dven Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 I've got a new MBP 2018 (2.2, 560x, 1TB, 32GB) and am experiencing random dropouts/glitches with external USB interfaces in Logic (10.4.1) and in other apps (like playing a YouTube vid). Internal speakers and headphones appear to be fine. I've tried the usual buffer things in Logic, but since the dropouts happen playing any audio, I don't think its a Logic specific issue. I'm wondering if any other MBP 2018 users have experienced similar? Other users on macrumors have reported similar with Focusrite, RME and NI interfaces. Thanks! Dorian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Which interfaces are you using right now that give you glitches? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 25, 2018 Author Share Posted September 25, 2018 Which interfaces are you using right now that give you glitches? Focusrite 2i2 (2nd gen) and Focusrite Solo (1st gen) for me. In the macrumors thread, there were other users with RME (UCX) & NI (Komplete Audio). All USB, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Are you on OSX Sierra? Always buggy to me compared to High Sierra in my experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 25, 2018 Author Share Posted September 25, 2018 Are you on OSX Sierra?Always buggy to me compared to High Sierra in my experience The new MBP is High Sierra (10.13.6) with both supplemental updates. So far I've found Sierra much more stable, so YMMV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 USB interfaces can be finicky. That's the nature of USB. I use Firewire and PCI and no probs there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 25, 2018 Author Share Posted September 25, 2018 Yeah USB is a bit finicky, though I've been pretty lucky with the Focusrites. Hopefully just a bit of headache to find a new interface....assuming firewire or thunderbolt is OK. The MBP 2018s have been a bit hit or miss audio-wise from what I've read (and experienced). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Yeah USB is a bit finicky, though I've been pretty lucky with the Focusrites. Hopefully just a bit of headache to find a new interface....assuming firewire or thunderbolt is OK. The MBP 2018s have been a bit hit or miss audio-wise from what I've read (and experienced). I think the USB-C implementation is not that great on the audio side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 25, 2018 Author Share Posted September 25, 2018 Which makes me hesitant to assume a new interface would work since the MBP 2018s only have USB-C/T3 ports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Yeah USB is a bit finicky, though I've been pretty lucky with the Focusrites. Hopefully just a bit of headache to find a new interface....assuming firewire or thunderbolt is OK. The MBP 2018s have been a bit hit or miss audio-wise from what I've read (and experienced). I think the USB-C implementation is not that great on the audio side. I tried with CalDigit audio out (its on USB audio), with Steinberg UR12 and it works flawlessly. If anything doesnt work fine its on the driver manufacturers side in my opinion. Both CalDigit and Steinberg are Class Compliant (don't need drivers). RME has always worked flawlessly and i havent seen any reports that it wouldnt work on the new USB-C macbooks. But RME knows how to do drivers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skijumptoes Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Are you going through a usb hub or any other kind of third party converters? Also, you running class compliant on the 2i2? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 i tried UR12 through CalDigit and cheap USB-C > USB-A and it works flawlessly. I've had mixed success with focusrite scarlett in the past - in the case of that card, i'd suspect drivers first before anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 26, 2018 Author Share Posted September 26, 2018 Class compliant for the Focusrites (Solo 1st gen and 2i2 2nd gen) through both a cheapo amazon c->a and a triannium hub. I’ve ordered a UR12 for testing and my work place has a NI Komplete that I’m trying today, though a user on MacRumors has reported issues with the NI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 I had the old NI and couldn't get it to work. Another shitty interface manufacturer with abymsal driver support Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 26, 2018 Author Share Posted September 26, 2018 The NI is more a "well it can't hurt to try" thing, since at least one other user has reported it not working.... so I won't get my hopes up..... In the large "speakers crackling" thread on macrumors, there's now a user who says a TB interface is exhibiting the same symptoms. I've asked for more details - if only to avoid that make/model (edit - Zoom TAC-2R apparently). This might also be linked to the battery polling spike issue reported on gearslutz, but I don't see any time correlation in my case since the glitches are random. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 27, 2018 Author Share Posted September 27, 2018 So. I did some more digging and here are some error logs (attached) which point to Apples audio handler. I don't see anything before this that points to a different culprit that might be a different root cause for the issue, though there are a ton of log entries related to launchservicesd right before the audio glitch error log. For example. info 08:15:46.157063 -0400 launchservicesd CLIENT: 0x7fb041f04760/29001 Received message on connection from our client: info 08:15:46.157087 -0400 launchservicesd CLIENT: 0x7fb041f04760/29001 Mapped requested session to session id 100008 I'm not sure what those are about at this point. USBAudioErrorLog.