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New PreSonus Studio 192 Mobile makes a quick popping distortion noise when starting play of any audio from silence.

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asked Jun 16, 2019 in Studio 192 USB 3.0 Interfaces by samuelpham (120 points)
edited Jun 17, 2019 by samuelpham

Hello. 

Problem Symptoms:

- Short burst of audio distortion when starting or launching any audio/song or video with audio in any application (Ableton Live, iTune, Youtube, Facebook ... etc.) and also on the web from silence or all audio stopped. Also will happen briefly if raising a fader to bring in audio from silence. Will continue if all audio is paused or stopped and started again. Only happens from silence, will not happen with multi-track audio if other audio is already in play.

Description Details:

I recently purchased a brand new PreSonus Studio 192 Mobile USB 3.0. Been using it for about a month now, current intended use is with Ableton Live 9 on a Macbook Pro 2015 SSD running OS Mojave through the USB 3.0 port. I'm only using the main outs to an amplifier and outs 3 & 4 to a set of headphones for pre fader listening DJ cue. Since day one, I get a very quick distorted static pop as soon as any audio starts playing. It happens about 70% of the time. I can happen when a video starts playing on the web, or hitting play in itunes, or any other source on the web. It happen in Ableton Live when I click to start playing any recorded audio or music track. I also use a surface controller (NovationLaunchControlXL) to control most of the parameters in Ableton during session mixing. I can have all the faders down start a track and there will even be a moment of slight distortion as soon as the fader starts to come up, again, this only happens from starting from silence. It's almost like a short surge of electricity/data that creates a brief moment of distortion. I don't believe it would show up in a recording (doesn't seem to show up internally in the metering), just at the point of the audio output, which surely isn't good for any live type performance. 

I mostly run with Universal Control in bypass mode. When I run with Universal Control engaged, same thing, sometimes even worse (louder). There was a week when after I first bypassed Universal Audio to work in Ableton Live, it completely stopped in every situation including the web. But sadly it came back. I've tried different USB ports, unplugging my powered USB 3.0 hub, unplugging my headphones, using different outs as the mains, turning off the surface controllers, switching outputs to the amp, turning off other gear, changing audio settings in Ableton and through the built in Mac Audio MIDI setup, and changing outlet plugs with no resolve. I'm using high quality studio grade audio cables as well. Before the Studio 192 Mobile I just used the standard headphone out jack on the Mac to go into my amp. It never gave off this distortion pop doing all the same audio stuff I do now. The distortion pop isn't super loud, but it's enough to be noticeable. It only last for a micro second. I've used older firewire PreSonus gear in the past on older Macbook Pros and never had this problem either. Any ideas or solutions for this? Anyone else had this problem? Any advice or input is greatly appreciated, thanks. 

enlightenedsmiley

1 Answer

0 votes
answered Jul 8, 2020 by eliascastro (160 points)
I was having the same problem.  I had my Studio 192 connected to a USB hub.  
Switched it to a direct USB port on the computer and problem solved.

Hope it helps
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