Thanks! I am now suspicious of windows defender. Watching the task manager it seems like the chirps sort of coincide with it but that thing goes off fairly often anyways, so it’s possible it’s not related. They don’t make it easy to turn off.

My CPU usage is like low single digits or decimal level % by the way.

I don’t have any plugins running at all, it’s just 3 mono recordings of an acoustic track, a vocal, and a room mic catching both.

Compression, eq, and delay and all that is all happening out of the box heading to the mixer for monitoring. Usually at this point I would be recording the output of the mixer, but I am trying to get the playback fixed first.

So far I’ve swapped out ADAT cables on adat 1 and 2 ins and outs.

I heard back from Ferrofish and they recommended checking for computer issues also - power save settings in Windows and at the BIOS, and to try the LatencyMon app. I’ve already moved around the RME Digiface USB port. They confirmed my clock settings between the Digiface and Ferrofish were correct.

Last night I did change the buffer to 512 and it performed better, but still chopped a tiny bit, just not as noticeable.

I’ll do all that and then try the ins and outs using different 1/4” and ADAT ports, just to be thorough.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Tue Dec 03, 2024 10:38 am
Last night I did change the buffer to 512 and it performed better, but still chopped a tiny bit, just not as noticeable.

With no plugins running, you should easily be able to set your buffer size down to 64 or 48 samples. I only switch to 512 when I'm mixing with a bunch of plugins and latency doesn't matter.

Are you using ASIO drivers?

What are your Reaper settings under Preferences>Audio>Buffering?
This is how mine has been set up for years:

Yeah you should be able to do that easily with no clicks. Some questions,

are you feeding your Ferrofish word clock from the RME?

You said your recording are 24/96, is the Ferrofish set for 96k?

What version of windows are you on?

Are you using the REAinsert plugin to send/receive the signals going out of your daw for processing? Are you just bussing out to mix on the desk and record back in?

Is everything updated, reaper, RME firmware/driver... Ferrofish firmware?

Maybe go into windows audio devices and disable EVERYTHING that isn't your RME. Like HDMI destinations... Etc.

I hate Windows 11 so bad. I would be done with it if I weren’t so sick of messing with the computer.

I did all what yall mentioned - including just copying Nate’s settings - and its running much better at a buffer of 64 instead of 256 or 512. Plus a BIOS update. It’s hard as hell to keep all the bullshit bloatware off and I feel like I’m going to have to manually go through a bunch of stuff whenever I go to record.

LatencyMon worked pretty well too in identifying was was fucking my shit up - it was Windows Defender

Thanks to yall and the guy from Ferrofish support! He basically made sure my clock settings were right and then went straight into the BIOS update and power settings.

By the way, with LatencyMon - apparently the developers advise to use the app without anything else running, so a lot of the internet articles and reddit posts on it might be taken with a grain of salt.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Dec 04, 2024 12:11 am I hate Windows 11

There has to be something really wrong with your system that isn't necessarily the fault of Windows 11 or Defender. You should be able to do that audio lift pretty flawlessly with no pops and clicks. Also, what's this bloatware issue? Nothing gets installed on my computer that I don't put there. There seems to be some pretty big issues if you can't stream just a few tracks in and out. Is this a work computer with weird ZScaler or other firewalls or corporate horseshit installed on it?

Nope, brand new HP Envy 360 laptop, supposedly spec’d for gaming. I don’t even think they have a “performance” power setting on there anymore, so adjusting power settings isn’t very intuitive. Power being throttled is apparently a big thing now. There could be something wrong with it, but the HP performance tests all passed and I’m not sure what else to do with it.

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Wed Dec 04, 2024 12:09 pm Nope, brand new HP Envy 360 laptop, supposedly spec’d for gaming. I don’t even think they have a “performance” power setting on there anymore, so adjusting power settings isn’t very intuitive. Power being throttled is apparently a big thing now. There could be something wrong with it, but the HP performance tests all passed and I’m not sure what else to do with it.

Yeah, there is some crap causing you harm, probably a HP installed layer or some such nonsense. A fresh Win 11 Install and reaper should be able to play back fairly robust projects with literally ANY modern laptop you can buy. You might consider a wipe and fresh install using Windows Media Creator Tool, make sure you download the systems driver pack for your HP and only install drivers missing from the Windows install. My final thought is, maybe, your Windows Audio Setting are set for 44.1, 48K, or something and it is interfering with your device running at 96K. In the windows audio setting check for that. The only other thing I can think of is re-render the project files at 24/48 and save yourself half the bandwidth with probably zero discernible loss of audio quality. 96k is kinda a waste of resources and almost nobody really works in 96k anymore other than mastering engineers receiving 96K files. Nobody I work with ever do. Not a single one. It's 24/48k all the way down. It especially affects plugins that oversample. This can be problematic.

Long story longer, you should NOT be having these issues due to your Hardware or Windows. Gotta be something else. Defender is mostly invisible to my DAW use these days. My Tower is beefy but by the standards of 5-6 years ago and I've never maxed out on plugin or track count in 48k unless I'm using the terrible UA Native Plugins, which I never do anymore. Useless.

I trouble shoot A/V tech for a living and my brain never shuts up.

1 more thing. Are you connecting your Interfaces through a USB Hub or directly to your computer? If it is a hub, try a direct connection with a good quality USB cable. A lot of laptops (looking at you Mac M1-3 laptops) deprioritize data on port that have hubs plugged in. For example, if you have a USB adapter with HDMI and Network on it, Mac M laptops will deprioritize the USB to maintain the HDMI and Network, your devices will just drop off. Wouldn't doubt HP does something similar. A high quality powered hub like a OWC, Satechi, or Anker with a good hub chipset inside is usually better at maintaining these connections than a passive dongle style device. Try a direct connection?

Have been plugged direct into the usb ports the whole time and tried swapping them around at some point. The latencymon / windows 11 / pops and clicks internet hole is really amazing, I’m suprised it doesn’t come up here more often. Its not uncommon for people to note that the issue is affecting their new computer and not the old one. Like me!

Mine is basically solved but I’m going to keep running latencymon and fucking with the drivers like everyone else until I’m satisfied.