sound crackles and distortion on macbook pro
hi guys,
seems i am the first mac user who has problems with the sound quality in traktor s4…
so let me tell you about:
when playing normal without fx there is no problem sound is ok but the audio 8 does a better job ( louder & clearer in my oppinion )
it doesn´t matter if i´m playing 2 decks / 2 sample decks or any other configuration, the sound is clear.
so now the problem is if i`m turning a delay or a reverb and freeze it or do free rate tweaking there are bad distortion sounds.
the other fx are ok, but this two are not usable for me… please can someone try this fx .
this crackles and distortions are even noticable when starting traktor.
i´ve tried the latencies betwenn 512-1024 and all sample rates → same results 
tried the internal s4 soundcard and the audio 8 soundcard same results
tried the s4 soundcard in traktor pro, no problems…
i have a late 2008 macbook pro, 4gb ram and a ssd hd with the latest osx on it so i think the system is performant enough.
can somebody help me ?
Might help if you can record the sound so we can hear it.
I bet its clipping.
Adding Delay and reverb ramps up the output a lot.
What are your output levels like..?
Master Volume in the software should be -2.5 to -8 to prevent clipping outright.
Didn’t think of that. I bet you’re right.
short proplem example
https://soundcloud.com/beatkind/kontrol-s4-fx-problem-description
@ karlos
… the master gain is set to -15 you can hear me reducing the channel gain at the beginning, the blue led row is in the middle
what the f**k is it ?
I don’t know what it is, but I have similar Macbook and the only time I had issues was when recording and having 4 samples going + effects. It hasn’t happened again. A few things I would do.
- Re-Install S4 software
- Get Onyx and run it thru your Macbook. Make your start up volume is good, reset PRAM, etc.
- Set autogain + limiter and DB at -8
- Latency set to 512
- Turn everything off. Wifi, bluetooth etc.
- Plug into the port furthest from the screen with a good cable!!
- Make sure the S4 and the Laptop are plugged in
If I did all of this and still had issues, I’d open up a ticket and start dissecting one piece at a time.
@ haze
point 4-7 check !!! i´ve done this before…
what is onyx ? never heard from
ah ok now i know onyx 
don´t think reinstall is an option, i bought a new ssd just for s4 there is nothing but taktor s4,itunes and mixed in key on it
Onyx = Mac maintenance.
Dude I would still do a reinstall of the software. Just to check it off the list. Sometimes computers are funny that way.
There’s been folks with tons of issues, they reinstalled and everything was fine.
ok problem found but not solved
i reinstalled traktor s4 , after installation of 1.0 there are no problems ( nothing !!! ) then i updated to 1.0.1 and f++kin´tada → sound crackles like before ! it´s definitive a driver problem within the update…
should i stay with 1.0 till the next update ??? have a gig soon and don´t want to get in trouble with my system
Did you update to the new sound drivers as well?
no, i just installed the traktor update and unchecked all other drivers
ok, i double checked it… traktor s4 with kontrol driver from the bundle ( 1.0 ) no sound problems…
traktor s4 ver. 1.0.1 with new kontrol driver—> problems
traktor s4 ver. 1.0.1 with old kontrol driver—> problems
karlos, any ideas ???
if it´s a bug or bad written driver i hope this will be fixed very soon !