Crackling when using heat as a audio interface

Elektron Gear Analog Heat
#1

I use heat as an audio interface, recording into ableton, and sometimes I get crackling/interference/noise over a section of the recording. Only when I use heat as an audio interface, not when I use overbridge.

I don’t see the sound meter clipping on the heat, there is a good -5db headroom on ableton’s display. I set up the buffer on ableton as per the instructions, and I don’t see CPU spikes.

Anyone else get this, or have ideas to help me trouble shoot?

Cheers
Russell

EDIT: I ran exactly the same sequences through it again and there was no crackling…I didn’t hear crackling in the headphones I have plugged into the heat to monitor.

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#2

Just a wild guess, windows 10 ?

#3

@Microtribe

I was going to say yeah this is inevitable because that’s what I thought, but now I’m curious. Is Windows 10 the issue? That’s my OS 🥲

#4

Well, I have zero experience using AH as an audio interface.

But… I used to work ITB, until I upgraded my computer for a kickass mega machine, SSD fuck tons of RAM, super processors etc. It came with windows 10. And then my problems started. Intermittent crackling, seeminly random. I tried everything. New interface, cables, power, updates, contacted ableton, interface tech support. Even got my computer checked out by a computer tech.

None of them could solve my problem. Until the computer tech guy said… ‘so you never had this with windows 7?’ And boom. That was that.

We never could figure out why it happens. But basically, the endless struggle with software and bullshit anomalies pushed me away from software and into the reliable arms of hardware.
Glitch free ever since. Fuck you windows.

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#5

MacOs Big Sur, on a shiny new MacBook Air with an M1 chip.

I guess I keep going as is and try and discern if it is random or driven by events…also, since I don’t care about latency (I don’t monitor ableton while recording) I can up that buffer and see if it goes away.

It isn’t frequent. I think I record something every few days, and I’ve had the problem twice in 3 weeks.

#6

Do you have an alternate audio interface? Do you get the glitching with the AH routed via the alternate interface?

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#7

Yes. I can try that. But with it being so infrequent…but yes, lots of things still to try.
I posted in the blind hope someone would respond " Yes! I used to get that, and I changed setting X and now it is fine" :smiley:

#8

I know that they updated it to work with Big Sur on an M1 via Overbridge, but maybe not as an interface just yet.

I’d contact support, as I would guess your issue is related to the M1 chip in some way.

2 Likes
#9

I had the same problem. after setting everything to 512 buffer via overbridge and the ableton settings and the sampling rate to 9600 via ableton, it was gone. no idea whether these are really good settings, but it works. and this old update for the heat is also on it, now it doesn’t crash either.

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#10

Did you install Win7 on that computer then and it worked fine again?

#11

That was the plan. Never got round to it. Windows discontinued 7, so its not easy to get anymore. Ableton is on version 10 or 11 now? I still have 9.7.

I moved away from software and all the happier for it really. Working with hardware suits me much better.

#12

Just chiming in to say I’m getting this. Kinda static distortion of the signal when using Heat as audio interface. Happens for about a second about once an hour or so.

Intel Mac using Ableton.

Annoying!

#13

Maybe try increasing the audio buffer in Ableton.

#14

Nah, it wasn’t that. It was just a bit shite.

Occasional crackling, whatever the setting.

Also, recorded audio came in funny, like the audio had some weird small amounts of clock drift all over it in both directions. I had to slightly quantise my audio all the time after a take.

As soon as I switched back to the SSL2, all the problems were gone.

Just ‘coz Heat can do it, doesn’t mean it excels at it. I wouldn’t use it as a sound card again unless I was desperate!