I wonder if this is a problem for M1 Macs, and if it isn't, they just aren't coding properly anymore for Intel Macs?
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Audio dropouts on Big Sur
- Thread starter Duncan68
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I wonder if this is a problem for M1 Macs, and if it isn't, they just aren't coding properly anymore for Intel Macs?
Still a problem for my intel Mac mini. I cannot play audio through my USB DAC even though it appears in the sound output device list and I can select it. My USB DAC works with my son's M1 MacBook Air.
I also have an X32 running on a pretty decent 2018 mac mini with Big Sur 1TB SSD 64GB RAM, after the upgrade from Mojito ( sorry Mojave) I noticed the audio drop outs from the X32. I've got a pretty complicated set up of external HDs, other audio interfaces ( UAD USB-C ) and so on in a professional but personal project studio.
First thing I did of course was buy a USB-C to USB-A type cable for my X32 (expensive) I had to do this once I bought the mac and upgrade from a 2012 machine which ran everything really well but was showing signs of age and just wasn't fast enough.
Last night I was streaming and had audio dropouts, ( for the umpteenth time ) plus during the day LogicX was dropping out using the X32, but when I switched to my UAD it was fine. Normally I reboot the desk and the problem goes away. I've always put it down to a buffer over run of some kind
Obviously I wish I could just use firewire but Mac 2018 doesn't have firewire and adaptors & cables needed are about £100 total, and not even sure it would work.
After Big Sur installation I updated X32 Firmware, this helped more, I have just updated firmware again to 4.06 current ( easy peasy and worth it grab firmware at https://www.behringer.com/downloads.html ), Big Sur is at 11.2.3. And been running Logic for 40 mins or so and all seems good. This may be just because I rebooted the desk or maybe the firmware...who knows?
Lastly, it really seems to matter which USB sockets I plug into on my Mac, also what is next to what and what it is doing, for example I try to keep my adaptor running my second monitor as far away from my Audio USB stuff as possible, also Audio USB interfaces music come direct out of the comp not from a hub of any kind, especially not sharing with any kind of ext HD because they sleep and index from time to time and I found that can interfere with the audio.
So one hub for HDs
One Hub for instruments and stuff
Direct outs for my Audio interfaces
All seems OK right now......I hope
hope this helps a little.
I have the same issue of random dropouts every 2 to 20 seconds on a highly-optioned 2020 iMac 5K running OS 11.2.2 big Sur. My ultra reliable Sound Devices USBPre 2 That has worked perfectly on a 2015 iMac (OS 10.10.5) for 5-years simply drops out on the new iMac. I've connected it directly to a USB 3 port, through a powered USB 3 hub and through a USB C to USB 3.1 Hub. I've also tried a MixPre 6 and a low cost "Best Connectivity" DAC. All have essentailly the same level of dropouts on Big Sur, but all work perfectly on a much slower, 6-year old iMac running OS 10.10. Totally unusable with LOGIC X, You Tube Videos or any other audio source. Switching audo to the internal Mac speakers is always fine, never any dropouts. I've removed ALL external USB devices including my dual Time Machine drives and, of course closed all other Apps including Mail. Makes no difference - USB audio is still unusable. This is definitely a Big Sur USB issue. I've not switched to OS 11.2.3 because of all the OTHER problems that have been reported. How can Apple sell $4000 computers and issue OS "updates" that have such blatant obvious problems?
Currently I have to go back to my 6-year old computer for monitoring mixes. The brand-new one is useless, and I'm disgusted with Apple.
Has anyone found a solution to this issue? I'm about ready to toss the iMac and switch back to a Windows system
Currently I have to go back to my 6-year old computer for monitoring mixes. The brand-new one is useless, and I'm disgusted with Apple.
Has anyone found a solution to this issue? I'm about ready to toss the iMac and switch back to a Windows system
I found a workaround. The dropouts on my RME Babyface Pro FS stop when using the Thunderbolt USB-C passthrough port on the back of my HyperDrive GEN2 dock. Any other USB port on the dock including USB-A ports and the non-Thunderbolt USB-C port on the front results in constant "buzzing" dropouts as if the device is running at the wrong sample rate.
