UR22 glitching

Steinberg Hardware
#1

For quite a while now I’ve been getting high-pitched glitching from my UR22, or at least I’m pretty sure it’s coming from the unit. When I play sound files off my laptop through it there’s frequent crackling, and when I record this appears as a brief high-pitched electronic sound exactly once every minute, and it appears visibly on the waveform. Occasionally it’ll happen outside of the one-minute time-frame, and sometimes in more extended bursts, but usually it’s regular. This is driving me crazy, as I can’t record for more than one minute without the take being ruined.

I’ve tried replacing the USB cable, which didn’t change anything, and using all 3 of the USB ports on my laptop, which didn’t help. I’ve tried shutting down other processes on the computer too, but this doesn’t seem to make a difference. I have to admit I’m not at all technically adept, so there may be something obvious I’m overlooking. The computer is an HP laptop with Intel Core 1.70/2.40GHz processor, 8G of RAM and 64-bit operating system. I was thinking maybe the RAM is not enough, but this problem has only started in the past few months, and there wasn’t a problem at first.

So I’m not 100% sure, but I think the problem is with the UR22 interface. The problem is the same regardless of input.
This is what the glitch sounds like, just against an ambient drone:
https://soundcloud.com/user-821328752/glitch-demo

#2

I think it could be DPC latency which can be addressed by tweaking your OS for audio work. The default software to check this is latencymon: http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon_whatsnew

There are numerous guides about tweaking your OS for audio, depending on your specific OS but here’s one from Steinberg: https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/optimizing-windows-for-daws.html

Also, you can try a benchmark: http://www.dawbench.com/benchmarks.htm

The fact the problem wasn’t always there can be accounted for by new software/drivers/windows patches so it’s worth a shot.

#3

Thanks for that info. I’ve done what tweaking of the OS I could figure out and tried downloading the newest drivers for the UR22 as well. Unfortunately the glitching is still there. It’s not quite as bad now, and happening at exactly 1 or 2 minute intervals, but still there.

Is this pretty much always a problem with the computer, or could it be the interface itself?

#4

Hi, the fact the behaviour changed after some reconfiguration strongly suggests it’s solvable by more tweaking.

It’s pretty common (I would say almost default) on Windows OS-es which isn’t a real-time OS so not really suited for audiowork (as opposed to Apple which uses “core audio”) to experience glitching.

For example I have a dual-boot OS with one OS (Win 8.1) optimized for audio and one mainstream OS (first also Win 8.1 but now Win 10) and I experience glitching on the mainstream OS and none on my DAW OS.

I suggest you use latencymon to see if you still experience DPC latency and then find some guides on troubleshooting the responsible drivers and/or IRQ conflicts. It can require a bit of focus and patience to check all processes but it’s a one time thing after which you’ll be a happy UR-user :wink: