Soundcard audio crackling?

The audio from my Focusrite Saffire 6 USB soundcard crackles when I plug it directly into a usb port however when I plug it via a usb hub or extension cable it stops. Problem is making music is too slow when running the soundcard via hub or extension lead.

Now I had this issue before but then it started working fine however since I've moved over the weekend its started again. :(

Any ideas what might be causing the crackling in the audio?

Would buying a gold plated usb lead stop the interference maybe?

Thoughts welcome as I need to solve this.

Cheers

Might be a buffer/latency issue.

Might be a driver issue.

No, its none of those. Drivers are all up to date and it was working fine in my previous room. Its gotta be some sort of interference caused by the laptop itself. I can think what else it would be.

Does it instantly crackle or only when playing music?

Only when playing music does it crackle. Sounds a bit like the noise of vinyl.

my usb soundcard does that weird vinyl-like crackle (mainly hits the bass frequencies) when I have too many other programs open. Sometimes I have to reboot. I think it's a memory issue or something. My laptop is old as hell. That's the only thing I've experienced that sounds similar to that.

does it do it when your laptop is plugged into the mains?

a common earth interference problem (UK) solved by disconnecting the earth inside the plug

Soundwave yeah I unplugged the laptop from the mains to see if that was causing the problem but not love on that.

Just for shits and gigs maybe try maxing out your buffer settings...?

What audio mode are you using for your music work - maybe try switching to ASIO if you haven't already (or whatever the Mac equivalent is if it's different)

Oh shit yeah sometimes when you unplug stuff certain settings will revert back to default. Make sure all the relevant settings are set to USB or ASIO or whatever they need to be.

My Tascam US-122L was clipping when I used it with my front USB posts, the "extra" ones, but with my main USB ports in the back it works a-ok. You might have to stick with a USB port.

Might be a motherboard and/or grounding issue. Might be something completely different too.

So yeah, you'll have to trial & error plugging and unplugging stuff, trying different configurations of hardware, battery or power socket, etc... (in the end it might also just be one silly cable... yeah)

Are you recording to digital vinyl and if so did you demag first?

Pretty sure you need to mess with the Buffer/Latency.

Download ASIO for all. I had crackles from my midi and ASIO4ALL helped.

  On 2/11/2013 at 11:26 AM, LimpyLoo said:

Oh shit yeah sometimes when you unplug stuff certain settings will revert back to default. Make sure all the relevant settings are set to USB or ASIO or whatever they need to be.

Could one of those defaults be the playback sample rate ? When I listened to 48KHz files on my 44.1KHz soundcard, it would crackle like dirty scratched-up vinyl.

  On 2/11/2013 at 9:46 AM, The Bro said:

Sounds a bit like the noise of vinyl.

i don't understand what you're complaining about then...

OP, have you tried black magic yet?

I have seen this be an issue when a friend was using a mismatched charger on his laptop while running his sound card. ASIO4all fixed most my latency issues and cracking. Maybe try that?