The rear USB-A ports also do not work properly with my Corsair K100 keyboard. The keyboard itself works but it's not detected in Corsair's iCUE software for configuration. However, it works fine when connected to the non-Thunderbolt USB-C port or front USB-A ports, while the audio interface doesn't.
These issues occur only on macOS. All the ports work fine under Windows when the dock is connected via USB-C as a non-Thunderbolt hub.
The rear USB-A ports also do not work properly with my Corsair K100 keyboard. The keyboard itself works but it's not detected in Corsair's iCUE software for configuration. However, it works fine when connected to the non-Thunderbolt USB-C port or front USB-A ports, while the audio interface doesn't.
These issues occur only on macOS. All the ports work fine under Windows when the dock is connected via USB-C as a non-Thunderbolt hub.
I continue to have problems with listening to audio output from my Mac mini through my USB 2.0 Audio Research DAC using Big Sur. The audio output is now stuttering.
I have a 2018 Mac mini. I use an Audio Research DAC 8 (USB). It worked beautifully with Mac OS 10.14.6.
Big Sur has only caused me audio problems. Previously, with OS 11.1 and 11.2, I was unable to get any audio output via my DAC. Now with OS 11.3.1 I get audio but it is constantly stuttering and thus unlistenable.
I have tried rebooting, restarting, unplugging and changing ports, resetting the nvram and smc.
Interestingly my son's MacBook Air (apple chip) does not have this problem. If I plug the Apple chip Air into the DAC it plays normally.
I have contacted Apple Support - they couldn't help. I have contacted Audio Research - they blamed Apple.
Praying for a fix from Apple in an update soon.....
I have a 2018 Mac mini. I use an Audio Research DAC 8 (USB). It worked beautifully with Mac OS 10.14.6.
Big Sur has only caused me audio problems. Previously, with OS 11.1 and 11.2, I was unable to get any audio output via my DAC. Now with OS 11.3.1 I get audio but it is constantly stuttering and thus unlistenable.
I have tried rebooting, restarting, unplugging and changing ports, resetting the nvram and smc.
Interestingly my son's MacBook Air (apple chip) does not have this problem. If I plug the Apple chip Air into the DAC it plays normally.
I have contacted Apple Support - they couldn't help. I have contacted Audio Research - they blamed Apple.
Praying for a fix from Apple in an update soon.....
both of my interfaces continue to work (apogee groove, and eve-audio). there must be an explanation for why some ppl here are having this issue, a common denominator...
Hi Stephen / Fisher.
Many thanks for reviving this thread!
I upgraded to macOS 11.3.1 on Friday, and now have this music issue on Safari, with no adblockers on etc.
I.e. Since the macOS update only, I now continually get sound drop outs every so often on safari, specifically playing music in the background on You tube. It goes quite for a second, then just carries on, like the tracke was paused for a second.
Hope other users can advise, so we can see if there is any common patterns going on.
Regards
Martin
not exactly the same thing though, as you don't mention a usb interface. possibly worth starting your own thread. also, fwiw... have you tried rebooting?
For what it’s worth, I _seem_ to be having fewer dropouts with 11.3.1 than 11.2.x. I’m not totally sure yet, though, because as others have pointed out, the issue is worse when the CPU is cranking, and that may not have come up for me the handful of times I’ve used it in the last week.
Such a ballbreaker - especially now that once you have installed Big Sur there is no going back on the same drive
Rane SL3 worked perfectly in Catalina and bootcamp now totally unusable due to glitching.
11.4 Brought the USB connectivity back to life, but now the dropouts mean I am nowhere and playing a waiting game again
Rane SL3 worked perfectly in Catalina and bootcamp now totally unusable due to glitching.
11.4 Brought the USB connectivity back to life, but now the dropouts mean I am nowhere and playing a waiting game again
Yep, 11.4 hasn't helped me. Stuttering audio output via my USB 2.0 DAC. very frustrating.
Of course there is a way back to Catalina after installing Big Sur, I did it and even my iMac 2017 is working even better.
