1 (edited by pmags 2015-11-07 20:28:36)

Topic: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

I've just got my hands on the new BabyFace Pro.  I've been testing it out on both Mac (dual-core i7, 16GB RAM, SSD drives) and Windows (quad-core i7, 16GB RAM, SSD) machines under Logic Pro X and Ableton Live 9.5

I'm frequently finding that I get crackling even when CPU loads are low (<30%) and buffers relatively high -- 256 or 512 samples at either 96 or 192 kHz.

This is with the latest drivers (1.089 on Windows, 2.10 on Mac) and Hardware Revision 101.

Anybody else experiencing issues such as these?

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

I just bought one and I´m experiencing the same issue, ableton, medium complex project with 8 tracks, some audio some vsti's and I can't get below 128 samples at 44100khz. I bought it just because the reviews for RME said that the drivers where the best, but its all the same BS, coming from Focusrite 6i6 the performance is the same... oh I forgot, can't get past 40% cpu load and the thing just stops responding. My specs are amd fx9590, 32gb 1600, two ssd one for the system/programs and one for the samples, libraries and cache, windows 10 x64, ableton 9.5. Any help would be much appreciated.

3 (edited by ramses 2015-11-08 15:12:19)

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

@pmags: which windows version, only for "the records" ..
@leandoichi: could it be windows 10 related ? Did you try with 7 ?

@both:
Are your systems optimized for audio or just a plain Windows installation ?
Did you disable hardware in your BIOS which you do not use ? Did you disable sound chip on your mainboard ?
Did you fine tune BIOS/Windows already for better audio processing (disable "energy saving" for CPU, etc).
Could it be that other drivers / programs on your system are blocking the CPU from processing audio "in time" ?
Did you do any research on this topic already with tools like LatencyMon ?

When I remember back when I had Focusrite LS 56 and an old MSI board it was the board itself which caused issues.
Without tuning BIOS / Windows you had very bad kernel timer latency values and nasty spikes (200-800+ µs).
With tuning I got it down to 80µs with spikes over 100 which brought at least stability, but not ideal results.

By pure occasion I upgraded to the "A" version of the same board (the successor which brought USB3 and Sata6).
With the same BIOS settings like on the old board and the same windows installation the values went down to 2µs at minimum and with averages of between 5 - 20 µs on a not loaded system.

What I want to say ... I suggest that you make a proper analysis of your systems.
I would regard it as relatively unlikely, that the RME drivers cause issues here.
Otherwise the forum would be full of people, telling about bad performance.

Actually the RME drivers are so well, that I am with the USB driver of i.e. the UFX not that far away from the results of a PCIe card like the RayDAT when looking at Cubase 8 Pro's display of input and output Latency. Example: both interfaces set to 64 ASIO buffers
RayDAT (PCIe!): Input Latency: 1,497ms, Output Latency: 2,245ms
UFX (USB2)      : Input Latency: 2,063ms, Output Latency: 2,993ms

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

Follow ramses advice, then turn off Ethernet and WiFi (Device Manager) and CPU-Speedstep (BIOS). At least these are the usual suspects.

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

@ramses and @ekneo:

Note that this is happening on BOTH Windows and a Mac laptop

Mac specs
======
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
3.1 GHz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
OS X Yosemite 10.10.5

Windows Specs
==========
Gigabyte P34W v4
3.5 Ghz i7-5700HQ
16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Windows 8.1 Pro (64-bit)


I'll give your suggestions a try on the Windows machine, but the Mac is much less flexible in terms of settings to tweak.

6 (edited by ramses 2015-11-08 20:58:46)

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

If I remember right people in different forums talked about having issues with 10.10.5.
https://www.google.de/#q=Yosemite+10.10 … o+problems

The latest OS release is not necessarily the greatest for audio processing... For Windows I would still prefer Win 7, because there are many people out who gained much experience, how to build a system and fine tune Windows for getting best results. For MAC I would ask the community on forums which MAC OS version is proven to be most reliable for audio processing.

If your preference is to have always the latest and greatest in terms of OS and application I think it would not be bad to have a reference installation, i.e. on 2nd disc, to which you can go back and exclude HW/driver/SW issues.

