Occasional Audio Glitches as USB Interface

Hi, does this mean that there is somehow a way to run the QC with project samplerates at 44.1?

I’ve run my QC the last few months on my Mac Mini as an aggregated audio interface with an RME UCX interface. The UCX is the clock master running at 44.1 kHz and the QC syncs without any problems (no glitches or anyting). However if the QC is the only interface or acts as clock master then 48 kHz is the only option.

Running at 44.1 kHz is not officially supported by NDSP - maybe I’m just lucky - but as I said, no issues whatsoever.

Same issue for me when connecting my android mobile through USB for playback. Bits crushing after around 25s.
By the way it’s working well with a win 10 computer and up to date driver. Issue is only with android from my side.
Any news about it guys ?

Hmmm so i am not really familiar with aggregated device stuff, but does that mean that there is a workaround where just having another audiocard controlling the sample rate then that would work? Without using said audiocard?

I am trying to find a workaround to see how my computer acts with qc at 44.1.

On a Mac it’s easy to set up an aggergated device - and yes you can utilize just the QC analog I/O without using the analog I/O of the other card! A note though - RME have very good drivers for their cards and as I said, I might be lucky to have the right combination of gear. I haven’t really experimented - I just tried to connect as described and “it just works” :wink:

If on a Mac, you could try to make an aggregate with the internal sound card and the QC (add the internal first), set the internal as clock master at 44.1kHz

and try if you get that to work.

I have been struggling with using the Quad Cortex as an audiocard. The audio directly from the QC has never been an issue though. The issue is that the audio recorded into my daw has crackles, stutter, bitcrush / heavy distorted phasing coming from it and it is hearable through the direct monitoring. When I hook up the QC it initially works fine for a couple of minutes but then the problems occure.

The unit starts sounding like a robot and the sound changes drastically, turning it into a noisemachine. The sound is basically like putting a bitcrusher on the signal chain.

The only thing that “resets”, back to normal sound is when I restart it, unplug and plug the device back in the computer or if I press the “safe mode” off and on again. This only remedies the situation for about a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes before the issue returns.

I tried with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen and it can run perfectly on 48khz and 98khz down to 64 samplerate, so the computer is more than fine for this type of use.

Computer specs:

Huawei Matebook X Pro
16 gb ram
1 tb m2 drive
Latest Windows

I have tried:

  • Increase buffer size, to see if glitches go away/become less frequent, I have tried increasing samplerate to 2000 and the problem persists

  • Avoid any USB hubs . If any adapter is required (such us USB-C) make sure that good quality parts are used.

  • Make sure the DAW is not forcing a sample rate other than 48KHz .

  • Disconnect any other potentially conflicting hardware.

  • Change USB ports.

  • Try a different cable (shorter if possible as well).

  • Move cable away from interference sources.

  • I tried it on a mac, same thing

  • I ried plugging it in and out and the issue disappears for a couple of seconds before it returns

  • I tried in a Cubase project with nothing on it and with a preset without any blocks in the QC

  • I have tried having the QC as the main audio on the computer and not having it as the main audio.

  • Reinstalled driver several times

  • Tried Asio4All on the computer and that also works flawlessly

  • Switching inputs and outputs, only the usb outputs seems to be the issue.

I am not sure what I am missing, but the QC is so amazing when it works that it is so sad that it is unusable as an audiocard. I am hoping someone has had that same issue and that there is some kind of compatibility fix that clears the whole thing right up.

Cheers

Jahn

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I had the same issue, everything exactly as you describe it. I read in some other thread that disabling the “safe mode” helps with some pc audio issues.

Did you try that, yet? I didn’t have the time yet, but will try this later.

I’m using Reaper on Windows by the way.

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Can confirm. Turning off Safe Mode in the driver fixes the issue.

Putting in my 2 cents, I also get audio glitches when playing normal music through spotify, etc. (even with “safe mode” turned off). This seems to happen every few minutes for a few seconds. Specs are fine so shouldn’t be an issue. Haven’t recorded yet, quite scared lol.

Yeah i tried it, it resets and goes back to normal but it only lasts a couple of seconds.

Though progress has been made in understanding what this is:

It seems that it is a driver issue with Neural DSP. I suspect that something in the driver stresses the system to overload, because everytime the noise comes, it is because of a «peak», in performance, though it doesnt go away when the peak goes away. That peak in performance never happens with any other drivers.