I just have my system cloned (Catalina) using bombich CCC before upgrading to Big Sur, as Big Sur and RME are incompatible I just connected the SSD with my Catalina clone to the iMac, selected the Catalina as a start up disk, rebooted, deleted all Big Sur partitions and cloned back the Catalina.
After that back again with the startup with the internal drive and there it is working perfectly well.
One more thing thing, Big Sur will create 2 Macintosh drives: Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data, delete both starting from data then the next one. After installing you'll probably end up with several drives, just leave the Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD - Data, unmount the others, and delete them and you'll be fine, assuming your system is APFS (Big Sur and Catalina).
That is exaclty what I did and my iMac is my everyday working tool so I can afford having it not working, and all of this thanks to RME and Big Sur not working together
.Cheers!
Hi,
For anyone facing this issue, may I suggest you to try some other sound format in the "Audi MIDI Setup" tool: it worked for me, dropouts that appeared months ago on Big Sur are now gone.
For anyone facing this issue, may I suggest you to try some other sound format in the "Audi MIDI Setup" tool: it worked for me, dropouts that appeared months ago on Big Sur are now gone.
curious what settings worked for you using the MIDI tool.
I'm having dropouts constantly on Monterey 12.2 on an MPB 14. Doesn't matter which DAC I use. It seems to be better using 88.2 kHz for some reason, but it doesn't completely get rid of it. :/
Edit: may have figured out my dropouts issue. looks like it may have been a browser open at the same time that had some media content tabs open. Even though they weren't actually active, they had the audio driver open and taking time, causing the interference.
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That's good for you if that's now resolved. Just for your information, the settings that work for me are as in my screenshot: 2ch 24bits 44.1khz, with Mac Os Big Sur 11.6.3
I know the audio bug you were (originally) talking about. I'm a nightclub DJ who has used Macs for years, and I was one of the people who was affected and frustrated by it and I spent a huge amount of time getting to the bottom of it and testing different setups.
You're thinking of the clipIfNecessary() bug. It caused USB audio interfaces to have random dropouts for a few seconds, completely at random. Sometimes you wouldn't get one for weeks, sometimes you'd get four in one night. Lots of DJ sites recommended random things like turning off wifi and bluetooth, using the front-most USB port of your MacBook for audio interfaces, and other stuff. None of it worked. The bug still happened.
It was a bug in Apple's CoreAudio framework, and it affected Mavericks (10.9), Yosemite (10.10) and El Capitan (10.11). Both Mountain Lion (10.8) and Sierra (10.12) were totally fine - zero problems.
I was lucky enough to have three identical DJ laptops at the time. They were all mirrored so I could easily wipe, change and upgrade random things. Months and months of testing showed me that it was just a Mac OS bug. Identical software, setups and audio interfaces would be totally fine on 10.8 and 10.12, but have random dropouts on any Mac OS version in between.
This bug has long since been fixed, and I'm hoping we never have anything like it again. It was a terrible time to be an audio professional with a Mac!
You're thinking of the clipIfNecessary() bug. It caused USB audio interfaces to have random dropouts for a few seconds, completely at random. Sometimes you wouldn't get one for weeks, sometimes you'd get four in one night. Lots of DJ sites recommended random things like turning off wifi and bluetooth, using the front-most USB port of your MacBook for audio interfaces, and other stuff. None of it worked. The bug still happened.
It was a bug in Apple's CoreAudio framework, and it affected Mavericks (10.9), Yosemite (10.10) and El Capitan (10.11). Both Mountain Lion (10.8) and Sierra (10.12) were totally fine - zero problems.
I was lucky enough to have three identical DJ laptops at the time. They were all mirrored so I could easily wipe, change and upgrade random things. Months and months of testing showed me that it was just a Mac OS bug. Identical software, setups and audio interfaces would be totally fine on 10.8 and 10.12, but have random dropouts on any Mac OS version in between.
This bug has long since been fixed, and I'm hoping we never have anything like it again. It was a terrible time to be an audio professional with a Mac!
Still happening on Monterey as April 25 2022. Happening to FiiO BTR5 and M-Audio Air 192|8.
