Mac Studio with Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 (3rd gen): glitch

I have Hauptwerk v7 on a Mac Studio with Focusrite 18i8 i/f.
Unfortunately, there is an audio glitch approximately 1/hour, or maybe a little more frequent.

When I set it up with a 10 year old Mac Mini, it works flawlessly, no glitches.

I read about a similar topic with a Motu i/f:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=20523
Apparently that one was solved with updated driver/firmware from Motu.

I raised a ticket with Focusrite Support but as for now, they could not help me.

I have the impression that some audio i/f drivers are still not fine for Apple M1 silicon.

I would love to read your experiences or recommendations on this topic.

Are you using the following driver and MacOS 10.15+?

"Focusrite Control 3.17.0 - Mac
Intel and Apple Silicon (M1). macOS 10.15 and later."

Found here: https://downloads.focusrite.com/focusri ... i8-3rd-gen

Thanks for feedback mnailor.

Yes indeed, I have Focusrite Control 3.17.0.179 and MacOS 14 (Sonoma) installed.

Is the Mac connected to the internet? Any background processes like disk checks, virus scans, update checkers, etc. enabled that might run periodically?

I think the best is to wait for Focusrite to get back to you. Motu fixed the driver on mine, but it took quite a while. I tried a lot of things that ultimately didn't get rid of the audio error, and it was very similar to the one you're experiencing.

[mdyde]

I have no experience with Focusrite's current/recent interfaces, but in case it's relevant, you might try:

- Keep your Focusrite Scarlett connected to a USB port directly on the Mac (not via a USB hub).

- Make sure that all macOS power-saving features are disabled, such as 'App Nap' (a.k.a. 'Power Nap'): https://www.lifewire.com/control-how-ma ... ap-2260788

- Reboot after changing any of the above for good measure.

- As a test, temporarily disconnect the Mac from any network connections (unplug any Ethernet cables, disable WiFi and Bluetooth, etc.), then also temporarily disable any virus scanner (or similar) software that you might have.

Thank you all for feedback.

I checked your recommendations:
- after launch Hauptwerk I disconnected Wifi : issue still remains, even without network connection
(Bluetooth I still need to check)
- USB-C from Focusrite is directly connected to the Studio
- Power Nap feature only exists for Intel processors

Focusrite support told me Scarlett is a class-compliant USB device so there is no dedicated Focusrite driver involved.

Would be good if there was an overview from Apple (or Hauptwerk) to identify and how to disable background processes that are disturbing. I think I need to look into that area, maybe it is even only a Mac Studio software configuration issue?

I tried a large number of things that were all useless, as I documented on the previous thread. I got a good quality port replicator to try to bypass the T2 chip (which was a problem in the past), tried using a power conditioner (which reduced how often it happened to me a lot, but didn't eliminate it), I even fiddled about with the processor priority, and nothing helped. All my problems were with the class compliant driver from Apple, the Motu driver didn't originally work properly. Honestly, if it was me I'd sell the Focusrite and buy a Motu instead. Waiting for Motu to update their drivers was bad enough. It took them about 5 months after I bought my 24Ao, and I missed the fact there was a new driver for two months! I spent hours, and tried everything I could think of!

[mdyde]

Hello Noel,

As a test to try to determine whether the problem is related to the Focusrite, perhaps try instead using only the Mac's built-in audio output for Hauptwerk temporarily.

Update after some more tests,

1. when I switch off all automatic updates in the Mac Studio Software Update setting, the glitch is still there, approx. once an hour.

2. when I take the headphone out of the Studio instead of the Focusrite, there is no glitch no more.

Are there more Hauptwerk users with Focusrite Scarlett (3rd Gen) in combination with Mac (Apple M1 silicon)?

The same happened with my Motu when it was running on the class compliant driver. Headphones worked perfectly from the built in audio.

I think I have good news,

When I double the audio buffer size from 1024 to 2048 in the 'Audio Device and Channels' panel, I no longer experience glitches. Drawback is more latency but still acceptable, happens on real organs also, so I can live with that.

Anyway, it remains strange why this happens on a brand new Mac Studio and not with a Mac Mini with more than 10 years old. As Rosetta sits in between for Scarlett to Apple Silicon, I still think that is the reason, also for the increased latency.