Traktor BUG: sudden loud hum in front of 400 people

olafmol

I'm quiet sure this is not a groundloop, as the tracks also stopped playing. It seems either Traktor, Windows or the audio driver crashed.

What might be interesting to understand: was Windows still responsive when Traktor become unresponsive?

creal

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/19278#Comment_19278

I don't think a DI box would be useful since I already wire the controller from the XLR outputs.

As you point out, I also don't think it's a problem of ground loop but rather a driver problem.

Concerning the laptop, it's the magicbook view 14 from Honor. A brand new machine, quite powerful to be honest. The situation was satisfying: indoor system, large DJ booth. Very strange since the bug appeared suddenly. I still hope it was just a problem with my phone plugged into the second USB-c port of the laptop. Since the gig, I reinstalled Traktor and the driver, juste in case. The rule now is: no update, no modification in any way for the upcoming gigs of the season. And next year will be another year.

creal

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/19279#Comment_19279

Yes, Windows was responsive. I was able to close Traktor and re-launch it without restarting the laptop.

Kubrak

@creal

If the groundloop was the reason, DI BOX would help, if ground lift is used....

New notebook? And what processor? If you have intel 12th gen, you should have Win11, otherwise you may encounter problems. Intel´s big.little CPU does not work well under Win10 (or lower).

But you are right, it could be the phone plugged in. Or problem in RAM that may be temperature dependent. It might occure randomly depending on where data and program is loaded....

It is always advisable not to update anything if one wants to be sure things will work. Any update brings risk of problems....

creal

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/19304#Comment_19304

Okay Kubrak, I didn't know that a DI BOX was also useful for XLR symmetrical signal that is already grounded by design.

It's an i7-11390H, running on Windows 11.

Yes, you're right. No update if everything works correctly. I will try to stuck with this as long as possible.

EDIT: I will gig next week at the place where I had this big audio problem. They called me back, so it's a good news, but now the goal is to avoid another hum. I am confident with this.

Kubrak

DI BOX is not for XLR symetrical signal. You would have to use the cinch output of S4 (or whatever unsymetrical output it has..). But the ground loop would be eleiminated using it. If ground loop is problem....

It was probably phone in USB, that has caused the problem.... Or temperature dependant circuit, which starts behave incorrectly when temperature rises above certain limit....

Try to run checks for RAM memory.

But, if they want you again, the problem was not that big.... And you were probably not the first one whose gear has failed....

Good luck.

creal

Okay Kubrak, so I think we misunderstood. I always use the XLR outputs of my controller.

Sure, I am not the one who had a problem. Now I have a mixer between the controller and the PA system. It's more secure.

Yesterday, I played for an apéritif at the same place where the hum appeared. The session went very well. No problem. I feel more confident for the next gigs.

Everyone, thanks for all your messages.

olafmol

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/19287#Comment_19287

Ok, then it was either a specific Traktor bug, or something with your audio driver. I suspect the audio (ASIO) part, as you were also able to close Traktor, so Traktor itself was not unresponsive, and your CPU was also probably not overloaded as this makes Windows super-slow and unresponsive.

Typically this happens because of an interrupt event interfering with your audio hardware. As you already concluded, don't plug in other devices, close any other application/services, shut down bluetooth/wifi and any other hardware/components that might be able to interrupt your audio device, and to be sure change the buffer size up/down and back to your required setting before you start playing.

creal

I also think of an audio driver freeze.

Totally agree for the advices. I will never plug a USB phone cable anymore when playing for a gig. I am sure it will fine for the rest of the summer.