Hello everyone, I am a producer and I love the world of free software. Honestly, I have found a good refuge in it so far.
I have had problems with my Midas MR18 when recording on Linux, and the truth is that I am a little anxious about going back to Windows because I have found Linux to be very convenient and refreshing. I would love for you to help me find a solution to my problem.
Every time I record using my MR18, even when using VSTi, I have the serious problem of noise, like clipping, which makes the audio very unpleasant. I’ve already checked everything I could do with regard to the clock and everything else, but honestly, nothing works, and I would like to know if there is anyone who could help me with this serious problem, since I was playing with my band at a festival recently and when I listened to the recording, I realized that it was full of these annoying clipping noises. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond and read this concern.
We would need a little bit more information about your setup to try to diagnose your problem. I have used the MR18 for years at home and live without any audio problems so far. Both in 18-channel and 2-channel mode.
What is your Linux distro?
Which software do you use for recording (Ardour, I guess)? Which version?
Do you use pure ALSA or JACK or Pipewire or a combination?
Have you optimized your system for real-time audio?
How do you connect your MR18 to your computer? Directly or via a USB hub or extender? Are there any other USB devices connected to the same USB bus? (check lsusb)
Do you have your gain staging under control preventing digital clipping?
I have been using Ardour for work because, although I prefer Reaper, when I connect the MR18, I have a lot of problems with both recording and playback. I don’t know why, but Ardour works like a charm, and I use version 8.12 pro.
I use a combination
Yes. I use the 6.8.0-78 low-latency kernel
I connect it via a USB cable that is used exclusively for this purpose
Hi David
Are you working at 44K1Hz or 48KHz?
There seems to be a problem affecting Behringer mixers when working at 44K1. They work really well at 48KHz.
It is often discussed in online forums.
I have raised the issue with Behringer, but unfortunately they seem reluctant to accept that there is a problem.
If you are running at 44K1 I suggest trying to switch to 48K and see if that works any better for you.
I’m working in 48k I never tried in 44.1k and the quality is excelent but I can here really clear the clicks when I’m using my Midas is really annoying. But when I hearin another sound car sounds good I don’t know why. I tried with Windows as well and the mixer works perfectly
Noise, clipping, and clicks are three distinct problems, but you have used those three terms to refer to presumably the same problem.
Perhaps it would help if you provided an audio example so others have a better idea of what you actually mean.
You’re right, sorry for the confusion. I’m having a problem where I hear clicks in my audio only when they come through the MR18, and I don’t know how to fix it because I was at a festival and the tracks were making an annoying clicking sound that wasn’t there before, and I’ve really tried everything and I don’t know what it could be.
OK, for clicks the first thing to check would be whether you get over-run or under-run (xrun) indication when the clicks occur.
I don’t see this noted explicitly in the current manual, can someone remind me if the number in parenthesis after the DSP percentage is the running total of xrun events since recording or playback started?
There is a setting to add markers to the session when an xrun occurs, that would be useful to correlate that the sound you hear is actually associated with an xrun event and not something which is only internal to the MR18.
That setting is in the transport preferences menu:
On some devices you can get an incorrect clock synchronization setting which causes a similar symptom, but I don’t believe MR18 has any option to select an external clock, so that should not be the case for you.
Just to be safe have you tried a new or different USB cable? That’s probably not the issue but that is where the data comes through and sometimes coming in and out of Audio equipment the cable can get strain damage if it’s folded over, worth a try at the very least.
Hi I tried another USB cable and give me a better result you’re rigth but the problems in reaper continues but not in that way in ardour. Can you tell me why this happens to me?
That is a good point. I think any USB errors should show up in dmesg, so it would be worth checking the output of the dmesg command for any USB error messages.
I think this should catch all relevant messages, but I haven’t had a recent error on my machine to verify how the error messages would be formatted: sudo dmesg | grep -i usb
So, are you saying you have the clicks only when playing back audio in Reaper? And not in Ardour? If so, maybe you should ask for help in the Reaper community?
I have a different experience. I’m connecting my MR18 via a 5m USB extender cable to a USB 3 hub connected to a USB 3 port on my laptop and I don’t have any issues.
I think the problems some had when connecting a USB 2 audio interface to a USB 3 port may be chipset specific. Hopefully the newer processors have avoided that problem.