UR interfaces audio drop outs (follow-up thread)

Steinberg Hardware UR Series
322

i have given up. Tried everything including suggestions on this thread. Maybe UR22s are helped by some of these tweaks but the UR824 is 8x in and 8x out and it has a higher throughput and therefore more strain on the USB port so they dont help…it still falls over.

UR824 ripped out of my system. Replaced by brand new MOTU 8A plugged into same USB port. a few setup hoops but up and running and …not a single skip or stutter. Now i can start working on MUSIC without being laughed at by others in the room. Several people have already commented that the MOTU sounds “cleaner and smoother”.

You should not have let this happen $teinberg.I would have not gone looking for another brand/replacement if it was working. Now ive discovered how GREAT ! MOTU are im never buying a $teinberg interface ever again. How long should i wait for a driver that might or might not get released “some day”…and then might or might-not fix the problem (like the last 2 updates didnt)…life is too SHORT.

UR824 is on Ebay going CHEAP. Dont buy a new one, buy mine…Unlike $teinberg i am selling this unit with a Big disclaimer…Drivers are UNSTABLE!!

Blackout

PS nice one GIRO but i cant bring myself to set it on fire as much as i would like to! please post pics of it on fire that would bring a smile to my face!

323

I recently bought the UR12 interface. I’m experiencing the same audio dropouts that many users have described on this thread. I’ve been reading through this thread carefully as much as I could. Despite not reading everything, I believe I managed to get some good idea of what’s going on and see most relevant info and success stories.

As far as audio dropouts go, I can tell that there are at least TWO different types of dropouts described.
At this point I believe the two are unrelated and caused by different problems.

1 – audio dropouts – occurring specifically during hi-performance ASIO playbacks. (Short interruptions lasting milliseconds, ASIO driver specific cra*p , clicks and pops and spikes)
2 – big A** CUTOUTS OR USB SIGNAL INTERRUPTIONS – occurring during any type of playback (windows or DAW) LASTING MUCH LONGER.

I’m in the second category.
This is the description of the problem briefly:

The audio cuts out for periods up to 1 seconds. The interruptions are never short (IE. milliseconds).
During these cut-outs, the UR12 USB light FLASHES as if it lost the USB connection.

The cut-outs occur randomly but ALSO on any type of screen activity, IE: scrolling the audio timeline, zooming audio timeline, moving a window, dragging/selecting audio or even moving the mouse cursor. The USB light would start flashing and audio would disappear for up to (or around) a second.

Every time when pressing start on the DAW transport, DAW meters start straight away, the USB light on UR12 flashes and then sound from UR12 comes in roughly a second later. The DAW/driver appears to do their job while UR12 looses connection briefly.
This scenario occurs also when using WINAMP or any other music player or DAW (I use Mixcraft and Reaper and tested on the Cubase AI that came with the interface) on any driver scenario – ASIO, ASIO4ALL, Core Audio, Wave out etc.

All of the above happen regardless of CPU load, file complexity, VST instruments used or indeed DAW 64 or 32bit or Windows sound or whether there’s nothing else plugged in the USB ports and all possible hardware being disabled.

System:
Dell Inspiron 9400
Core2 DUO 2Ghz
3Gb Ram
Ati Radeon mobile X1400
UR12 – driver version 1.9.10 latest firmware 1.07 (haven’t tried older driver versions).

Windows7 64
Mixcraft 32bit, Reaper.

What I did trying to address the problem:

  • Updated all drivers (Chipset, Network etc) except for the Radeon (no new drives avail. due to discontinued support from Dell/ATI/AMD for Inspiron 9400/ Ati Radeon mobile X1400), running anything except Windows XP.
  • Disabled everything (including WiFi).
  • Set Windows to work in high performance mode, favour background processes, Processor min/max 100%, Made sure core parking is disabled using the Utility, - I even temporarily disabled Speed step in the system BIOS making the system run to 1Ghz.
  • Tried lots of different USB cables (different lengths and ferrite blob too).
  • Tested using Latency Monitor – no lazy drivers – the only warning is in regard to CPU throttling (although CPUz reports system running always 2ghz flat).

NO LUCK WITH ANY OF THE ABOVE

Other interfaces I used on this laptop succesfully: RME Fireface (old one), MOTU Traveller MK1 (through the built in firewire port and pci express firewire card) – worked perfectly well.
The funny thing is that Mixcraft works perfectly well (with some latency) with the inbuilt soundcard in “Core Audio (Windows)” or with the Generic low latency Asio driver mode.
For now UR12 is unusable for any kind of playback let alone music making. Shame because it’s got overzealous built quality and is as heavy as the laptop!

I suspect that this is an USB Power problem or some serious hardware conflict.
I’m yet to try powering the UR12 from an independent 2A source using the mini USB connector (I tried briefly using a phone charger, problem was still the same) or to buy a PCi Express USB card AND a 2A power supply to power the ports.
I have a Desktop Workstation which is in storage at the moment as I moved house. I will try the UR12 on that at some point. However, if it works well there won’t mean much to me because I use the Traveler on that setup and I intended the UR12 for the Laptop\Mobile setup.

324

You should return the device if it’s in free return period. This problem has already been more than 2 years and still no fix from Steinberg. It’s a driver issue, not the hardware. Buy other audio interface.

