My painful journey with Ultralite mk5

[Max14]

Bought a new mk5 and started google "Motu drivers errors" and "Ultralite mk5 noises/cracks" next day

Using MacBookPro 16 (Intel 2.6 i7, Ventura 13.2.1, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB) and experience soft crackles/noises during playback (DAW, Youtube, Music). Both on Motu drivers and Apple Class-compliant. Got a soft noise nearly every 30 second (not constant, not in time/rhythm). When monitoring direct with onboard comp, eq, reverb - no noises at all.

Tried Windows laptop with Motu drivers - the number of cracks are way less, but still I've notices one in 3-5 minutes.
Tried USB hub and use USB-C to USB-A - the same issues.

Interesting thing, that if I record my guitar and play the bounce on the other machine (or phone) - NO noises/crackles at all .

Also tried the unit on Mac with Windows installed (BootCamp), the same crackles/noises as Mac with Ventura.

Didn't check on M Apple-Silicon processors.

Very frustrated with the unit, thought to buy PC/Windows to avoid this case (it still way better than Apple in my case), but the cracks occurs sometimes.

[motujared]

This does not sound like expected behavior. I would recommend, if you haven't already, to get in touch with the MOTU support team. They will be able to walk you through additional troubleshooting steps, or look into replacing your unit if that becomes necessary.

[mikehalloran]

What plug-ins are you using?

One of my favorite 3rd party plugs cannot be in my DP project while tracking, even on another track and bypassed. I can add it in only after tracking when I start mixing.

MOTU's Masterworks Limiter causes similar problems if I use it on multiple tracks and the levels are too hot—how warm depends on the number of tracks.

I'm not saying it is a plug but there are many possible sources of this kind of noise and they can sometimes be a real bear to find.

Otherwise, i'll assume that you have the latest firmware installed.

Firmware Supports
UltraLite-mk5 Firmware
1.2.2+2492 | Aug. 16, 2023
For all supported platforms

[Max14]

Yep, got in contact with Motu support, will record these noises during the weekend, also share here.

As for plug-ins - i'm not using it, the noise comes from any source of playback - Youtube, Music, GarageBand etc.
Well I use one - S-gear3 for my guitar, the same soft cracks and pops.

the purchase of mk5 was mainly for 1.5ms latency i got in s-gear on 96K rate, and it's working flawlessly (no drop outs / distortion like one may have with low buffers in plug-ins). The cracks/pops is coming definitely not from low buffer in the s-gear plugin.

[Max14]

Here is a link to the video with some clicks during a playback (from youtube).

https://youtu.be/VO6dhcbYdhs?si=BVPS2WdU-l-CXPs2

[Max14]

Quick update:

Tested with new iphone 15 pro - NO pops/cracks (at least for 5 mins), that gives me a hope to solve this issue.

[Alessio.92]

Bought a new mk5 and started google "Motu drivers errors" and "Ultralite mk5 noises/cracks" next day

Using MacBookPro 16 (Intel 2.6 i7, Ventura 13.2.1, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB) and experience soft crackles/noises during playback (DAW, Youtube, Music). Both on Motu drivers and Apple Class-compliant. Got a soft noise nearly every 30 second (not constant, not in time/rhythm). When monitoring direct with onboard comp, eq, reverb - no noises at all.

Tried Windows laptop with Motu drivers - the number of cracks are way less, but still I've notices one in 3-5 minutes.
Tried USB hub and use USB-C to USB-A - the same issues.

Interesting thing, that if I record my guitar and play the bounce on the other machine (or phone) - NO noises/crackles at all .

Also tried the unit on Mac with Windows installed (BootCamp), the same crackles/noises as Mac with Ventura.

Didn't check on M Apple-Silicon processors.

Very frustrated with the unit, thought to buy PC/Windows to avoid this case (it still way better than Apple in my case), but the cracks occurs sometimes.

Hey Max14,

I've just bought a Motu Ultralite MK5 and experiencing the same issue, using Ableton (click & pops on playback).
Having looked at your YouTube video, it sounds exactly like what you recorded.

Have you had any luck fixing the problem since you posted about it and uploaded the video?

I have already checked the frame rate / buffer size and everything looks in order, so it must be something else...?

Please let me know
Many thanks!

Alessio

[Calagan]

Since I bought it 2 years ago I had many and various issues on my ultralite mk5 (on a M1 Pro MBP).

So far I'm running the drivers 93305 and everything is fine.
It may not be the same for you, but the best you could do is to try different drivers and see if it works.
When you find one that works, NEVER UPDATE AGAIN.

Changing OS may also fix something (because it may be a combination of OS and drivers).

I don't trust the Motu support anymore : I spent months speaking with them, I even sent them the unit and they "did not find any issue with it". At the end, they told me this device had compatibility issues with Apple Silicon computers so Apple was to blame, not them, even if I pointed in my discussion many similar posts as yours that document issues on Windows and Intel Macs.

EDIT : actually, I think Sonoma may have fixed my issue. When I check the history of my problems, they all vanished after I updated to Sonoma. The 93305 drivers were still problematic from time to time on Monterey.
Monterey was not working with my unit (on my system at least)

[Max14]

Hi everybody, sorry for keeping silence for that long.

Just updated firmware to 2.0.1.+2555:24 and driver to 2.0.0+95375 - my intel macbookpro still has the same cracks.

My iphone 15p still playing through the interface w/out any issues.

Had some thoughts to sold the unit - but of course with the info on these cracks.

However maybe i'll switch to ipad someday - for music hobby and recording some guitar&vocals it's OK for me.

[Calagan]

Don’t you have a warranty ?
You should give the unit back to motu.
There’s too much issues like that and they don’t help sufficiently.
You shouldn’t have to stand these issues…