Question

I'm having a weird issue of lagging in Studio One 4. The program freezes for about a second every other second. I originally worked around the issue by using an audio interface, it made the program run at about 3% CPU usage. I recently tried plugging in some USB C earbuds in and the stuttering disappeared just like when I use an audio interface. If I have the earbuds plugged in, I can still use the system sound without any sort of lag, but as soon as I unplug the earbuds the issue returns. I have a video linked below to show exactly what I mean. My laptop is also below. I am really stumped on this one. Thank you!

Edit: The stuttering is not only during playback but also during idle. It also does the same stuttering shown in the video when first open the application in the home/welcome page. The USB C earbuds are Google Pixel USB C earbuds. Thank you for the reply, that makes a lot of sense!

I have the i7 version:

https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/yoga/700-series/Yoga-730-13-/p/88YG7000964

Answer 1

Right.   I have seen your video and I believe I have an answer for you.  Your audio settings are taxing your C.P.U. doing the Analogue to digital conversion while running everything else on the cpu - studio one, tracks, instruments, eFx, buses etc, and whatever is in the background, after operating system and drivers.  Those USB-C headphones (you don't mention the model) probably have a digital/analogue converter and amplifier in them.  This relieves the cpu of the conversion work.   The reason you get better performance when the audio interface is plugged in because of the same reason - the interface is handling all the conversion from digital to analogue and vice versa.  Using the interface isn't really a workaround at all - it's actually the preferred method because of this reason.  It relieves your cpu of the conversion process because that's what is intended to do.   If you insist on running without the interface then you will need to adjust settings like block size, sample rate, shut down all background processes etc.  Essentially making compromises.  My advice - use the interface at all times and get a decent set of headphones with a proper 6.3mm/ 1/4" jack to plug into your interface for monitoring.  

Answer 2

The answer above is absolutely correct. But if you want to use your laptop without an interface you can use ASIO4ALL as your audio driver and it should stop stalling so you could at the very least mix while out and about. You just would need to download, install it, and set it as the audio device in Studio One. It can be a bit buggy sometimes, gets statically and loud, but a reboot solves it.