between environments. Maybe we could help solve the problem for many other users.
MC wrote:I do not deny that you have performance problems, but obviously as long as we can't reproduce them there is nothing that we could change or fix.
Serious question: Did you ever try a different USB cable? It might be simply broken, causing such kind of effects.
Glad to be back to troubleshooting: yes I’ve tried about 4 or 5 different cables (just swapping cables and nothing else, in order to isolate the issue). The behaviour is the same in each case.
I’ve tried all 4 usb-c ports.
I’ve tried the system connected to other equipment but also fully isolated with only the UCX connected and hooked up only to my speakers in case it was some sort of electrical fault.
I’ve tried the UCX powered direct from the wall and via a UPS.
USB hubs I’ve used include Apple’s USB-c to usb adaptor, apple’s usb-c to vga adaptor, apple’s usb-c to hdmi adaptor, an aukey hub, and another usb-c to usb-3 adaptor. I’ve also tried adding an extra usb-2 hub between these and the audio card (actually, 2 different hubs). No change.
I’ve also had the corruption occur when playing audio direct from macOS, so I know it’s now DAW-related.
The one thing that does seem to correlate is CPU load above 50%. Have you tested your setup with, for example, a DAW loaded with many plugins? The “helpful” part of this problem is that once you’ve triggered the UCX to go corrupt, all sound through the UCX on the system is corrupt for some time (often until you restart the device or switch audio rates / buffer sizes). So for example you could play the DAW to generate a realistic load, trigger the corruption, quit the DAW and you will still have corrupt sound in the OS.
This is helpful to demonstrate that it’s not the plugins / DAW distorting themselves.