I therefore tried using asio4all and there is no peak, no overload in the performance meter and when it peaks because of the usual stuff like to many plugins for example, it glitches like a normal interface and goes back to normal when the stress from the overload has passed. Instead of lasting until a hard reset.

Use asio4all until NDSP can update their driver. That is my take from this.

It does so for me as well, but just until the next «uncalled for», overload of the performance meter.

If the driver stresses the system somehow, safe mode fixes it, but only the few seconds before the driver stresses the system again.

I can reproduce this exactly as you say. Also nothing helps but using Asio4All, so that’s what I’ll stick with for now.

I reported this to support@neuraldsp.com referencing this thread. Hopefully they will manage to put out a fix in the near future.

Me too. I never saw myself using asio4all, but here I am…

I hope Neural DSP can fix this soon. Nothing like driving a Lamborghini with Mazda engine…

I tried running plugins in reaper last night and what a disaster. Glitches all the time and then never stops. They really need to fix this otherwise it’s largely unusable for the home / recording musician. It also makes me wonder why it’s been an issue for so long and is so problematic given you can get a simple interface for like $100 which works flawlessly and this thing has the most advanced tech with AI built into it and glitches at the first sight of an Mp3.

I also think a useful suggestion is having a mode to use the QC as an interface in standby mode without it having to run a preset simultaneously. Just seems like a waste when you’re just playing music from your computer that the unit is running a preset at the same time and in fully functioning mode. It should still be useable as a normal interface when in standby mode I think.

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I thought 512 is fairly high latency though? I don’t think there is a sweet spot per se, it really comes down to what the AI can handle. The fact there are glitches when peaking just playing normal apps on the pc and having to stick with a 512 buffer size with latency I don’t think is really good enough. It was glitching out on a track with very little going on in the DAW vst wise as well. It seems from the posts above there is definitely an issue. I think my only solution is to run it into my other interface for now and hopefully they update.

Also are you supposed to match the sample rate in the DAW to 48000? I did this anyway but just checking what the differences are between the sample rate in the DAW and sample rate on the interface itself.

I was finally able to fix mine on Windows 10 PC trying to use USB ->QC → Speakers. I started getting USB glitches on my Focusrite (although the Focusrite glitches were pops/static and not the bitcrushed sounds from the QC). Led me to find LatencyMon which pointed to my storahci driver causing huge DPC runtimes. Had to use Snappy Driver Installer since Windows updates and other drivers from my motherboard’s website were not fixing the issue. Alot of other people with DPC issues see them on USB port drivers and Network drivers as well.

Once my drivers were updated all my audio glitches went away.

Would you mind to test if you can route an instrument via the QC into a DAW and send it back via the Neural DSP ASIO driver at e.g. 64 samples buffer size without problems ?

I’m asking because on a optimized Windows 10 computer the Neural DSP ASIO driver is not reliable today. The test if your computer is working fine is ASIO4ALL - if there is no problem with ASIO4ALL the problem is not the computer configuration - if this is not correct I would like to know. But because it is working for you I’m asking about e.g. your routing.

Thank you all for the thread here, I’m glad I found it. I also just reported the Bitcrusher audio glitching to support today. I thought I was going crazy a bit until I read through all this.

I get about 2-4 minutes on average until the audio glitches, and then it stays glitchy until I toggle some audio settings in my DAW, which forces it to reset. Then it’s clean again for a few minutes until it glitches out.

It took me a while to realize where the issue was because I had been monitoring directly from the QC instead of the DAW, which always sounded fine. So I wouldn’t hear the glitches until after I had recorded a clip, which made me think the problem was the DAW.

My setup is less common though, I’m using Ubuntu Linux 20.04 as my OS, and Bitwig Studio 4.0.1 as my DAW. I kinda don’t expect to get a ton of support given my setup, but it’s at least another data point showing that this is a real issue across multiple environments.

I’m using Windows 10 and Xubuntu Linux 20.04 with kxstudio, too.
Because the QC should work as a class compliant USB 2.0 audio device
it should work with Linux out of the box, if the driver would work.
I’ve mentioned this a few times in support communication but so far no reaction.

At least in this linked article they are saying it’s class compliant:

I had the problems on my Ubuntu 20.04 install, which I use for work. Today I tried again and the issues are gone. I guess some update in the Ubuntu packages fixed the issue for me. Nothing else changed. I am happy now, but unfortunately can not give any tips as to what exactly was the culprit.