Maschine Plus sound crackling

Maschine Plus connected to computer. When playing a sound the CPU spikes and beginning is distorted and crackles. This only happens when Maschine is stopped. When Maschine is playing, a sound or instrument is not distorted and CPU does not spike.

I have the latest Maschine Plus driver installed.

Win 11

Hp 12th gen Intel i5-1235U 1.30 GHz

64 GB RAM

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Jeremy_NI

I'm a little confused on a couple of things. Is this in the Maschine desktop software and using the Maschine Plus as a soundcard? Or is it in the Maschine Plus standalone when it is plugged to your computer by USB?

Is this happening on all projetcs? Any sound?

King swen

Using Maschine 2 software and maschine plus as soundcard. All projects. All sounds. Most noticeable when playing instruments. Just upgraded my hard drive and did a fresh install. Did it before the fresh install and now still doing it with new install.

Jeremy_NI

Ok, have you tried with another sound output than the Maschine Plus? Even with the onboard soundcard, do you witness the same crackling? What are your audio settings in the Maschine software?

ozon

The described symptoms sounds like sample rate mismatch to me. Don’t know how to go about that on Windows, though.

King swen

I don't have another soundcard to try. Here are the settings that it's at. I reinstalled the driver and it seems to work a little better but the issue is still there. It's only when it's stopped. I tried adjusting the buffer size and sample rate and the problem persists.

DiosGnosis

I don’t know if this info helps, but I’ve noticed a significant noise floor when using NI hardware on Windows based PCs, at least, ones I’ve owned in the past.

The issue of speakers crackling when idle is something I ONLY experience when using Win & NI together.

This was the case for me more than 10 years ago with the NI Audio 6 MK1 and today with the Audio 6 MK2.

I was never able to establish WHY such a loud/audible noise floor on my Windows PCs and not my Macs but, it is so.

And I’m not Team This or Team That. I own a gaming PC and prefer that for that purpose.

For all my audio/music production, I go with what works with the least hassle. For me, it has been and continues to be Mac OS.

Mark Oxley

Similar issue as the OP.

Playback in Maschine 2 software is unaffected by pops/crackles caused by CPU spiking.

Playing my Arturia vst instruments through Maschine or Komplete Kontrol results in CPU spikes and the sound distortion.

I've tried both the Maschine MK3 audio interface and a separate interface and the problem remains.

I largely now use Ableton Live to create my music and the CPU spikes/distortion no longer exist when loading the same vst into a track. I've come to the conclusion that this is a windows/NI software compatibility issue that for me has never been fully resolved. There's been many threads in the forum over the years concerning this very subject.

I know that the OP is using Maschine+ but I'm wondering if my findings are related.

King swen

@Jeremy_NI I tried with the computer soundcard and the problem went away. So is there a problem with my maschine plus soundcard?

Jeremy_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/193249#Comment_193249

Not sure. What if you use the Maschine Plus as output for your Windows system audio output and you watch a video for example or do you have another DAW or music program to check?

Make sure to set the sample for your Windows system to the same sample frequency.

Maybe some steps of this article might help: Windows Tuning Tips for Audio Processing

Jeremy_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/193182#Comment_193182

I'm a little bit confused here, you say you have the same issue then you say that "Playback in Maschine 2 software is unaffected by pops/crackles caused by CPU spiking." Or is it a typo and you are affected? Also OP is using the Maschine Plus and the not Maschine MK3. I would recommend to gather all info and make your own thread and/or contact our support: https://bit.ly/NI_support_maschine

Mark Oxley

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/193360#Comment_193360

Playback of my projects or demo projects in expansions does not cause any sound anomalies or CPU spiking but playing notes from a vst into a group does produce a fair amount of popping/crackling along with CPU spikes. This happens in Maschine 2 and Komplete Kontrol 2. It gets better with a buffer rate of 512 or higher (not ideal for low latency). In Ableton Live 12 I can reduce the sample buffer setting to 128 without any distortion or CPU spikes.

____________________________________________

Windows 11 home with latest updates

Last versions of Maschine 2 / Komplete Kontrol 2

Intel i5 13600k CPU

32 GB DDR4 RAM

Behringer UCM204HD audio interface.

Warpt1

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/193384#Comment_193384

The very first thing I check when I hear "crackling" that is unrelated to pre-amp peaks is verify that my device and OS are set to the same sample rate. i.e. I make sure both my sound control panel in windows and the Maschine 2 software, or whatever DAW I'm using are set to the same sample rate. I set both to 48000.

I only lower the buffer size if I'm experiencing latency of any type. Lower setting = more resource intensive, so if it was causing audio glitches, lowering it potentially make it worse. You have a pretty beefy computer, so I doubt the buffer size has anything to do with the crackling.

Mark Oxley

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/193503#Comment_193503

Ok, I looked at the sample rate setting in windows and it was set to 48000. I then loaded both Maschine and Komplete Kontrol and both were set at 44100. Ableton live was set at 48000. Changing Maschine and Komplete Kontrol to 48000 has made a massive difference. For some reason I thought they would automatically follow the windows audio settings and never thought to check.

A massive thanks for responding and clarifying what NI couldn't do.

Jeremy_NI

A massive thanks for responding and clarifying what NI couldn't do.

Mind you, I'm really happpy that nother user showed you the way but you know, it was written in this thread, only 2 posts away from your post. Maybe spend more time reading the thread next time.

Mark Oxley

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/193589#Comment_193589

And maybe you should place an emphasis on having the same sample rate set in both Windows and your audio software mentioned in your windows audio tuning guide as its clearly an important setting.

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