Crackling audio only in fairlight tab

I'm a recent convert to Resolve. I moved from Vegas Movie Studio and started using resolve on a laptop with no dedicated gpu and 32gb of ram in version 17. There was crackling audio in fairlight,but I assumed it was my laptop.
Then I upgraded to an HP Omen 25l with only 16gb of ram but it does have a GTX1660ti graphics card. Still crackling audio only in fairlight. Upgraded to Resolve V18, still crackly audio in fairlight.
I upgraded the ram to remove the two 8gb sticks and replaced them with two 32gb sticks, for a total of 64gb. It is only running at 2.4ghz and not the 3.2ghz that the sticks are... But that is bc the HP proprietary B's with their bios....

But I STILL have crackly audio only in fairlight. I use this machine for my audio daw and record up to 16 tracks with realtime monitoring, and though there might be latency, there is NO crackling.

Is there a setting I am missing?
I changed from system audio to the ASIO driver for the UMC 1820 (my interface).

It 'seems' to be an issue with either my set up/settings, or the program, since it does the same thing on different computers. But not many people seem to have this issue,so I wouldn't thing it was just an issue with Resolve.

Can anyone help me??

Computer
HP omen 25l with AMD 5700g CPU
GTX1660ti
Kingston FURY Beast RGB 64GB (2x32GB) 3200MT/s DDR4 CL16 kit of 2 (doesn't say matched set but it was bought as a pair)
Win10

Thanks




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Any change with the “Automatic Speaker Configuration” option disabled?

Any improvement with the “Playback processing buffer size” set to anything other than Auto and a larger block size?

I'll have to check. Would be nice to have a list from blackmagic on configurations

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I had similar issues with my old system. And even if the Fairlight engine is supposed to behave the same way on all tabs, I sporadically suffered from crackling audio on the Fairlight tab while the audio played fine on the others.
Sometimes re-starting Resolve fixed the problem but more often it was a general performance issue. If you are using compressed material (like h264), try using edit-friendly proxies (like ProRes or DNxHR). In my case this finally solved the problem.

Second the playback processing buffer size suggestion. Mine falls apart in the 2 lowest settings.


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Second the playback processing buffer size suggestion. Mine falls apart in the 2 lowest settings.

Unfortunately I was not able to try this one. For whatever reason I have no other option than Auto.
I am on Win10 using an HDMI clean-feed and I am not willing to use ASIO.

Before I saw these replies, I started working on some footage and there was crackling on the edit tab. Frustrated, I shut off the box and left for the evening. But I will try the buffer settings and also the proxy files. Thanks!

I was finally able to get to the studio and work on some things. The video that was causing the grief was just the audio file. Imported from an .MP4 I believe. On that video, the audio was crackling EVERYWHERE - on every tab (Edit, Cut, etc). But when I open up other videos, it is only crackling on the Fairlight tab.
Tonight, I have some dedicated time to go in and try some things. I will try Proxy files and different buffer sizes. I will also try seeing if there is a difference between using the System settings and the UMC ASIO driver.
Also, I have gone into the preferences, under the three dots at the top right hand side and reset all the preferences back to default - I should be starting from a clean slate.

In Preferences/User/Playback Settings, try setting the Performance Mode to Disable if it is set to Automatic.

In Preferences/User/Playback Settings, try setting the Performance Mode to Disable if it is set to Automatic.

Will do - thanks!!

It has been a minute - life gets in the way sometimes.... but I got back to Davinci Resolve and reset the preferences back to stock. I even made proxy media - And in the fairlight tab, I still get crackling.
Now this is different than distortion. It is like it is having issues processing the video. I didn't think about this before, but maybe if I do a screen capture of a section of video running in the edit tab, then switch over to the fairlight tab, and post it - would that help folks know what I might be dealing with??
Thanks for any help you can give.

... It is like it is having issues processing the video. I didn't think about this before, ...

Two more things I can think of: Variable frame rate and audio not at 48khz. Some information about your footage might help.

