Dear DUC,
I'm running very old software these days I realise, but I'm hoping somebody out there is up for trying to help me out here.
THE SYSTEM (I'll paste the Sandra report at the end but this is just a general idea):
PC I built myself a few years back which has always run very nicely for every other application.
Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit SP1
Pro Tools: Le 8.0.5 (updated in proper consecutive order)
MBox 2
OS boots from an SSD, where Pro Tools is also installed.
Audio is recorded to an external drive in separate enclosure (the WDC seen in Sandra report below)
THE PROBLEM:
I'm trying not to make this sound vague, but basically I'm getting cracks and pops during both record and playback. This varies from a constant loud crackling on worst occasions to a few quiet cracks here and there that are mostly just annoying in playback (think mildly dusty vinyl record).
This is obviously pretty irritating when trying to mix, but the real issue is that I'm getting some cracks and pops when recording, and these fragments are permanently embedded in the audio track. It's not as extreme as years ago when I tried to record to a 5,400rpm laptop drive, and there might only be five or six of these pops and cracks occurring in each track over a 5min piece of music on a good day.
However, as I'm sure you can understand, this has ground all home recording project aspirations to a halt. I have a lot of material I'd like to record but really can't get going due to this. The external drive I record to should be fast enough to handle the job, and the System Usage window in PT shows 0-1% on all values which suggests plug-in interference isn't the problem either.
What's perhaps most confusing is that I'm still getting cracks and pops during playback outside of ProTools. The Mbox 2 is the only audio card I use for anything and as far as I'm aware the inbuilt audio card is disabled. Thus if I'm playing a track using e.g. VLC media player and Pro Tools is closed I still hear a crack/pop thing going on.
This leads me to believe that the problem is with the MBox rather than the settings within Pro Tools. I'm thinking driver issues (although these are apparently up to date), some kind of hardware issue with the unit itself, or (most likely) that the Mbox/its drivers are interacting poorly with some other process/device that is running on my computer.
The wireless card (the usual suspect) is always disabled whenever I'm planning to do any audio work, and I've followed various threads about disabling processor throttling etc to try and eliminate the possibility that power-saving processes are causing the problem.
I've also downloaded Reaper and trialed audio recordings in that DAW in an attempt to double-check that the issue is occurring outside of PT's settings/setup options. Sure enough, audio recorded in Reaper via the Mbox 2 is just as glitchy as audio recorded through PT.
IN CONCLUSION:
What I'm really hoping for here is that someone will spot something in the below Sandra report/suggest some configuration/adjustment I haven't yet tried that will make the Mbox 2 play nice with my system.
I feel like I'm kinda at my wit's end here and worry that my only alternative is to pay a lot of cash that I don't have for PT12 (which I'd have to buy fresh as no upgrade options from software this old) and a new interface (probably from a third party) in the hopes that my problems will just magically vanish.
Please don't let it come to that, if you help me fix this I'll send you a really emotional Christmas card.
Cheers,
Ali
SANDRA REPORT:
SiSoftware Sandra
Computer
Model : OEM System Product Name
Serial Number : System Ser**********
Chassis : Desktop
Mainboard : ASUS P8Z77-M
Serial Number : 1301067********
BIOS : AMI (OEM) 1708 11/09/2012
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR3
Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (4C 4.18GHz, 4.18GHz IMC, 4x 256kB L2, 6MB L3)
Socket/Slot : FC LGA1155
Chipset
Memory Controller : ASUS Core (Ivy Bridge) DRAM Controller 102MHz, 2x 4GB DIMM DDR3 1.63GHz 128-bit
Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Kingston KHX1600C9D34G 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-27 5-39-12-6)
Memory Module : Kingston KHX1600C9D34G 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-27 5-39-12-6)
Video System
Monitor/Panel : LCD-MONITOR
(1600x1200, 18.6")
Video Adapter : AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (24CU 1536SP SM5.0 975MHz, 16kB L2, 2GB DDR5 6GHz 384-bit, PCIe 3.00 x16)
Graphics Processor
OpenCL GP Processor : AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (1536SP 24C 975MHz, 16kB L2, 2GB DDR5 6GHz 256-bit)
Compute Shader Processor : AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (1536SP 24C 975MHz, 16kB L2, 2GB DDR5 6GHz 384-bit)
OpenGL Processor : AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (1536SP 24C 975MHz, 16kB L2, 2GB DDR5 6GHz 384-bit)
Storage Devices
Samsung SSD 840 Series (120GB, SATA600, SSD, SED) : 112GB (C:)
WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 (1TB, SATA600, 3.5", 7200rpm) : 932GB (D:)
Logical Storage Devices
System Reserved : 100MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Samsung SSD 840 Series (120GB, SATA600, SSD, SED)
Darwin (D:) : 932GB (NTFS, 64kB) @ WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 (1TB, SATA600, 3.5", 7200rpm)
Coleridge (C:) : 112GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Samsung SSD 840 Series (120GB, SATA600, SSD, SED)
Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : ASUS Panther Point LPC Controller
Audio Device : HIS (Hightech Information Systems) Tahiti XT HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7970 Series]
Audio Codec : ATI (AMD) HDMI Audio
Serial Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : ASUS Panther Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
USB Controller 1 : ASUS Panther Point USB xHCI Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : ASUS Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2
USB Controller 3 : ASUS Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus
Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Network Services
Wireless Adapter : Ralink RT61 Turbo Wireless LAN Card (802.11g (ERP), AES-CCMP, 54Mbps)
Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Media Center 6.01.7601 Service Pack 1
Platform Compliance : x64
I'm running very old software these days I realise, but I'm hoping somebody out there is up for trying to help me out here.