Audio processing has certain "near realtime" requirements. Windows and MAC OS don't support true real time processing in their kernel. For good results all must fit together. One wrong driver can make everything worse. The problem with Windows is i.e. that the low level routines in the kernel are non-interruptable. So if a driver is badly written and consumes too much time on a core and when your audio process is on the same core, then audio processing can't happen in time, clicks etc can happen.

In regards to Energy savings (C-States, etc): it introduces lag / latency, look at the table how much approximately.
http://www.comptech-info.de/component/c … s-sind-das
Or look at this paper in english, but this is maybe too scientific, at lease something in english for you.
http://ena-hpc.org/2014/pdf/paper_06.pdf

Sometimes you win, that all runs nice without much efforts, sometimes this is not the case.
There are certain known "problem avoidance" strategies that can help to achieve better results.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

7 (edited by ramses 2015-11-09 08:03:02)

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

In regards to measuring with LatencyMon an advice.
Version 4.02 was IMHO just right for Windows 7 and you got detailed results with values down to 1µs.
Windows 8 introduced changes a new version came out and showed only values of above 100µs.
I am not sure what exactly changed in the Windows infrastructure and what has changed in terms of what is being measured.
In the new version of LatencyMon (I think it was v6) you can set in the properties backward compatibility in terms of measuring for Windows 7, but I was getting different results with it. I didn't try/compare LatencyMon v6.5 (made for Win10) how this behaves under Windows 7.
So for me its best to measure with LatencyMon 4.02 under Windows 7, because only then its compareable for me with things I measured in the past.
If they don't have it in their archives on webserver, take it from here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/961 … n-4.02.exe
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/961 … 02.exe.md5

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

On OS X try a tool called "SystemLoad" and put 10-20% on all cores while running audio (especially in Live). Changes?

9 (edited by jamesrt 2016-05-09 02:41:20)

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

We're having similar problems with http://www.rme-audio.de/en/products/babyface.php.  The issue is constant cracking, popping noises to the point where playback is full of stuttering and a garbled mess.  This will even happen when playing a simple MP3 in iTunes or any other audio (e.g. Youtube, soundcloud, etc)!!  There's also huge latency issues with our DAW.  If we change the laptop's output to headphones or HDMI and completely bypass the Babyface, there are NO issues.  As soon as we switch the audio output back to the Babyface, there's the cracking/popping/stuttering again.  So there's definitely something wrong with our Babyface or setup.  We have installed the latest drivers from RME's web and spent hours searching online for solutions.  Absolutely nothing works.  Please help ... or suggest another audio interface that is reliable!

MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch Mid 2014
OS 10.10.1
2.8 HGz Intel Core i7
16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Problems regardless of buffer from 128 to 1024 samples.  CPU load 0-30%.
Primary DAW is Ableton 9.2.1.
Same problems with Logic X

Thanks for anyone's help!!

10

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

Maybe the craclkes and pops are a different issue than the usual "too small buffer size". Did you test also the headphone outs of the babyface, or just the main monitor outs?

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

I recently bought two new computers. One with Intel Core i7 4790K and one with Intel Core i7 6700K. Both with 32 GB of DDR3 or DDR4 RAM and a Geforce GTX 980TI. Not one of them should have any trouble with audio.

The former did however have problems with stuttering audio as soon as the CPU was tasked just a hair.. like 1-5% of work. After I switched the Power plan in Windows 10 to High Performance, I have no issues what so ever with audio even with big projects. It might just be a power plan thingie.

Mats Helgesson
http://www.livingsound.se

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

Can you try out a parallel installation of Windows 7 ? By this you could find out whether it's OS related.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

jamesrt wrote:

MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch Mid 2014

Could you switch the GPU to use the Intel Iris graphics adapter?

I can't look at it to see if this is still possible under Yosemite, as my Yosemite machine is down with a broken SATA cable.

This issue seems to surface in rare cases under Windows as wel as OSX and I have a feeling the common factor is the Nvidia GPU.

MB Pro - 2 X FireFace 400, FF800 & DigiFace USB
ADAT gear: Korg, Behri, Fostex, Alesis...

Re: Babyface Pro: Lots of crackling even under low CPU usage

This exact thing happens to my Babyface Pro every time I turn on my external monitor from my MacBook.

Is there any workaround? or I bought a fairly expensive piece of equipment that can't be used properly?