I'm a recent convert to Resolve. I moved from Vegas Movie Studio and started using resolve on a laptop with no dedicated gpu and 32gb of ram in version 17. There was crackling audio in Fairlight, but I assumed it was my laptop.

There are several long running threads on this topic (from V17). At one time, the consensus was pointing to users of Focusrite interfaces. Though, it seems some focusrite users, like me, were not getting the problem. So as Toyah Wilcox would say: Its a mithterwee!

I too have this problem. anything in the Fairlight tab is crackly - doesn't matter what source, whther proxy or full res - audio files, video files with audio.

Messed with block sizes etc as suggested higher up this thread. No dice - 'seemed' a little better when set to maximum but unsure if this improvement is in my head as have been dealing with this so long!

If it helps, it also happens in the source window of the edit tab, but *only* when it's an audio only file. If I switch the source window for the audio only file to 'source' - where you see black rather than the waveform, it plays smoothly - so I suspect it's to do with the graphical rendering of the waves, or perhaps this segment uses a similar bit of code to the fairlight tab.

I have a UMC204HD Behringer interface. But I might try disabling this and see if the motherboard onboard audio is OK.

The machine is a gaming tower PC - haven't got it in front of me but it's a high spec AMD Ryzen with a MSI 3080Ti GPU playing media from a Sandisk Extreme Pro USB3 SSD.

I too have this problem. anything in the Fairlight tab is crackly - doesn't matter what source, whther proxy or full res - audio files, video files with audio.

Messed with block sizes etc as suggested higher up this thread. No dice - 'seemed' a little better when set to maximum but unsure if this improvement is in my head as have been dealing with this so long!

If it helps, it also happens in the source window of the edit tab, but *only* when it's an audio only file. If I switch the source window for the audio only file to 'source' - where you see black rather than the waveform, it plays smoothly - so I suspect it's to do with the graphical rendering of the waves, or perhaps this segment uses a similar bit of code to the fairlight tab.

I have a UMC204HD Behringer interface. But I might try disabling this and see if the motherboard onboard audio is OK.

The machine is a gaming tower PC - haven't got it in front of me but it's a high spec AMD Ryzen with a MSI 3080Ti GPU playing media from a Sandisk Extreme Pro USB3 SSD.

Well THANK GOD someone else has the issue (sorry for your pain). I was begining to think I was just a collosal 'eff up (jury is still out on that but...)....

I am playing around with buffer size. I will also deep dive into making sure that all of my settins are the same - UMC1820 vs Studio One vs Davinci Resolve. I have NO issues with Studio One. And relatively few issues with Resolve - EXCEPT the fairlight page. However, I will try the 'source' change that you suggest below.

Seems weird that so few people have encountered this problem. I will also try and do a screen capture of what I am talking about and we can verify that it is the same issue you are seeing....
Mind you - the videos I do have very little effects, 3d keyer, and maybe some audio effects (eq, compression) and going to the fairlight tab, at times is seems to nearly lock things up.... Quite frustrating!!!

Seems weird that so few people have encountered this problem. I will also try and do a screen capture of what I am talking about and we can verify that it is the same issue you are seeing....

Search the forum, and you will find quite a few people have the same problem. It has been ongoing for a while since before V18.
Though it quite a few people have the problem, it does not seem many compared to some other things that have been raised and not fixed

Well THANK GOD someone else has the issue (sorry for your pain). I was begining to think I was just a collosal 'eff up (jury is still out on that but...)....

I am playing around with buffer size. I will also deep dive into making sure that all of my settins are the same - UMC1820 vs Studio One vs Davinci Resolve. I have NO issues with Studio One. And relatively few issues with Resolve - EXCEPT the fairlight page. However, I will try the 'source' change that you suggest below.

Seems weird that so few people have encountered this problem. I will also try and do a screen capture of what I am talking about and we can verify that it is the same issue you are seeing....
Mind you - the videos I do have very little effects, 3d keyer, and maybe some audio effects (eq, compression) and going to the fairlight tab, at times is seems to nearly lock things up.... Quite frustrating!!!

