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tenayo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 20, 2014
3
0
Hi,

I am on my second audio interface and it has the same problem as the first one. I wonder if the Fusion drive in my iMac is the culprit. I am using Logic Pro X.
The Presonus 44vsl (and focusrite scarlett 2i4 before that) work ok for the first few minutes and then it's all crackle, distortion and really bad latency. Does anybody know if there is going to be an update to fix this? Is it possible to change the drive on my iMac?

Thanks
 

Bear

macrumors G3
Jul 23, 2002
8,088
5
Sol III - Terra
Are you running Mavericks? Is the audio device a USB device? Reportedly this is fixed in 10.9.2 which should be available within a few weeks.
 

tenayo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 20, 2014
3
0
Yes Im running Mavericks and my device is USB.
Have you heard anything regarding the Fusion drive?

Thanks
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,244
12,388
[[ Yes Im running Mavericks and my device is USB.
Have you heard anything regarding the Fusion drive? ]]

This is a well-known problem. It's been documented elsewhere in this forum (you realize that there is a separate area on macrumors.com for "digital audio"?), and elsewhere, such as at gearslutz.com.

Macs with Fusion drives running Mavericks don't work well with audio apps and interfaces, as you have discovered.

There is speculation that the upcoming 10.9.2 update will fix this. But that's really unknown until the update is released and enough folks have it installed to ascertain if it will correct the audio problems.

You might try hunting down the developer release of 10.9.2 and installing it (it _can_ be found if you dig for it).

Another solution, pretty much guaranteed to work:
SPLIT the fusion drive into separate SSD and HDD drives. The terminal commands to do this can be found on the net. You MUST back up first to an external drive, as "breaking fusion" will destroy all the data on the two drives. But folks who have done this reported that it will fix the problems....
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,244
12,388
[[ Is the splitting of the FD reversible? ]]

Yes, you can "re-fuse" the two drives when an OS update deals with the problem.

However -- again, you must completely back up BOTH drives to an external source.
And you'll have to manually "merge them together" once you have re-created fusion.

Actually, for audio production, you might find it preferable to maintain TWO individual drives -- one to house the OS and apps (the SSD) and the second to use for your recorded projects (the HDD)...
 

inhalexhale1

macrumors 65816
Jul 17, 2011
1,101
745
PA
Hi,

I am on my second audio interface and it has the same problem as the first one. I wonder if the Fusion drive in my iMac is the culprit. I am using Logic Pro X.
The Presonus 44vsl (and focusrite scarlett 2i4 before that) work ok for the first few minutes and then it's all crackle, distortion and really bad latency. Does anybody know if there is going to be an update to fix this? Is it possible to change the drive on my iMac?

Thanks

I went through a few 2013 iMacs (both with and without FD's) and had audio issues. With FD's, I had the snap/crackle/pop. With the SSD, there was a high pitch ring that worsened depending on the sample rate. I've read some speculating it was a haswell issue, a Mavericks issue, FD issue, etc. Who knows what the problem is.

I ended up returning it and picking up a 2012 refurb. It has a fusion drive, and has 0 issues with audio.
 

SRHolland

macrumors newbie
Mar 1, 2014
1
0
Fusion Drive Audio Interface 10.9.2 Fix...I hope

I had audio dropouts after just a couple of minutes when using my MOTU 828 mkii firewire interface into Haswell iMac. (Using thunderbolt-firewire adaptor). I thought I'd have to give up the fusion drive and go to a mechanical drive or something similarly drastic. I ranted on at the Apple support guys, got the supervisor, and so on. They said they'd take it to engineering and get back to me. They never did, despite several emails from me asking for updates.
But then the 10.9.2 update came. I've been listening to iTunes through the 828 interface for about an hour so far and it seems to be working fine.
Fingers crossed. :eek:
 
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