Hello,

I have recently streamlined my 3 year-old PC for music production, hoping to get rid of occasional glitches. Uninstalled anything not related to DAW,  removed nvidia video card to use the MB video chipset instead, removed ethernet and wifi drivers, intel RST and ME, anything that has been reported as a problem for audio. Of course, it was already using the common windows 10 optimization  advice (power options et al).

Well, despite all that, i'm still getting audio instability with the babyface pro. If I load just one VSTi in reaper, whether sample-based or not, I will get a random glitch every ten to twenty seconds, sometimes degenerating randomly in a massive bitcrusher effect, at which point I will have to relaunch reaper.

I have read the various posts on the same problem - but my mobo has a z170 chipset, not an x99, and I have removed nvidia card and its driver. Anyway, the option to disable XHCI handoff seems to have disappeared in the latest BIOS. I have enabled the mouse trails though.

This is not related to audio buffers: it happens at any buffer size. I have tried every USB port on my motherboard (ASUS z-170a), without any success. So I'm starting to wonder if there is some kind of communication problem between the MB and the babyface. Has anyone managed to make it work with that combination?

I'm thinking of upgrading my system soon, which will probably solve the problem (IF the problem is not the Babyface pro itself...), but in the meantime, if anyone has a suggestion...

Thanks for any help.

my specs

asus z-170a
core i5-6600 @3300Ghz
32Gb ram

windows 10 pro (1903)
reaper