new Audiophile 2496- crackling popping sound

[zipmont]

I just purchased an Audiophile 2496, ART tube preamp, and Behringer B1 to record some acoustic guitar on my pc, which meets all requirements necessary to support this audio card, including 128 meg of RAM. I have already recorded some pretty good sounding multitrack stuff on my soundblaster card and pc mic, using Cakewalk Pro Audio 9. Now I'm trying to record the same material using the new equipment. I get a beautiful 1st track(rythym), but have problems getting a clean 2nd track(melody). It plays back with a crackling popping sort of sound. Some friends have told me it's probably a compatability problem with cakewalk. Others have told me that I need more memory. Is this likely? (even though I've already recorded the exact same material using the same software and a cheap soundcard??) I've also toyed with the buffer size and effective latency, from a buffer size of 10 msec and effective latency of 70 msec, to a buffer size of 350 msec and an effective latency of 2450 msec, and everything in between. This did not help. Perhaps I got a lemon of an audio card, I don't know. Has anyone encountered this type of a problem? Thanks. zipmont@whidbey.com

[macouno]

It's most likely the IRQ (interrupt request) on your system. Simple solution... plug the new audio card in a different pci slot and try again.

[quattro_xxph]

Y'know what? I got the EXACT same problem! I replaced my Diamond card with an Audiophile and I cant record any tracks other than the first without these annoying pops and clicks. I've lessened them a bit by monkeying around with some things in the BIOS and system.ini, but they are STILL there and STILL annoying.

I use CW HS2002 on a P3 500 with 192 SDRAM. I dont have any IRQ problems. I put it up for opinion and they say its something to do with conflicting devices or Chipset issues. One solution they say could be effective is to use an AGP video card instead of a PCI card. I dont have AGP so Im stuck with onboard video. I have a cheap SiS 620 chipset. Im really getting the feeling that the only way Im gonna be rid of the pop and clicks is to actually buy a new MOBO and AGP card. Dang... such a costly solution to a seemingly small problem (I mean, the thing runs smoothly, barely crashes or hangs, just has these occassional clicks and pops)

Please help us!

[Sui]

this sounds like a buffer issue not a chipset issue.

Sui

[peruano]

pls sui, help us, how can we change the buffer size?? the latency?? I would hate to spend money in a new mobo if it is only a question of settindgs, however I do have my delta sharing IRQ´s, I want to discard every possibilitie before buy new gear.

regards,

pedro

[smacbride]

I purchased a new Audiophile 2496 card recently, and it worked find. Last weekend I put a PCI ethernet card in my PC so I could transfer some files off of my wife's laptop. Later that day, I was trying to record and starting getting really bad pops & clicks in my recording. I pulled out the ethernet card, and the noise went away!

There was not a conflict between the sound card and the ethernet card, so I ruled that out. The only fix was to pull the ethernet card.

I would suggest that your problem is with one of you PCI cards or slots...

[Har]

Another thing to consider: did you install the drivers that came bundled with the 2496, or did you download the newest ones from their site? Many times problems people have with the 2496 seems to stem from them installing the drivers that came bundled on the CD-ROM with the card, and have cleared up when the downloaded and installed the newest ones from the M-Audio site.

If this is the case, an important thing to remember is to UNINSTALL your older drivers FIRST, *before* installing the new ones. M-Audio has a utility to help with this that you can also download from their site.

[This message has been edited by Har (edited 11-25-2002).]

[Singing_Cat]

Guys, just to share with you how I resolved the popping sounds on the Audiophile 2496.

After changing the motherboard to A8V-MX (with 64 bit AMD 3700+ processor), I started getting popping sounds. This sound card has been in at least 5 different systems with no problem at all. Finally, I discovered that if there is a drive using UDMA6, there is clicking and popping. Reduced in the BIOS to UDMA5 and it works as charm. As a bonus, I was able to get the latency down to 1 ms! In all previous systems I could not get below 10ms.

Hope this post will save you a day or two fiddling with hardware:)

Singing Cat

[itsplayed]

Singing_Cat wrote:
Finally, I discovered that if there is a drive using UDMA6, there is clicking and popping. Reduced in the BIOS to UDMA5 and it works...

This doesn't sound right, but if it fixed your issue there must be a reason behind it.....thanks for giving me yet another fix to decipher.

[itsplayed]

Singing_Cat:
....is that hard drive an ATA133 or ATA100 in which you implemented the "fix" for?

[simonpeterclark]

Just thought I'd add that I had exactly the same problem with the M-Audio 2496 card I bought last week.

I was advised by the people I bought it from that this was an incompatibility issue with my system, and since this was quite elderly anyway, I replaced the motherboard, processor and memory, using the genuine Intel stuff they recommended should definitely be comaptible.

Having spent £200 (not to mention 2 days!) doing this, I was obviously more than a little bit annoyed to discover that the card was still crackling just the same!

Even if this can be 'fixed' by changing settings, I would say that this is not acceptable in what is sold as a quality sound card, and that it's not worth bothering with. I will certainly be sending mine back!

Just need to decide what to get instead, now...

[Lost Studios]

Zipmont,
Go into your device manager and hit VIEW Recources by type
Look and see if the card is sharing an IRQ with something else.
Most clicks and pops ..but not always are generated by IRQ sharing
Tom

[SilentBob]

I have an M-Audio 24/96 card and have not had any problems with it. I had it in my old pc (Pent III 1gigCPU w/512 ram. About 5 years old) and it worked fine.

I just built a new system (Core 2 Duo E6600 w/1gig ram) and I have had no problems at all with it.

[BagHun]

I have one of those in my Mac and it craps out when I'm using the Airport card...have to switch to built-in audio.