Pain shared is pain doubled lol.

I too am a drummer, perhaps that's the problem!

The system works fine with Prem Pro, Reaper, all sorts of other things. I had wondered if the problem was AMD related because I have a Dell XPS which doesn't suffer (using Rode-NT-USB-mini) - It's probably the Audio Interface tho as my searches reveal many others seeing the same problems with both focusrite and behringer interfaces.

On Windows:
If the crackling only appears with audio hardware connected through USB, it is worth checking how the USB port is handled by the OS. If the port uses the legacy interrupt sharing, this might be the issue.

In Preferences/User/Playback Settings, try setting the Performance Mode to Disable if it is set to Automatic.

At the moment this appears to have helped, but I'm hesitant to call it "fixed", since this issue keeps coming back every time I think I have it.

On Windows:
If the crackling only appears with audio hardware connected through USB, it is worth checking how the USB port is handled by the OS. If the port uses the legacy interrupt sharing, this might be the issue.

I have these exact same issues with a Universal Audio Apollo on thunderbolt. I've been chasing this issue since ASIO became available, having tried all the usual things that are sprinkled allover the forum. Super frustrating.

I could be wrong, but all of these issues I've seen on the forum appear to be with ASIO on Windows.. has anybody had these crackling issues with recording/playback on the fairlight page using CoreAudio on a Mac?

I did some testing yesterday.
I thought my issue is bc my project and timeline weren't the same frame rate.
However, the audio statice happens on all audio tracks in any project that I use the 3d keyer to chroma key out a green screen.
It never processes out to the final video. The audio is affected in the edit tab as well.
My computer is an HP omen with a 5700G CPU, 64gb of ram and a 3060ti GPU. The videos are less than 15 min each and a max of 4 video tracks.
Help

Well THANK GOD someone else has the issue (sorry for your pain). I was begining to think I was just a collosal 'eff up (jury is still out on that but...)....

I am playing around with buffer size. I will also deep dive into making sure that all of my settins are the same - UMC1820 vs Studio One vs Davinci Resolve. I have NO issues with Studio One. And relatively few issues with Resolve - EXCEPT the fairlight page. However, I will try the 'source' change that you suggest below.

Seems weird that so few people have encountered this problem. I will also try and do a screen capture of what I am talking about and we can verify that it is the same issue you are seeing....
Mind you - the videos I do have very little effects, 3d keyer, and maybe some audio effects (eq, compression) and going to the fairlight tab, at times is seems to nearly lock things up.... Quite frustrating!!!

Pain shared is pain doubled lol.

I too am a drummer, perhaps that's the problem!

The system works fine with Prem Pro, Reaper, all sorts of other things. I had wondered if the problem was AMD related because I have a Dell XPS which doesn't suffer (using Rode-NT-USB-mini) - It's probably the Audio Interface tho as my searches reveal many others seeing the same problems with both focusrite and behringer interfaces.

Just uninstalled and reinstalled Behringher UMD drivers. No difference - had been having an intermittent problem with VLC as well (audio cutting out) which has been driving me crazy. Anyway, I installed the onboard realtek drivers and set that to be my output - grabbed a minijack adaptor and plugged it into my monitoring mixer - boom no problems. Poorer quality audio on everything else but at least it's useable in Resolve this way - I plan to leave it plugged in and turn the input down when doing anything else - massive workaround as I can see myself forgetting to do that at some point and mixing accordingly but it's a way to work I guess. Loading in audio clips to the source monitor and not having them stuttering is unbelievable

Awesome that you found a solution!! I had thought about using headphones straight off the computer and using it's system drivers just hadn't gotten there yet. But I will do that today!
Thanks!

Well THANK GOD someone else has the issue (sorry for your pain). I was begining to think I was just a collosal 'eff up (jury is still out on that but...)....

