Topic: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

Posted here in case anyone else has the issue.

I was suddenly experiencing a lot of weird stutter and glitches with my newly purchased UFX III. Connecetd to Macbookpro 16 M1 Max. Connected through Caldigit TS4.

Before the UFX III, I had a UCX II and Madiface USB connected to the same TS4 without isssue. So it worried me a lot to suddenly have this problem.

I was searching this forum for people experiencing problems with UFX III and only found people having issues with overlapping drivers - which wasn't my issue. Or solutions of using USB 2.0 - which I can't since I'm using the MADI interface.

My last attempt before trying to plug directly in to my macbook ws to investigate the USB busses of the TS4. Apparently the usb port I was using for the UFXIII is on the same bus as the Displayport connecter for my external monitor. I switched to one of the other busses and it resolve my problems.

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

That's good for you!!! Unfortunately, in my case, the audio dropout and glitch issue were not solved when I connected directly to my MacBook. Currently, I'm just using it with 30CH with USB 2.0. I hope this problem is solved at some point. I never had an issue with the REM interface, but apparently, it is not RME's fault but Apple's. Yes, Apple. ...

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

Hello, I have a similar setup (M1 Max 16-inch, 2021, 64 GB RAM, Sonoma 14.6.1 23G93).

Every 10-30 mins I get a little 0.1-0.5sec dropout. It happens even when I'm just using UFX III as an audio interface. It has ruined live concerts and sessions alike.

I'm using the DriverKit driver afaict.

RME support doesn't know.

Is anyone having these issues on an M2 Mac? Perhaps that's the issue?

4

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

Update to driver 4.16, and if possible to latest Sequoia. Both might help.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

I don't know if this is related, but I've had some weird issues with obs and camera hooked up to a usb-c port (with usb a adapter) into the Mac monitor (studio display or whatever it is called) with an Elegato video capture device. Basically within 30 seconds, the video locks. I think it might be the same issue where some device is being shared with another device (display) is being used. If I use another thunderbolt port for the capture device, all good. It's like the monitor takes precedence somehow and the other timing dependent device falls by the wayside.

I do wonder about the Sequoia comment though. I ordered a new mini and will set it up from scratch with my ufx3 and will try the driver kit version of the driver first, and assuming it comes with Sequoia anyway. Hopefully that works, but I won't know for a couple weeks yet.

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

MC wrote:

Update to driver 4.16, and if possible to latest Sequoia. Both might help.

Thanks, great to hear from you! I was already on 4.16 but upgraded to Sequoia. I also disabled everything in Login Items, and I had recently disabled Continuity Camera too. I did a 3-hr session and didn't notice any dropouts yet, though I haven't listened to it all.

By the way, does overheating ever cause issues? My UFX III and 12Mic are hot to the touch after a couple of hours. I have them stacked on each other - do you recommend any kind of spacers?

7

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

Yes, 0.5 or 1 HE empty space between them would be preferable.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

What works well here is a Thomann compact rack which is - in addition to MC's recommendation - not too deep (23cm).

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

I'm still getting dropouts even on Sequoia:

1. Turn on UFX III, connect to Mac before it's on, do some mixing.
2. Close Mac laptop, eat dinner.
3. Open Mac laptop, do some mixing. Lots of dropouts. Example console logs during dropouts:

