Audio stutters on playback

LXNDR_BE

I have Maschine MK3 and a Windows 10 computer with an i7 3.5 GHZ core and 32 GB RAM.

I worked on a project yesterday and noticed the I get horrible stutters and crackles while using the Maschine and the sometimes only when playback.

I checked my CPU and there was only a usage of 25% max. and only 6GB Ram in use.

I use the ASIO Driver that comes with Maschine MK3 and even set the samplerate 44.1 and a buffersize of 1024. Maschine is connected via USB3

Any idea on how to fix this?

Kubrak

Massive X is CPU intensive and uses AVX. As D-One has mentioned CPU may get hot when using AVX intensively and CPU has to slow down the clock to cool down.

D-One

Wow audio issues with that gigantic buffer size is sort of nuts.

Any 3rd party plugin? I'd save a copy and start removing plugs to check if any particular one is causing this as it's not normal assuming your i7 is from this decade.

Kubrak

What gen i7 do you have? If 12th or 13th that are using big.little you should use Win11 as Win10 does not handle them well. Win11 handles them better, but not perfect.

In the both cases (Win10/11) setting affinity of CPU cores helps or just switching off e-cores in BIOS (or maybe there is app to do it, I do not have those Intels, so no experience).

Overall CPU 25% does not tell much. You have to look at the load on individual cores. Just one core may be overloaded and the rest do almost nothing.

LXNDR_BE

I disabled all non native plugins and also added more virtual memory in windows. this gave more stability.

and I located the plugin that used most of the resources => Massive X :(

So I will tend to use less Massive X, but the track runs stable for now.

Will try to tweak my CPU a bit more though. Thanks for all your Input

D-One

I'm not an IT so take this with a big bag of salt as I really don't know much about it but Massive X uses AVX instructions, which are very power hungry, if your i7 is old or your PC gets hot easily then it might be best to avoid it.

@Kubrak is probably a lot more informed about this than me.

Kubrak

Massive X is CPU intensive and uses AVX. As D-One has mentioned CPU may get hot when using AVX intensively and CPU has to slow down the clock to cool down.

LXNDR_BE

Did some more reading and finally yesterday I found the right settings wich boosted the performance of the Maschine Software A LOT 🤩 and thought I do share, although it is mentioned frequently on this forum.

BIOS TUNING for Maschine Software

1) CPU Hyperthreading => deactivate

2) CPU Speed Stepping => deactivate

3) C State => deactivate

Windows 10/11 tuning

1) as much virtual memory as possible (2 to 3 times your actual memory) ==> https://www.windowscentral.com/how-change-virtual-memory-size-windows-10

2) on the same page where you set the virtuel memory, set CPU performance to "background"

Performance-gain on my old i7 3.5Ghz (not upgradable to Win 11, that old) is between 60-70% on my existing projects (and yes, I do produce my tracks 100% with and in Maschine, only using as little external VSTs as possible)

Groupstem-Mastering is done in Reaper though, cause it is easier to export into different formats inkl. -6dB Premasters.