Questions & Answers

Troubleshooting for clicks/pops during audio playback

+2 votes
2,498 views
asked Nov 16, 2016 in Studio One 3 by andorphamus (180 points)
edited Nov 16, 2016 by andorphamus

When I play back recorded audio in Studio One there are a distracting amount of pops. Each time I listen back they are in different places so I'm pretty sure it's not recorded. The most common fix I have read about is to increase buffer size, but they are still numerous at my highest available buffer size (4096). I also read about clocking issues, so I checked the properties of the Audiobox USB playback device from the control panel and the sample rate and bit depth were wrong (44.1 kHz and 16-bit instead of 48.0 and 24 on my Audiobox USB). I changed them so that they now match but that didn't seem to help at all. I have also tried updating/reinstalling the driver with no success. I've been reading that there are tons of variables that can cause this including bad cables and plugged in to close to a microwave? My question is are there any other likely issues that I can fix or is there any troubleshooting software that you can recommend?

P.S.-I tried playing sounds other than Studio One through the driver like Youtube etc., and the pops were not nearly as numerous, but still there. Also it does this thing where it will randomly crackle, then start to pop rhythmically, like a metronome. This eventually stops, and this seems to happen whether any sound is playing or not, whereas normally the pops only occur when audio is being played back. I don't know if this helps.

My Gear-

  • Computer: Dell XPS 8700

  • OS: Windows 10 64-bit (10.0)

  • Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz (8 CPUs)

  • RAM: 16GB

  • Audio Interface- Audiobox USB

  • Driver Version: 3.34.0.0

  • DAW: Studio One 3 Artist Version 3.3.1.39379

Let me know if you need any more information. Thank you for your help!

5 Answers

0 votes
answered Nov 20, 2016 by derekmanning (140 points)
Hope you find an answer cause I have the same problem. It's not on every song but I a lot of them so I feel it's some settings we can adjust to get read of the "Rice Krispies"
0 votes
answered Nov 22, 2016 by chrishutton (310 points)
This usually comes from memory spikes, in my experience.  Perhaps maxing a core or 2, and the output gets distorted as a result.  The song will export cleanly, but the memory issue affects playback which hampers your ability to mix, unfortunately.  Memory optimization for S1 would help with this.  Hopefully they're looking into that.
0 votes
answered Dec 17, 2016 by rpsiegel (140 points)
Try replacing the USB cable. I found mine creating popping noises if it got moved.

That might not be your situation, but it's easy enough to check.

In my case it happened during recording as well.
+1 vote
answered Jun 20, 2019 by brianlardaro (180 points)
Hey everyone, I know it's been a long time but I have the exact same problem and I'm tired trying things to fix it.
0 votes
answered May 24, 2020 by michaelvinetsky (150 points)
Get the same issue with Studio 24...
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