default    22:17:43.855534+0100    RMEUsbAsp    Analyse Buffer failed - restart++...
default    22:17:43.857747+0100    RMEUsbAsp    ConvertInputSamples no microframe found - restart++
default    22:17:43.867986+0100    RMEUsbAsp    WriteOutputData: unexpected position!
default    22:17:43.865089+0100    coreaudiod    508823                 HALS_IOClock.cpp:193   HALS_IORawClock::Update: Re-anchoring IO timeline. Sample time is consecutive, host time is not consecutive.
default    22:17:43.872392+0100    coreaudiod    528507                 HALS_IOClock.cpp:193   HALS_IORawClock::Update: Re-anchoring IO timeline. Sample time is consecutive, host time is not consecutive.
default    22:17:43.897028+0100    dasd    Attempting to suspend based on triggers: (     "com.apple.duetactivityscheduler.photospolicy.appchanged",     "com.apple.das.apppolicy.appInFocus",     "com.apple.das.apppolicy.appchanged" )
default    22:17:43.899915+0100    dasd    Ignoring trigger com.apple.duetactivityscheduler.photospolicy.appchanged, conditions are worse
default    22:17:43.907769+0100    dasd    Evaluating 23 activities based on triggers
default    22:17:44.423063+0100    kernel    wlan0:com.apple.p2p: isInfraRealtimePacketThresholdAllowed allowed:1 option:32 threshold:50 noRegistrations:1 cachedPeerCount:0 fastDiscoveryInactive:1 fastDiscoveryOnSince:53911529
default    22:17:44.423119+0100    kernel    wlan0:com.apple.p2p: currentInfraTrafficType:8931 checking if realtime upgrade required with inputPackets:0 outputPackets:0 packetThreshold:50
default    22:17:44.599601+0100    powerd    DesktopMode check on Battery 0
default    22:17:44.618643+0100    WindowServer    [TP] Dispatching digitizer event with 2 children, _eventMask=0x2 _childEventMask=0x2 Cancel=0 Touching=1 inRange=1
default    22:17:44.738794+0100    RMEUsbAsp    Analyse Buffer failed - restart++...
default    22:17:44.738662+0100    coreaudiod    508823                 HALS_IOClock.cpp:204   HALS_IORawClock::Update: Re-anchoring IO timeline. Sample time is not consecutive, HostTime is increasing, Ring buffer size: 8192.000000, sample diff: 16384.000000, host diff 8916569.000000
default    22:17:44.738882+0100    RMEUsbAsp    Analyse Buffer failed - restart++...
default    22:17:44.761163+0100    RMEUsbAsp    WriteOutputData: unexpected position!
default    22:17:44.760994+0100    coreaudiod    528507                 HALS_IOClock.cpp:204   HALS_IORawClock::Update: Re-anchoring IO timeline. Sample time is not consecutive, HostTime is increasing, Ring buffer size: 8192.000000, sample diff: 16384.000000, host diff 8916569.000000
default    22:17:44.782758+0100    coreaudiod    528507                 HALS_IOClock.cpp:204   HALS_IORawClock::Update: Re-anchoring IO timeline. Sample time is consecutive, HostTime not increasing, Ring buffer size: 8192.000000, sample diff: 8192.000000, host diff -149496.000000
default    22:17:44.785222+0100    RMEUsbAsp    ConvertInputSamples no microframe found - restart++
default    22:17:44.792443+0100    coreaudiod    508823                 HALS_IOClock.cpp:204   HALS_IORawClock::Update: Re-anchoring IO timeline. Sample time is consecutive, HostTime not increasing, Ring buffer size: 8192.000000, sample diff: 8192.000000, host diff -149496.000000
default    22:17:44.802050+0100    RMEUsbAsp    WriteOutputData: unexpected position!
default    22:17:44.854703+0100    powerd    DesktopMode check on Battery 0
default    22:17:44.857448+0100    powerd    DesktopMode check on Battery 0
default    22:17:44.886174+0100    WindowServer    [TP] Dispatching digitizer event with 2 children, _eventMask=0x42 _childEventMask=0x42 Cancel=0 Touching=0 inRange=1
default    22:17:45.002232+0100    kernel    LQM-WiFi: BE : Count: 4 avgLatencyMs:11 maxLatencyMs:38
default    22:17:45.002326+0100    kernel    LQM-WiFi: BK : Count: 7 avgLatencyMs:4 maxLatencyMs:14
default    22:17:45.002336+0100    kernel    LQM-WiFi: VI : Count: 0 avgLatencyMs:0 maxLatencyMs:0
default    22:17:45.002338+0100    kernel    LQM-WiFi: VO : Count: 1 avgLatencyMs:5 maxLatencyMs:5
default    22:17:45.415708+0100    WindowServer    HW Cursor Disabled: deactivating and swap completed
error    22:17:45.422753+0100    WindowServer    Long render detected. Swap 2548370 took 5.4e+04s
default    22:17:45.422106+0100    coreaudiod    IssueReporting.cpp:491   RTAID [ use_case=Generic report_type=RMS Generic Chain clientID=HAL node=-Output issue_detected_sample_time=15876764.000000 ] -- [ rms:[-120.000000], peaks:[-240.000000] ]
default    22:17:45.453007+0100    kernel    wlan0:com.apple.p2p: isInfraRealtimePacketThresholdAllowed allowed:1 option:32 threshold:50 noRegistrations:1 cachedPeerCount:0 fastDiscoveryInactive:1 fastDiscoveryOnSince:53912559
default    22:17:45.454912+0100    kernel    wlan0:com.apple.p2p: currentInfraTrafficType:8931 checking if realtime upgrade required with inputPackets:1 outputPackets:1 packetThreshold:50
default    22:17:45.676059+0100    RMEUsbAsp    Analyse Buffer failed - restart++...
default    22:17:45.676173+0100    RMEUsbAsp    No Data available - restart++...
default    22:17:45.678572+0100    RMEUsbAsp    WriteOutputData: unexpected position!
default    22:17:45.681855+0100    coreaudiod    508823                 HALS_IOClock.cpp:204   HALS_IORawClock::Update: Re-anchoring IO timeline. Sample time is not consecutive, HostTime is increasing, Ring buffer size: 8192.000000, sample diff: 16384.000000, host diff 8915968.000000
default    22:17:45.704217+0100    coreaudiod    528507                 HALS_IOClock.cpp:204   HALS_IORawClock::Update: Re-anchoring IO timeline. Sample time is not consecutive, HostTime is increasing, Ring buffer size: 8192.000000, sample diff: 16384.000000, host diff 8915968.000000
default    22:17:45.704416+0100    RMEUsbAsp    WriteOutputData: unexpected position!
default    22:17:45.787543+0100    airportd    BTC: <airport[427]> BluetoothCoexStatusMonitoringCallback: Bluetooth Status Notification

10

Re: Solved UFX III jitter / glitch issues (hint: Caldigit TS4)

Mail sent.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME