Hello, and thank you in advance for taking the time to read this. I’ve had one problem since my very first version of Dorico that I haven’t been able to solve on my own. I’d be very grateful for any help.
During playback and when clicking notes, I hear consistent fuzz and dropouts in the audio. The same interface and driver work perfectly at the same settings in every other audio application on this PC (Ableton Live, Reaper and Sibelius), so I suspect something specific to the combination of Dorico and my interface’s driver.
My system specs are:
Windows 11, AMD Ryzen 9 3900X (12 cores), 64 GB RAM, all SSD
Set 44.1 kHz everywhere (MOTU driver settings, Windows sound settings and Dorico Device Setup).
The “Dorico Pro 6 audio cutting out” thread suggested enabling a sample-rate sync option in the MOTU driver, but my UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid’s driver doesn’t offer one.
Larger buffer sizes, and ASIO-Guard on and off.
Setting the VST Audio Engine to High priority, with Efficiency mode off.
Exported audio is completely clean, so the problem only happens during real-time playback.
LatencyMon during crackling playback reported the system as suitable for real-time audio without dropouts.
Setting HALion Sonic’s Multi-Core option to 11 of 12 cores fixed separate dropouts in larger projects. Even so, a project with only a single HALion instrument (Concert Grand Elements) still crackles through the MOTU ASIO driver.
With FlexASIO instead of the MOTU ASIO driver, the crackling disappears completely (WASAPI shared mode, 882-sample buffer). However, the extra latency makes it difficult to play from a MIDI keyboard and selecting notes always has a playback delay, so I’d love to get the MOTU driver working.
The Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver had very high latency, making it basically unusable.
I’ve attached a diagnostic report from a session where the problem occurred. Is this a known issue, or is there anything else you’d suggest I try? I’m happy to run any further tests or provide more information. Thank you very much for your help, and for all your work on Dorico.
With that setting, was the latency still too bad?
Then I read the manual of the Motu and it said:
'GENERAL’ TAB SETTINGS
Sample Rate
Choose the desired Sample Rate for recording and
playback. The UltraLite-mk3 can operate at 44.1
(the standard rate for compact disc audio), 48,
88.2, 96, 176.4 or 192KHz. If you have a S/PDIF
device connected to the UltraLite-mk3, make sure
that it matches the UltraLite-mk3’s sample rate.
☛ Mismatched sample rates cause distortion and
crackling. If you hear this sort of thing, check the
sample rate settings in your hardware and here in
MOTU Audio Console.
At your first point you mentioned that you “set 44.1 kHz everywhere”. But did you also check on the hardware device itself?
44.1 kHz is set everywhere: the UltraLite-mk3 Hybrid’s front panel, the MOTU Audio console (Internal clock), Windows and Dorico. No other audio applications were open during the tests, and nothing is connected to S/PDIF.
MOTU ASIO driver, testing with a single HALion instrument:
192 samples, ASIO-Guard on: crackles and dropouts
512 samples, ASIO-Guard on: crackles and dropouts
1024 samples, ASIO-Guard off: crackles and dropouts
1024 samples, ASIO-Guard on: completely clean, about 60 ms latency
FlexASIO driver:
WASAPI exclusive, 256 samples: crackles, with ASIO-Guard on or off
WASAPI shared, 441 samples: clean, but measured against Ableton, Dorico’s sound arrives about 65–90 ms later
So from what I can tell the crackling isn’t tied to the MOTU driver, it happens with any driver unless the buffering is very large and ASIO-Guard is on. Even at 1024 samples without ASIO-Guard it breaks up, while Ableton Live, Reaper and Sibelius play cleanly at 192 samples on the same system. Setting Windows to Best performance power mode made no difference unfortunately.
Could something in my system be causing Dorico’s audio engine to overload in real time? I’ve attached a new diagnostic report from a session with crackles.
Hi @MusicNotator , then I wonder how it behaves if you choose the new Steinberg Built-in ASIO driver. That one is based on the Generic Low Latency ASIO driver but instead it uses the new WASAPInterface. Does that one also crackle?