Motu M4 sound problems

[Emanu3le85]

Hello,

is it normal for a motu m4 to cause glitches and artifacts both in audio playback and with Cakewalk project with a MSI Katana 17 b13vfk intel i 7 (13620H) gaming PC even at 512 (48000)? I have the latest drivers and firmware for the m4. I have updated the entire PC (Windows 11 home) but the sound card continues to produce annoying glitches with the DAW and with normal audio playback with Windows media player. 

Edited February 14 by Emanu3le85

[Promidi]

Have you used task manager to check for any background tasks that is running that could be interfering with audio playback

Maybe give Latency Mon a look into.

https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

[Emanu3le85]

1 hour ago, Promidi said:

Have you used task manager to check for any background tasks that is running that could be interfering with audio playback

Maybe give Latency Mon a look into.

hello Promidi , thanks for this application, it has already found some problems, I'm not a PC expert, I'll try to attach the screenshot. Thank you very much

Edited February 14 by Emanu3le85

[Promidi]

Have you optimised you PC for audio?

You might want to look into disabling any sleep settings on your PC and optimise the power settings.

See about disabling Speedstep and C-States.  (This is done in the bios - if you are not sure how to do that, then get someone to physically help with this)

Set CPU power settings min and max to 100%.  Start + Run   "control powercfg.cpl,,1"  without quotes  (Under Processor Power Management)

[Emanu3le85]

3 hours ago, Promidi said:

Have you optimised you PC for audio?

You might want to look into disabling any sleep settings on your PC and optimise the power settings.

See about disabling Speedstep and C-States.  (This is done in the bios - if you are not sure how to do that, then get someone to physically help with t

 

his)

Set CPU power settings min and max to 100%.  Start + Run   "control powercfg.cpl,,1"  without quotes  (Under Processor Power Management)

the problem is really finding someone who can help me because I'm not good, I saw thanks to latencymon that there are processes including "wdf01000" which causes audio problems, or bios updates, I hope to succeed. Thanks

[John Vere]

I have the Motu M4. Your issue might be  the audio driver USB power and needing to get Latency monitor down in the Green as well. 
I see the Katina is a laptop. Laptops are often a issue with bios bloatware that is needed for battery management. 
 I just built a new desktop and the MoBo is made by same company MSI. 
I literally had to do nothing after I fired it up and before I installed any software I ran latency monitor and it was barely showing anything. 

So I hope you can get that sorted. 

But then the Motu. 
On my last computer I first used a Scarlett 6i6 and it was getting old as well as I never liked certain things about it. 
I did a lot of research and the Motu was definitely the best features for the price point. 
But right away I had glitches and crackles.  I had always ran the 6i6 at  a 256 buffer.  I had to go to 512 and even then it was on the edge. 

I contacted Motu and they told me I needed a more powerful USB port.

So I installed a USB 3 PCI e card. This made it stable at 512. 

It had one more issue were after the computer had been running other apps it would record all distorted. I always had to restart computer to do any recording. 

I used it for 2 years just sucking it up because otherwise I liked it well enough to not be tempted to return to the Scarlett. 

I needed a small mixer for live gigs and bought a Zoom L8. I then found out it was a real good audio interface as well.
 

It ran smoothly at 256. So I’ve been using that and shelved the M4 up there with the 6i6. 
I built the new computer and continued using the L8 at 256 buffer.
Then about 3 weeks ago I set up the M4 and it’s been working perfectly  at 256 buffer. It likes my new computer! 

So get that bios sorted out and make sure you have enough power form the USB port you are using. 
I have a feeling that was still my issue with the old computer. 
 

Edited February 14 by John Vere

[Emanu3le85]

thanks for the info, but do you think msi's katana 17 series is good for a daw? I think it's a nice, fairly powerful computer, however I'll do everything I can to better understand the settings, it seems there are a lot of problems to solve

[HIBI]

This thread may help.

 

[Emanu3le85]

after a day tied to the desk I managed to lighten a lot of the load on the CPU thanks to an "Optimizer" app for Win 10 and 11, I also deactivated the energy saving on many activities especially the USB3.1 port but not on the processor, now the projects no longer have problems even at 256 buffer, the Latencymon levels have lowered but it says that there are still problems although the audio is now much faster and more stable,

HIBI, thanks for the link it is exactly one of the processes that puts the PC in crisis I'll try to study better tomorrow, for today I'm satisfied, thanks!! (Google translate) 

Edited February 15 by Emanu3le85

[rsinger]

7 hours ago, Emanu3le85 said:

thanks for the info, but do you think msi's katana 17 series is good for a daw? I think it's a nice, fairly powerful computer, however I'll do everything I can to better understand the settings, it seems there are a lot of problems to solve

I have an msi crosshair that's a couple years old and it's fine. For the most part I followed Sweetwater's optimization guide.

https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/pc-optimization-guide-for-windows-10/

Check the bios and set it for performance - although the crosshair is a gaming machine the bios was set for balanced. For audio work you'll want to boot up and not run any other apps and put the machine in airplane mode. If you just booted, wait a couple minutes before running latency mon. HTH.

[Emanu3le85]

10 hours ago, rsinger said:

I have an msi crosshair that's a couple years old and it's fine. For the most part I followed Sweetwater's optimization guide.

https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/articles/pc-optimization-guide-for-windows-10/

Check the bios and set it for performance - although the crosshair is a gaming machine the bios was set for balanced. For audio work you'll want to boot up and not run any other apps and put the machine in airplane mode. If you just booted, wait a couple minutes before running latency mon. HTH.

fantastic, now I have tons of tutorials to watch, can the OS settings be saved for hypothetical formatting or will I have to redo everything if I reset?

[rsinger]

5 hours ago, Emanu3le85 said:

fantastic, now I have tons of tutorials to watch, can the OS settings be saved for hypothetical formatting or will I have to redo everything if I reset?

I don't know what you mean by hypothetical formatting. The changes in Sweetwater guide and the change in bios only need to be made once.

If you mean you want to reimage the disk to its original state, the Sweetwater changes will be lost, but not the bios switch. You'd need to go back into the bios and change it back. 

Edited February 15 by rsinger