THE SYSTEM (I'll paste the Sandra report at the end but this is just a general idea):
PC I built myself a few years back which has always run very nicely for every other application.
Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit SP1
Pro Tools: Le 8.0.5 (updated in proper consecutive order)
MBox 2
OS boots from an SSD, where Pro Tools is also installed.
Audio is recorded to an external drive in separate enclosure (the WDC seen in Sandra report below)
THE PROBLEM:
I'm trying not to make this sound vague, but basically I'm getting cracks and pops during both record and playback. This varies from a constant loud crackling on worst occasions to a few quiet cracks here and there that are mostly just annoying in playback (think mildly dusty vinyl record).
This is obviously pretty irritating when trying to mix, but the real issue is that I'm getting some cracks and pops when recording, and these fragments are permanently embedded in the audio track. It's not as extreme as years ago when I tried to record to a 5,400rpm laptop drive, and there might only be five or six of these pops and cracks occurring in each track over a 5min piece of music on a good day.
However, as I'm sure you can understand, this has ground all home recording project aspirations to a halt. I have a lot of material I'd like to record but really can't get going due to this. The external drive I record to should be fast enough to handle the job, and the System Usage window in PT shows 0-1% on all values which suggests plug-in interference isn't the problem either.
What's perhaps most confusing is that I'm still getting cracks and pops during playback outside of ProTools. The Mbox 2 is the only audio card I use for anything and as far as I'm aware the inbuilt audio card is disabled. Thus if I'm playing a track using e.g. VLC media player and Pro Tools is closed I still hear a crack/pop thing going on.
This leads me to believe that the problem is with the MBox rather than the settings within Pro Tools. I'm thinking driver issues (although these are apparently up to date), some kind of hardware issue with the unit itself, or (most likely) that the Mbox/its drivers are interacting poorly with some other process/device that is running on my computer.
The wireless card (the usual suspect) is always disabled whenever I'm planning to do any audio work, and I've followed various threads about disabling processor throttling etc to try and eliminate the possibility that power-saving processes are causing the problem.
I've also downloaded Reaper and trialed audio recordings in that DAW in an attempt to double-check that the issue is occurring outside of PT's settings/setup options. Sure enough, audio recorded in Reaper via the Mbox 2 is just as glitchy as audio recorded through PT.
IN CONCLUSION:
What I'm really hoping for here is that someone will spot something in the below Sandra report/suggest some configuration/adjustment I haven't yet tried that will make the Mbox 2 play nice with my system.
I feel like I'm kinda at my wit's end here and worry that my only alternative is to pay a lot of cash that I don't have for PT12 (which I'd have to buy fresh as no upgrade options from software this old) and a new interface (probably from a third party) in the hopes that my problems will just magically vanish.
Please don't let it come to that, if you help me fix this I'll send you a really emotional Christmas card.
Cheers,
Ali
SANDRA REPORT:
SiSoftware Sandra
Computer
Model : OEM System Product Name
Serial Number : System Ser**********
Chassis : Desktop
Mainboard : ASUS P8Z77-M
Serial Number : 1301067********
BIOS : AMI (OEM) 1708 11/09/2012
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR3
Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570K CPU @ 3.40GHz (4C 4.18GHz, 4.18GHz IMC, 4x 256kB L2, 6MB L3)
Socket/Slot : FC LGA1155
Chipset
Memory Controller : ASUS Core (Ivy Bridge) DRAM Controller 102MHz, 2x 4GB DIMM DDR3 1.63GHz 128-bit
Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Kingston KHX1600C9D34G 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-27 5-39-12-6)
Memory Module : Kingston KHX1600C9D34G 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-27 5-39-12-6)
Video System
Monitor/Panel : LCD-MONITOR
(1600x1200, 18.6")
Video Adapter : AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (24CU 1536SP SM5.0 975MHz, 16kB L2, 2GB DDR5 6GHz 384-bit, PCIe 3.00 x16)
Graphics Processor
OpenCL GP Processor : AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (1536SP 24C 975MHz, 16kB L2, 2GB DDR5 6GHz 256-bit)
Compute Shader Processor : AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (1536SP 24C 975MHz, 16kB L2, 2GB DDR5 6GHz 384-bit)
OpenGL Processor : AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series (1536SP 24C 975MHz, 16kB L2, 2GB DDR5 6GHz 384-bit)
Storage Devices
Samsung SSD 840 Series (120GB, SATA600, SSD, SED) : 112GB (C:)
WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 (1TB, SATA600, 3.5", 7200rpm) : 932GB (D:)
Logical Storage Devices
System Reserved : 100MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Samsung SSD 840 Series (120GB, SATA600, SSD, SED)
Darwin (D:) : 932GB (NTFS, 64kB) @ WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 (1TB, SATA600, 3.5", 7200rpm)
Coleridge (C:) : 112GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ Samsung SSD 840 Series (120GB, SATA600, SSD, SED)
Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : ASUS Panther Point LPC Controller
Audio Device : HIS (Hightech Information Systems) Tahiti XT HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7970 Series]
Audio Codec : ATI (AMD) HDMI Audio
Serial Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : ASUS Panther Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
USB Controller 1 : ASUS Panther Point USB xHCI Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : ASUS Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2
USB Controller 3 : ASUS Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus
Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Network Services
Wireless Adapter : Ralink RT61 Turbo Wireless LAN Card (802.11g (ERP), AES-CCMP, 54Mbps)
Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Media Center 6.01.7601 Service Pack 1
Platform Compliance : x64
Pro Tools LE 8.0.5, M Box 2, Win 7 Ultimate, Cracks/pops/audio issues
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