Latency problems, crackles, pauses in midi playback

SpurguX · Jun 22, 2020

I've had audio problems, e.g. short crackles when listening to music, on my PC for some years already, but now that I started making electronic music, this has become a thing that I can't ignore anymore. So what happens is that when I listen to audio from a player, the sound will occasionally crackle for a few hundred ms. Sometimes it's worse, most of the time bearable and infrequent enough. However, using a DAW it's pretty consistent. I get these dropouts (if that's the correct term) about every 45 seconds where some midi notes are missed entirely (e.g.the bass drum), and a synth's volume goes down for a few hundred ms, like a ducking effect. Usually the longer I work, the more frequent these problems get.

So far I've done the following to try fix my issue:

Update Windows
Update SATA AHCI controller driver
Update BIOS
Update USB Driver
Update network adapter drivers
Update display adapter drivers
Buy and install new sound card (Sound Blaster Z)
Try to ensure hardware cables are connected properly (wasn't that easy to see or do)
Windows 10 tweaks (disable audio enhancements, disable power management etc.)

Curiously enough, I've never gotten any audio playback problems when I've watched Netflix, in which case the audio signal goes from my display adapter to the TV via HDMI. So when the audio is handled by the mother board's sound card or the separate sound card, I get these problems but not when using the TV (although I suppose the mother board should be involved in the audio handling there as well). Well, I just attempted to output audio from the DAW (Reaper) to the TV, but whichever audio system I chose, it resulted in just noise basically.

Before all my fix attempts, according to LatencyMon, I had some issues with some drivers like storport.sys, but the above updates have gotten rid of that. At the moment, a LatencyMon run won't reveal any obvious issues even when they are clearly audible during the run:

Code:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                        JT-PC
OS version:                                           Windows 10 , 10.0, build: 18363 (x64)
Hardware:                                             All Series, ASUS, ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC., H97-PLUS
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1231 v3 @ 3.40GHz
Logical processors:                                   8
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  16327 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   3392 MHz

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   255,10
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   4,854115

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       247,40
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       1,245568


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              47,816038
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       HDAudBus.sys - High Definition Audio Bus Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0,002740
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0,005557

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   8236
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              346,604953
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0,030146
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0,096156

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   204555
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                16
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 reaper.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       43
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          21
Number of processes hit:                              5


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 PER CPU DATA
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       2,760954
CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs):                47,816038
CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,041319
CPU 0 ISR count:                                      8233
CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs):                346,604953
CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,683121
CPU 0 DPC count:                                      199881
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,939862
CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs):                9,887677
CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,000029
CPU 1 ISR count:                                      3
CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs):                182,319575
CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,003069
CPU 1 DPC count:                                      543
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,958739
CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 2 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs):                89,352594
CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,002996
CPU 2 DPC count:                                      549
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,977791
CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 3 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs):                59,058962
CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001194
CPU 3 DPC count:                                      211
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       2,468905
CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 4 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs):                210,401828
CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,015368
CPU 4 DPC count:                                      2208
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       1,017484
CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 5 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs):                52,181014
CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,005123
CPU 5 DPC count:                                      523
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,872660
CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 6 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs):                109,750
CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,003262
CPU 6 DPC count:                                      533
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s):                       0,979993
CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs):                0,0
CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s):                   0,0
CPU 7 ISR count:                                      0
CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs):                65,817217
CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s):                   0,001381
CPU 7 DPC count:                                      123
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Any ideas what to attempt next would be greatly appreciated :) Below's my system info. Let me know if you need some other info!

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Latency problems, crackles, pauses in midi playback

SpurguX

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