325

Schurbert…dont be fooled into thinking its not the drivers because youve tried ASIO, ASIO4ALL, Core Audio, Wave out etc.

Its not the Yamaha audio driver thats the problem. Its the Yamaha USB DRIVER. They both work together, and are installed together at once. That is why you get the same problem with an independent universal driver eg ASIO4ALL because it still must use the Yamaha USB driver to access the interface and that is where the problem is.

326

Are you guys saying there are no good drivers available?

I didn’t read the whole thread, but I see multiple UR interfaces mentioned. Are you saying all those devices are lacking good drivers?

I have a ur28m. There was a period a month or two ago when I was getting dropouts, but after a change in my workflow and one or two W10 updates, that seems to have gotten better, so I’m thinking maybe that wasn’t a driver issue.

327

For some systems, there is no good driver. For some they work flawlessly. That is why it is so frustrating for those that can’t get it to work. :frowning:

328

Thanks for the clarification. I’m going to try and swap it for the Focusrite. Few years ago I had some serious problems with cubase sl 3 running NI plugins… and now this. I think I’m done with Steinberg.

329

That’s interesting, will it also support my CI 1?

330

The YSUSB driver is a unified driver for all UR and CI interfaces (and other Yamaha hardware as well), so yes, it will be supported.

331

Thanks for clarifying.

332

I have a UR28M, and don’t have dropouts. What are the system characteristics associated with dropouts?

333

To me it seems to be usually with X99 boards

334

hello, this fixed the audio cut out for me, go to network and sharing center, go to change adapter settings. there you have wireless and LAN, disable wireless. that worked for me at least for now.

my pc specs
MB: MSI x99s sli+
CPU: intel 5820k
GPU: gtx 1080 armor
RAM: hyperX 16gb 2400mhz model number khx2400c15d4/4g
PSU: EVGA 850 P2
SSD: kingston 250gb
HD: Western Digital 1tb black

the bios settings are default with the latest driver, i only overclocked cpu and did not enable xmp yet tho. i did not touch any other setting in the bios

335

I think it’s something relateted to graphic card and network card. Cus my laptop also has problem as well as desktop PC.

336

1
Яндекс.Переводчик

Русский

Английский

Hello! I also have the problem! win 8.1 x64 amd a10. Help to reinstall for Win10?

337

my UR824 worked flawlessly with my old Intel DX58S02 motherboard for several years.

the minute i upgraded to the X99…all hell broke loose. Still with Win7 x64 install. i also have Nvidia graphics (G700 series).

so its some major issue with this MB. Others have problems with certain laptops also

338

just joined and read thru this thread (wish id done it before buying ) hoping to find the solution to drop outs. but thread seems to end a year ago. Has everyone given up? or gone crazy?
hoping not. As it is I feel like ive been mugged-by a trillion dollar business. I wanted an audio interface not a course in computer diagnostics!
And so hard to return goods ( unless you want to take on germany- based steinberg and/or amazon). If you buy a car (or anything else) and it dosnt work there are legal requirements. Doesnt seem to apply to computer tech. strange

339

Hi,

I’m one of the users who had no issue with the UR22 until I replaced the motherboard from an ASRock X99 WS to an ASUS X99-E WS and the CPU from a 5820K to a 6850K.

In an effort to identify the cause, I gradually removed from my PC every device that could be removed. I even swapped the system (C:) drive and the GPU. With a bare-bones system, i.e. motherboard, CPU, RAM, graphics card and HDD, the problem persists.

I currently consider as most likely, candidate culprits: (a) the motherboard, (b) software drivers relating to the motherboard, or (c) a bug in the Yamaha USB driver.

In the following experiment, I made a potentially useful observation: I opened a YouTube video in Mozilla Firefox, as well as an MP3 file in Windows Media Player and I let both applications playback audio via the UR22 interface. For as long as I did not use the mouse to interact with either of these applications, I did not get any dropouts. When I moved the mouse back and forth between the applications (without clicking on anything), I got multiple dropouts within seconds!

The aforementioned behaviour has nothing to do with USB 3.0 vs USB 2.0, nothing to do with the USB cable or the power of the audio interface; it’s purely a matter of how multitasking is handled by the hardware and the software (Windows kernel and software drivers). In other words, it’s either a motherboard (hardware) fault (could be a design issue affecting all motherboards of a particular model or a manufacturing defect affecting individual motherboards) or a software bug. A software bug could be in the Windows kernel or in a device driver that somehow affects the operation of the USB interface.

Unfortunately, Steinberg does only application software development, while Yamaha develops and maintains the software driver for the audio interfaces. Having said that, Steinberg’s support should still be working on this and keep us updated. I opened a support ticket with Steinberg a month ago and I haven’t received ANY response from them. This is completely unacceptable.

I’ll continue to investigate and come back if I discover something.

340

Try connecting the interface on another USB port direct to mainboard, no hub between… try them all…
My mousewheel-dropouts are gone now since using one of the USB3.0 ports.

341

my dropouts got WORSE on the 3.0 ports. The 2.0 ports were kinda more steady…but of course not fixed. I put it down to the US824 having 2.0 ports also.

i re-iterate again my belief that the bug/problem is not in in the actual Audio INTERFACE DRIVER. its in the YAMAHA USB driver that is also installed.