Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

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Discussion related to installation, configuration and use of MOTU hardware such as MIDI interfaces, audio interfaces, etc. for Mac OSX
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bribri
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Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by bribri »

Hello all, this is my first post here. I've been using MOTU equipment for years and usually haven't had a problem, but recently I've been having some show stopping issues with my Audio Express and I was hoping someone could help me.

There are two issues I'm experiencing:

The first more severe issue is that when my Audio Express is connected using Firewire, it will cause my entire system to completely crash, on a more or less weekly basis. The symptoms are that an application will try to play audio, it will fail, and then it will freeze. Then, gradually every single application on my system will freeze until everything is completely unresponsive and I have no choice but to do a hard reboot. This has happened on two different macs now, first a 2009 Mac Pro and then a 2017 iMac, so I think it rules out it having to do with a bad Firewire cable or interface. I am using the latest driver from MOTU.

It took me months to track down the source of this crash, but as soon as I disconnected the Audio Express or changed its connection to USB, the issue went away.

The second issue is that when the Audio Express is connected via USB, it will constantly cause loud clicks and pops to play during normal use. This is not a buffering issue in my DAW. It happens any time any application produces sound after no audio has been played for several minutes. Most often it happens with sound effects in the Finder or from message notifications playing. Incidentally, if I have an app like QuickTime play a 100% silent audio file on loop, it stops the clicks from happening, not that I consider that a good solution.

Could it be that my Audio Express is defective? In my experience MOTU usually makes very reliable and capable hardware, so this kind of problem is new to me. I did purchase this Audio Express second hand.

I have contacted MOTU technical support about these issues but haven't received a reply yet.

Any assistance anyone could provide with fixing these issues would be most appreciated!
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mikehalloran
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Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by mikehalloran »

Are you trying to run this on bus power? If so, use external power and see if this fixes everything.

External power is required for USB 2 and FW on any Mac with a Thunderbolt port (2011 and later).
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
bribri
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by bribri »

mikehalloran wrote:Are you trying to run this on bus power? If so, use external power and see if this fixes everything.
Nope, I am using external power.
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mikehalloran
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Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by mikehalloran »

In that case, you should look at the clock. In the user manual, that will be listed many times and there are many ways to set it up depending on what else is going on with your system.

I like to search the .pdf file and see what applies to your setup.

http://cdn-data.motu.com/manuals/firewi ... al_Mac.pdf
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
bribri
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by bribri »

mikehalloran wrote:In that case, you should look at the clock. In the user manual, that will be listed many times and there are many ways to set it up depending on what else is going on with your system.

I like to search the .pdf file and see what applies to your setup.
Thanks for the suggestion. Given that I am currently using only the Audio Express and no other audio interface or input source, the correct clock choice as indicated by the manual is "Internal", which is what it's been set to. However, I'll try using one of my other audio devices as the clock source and see what happens.

... Nevermind, setting it to anything other than "Internal" immediately causes the Audio Express to produce small pops every second or so, sometimes more. So that actually makes the problem quite a bit worse.

I'll see what happens if I leave it at "Internal" and change the sample rate from 44100 to 48000, just as an experiment.
bribri
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Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:02 am
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Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by bribri »

Update: changing the sample rate has no effect on the popping issue. :(
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mikehalloran
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Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by mikehalloran »

Have you run the OS 10.13.2 update yet? Among other things, it fixes issues with USB devices. Perhaps this is one of them.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
bribri
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by bribri »

mikehalloran wrote:Have you run the OS 10.13.2 update yet? Among other things, it fixes issues with USB devices. Perhaps this is one of them.
I just finally got around to updating my system to 10.13.2. Unfortunately it has not fixed the issue.
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mikehalloran
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Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by mikehalloran »

I use my Mac as the clock source and not my MOTU interface.
DP 11.31; 828mkII FW, micro lite, M4, MTP/AV USB Firmware 2.0.1
2023 Mac Studio M2 8TB, 192GB RAM, OS Sonoma 14.4, USB4 8TB external, M-Audio AIR 192|14, Mackie ProFxv3 6/10/12; 2012 MBPs Catalina, Mojave
IK-NI-Izotope-PSP-Garritan-Antares, LogicPro X, Finale 27.4, Dorico 5.2, Notion 6, Overture 5, TwistedWave, DSP-Q 5, SmartScore64 Pro, Toast 20 Pro
bribri
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by bribri »

mikehalloran wrote:I use my Mac as the clock source and not my MOTU interface.
As I mentioned, setting the clock source to anything other than "internal" causes regular pops and clicks to play over the speakers. Even worse, all sound stops working.

Could it be that my Audio Express is defective?

edit: I'll also note that I've heard back from MOTU about the firewire issue. Hopefully they'll be able to help me resolve it, and if so I'll post the solution here.
bribri
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Dec 05, 2017 10:02 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Serious issues with my Audio Express: pops and crashes

Post by bribri »

It's been a while, but I'd thought I'd follow up on this thread and mention that MOTU support suggested I do a factory reset of my Audio Express by doing the following: "Hold the MIX and PHONES knobs simultaneously for three seconds, until the countdown finishes. The LEDs will display a "d" when the reset is completed."

Since doing that, I've pretty much stopped experiencing any crashes. (There may have been one, but it also may have been a fluke.)
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