1 Topic by jpoulsen (edited by jpoulsen 2024-08-12 08:00:55)

  • Registered: 2024-08-11
  • Posts: 11

Topic: Audio glitching when previewing photo file?

Hi I've just purchased a UCX II and I am very happy with it. However:

Under macOS Sonoma 14.6.1, I get audio glitches when spotlight/previewing camera-raw files (perhaps just "heavy files")?
This happens both with apps like Spotify and also a DAW like Ableton.

When I set the audio output to the built-in audio card of my MacBook Pro no glitching occurs.
The audio glitching also happens when I work with Cinema 4D and have some music playing.

The buffer size does not seem to matter as it happens in Ableton at large sizes also.

The safety offset is also set to normal, setting it to short doesn't change anything. Sample-rate also doesn't seem to matter.

I use the latest MacBook Pro 16" M3 Pro (with clean install) and I'm running UCX II firmware 106, and driver 4.12. (DriverKit driver)

The issue seems to also happen in the latest macOS Sequoia beta.

Video of the issue:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ytinykkc … z&dl=0

The strange thing is I'm able to put the machine through a benchmark like Cinebench (which maxes the CPU out) and at the same time launch every installed application at once and no glitching occurs, there just seems to be some specific cases where the driver or the entire USB subsystem hangs, even tough the machine is not under a particular tough load.

2 Reply by jpoulsen (edited by jpoulsen 2024-08-12 07:50:55)

  • Registered: 2024-08-11
  • Posts: 11

Re: Audio glitching when previewing photo file?

Just for the 'fun' of it I tried to remove the DriverKit driver and installed the 'old school' kernel extension driver and now there are no glitches what so ever. Seems Apple hasn't quite hit the mark on balancing performance and security? Or is this a matter of RME maturing the new driver for the future of macOS?

3 Reply by MC

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Re: Audio glitching when previewing photo file?

Why didn't you try the Large Safety Offset in driver 4.12?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

4 Reply by jpoulsen (edited by jpoulsen 2024-08-12 11:41:04)

  • Registered: 2024-08-11
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Re: Audio glitching when previewing photo file?

Hi Matthias, thanks for the quick reply. The 4.12 driver only has a check box selection for short safety offset, it was already unchecked, I just wanted to state that ticking it on/off did not make any difference.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cj3mpfru … b&dl=0

(please ignore the sample rate setting of 32, I normally run 44 or 48 and that did not make any difference)

:-)

5 Reply by MC

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Re: Audio glitching when previewing photo file?

Right, too many options...Large is part of the KE driver. Anyway, we still  have hope that Apple can remove the multiclient performance penalty with DriverKit some day.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2024-08-11
  • Posts: 11

Re: Audio glitching when previewing photo file?

Thanks again for the quick response. I'm a bit unsure whether or not I tested for the audio glitch by only having eg. Ableton Live be the only app using the UCX II. I think I tried, but it was a bit late yesterday so I will try again with only Ableton running on the interface and have everything else use the builtin sound card.

I have to say the kernel driver is rock solid, no glitches what so ever, hope Apple lets us continue with this until all the kinks are ironed out with DriverKit.