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 27, 2018 Author Share Posted September 27, 2018 I may have a bit more information. I did what I should have done in the first place and created a new user account to test under. No glitches for external USB audio. So I switched back over to my usual account and disabled the following: bluetooth bluetooth PAN (networking) iCloud Still glitches. The I realized I was still running macs fan control. Turned it off. So far after an hour of running continuous audio, the *only* other glitch I've seen appears to be related to an SMCRTC (system management control real time clock) event. So my theory is that the SMC controller (yeah related to the KPs some users have had) is still flaky and that anything (ie macs fan control) that interacts with it aggravates the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 hm. yeah people tend to over-ride mbp fans. i dont, and the only issue i have is with color calibration... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skijumptoes Posted September 28, 2018 Share Posted September 28, 2018 I've never felt the need to over-ride my MBP's fans, what's the advantage? Are you making them run faster so that the system stays cool, or slower so that there's no audible pick up on mic's etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 28, 2018 Author Share Posted September 28, 2018 Faster, since there appeared to be a slight performance bump when they kicked in earlier to prevent some of the thermal related clock speed fluttering that the 6 cores seem to have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted September 28, 2018 Share Posted September 28, 2018 I've never felt the need to over-ride my MBP's fans, what's the advantage? Are you making them run faster so that the system stays cool, or slower so that there's no audible pick up on mic's etc? Faster. apparently you can push the CPU a bit higher. Last time i used it was on MBP 2008, since then i trust apple with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted September 28, 2018 Author Share Posted September 28, 2018 I ran another hour plus test and the only time the error occurred again was right after/during a system clock sync event (timed is the daemon which in turn appears to be kicked off by dasd). The glitch sort of makes sense since I'm running off of the internal clock and if the sync adjusts the overall internal clock, perhaps its not gracefully syncing any real time audio clocks depending on it. But that's some wild speculation on my part! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 Got a glitch! Both on internal and extenral interface. YAY. It's just a wierd random droput/crackle every now and then. Enough to disrupt my work. Why the hell did I pay 4k for this machine is beyond me, i must be brain damaged. The display flickers, the audio flickers, it runs hot, i paid 500$ for dongles... Well, 10 years with Apple and i'm disillusioned. 14 days return policy is bollocks, i cant predict everything that goes wrong with it in first 14 days ... I'll need to open another case. sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted October 24, 2018 Author Share Posted October 24, 2018 I've filed a second bug report with Apple (via my developer account so maybe they'll take it a bit more seriously) since they asked for a more specific report related to the "timed" process. That's what *appears* to produce my audio glitches every hour or so. Its *very* annoying. You *might* find that turning off wifi helps since I *think* the "timed" process will kill itself or not update the internal clock if it can't connect to a clock sync server. That's my current speculation/theory anyway, but I haven't had a chance to test without wifi for that amount of time. I don't care quite as much about the glitch when I'm mixing, but if I'm recording....yeah.... very not happy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 Yeah, not that its good to "settle" with some cracks now and then but I cant really go recording with the machine with certainty. Sheesh, bummer. Too bad, i think it's a fine machine and I'm even fond of the T2 chip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 Just got a followup to my latest bug report. Engineering has requested a sysdiagnose dump immediately following a glitch occurring - trigger a dump by Command + Option + Shift+ Control + Period (.) See https://download.developer.apple.com/OS_X/OS_X_Logs/sysdiagnose_Logging_Instructions.pdf Since there's strength in numbers, if you have the opportunity, maybe you can also log a report with the sysdiagnose and reference my bug report (45532270). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 will do so, thanks! (i cant access the document) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted October 26, 2018 Author Share Posted October 26, 2018 oops. That doc is behind a login, so here it is attached. sysdiagnose_Logging_Instructions.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 oops. That doc is behind a login, so here it is attached. were you able to replicate it on a clean system? i cant... and that means support will do absolutely 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dven Posted October 30, 2018 Author Share Posted October 30, 2018 I did a clean install (not a migration) if that's what you mean? BUT....I haven't tried it on a completely stock system (with just the O/S installed)....cause that would be a real pain. I'm not holding my breath at this point and I haven't had a chance to do the sysdiagnose dump theyv'e requested yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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