URGENT: Losing audio through Ultralite MK4 (RESOLVED?)

[James Steele]

MOTU has just released an updated driver yesterday for MOTU Pro Audio gear! No idea if it is connected to my problems, but let's hope it helps!

They just released updated firmware today. Check the MOTU downloads page.

[joelfriedman]

Thanks James!

I was very surprised when I booted up today and Pro Audio Control FLASHED the firmware update and box to click it and start the process all from the browser window in Safari. I used to have to go to their site, download, turn off, install... etc.

This was very simple, clear, "automated," and cool. A very good job on MOTU's part. Hopefully it will solve the gremlins.

Best,

Joel

[joelfriedman]

Unfortunately this driver seems to have turned my MK4 into a brick. I got intermittent high pithed sound after the install, rebooted and now I get nothing. No sound. Just reinstalled the driver, rebooted and nothing. I am really pissed.

[joelfriedman]

Hey, this is a THING!! The original driver did NOT work with the MK4. It did turn it into a brick. They've replaced the firmware. I spent 20 minutes with Matt from MOTU and we reverted to the previous version and then updated to the new new firmware and we are back!

Joel

[James Steele]

Yikes so there’s an even NEWER version of the firmware now?

[joelfriedman]

Yes. The one now posted has replaced the problematic file. So the file that's there under downloads or thew auto updates from within Pro Audio Control is good. I had to go through the whole revert and then update because I had the bad one from yesterday.

It is working fine now, but I've had SO many problems with audio on this iMac Pro - from intermittent "metallic cracking" to dropouts - that I'm more than a little spooked.

[James Steele]

Yes. The one now posted has replaced the problematic file. So the file that's there under downloads or thew auto updates from within Pro Audio Control is good. I had to go through the whole revert and then update because I had the bad one from yesterday.

It is working fine now, but I've had SO many problems with audio on this iMac Pro - from intermittent "metallic cracking" to dropouts - that I'm more than a little spooked.

Well, I'm just glad you got that worked out. Bummer you had to be the guinea pig! I imagine with as many MOTU interfaces as there are out there, more than a few people got bit by that. Sorry you had to have a hair pulling session. I'm going through something similar with what I suspect are some Seagate external drives that after several months of working fine with Time Machine decided to get really flaky.

[datassette]

Just chiming in to say I'm having the exact same problems.

Ultralite mk4 — 1.4.0+90954
MacBook Pro M1 Pro
macOS 12.1

When working in Adobe Audition or Bitwig using specific inputs and outputs, multitrack recording, etc., everything works flawlessly, indefinitely. But whenever generic 'main channel please' audio threads are conjured up from other apps, like previewing samples in Finder or watching YouTube videos in Chrome, audio often stutters and drops out completely (video seems to drop a bunch of frames when this happens too).

It seems like there's a risk of it happening within the first 5 seconds of every new instance of audio/video being created (pressing play on something), if it makes it beyond 5 seconds, the audio will stay alive indefinitely. So if you're previewing lots of samples in Finder, starting new instances of generic media threads (or whatever is happening) for each one, you end up with a lot of dropouts.

As others have said, the only way to recover is to switch the OS-wide output device to speakers and back.

Do MOTU devs read this forum?

[peterd]

That perfectly describes my exact experience also @datassette.

[mikehalloran]

Realized I never followed up on this. When MOTU released new drivers it *did* sort of solve the issue. I say sort of because it wasn't 100%. But it's been far better. So it does seem like it was an issue with their driver. On the other hand... my older gremlin of audio becoming distorted and metallic *has* sporadically returned with the recent Mac OS update. It's been pretty stable this week, so maybe it's going away, but I also haven't been pushing audio much at all - no Sibelius, no DP as I'm teaching. This audio weirdness has plagued my iMac Pro since I bought it in 2018. Usually after some usage with audio apps it will suddenly appear - kind of a digital/metallic clipping sound. A restart fixes it until it happens again. I've just learned to live with it (likening NotePerformer instead of Sibelius Sounds as SS kept crapping out). Maybe it will all "magically disappear" next year when I get a Mac Studio!

Best,

Joel

Many here are using interfaces that take the exact same drivers as the UltraLite mk4. If it's not this one,download it and install.

MOTU Pro Audio Installer
Mac v91078 | April 25, 2022
macOS 12, macOS 11

I do not experience the audio issues that you describe on my 18 core iMac Pro nor the 14 core iMP that preceded it and never have.

I have had problems with many apps and will no longer allow anything that Corel makes on my machines.

Sibelius what?

What are you doing with Blackhole?

