Hello Ramses,

I do not understand your first question and I don´t know, which thread you are referring to, sorry.

I do understand your second question. Yes, I thought so, because it seems to be a problem very unrelated to my computer. When I turn on the OctaMicII, it will immediately send a loud crackling through all outputs of the Babyface.

You seem to disagree, so I will add further information:

Windows 8.1 64 Bit, Intel I7 @ 4 GhZ, 16 GB Ram.

No other programs involved apart from Total Mix 1.61. The Babyface is on firmware revision 225, driver 1.168.

The Octamic II is connected to the Babyface via an optical ADAT connection, which is the only possibe way, at least I thought so.

I am sorry, if I offended you. If possible, please refrain from using too many exclamation marks, it makes me feel uncomfortable.

Thank you!

edit: Typo in the firmware version.

Yes, thank you, I am aware of that, but that seems like a good lead to a possible source of error.

The Babyface´s clock source is set to "Optical In", and the OctaMicII has all the dip switches in the upper position, so it is set to 44.1khZ and to internal clock.

When I turn on the OctaMic, the Babyface´s current clock mode switches from Internal to ADAT. Should I change the clocking? When using the Babyfaces internal clock, I get synchronisation errors between the two devices of course, so should I send a clock FROM the Babyface to the OctaMicII instead? Is there a way to do that?

Thank you very much for your help.

I see!

It is not the same issue, just sounds similar description wise.

This current problem is there since I bought the Octa Mic II and it happens consistently every time, I turn the OctaMicII on.

OFF TOPIC: Since you asked: I do not know, why, but the old problem just went away. I know, that sounds dumb, but that´s all I can say. It is hard to say, when exactly the problem went away, because it did not show up consistently either. So at some point, I just realized, it didn´t happen anymore. I do try to keep my drivers up to date, but since RME support stated, it was a USB problem on my side, I am at a loss to give any further insights.

Thank you for clarifying.

I terms of the old issue. USB drivers on OS side also change from time to time ... so it could be that one of the updates solved the issue.

In terms of your current issue, if I understand it correctly now, it only happens when powering-on the OctaMic II ? If this is the case then it might not be a clocking problem, but to check clock settings is surely not a bad idea by general means.

Just a guess: maybe during the initialization of the OctaMic device some random information is being sent though ADAT.

I think you could validate this by muting the ADAT input before powering-on the OctaMic II.

If muting the ADAT input on the BBF fixes the issue, then I would suggest to mute the input per default
and to unmute it only if you intend to work with the device.

Good luck.

I checked again, there is no change of Sample rate occuring. It´s 44.1 kHz before and after turning on the OctaMicII.

The crackling IS being sent via ADAT, yes! Actually, I wonder how this escaped me so long, but it´s loudest on channels AS1/2. The other 6 ADAT channels only click when turning the OctaMic on and off. Still undesirable, but definitely less bad than the really loud crackling on channels AS1/2.

So as a workaround, it is feasible to mute channels AS1/2 for turning the OctaMicII on.

But still, if there was a way to prevent this, that would be much preferrable.

More tests:

Sometimes the pops will even come through, when all ADAT input channels are muted. I can see no signal on other channels in Total Mix though.

It will also pop, when the Babyface is set to its internal clock. So it does not seem to be a clocking issue.

When the OctaMicII is already turned on, and I then switch the Babyface´s clocking from internal to Optical In, it will also pop!

I am really scared to do any further experiments, because I cannot stand seeing the limiter flash on my speakers anymore...

Thank you for the link. Attenuating should help a little.

EDIT: Actually, it doesn´t. My speakers are turned up a bit too loud, but the crackling is on my headphones, too, and it´s just as unpleasant there as well.

Could you please answer me the following 2 questions?

1) Is a noise reaching about half of the input meter for RMS and 0db peak in TotalMix on channels AS1/2 to be expected, when turning on the OctaMicII, with the OctaMicII being the master clock?

2) Is there a way to instead make the Babyface the master clock? I could not find a way to do so in the manual.

Thank you very much.

Edit: Specified levels of noise.

But the OctaMicII does not have an optical input and the Babyface does not have a AES output, right?

Which is, why I was thinking, it is not possible.

So if there ever happens to be somebody with the same problem, I just want to report my failures in looking for a solution and tell you, that there does not seem to be one. I talked to RME tech support on the phone (which is hilaaaariously relaxed) and after he gave me the obligatory "You dumbass probably didn´t configure the clocking right" procedure, which didn´t yield any results, he said:

"Yeah, I haven´t heard of that problem before. I don´t know, what to do about that. What a bummer. Bye!"

German tech support. It was so funny, that I am not really angry about it and will just keep it the way, that I always turn on the OctaMicII, before powering on my computer...

No, thank you for your support!

Switching on the OctaMicII first is of course actually a rather bad workaround, but I created a workspace with all channels muted and now I quick select that All Muted workspace and switch back after turning on the OctaMicII. Still not perfect, but the best solution I found so far.

If I may chime in... I have a similar problem I noticed today which is reproducible: Whenever I connect or disconnect a USB device, no matter which port (did try 3 different ports, not all), my audio does this: slight click/crackle - about 1.5s silence - slight click/crackle, the whole sequence repeating 2 times (so 3 times total).

It happened with 2 different USB devices. Power management manually turned off on all ports, and generally the power plan is set to highest performance. Latest Windows from 2 weeks ago, RME drivers just as old.

Also my Analog Rytm (which is not connected via USB, is only connected via Midi to my USB-powered Gm5x5x5 Midi interface) goes into play mode (stop button light goes out, first step lights up, but doesn't move to the second one), so I guess my Midi interface gets reset somehow. At the same time as the mentioned 3-click-sequence appears, in FL Studio the mouse pointer becomes a watch 3 times (like "loading..."; this only happens with the pointer in FL Studio, not in other Windows windows; the sound disappears also only in FL Studio, which is using the Raydat output. Windows sound is unaffected, be it routed through a Raydat output or the cheap HDMI sound output), while the event comment field (the line on the top left below the menu telling you what the function of buttons is when you mouse over) tells me that "midi devices have changed... refreshing...".

Btw I'm not using a babyface but a Raydat. But I doubt this is relevant because most issues I was facing with RME stuff I found discussed with all kinds of devices. Guess it's a driver issue. I also guess it has to do with USB, not any device in particular.

God I hate USB.

Oh btw I thought it might have to do with syncing, but I have Swissonic converters, one of which is the clock master. But then I would have expected the "sync" status in "input status" in the Hammerfall DSP settings window to flash for a second or so. But it doesn't do that (the master flashes very slightly regularly, but this happens all the time. I have no problems with the clock though, everything runs smooth).

I might also add that I am pretty sure that those clicks/crackles have happened before without me connecting or disconnecting any USB stuff (although I didn't have the power management turned off on every USB port then, just did that today), just much less frequent. The way I described above is really every time I disconnect or connect a USB device.

Anyway, for me this is only a slight annoyance, the general function of my Raydat is impeccable.

Still I would be happy about a fix...