I'm using ableton 10.1.6 with windows 10 20H2, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 1st Gen with 4.87.4 driver.

When using Focusrite ASIO in ableton at 256 sample size (34.8ms overall latency) I get crackles and pops in a project I'm working on, switching to 1024 sample size which is the highest available (106ms overall latency) nothing changes - the audio still crackles and pops on playback.

Now if I switch to MME/DirectX at 2048 samples (46.4ms overall latency) the playback is nice and smooth. The question is - why is it like this?

And also should I throw my audio interface out the window? Really makes me think...

 

try asio4all maybe.

 

Ensure the focusrite is on its own usb port, and not via a hub, those interfaces are very picky with usb ports.

 

I own a Scarlett Solo Gen 3.. had Scarlett 2i2 Gen1 prior to that.

I'd highly recommend reinstalling the driver in this order
- Disconnect focusrite.
- Uninstall current ASIO driver
- Reboot
- Download the latest NON-BETA driver directly from Focusrite support (shows as 4.65.5 to me still for 2i2.. should be the same for you .. perhaps you're installing a flakey beta driver??)
- Install
- Reboot
- Connect Focusrite and try again.

It IS possible your device has gone bad, but I've had issues in the past too, and that's often fixed it. Bad drivers can be a culprit, as can bad cable. Very picky about using a short - under 10' - USB cable). Also try and use USB 2.0 port if you can. However, since you get good performance out of other drivers, I'm more inclined to say the driver reinstall is what's going to fix, and not likely a cable/port thing... nor a bad Focusrite. Almost a given it's not a hardware thing, but a software (driver) thing.

Lastly, while ASIO4ALL is a good thought, I would not recommend that. The Focusrite ASIO driver is your best bet, just try a reinstall in exact order/method as mentioned above.

 

maybe you have a slow pc I have a 2i2 1st gen myself and it ran on my old system really like slow shit after i upgraded my pc everything runs smoothly i can set my focusrite asio driver as low as i want it just takes more cpu the lower you put it if you are still on windows 7 i recommend the beta driver version scarlettuac2install-beta-3.2.2-292-tdl.exe

 

Slow pc is your problem man

 

Guys i have that same bad performance on Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen, audio interface causes high latency on usbport.sys, usbxhci.sys, WDF01000.sys, driver when im connect interface (on different systems different names of drivers but the essence is the same).
I think this problem is related to cheap usb controllers on motherboards.But on mac systems you doesn't need an external ASIO driver, and macs have performance better than on Windows Machine because of it.

 

Well my PC is 10 years old so haha (i7-3770k), it's just that you always hear ASIO is best when in my case in practice it seems a little different.

I might try the steps as naitguy described, and I'm using the beta driver because the regular one gave BSOD when using 44.1khz sample rate.

Also to note is that it doesn't pop and click at all times just when the project gets heavy and serums are multiplying like mice.. like I said on directx keeps it rolling fine. And I never use MIDI inputs which seems to be the biggest point for ASIO

 

256 samples seems somewhat high to my uneducated brain, latency figures are awful , try 64 and see if it makes a difference.

 

With the numbers you presented, there is definitely an issue/conflict in your setup.
If you are using the Focusrite Control app/program, make certain that you settings
match the Windows Sound settings

With that system:

• Should be configured/optimized for for audio & not over-clocked.
• Have at least 16GB of RAM
• SSD or NVMe for main system disk
• Windows 10 update configured to not install drivers from Windows Update
• All system device drivers from manufacturer (AMD, Realtek, Intel, Nvidia, etc...)
• Using a non-shared USB port if possible.
• USB 'Power Management' setting odes not allow turning off device/port
• Non-Beta branded driver set to 48kHz, 24 bit (make sure no other ASIO drivers are installed that could cause conflict. ASIO4All is not compatible with Focusrite devices according to Ableton).

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2022

Optimising your PC for Audio on Windows 10
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10

 

MIDI has literally nothing to do with ASIO. Latency is also important when recording. Have you tried LatencyMon on this already?

 

i'm running presonus audiobox iTwo with the latest universal control driver. they did something very nice to the latest driver, i can run 48/24 sessions at 32 sample, smooth. if it breaks one day i'll buy the same. good luck with the focusrite, i'm sure it's a great product.

 

my turn to guess. since there are not enough already.

I am guessing it is the CPU being old and slow, and @send2nik has put something into this particular project which is showing off how old and slow it really is. Those latency numbers are probably real. "should I not be running a convolution reverb?"

 

I have a 6i6 1st gen and I always have problems at 1024 sample, just don't use that. the maximum is 512 for me, try 512 and never use 1024 (I have more issues at 1024 than I have at 128)

 

I dont think so, have slow notebook with SSL2+ and the stock SSL2+ driver has quite good performance with 256 samples with a few Massive instances. On a mobile Intel i5 from 2016 with 4 threads and slow clock speed.
It depends with what you are compare, if he gets crackles/pops with playing audio through the Focusrite, then it might be the pc, if he runs Synths in realtime then it is the slow computer for sure.

What your system @send2nik ?

I bet it might be the Focusrite Audio Interface?

Hopefully you find it out, this can be really frustrating.

(I once had a Scarlett in 2010, which didnt want to connect via USB on my desktop running windows 7. So i ended up shipping it back, buying something by M-Audio instead. But thats just sidenote - it was long time ago)

 

Last edited: Feb 5, 2022

My old PCI soundcard 512 - my new USB audio interface 256. That is 1.2 meters of cable.
You should also look at the minimum system requirements of VSTi and VST.

 

do you know why mme drivers run better because the mme runs at a higher latency and if you take the asio driver it runs at a faster latency so your cpu can not handle it correct me if im wrong

 

Fast = lower. Latency is the time needed to process a certain sized array of audio data points. If it is bigger the CPU has more time to process it, mean the pressure on the system is lower and you get less artifacts (audio is not processed, just left out ´, because the CPU cant keep up with it) == cracks, pops, glitches.