Seems like most posts here have been about Intel Macs, but I'm having this exact problem on an M1 Pro MacBook Pro running 12.4, with a Schiit Modi 3. Currently my setup is Thunderbolt from the MacBook Pro to a Studio Display, and then the Modi hangs off of the Studio Display. But in the past (before the Studio Display) I had it all going through a CalDigit TS3+ with the same issues. I've tried most of the stuff mentioned in this thread, such as making sure there are no browser windows open with media players, playing with the output format in Audio MIDI Setup, etc. Nothing fixes it.
I do think it seems to be related to system utilization, because it seems worse when I have a lot of stuff going, but by "a lot of stuff going" I mean I have a couple of browsers, Slack, VS Code, Terminal and a few other things, all mostly idle. And it's so inconsistent that it's hard to be sure. But certainly CPU isn't anywhere near pegged, memory is not maxed out, and 2021 M1 Pro should be more than capable of playing audio without glitches under these circumstances. Incredibly frustrating.
I do think it seems to be related to system utilization, because it seems worse when I have a lot of stuff going, but by "a lot of stuff going" I mean I have a couple of browsers, Slack, VS Code, Terminal and a few other things, all mostly idle. And it's so inconsistent that it's hard to be sure. But certainly CPU isn't anywhere near pegged, memory is not maxed out, and 2021 M1 Pro should be more than capable of playing audio without glitches under these circumstances. Incredibly frustrating.
I'm in the exact same situation here on a MBP 14 with M1 Pro and a RME Babyface Pro.
The dropouts are quite random but seem to be linked with CPU usage "pikes" (average CPU usage: ~10%)
The issue happens with the Babyface plugged-in directly in the MBP or going through a Belkin TB4 dock.
When you close almost all running apps, it tends to be better...
But damn, it's 2022 and it's a $3000 computer... It's unacceptable.
I have signed up to the forum solely to report on this and my experiences. I use an inexpensive but well-rated USB DAC (Signstek 05) connected to my Gigabyte M28U that is KVMin between my Windows PC and a Mac (over a TB4 cable). I do get the dropouts every 10-15 seconds during my usual workflow. Granted, it's 3x4k144hz displays + about 200 Chrome tabs opened, but memory pressure is never an issue as it's a 64Gb Max config.
I first noticed it watching YT videos, and Chrome/Safari don't make a difference. I am updating the machine right now in hopes of an update fixing it (I'm on 12.3) but my main hope is with the reboot as I've been running the laptop for 53 days straight. Out of curiosity I paused YouTube and turned on Spotify and during an Update CPU was like 400% usage and was dropping out every 2-3 seconds compared to the usual 10-15.
Restarting (and updating to 12.5.1 but I doubt it did anything for the issue but the restart) did basically nothing. It's a huge pain now and I have no idea where to go. I am considering following advice from the RME forum regarding power management but it seems to not be very easy to do: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?pid=133744#p133744
I first noticed it watching YT videos, and Chrome/Safari don't make a difference. I am updating the machine right now in hopes of an update fixing it (I'm on 12.3) but my main hope is with the reboot as I've been running the laptop for 53 days straight. Out of curiosity I paused YouTube and turned on Spotify and during an Update CPU was like 400% usage and was dropping out every 2-3 seconds compared to the usual 10-15.
Restarting (and updating to 12.5.1 but I doubt it did anything for the issue but the restart) did basically nothing. It's a huge pain now and I have no idea where to go. I am considering following advice from the RME forum regarding power management but it seems to not be very easy to do: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?pid=133744#p133744
Curious: are we talking about dropouts during DAW use (Logic, Ableton, etc…) or sound cutting when playing anything (YouTube, Music, etc…)?
My experience is indeed not common as I run Big Sur on an Hackintosh. No dropouts with a Scarlett 2i2 in simple audio use, meaning audio playback only. Maybe some specific Mac hardware is triggering this?
Now, if the bug concerns DAW use, it’s another matter.
My experience is indeed not common as I run Big Sur on an Hackintosh. No dropouts with a Scarlett 2i2 in simple audio use, meaning audio playback only. Maybe some specific Mac hardware is triggering this?
Now, if the bug concerns DAW use, it’s another matter.