Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 (USB audio interface) - Dropouts

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Tripecac, Oct 14, 2016.

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  1. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I recently got a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 gen2 (USB audio interface), with the intention of replacing my old PCI cards with it once I trust it.

    Unfortunately, the Scarlett is currently having a lot of dropouts while playing music. Every few minutes, the sound will cut out for a fraction of a second and then resume. Very annoying!

    I never have dropouts like this when playing music with my PCI sound cards, so I suspect the problem is related to either the USB bus or the Scarlett itself.

    Things I've tried:
    1) disabled USB power saving (in both the device manager and power management)
    2) confirmed that the USB port is indeed 2.0 (by using a USB port viewing tool)
    3) checked the DPC latency - it is fine
    4) changed the Scarlett's ASIO buffer size from 128 to 258 (I'm currently running at 44.1 kHz)

    Is there anything else I can try?

    Thanks!
     
  2. MrRom92

    MrRom92 Forum Supermodel

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    Ever since I went from windows 8 -> windows 10 I've been having nothing but trouble with the 2i2 drivers. What worked for me was rolling back to an older beta driver. I'd forget about the latest stable release, start at the latest beta and work your way back from there till you hit something that's functional. That's what worked for me anyway.
     
  3. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Tripecac , what operating system?
     
  4. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I'm using 64 bit Windows 7.
     
  5. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    If you definitely have the latest/best drivers for the interface, the easiest single answer I can give you is to follow this:

    PC Optimization Guide for Windows 7 | SweetCare »

    I don't think you should have to do any of this to get drop out free stereo recording, but evidently on your system, you're going to have to tweak a bit.
     
  6. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Since you're using a desktop instead a laptop, one option you have is to add in a dedicated USB card. And dedicate that USB card to just your audio. Make sure you plug in the USB card in a slot that isn't using a shared IRQ. Your BIOS may have options for determining which slots have dedicated IRQs and which may have shared IRQs.

    You can also experiment with trying different USB ports on your computer. Some of the ports are likely shared through an internal USB hub and have other devices on that hub. Some ports may be dedicated.
     
  7. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I move the Scarlett to a different USB port, but am still getting dropouts, about once every 5-10 minutes.

    I've switched the performance settings from programs to background settings, and disabled exclusive mode for the Scarlett. I'll do more testing tomorrow so see if that helped. I'll also do some research into the IRQs. I thought the days of fiddling with IRQs were over! Oh well. :)

    Is a dedicated USB card a PCI card with a USB port on the outside?
     
  8. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Yes. It would be an add-on card with one or more USB 2.0 ports on it.
     
  9. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Zealand
    The performance and exclusive mode changes didn't fix the problem. I have been listening to music all morning and keep getting dropouts. I have some more information about them, though:

    1) The dropouts happen about once every 20 minutes. (I have written down the times, and the times between dropouts are 20 minutes, 22 minutes, and 19 minutes).

    2) The dropouts affect all audio streams to the Scarlett, not just the music player. So, I was listening to music and playing a game at the same time, and both the music audio and the game audio cut out for a fraction of a second before continuing.

    3) The frequency of dropouts does not seem to be load-dependent. So, I was getting a dropout once every 20 minutes regardless of whether I was just listening to music, or listening to music, playing a game, and copying files from another USB device at the same time.


    Do these clues help identify what could be causing the periodic dropouts?
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2016
  10. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Another clue:

    4) When I am uploading files to my web site, I get dropouts about once a minute! So, internet activity (I am using onboard ethernet rather than wifi) seems make the dropouts worse.
     
  11. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Regarding a dedicated USB card, do the following choices matter in terms of the likelihood of dropouts with the Scarlett?

    a) PCI vs PCI-E
    b)USB 2.0 vs USB 3.0
    c) Price - I see some of them on eBay for less than $10


    Also, I noticed that my Device Manager already shows 19 items under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers:

    - 8 are "USB Root Hub"
    - 6 are "Intel(R) ICH10 Family USB Universal Host Controler - [hexidecimal]"
    - 2 are "Intel(R) ICH10 Family USB EnhancedHost Controler - [hexidecimal]"
    - 1 is "Generic USB Hub"
    - 1 is "NEC Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller"
    - 1 is "NEC Electronics USB 3.0 Root Hub"

    If I add yet another USB controller/hub (in the form of a USB PCI card), should I disable some of the other USB hubs and controllers? Or will there presence have no influence on the performance of a device attached to a USB PCI card?
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2016
  12. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    Some USB cards and controller chips are better than others for pro-style audio. I don't know which ones are recommended for this sort of audio use offhand. I'd check forums like Gearslutz and similar forums for recommended USB cards and get one of those.

    Your existing USB ports should have no influence on the performance of a device attached to a USB PCI card. Don't need to disable any of your existing USB controllers.
     
  13. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    Have you contacted Focusrite or asked your question on a Focusrite user forum?

    I've never heard of anyone needing an additional USB card - this isn't pro audio, you are just trying to listen to 2 channel stereo.
     
  14. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
  15. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Zealand
    I've been listening to the Scarlett for 3 hours straight, and no dropouts. So, I'm guessing the last USB port I tried is indeed "lucky". I have no idea why! I'll keep using the Scarlett today and see if it gives me any dropouts.
     
    Ham Sandwich, Tim S and c-eling like this.
  16. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Good luck with it, I had a few complete recording stops' but no audio playback issues on Win10, Since I went and changed all my USB ports to 'not sleep' I've had no issues
     
  17. Tripecac

    Tripecac Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Turns out the blue ports were indeed USB 3.0 and the non-blue ports were USB 2.0, so switching to a USB 2.0 port fixed the problem. No more dropouts!
     
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