[joelfriedman]

Hi Mike,

Blackhole was a loss lead. On the advice of Stanford's tech last year I installed a version of Blackhole as I wasn't able to get audio to demo anything from my keyboard (Nectar LX88+) using Sibelius or Kontakt as a standalone while using Zoom to teach. Invariably I could hear sound, the class couldn't. It used to work, if I set the various outputs and then the apps when I shared screen. Then it no longer did. Coupled with all my other BIGGER audio problems at the time (dropouts, metallic clipping within keynote decks) I totally and quickly gave up and moved on. Perhaps I need to uninstall or at least update Blackhole? It's sitting like a blackhole on my drive and I don't know enough to know if it's causing issues. I know I only select my UltraLite USB in sound prefs.

If you're brave enough to look at some crash reports I can bring up one of the original problems that I've mentioned pretty much existed since I got the iMacPro - abrupt crashes/kernel panics when using Sibelius (always updated, currently v.2022.3 Build 888). I'm not doing much DP work atm, but a few years ago it was happening with DP too, and I couldn't have Sib and DP open at the same time, but it's been far more common and consistent with Sib. As mentioned, I stopped using Sibelius Sounds years ago as I kept losing sound with their library (crackly, tinny) and regularly boot up using NotePerformer only.

I have 18 metric tons of crash reports - panic(cpu 2, 4, 6, 10, but mostly 2 & 4. Over a year ago I had multiple calls to Apple about this and 3-4 of their tech people weren't as good as normal (I hit a bad patch). HOURS n the phone going through "is your Mac plugged in?" kind of questions. I did go through the "unplug peripherals" and it MOSTLY helped (oddly I DID have a crash or 2) but of course that means no Ultralite, 2nd Dell 24" monitor, no external SSDs for projects and samples, etc. No work, and there are only certain times of the year when I can do that. I went for about a week without anything and it was *mostly* good. Not 100%. Over the past year various Apple OS updates and Motu updates seemed to fix it (but then I wasn't doing a lot of wither DP or Sib, mostly teaching). Now it's back with a vengeance. 6-8 crashes a day. As a matter of fact it just crashed as I type this on my laptop. Not an App crash, a total kernel panic crash. Boom. panic(cpu 6

Last night I went through the whole unplug everything again, booting up to run Apple hardware Diagnostics, and then Disk Utilities, and it all came back clear. It's not a RAM problem (I think). Last year I also ran EntreCheck and it came back pretty normal - nothing critical, just a few outdated apps (most of which were deleted).

So guess what? The crash I just mentioned? The only thing plugged in was... the Ultralite via USB. I booted up Sibelius, used NotePerformer as I can't even use SibSounds (it's on an external SSD), opened a file to work, typed this and... BOOM. Now THAT'S interesting. Yes, I'm on the latest MOTU driver.

I've had a crazy theory about Sibelius: since I have many of my files in Dropbox so I can access them on whatever/wherever, and only bring them down from the cloud individually when needed... maybe there is some weird Dropbox doesn't like Sibelius issue. I Do NOT see Dropbox appearing on any of the crash reports.

I've avoided and limped along and made the best of it as I had to work and couldn't shut down. I can post complete or excerpted crash reports if wanted. Aren't you glad you asked????

Best,

Joel

[mikehalloran]

About 6 months ago, I chased Dropbox down the rabbit hole. Their tech support is useless and doesn't understand that Win 10 and MacOS are not the same. Other apps were having problems including Zoom.

Long story and a couple hundred hours later: The Zoom driver was one of the culprits, Soundflower is another—but there are two current Roxio products I use that can't work without it and it only f***s with Premiere, I deleted a few other apps but the two main culprits were a Codemeter daemon used by AutoTune and another used by Corel that still installs with current versions of their products—I cannot have it on my system.

Dropbox was only the symptom, never the cause.

NotePerformer and Finale were having their own problems—turned out to be MakeMusic's issue but Arne Wallander (NotePerformer) gave me the info I needed to troubleshoot and resolve while beta testing the latest build of Finale. The problem turned out to be that I have over 450 AU plugins. Then there was the corrupt font at the bottom of all the problems I was having with Dorico… Yes, it's a laugh-in around here but everything is now working and I have a workaround for Premiere.

My point is that these things can be resolved but it sometimes takes major detective work. Meanwhile, projects don't get done on their own.

[joelfriedman]

Thanks Mike. Don't look now, but I rebooted with just the Ultralite plugged in and... it hasn't crashed since my last post (looks over shoulder, runs away in terror)....

Best,

J

[peterd]

For a few days I've been working with Computer Volume Controls turned OFF and I've not experienced the issue anymore. Previously I had this setting turned on...

Your mileage may vary, but it's worth a try turning this off to see if it resolves the issue for you. You can find this setting under:

Pro Audio Control > Device > Computer Setup > Computer Volume Controls

[joelfriedman]

Hey Peter,

Wow. I never even noticed that setting in the Motu app. I unchecked the box... who knows?

Thx

Joel