I am playing around with buffer size. I will also deep dive into making sure that all of my settins are the same - UMC1820 vs Studio One vs Davinci Resolve. I have NO issues with Studio One. And relatively few issues with Resolve - EXCEPT the fairlight page. However, I will try the 'source' change that you suggest below.

Seems weird that so few people have encountered this problem. I will also try and do a screen capture of what I am talking about and we can verify that it is the same issue you are seeing....
Mind you - the videos I do have very little effects, 3d keyer, and maybe some audio effects (eq, compression) and going to the fairlight tab, at times is seems to nearly lock things up.... Quite frustrating!!!

Pain shared is pain doubled lol.

I too am a drummer, perhaps that's the problem!

The system works fine with Prem Pro, Reaper, all sorts of other things. I had wondered if the problem was AMD related because I have a Dell XPS which doesn't suffer (using Rode-NT-USB-mini) - It's probably the Audio Interface tho as my searches reveal many others seeing the same problems with both focusrite and behringer interfaces.

Just uninstalled and reinstalled Behringher UMD drivers. No difference - had been having an intermittent problem with VLC as well (audio cutting out) which has been driving me crazy. Anyway, I installed the onboard realtek drivers and set that to be my output - grabbed a minijack adaptor and plugged it into my monitoring mixer - boom no problems. Poorer quality audio on everything else but at least it's useable in Resolve this way - I plan to leave it plugged in and turn the input down when doing anything else - massive workaround as I can see myself forgetting to do that at some point and mixing accordingly but it's a way to work I guess. Loading in audio clips to the source monitor and not having them stuttering is unbelievable

Yep - CONFIRMED - if I use system audio and one of the headphone jacks on my computer - no issues. If I use the ASIO for the I/O audio engine and run it thru my UMC 1820 and then thru my monitors (yamaha HS5's) I get the crackly distortion. I updated the driver too and same result....
SUPER frustraiting, but at least I know I can now work in Davinci resolve and not be pissed off by the audio during playback.
NOTE - it NEVER rendered out that way - it was always just during playback - which makes it SUPER difficult to get work done....
If anyone has a work around, I would appreciate it. Otherwise, I will probably break out the old multimedia speakers and use those while editing video.... ;-( #somuchforbuyingnicethings

I just moved over to the beta version, I was having the same issue but it seems to have reduced the issue I was having. It's at the point where I can at least tell what is going on. May be worth a shot.

I just moved over to the beta version, I was having the same issue but it seems to have reduced the issue I was having. It's at the point where I can at least tell what is going on. May be worth a shot.

Yeah, I am on the public beta version and at least with the Behringer drivers, it is the same. I either deal with it, or use the windows system sound and plug headphones into the computer. However, that just makes it better. When I go to the fairlight tab and I have that green screen 3D keyer on - I still have issues.

I guess if I had the paid studio version I would get support - but it is tough to cough up $300 for a program that makes my playback audio so terrible - luckily it is only playback and not render audio!!!

I just moved over to the beta version, I was having the same issue but it seems to have reduced the issue I was having. It's at the point where I can at least tell what is going on. May be worth a shot.

Yeah, I am on the public beta version and at least with the Behringer drivers, it is the same. I either deal with it, or use the windows system sound and plug headphones into the computer. However, that just makes it better. When I go to the fairlight tab and I have that green screen 3D keyer on - I still have issues.

I guess if I had the paid studio version I would get support - but it is tough to cough up $300 for a program that makes my playback audio so terrible - luckily it is only playback and not render audio!!!

If you roll back off of the beta and actually call them they had me email them a bunch of logs for support. It's the beta that they dont support. Free version dose get support. It is still odd that there is this interference between the program and running an interface to studio monitors.

I can't remember if I tried calling them or not... I know when I emailed a help ticket they just sent me to the forum. When I emailed asking if there was a paid support available for the free version of the software, their response was "Support for the user of the free version of DaVinci Resolve is available through the Blackmagic Design forum.". But I can try calling them.