1 Topic by kristofferlislegaard (edited by kristofferlislegaard 2021-09-10 13:42:59)

  • Registered: 2021-09-07
  • Posts: 6

Topic: [Solved] Fixed: New UCX II - Random dropouts, but not in CC mode

Hi,

I have just bought a UCX ii, but I am getting random dropouts.
They seem to happen totally random. Usually with 5 minutes inbetween but sometimes two in 30 seconds.
They last for aprox 1 second, where there is no sound. The meters on the unit are also dropping to reflect there being no sound.

BUT if i set the audio interface to class compliant mode everything works perfectly. no dropouts. The same is the story with my UAD interface. No dropouts. So there seems to be something weird going on in the driver I am guessing. I have tried both with and without the checkbox for "extra safety" in the settings. Also the Ableton set is not crazy heavy. Works perfectly in buffer size 64 in CC mode or with my UAD, but gets random dropouts even in 128 with the regular USB driver with Total mix and everything.

Any tips?

UCX II
Mac mini 2018 i5 32gb ram
Ableton Live 10.1 (but the same thing happens with Live 11)
OSX 10.14.3
Sound going out to channels 1,2,5,6 and the 8 adat ports

THANKS!

  • waedi
  • DAW Mastermind
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  • From: Swiss Zürich
  • Registered: 2020-12-08
  • Posts: 4,179

Re: [Solved] Fixed: New UCX II - Random dropouts, but not in CC mode

I would do a test with another DAW, Reaper.

How is it without DAW ? Sound from Youtube or from Finder ?

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue

3 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
  • Administrator
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  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,436

Re: [Solved] Fixed: New UCX II - Random dropouts, but not in CC mode

If higher buffer sizes work then use them. CC mode uses bigger hidden buffers. Also there is a tip to reduce the graphics refresh rate for Ableton that helped some people.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2021-09-07
  • Posts: 6

Re: [Solved] Fixed: New UCX II - Random dropouts, but not in CC mode

Thanks for the replies so far.
I will have to do some more testing.
Unfortunatly bigger buffer sizes will not work for me as I will be doing a lot of live triggering. I have been doing 64 with my other interface, but can maybe go to 128 as the RME seems to have a bit lower latency than my UAD. But it seemed to also happen at 128, and 256 will not work for me.

I also have a Babyface Pro Fs I can test with, but is there any good reason why one audio interface (the UCX ii) would give me dropouts and not my UAD? All I hear about RME (and which has been the case for my Babyface and Digiface USB on my other machines) is that it just works and is rock solid.

I am pretty sure this set works with no problems in the internal mac interface (of course only with stereo out instead of multi channel)

I also did a test with just playing back one audio file in Live and duplicated the track to send to multiple outputs. And it even happened then. Allthough I will have to do some more testing to confirm how often it happens.

I am using my machine without a screen for most of the time so I don't think the graphics is the thing.

  • Registered: 2021-09-07
  • Posts: 6

Re: [Solved] Fixed: New UCX II - Random dropouts, but not in CC mode

Ok I think it is fixed now!

After a lot of googleing I ended up on the threads back from when the macs with the T2 chips were new. I had forgotten that there indeed was a USB audio issue back then. I was using thunderbolt interfaces at the time so i had forgotten about it.

So the solution in the end was to update my OS from 10.14.3 to 10.14.4.

This took me three days to figure out, and I have to admit I am a bit dissappointed that @MC did not point me in this direction since you have written looong forum posts back when you were dealing with this issues.

Anyways I played two hours without a single glitch yesterday so it seems to work perfectly now.