Ultrastudio 4K as primary sound card for Mac

Hi, question for Blackmagic and the group: Anyone use the Ultrastudio 4K Extreme 3 as a sound card in addition to Audio/Video out from Pro Apps? Our edit facility was designed to use the analog audio output from the Ultrastudio 4K Extreme 3 for all host audio including system and apps, rather than the default line out of the 2013 Mac Pros. We've already had to add USB Audio Inputs for Voice Over recording because Apps will not capture Audio from the Line Inputs on the Ultrastudio without also enabling Video capture.

Currently we can't switch to basic Line out without more major design and wiring changes from our system integrator. For the most part our setup works, but we run into a lot of issues with application focus when more than one program is open.

We frequently lose audio from adobe apps and have to click to the desktop and then back to the app to get audio restored. We also have serious issues with apps like VLC or Quicktime Player fast-forward through a video really fast with no audio when pressing play, if for example another program such as a web browser with a youtube video is open. It feels like the apps fight for focus of the audio interface and cause sync issues that mess up playback of video files web video depending on what programs are open.

In addition, though perhaps this may be related to Thunderbolt bus bandwidth when network file copies are happening the audio from a video file playing back in the finder, or web browser will click/pop/jitter while a file transfer is happening. We have an external 10Gbit ATTO thunderbolt network adapter connected to our Avid NEXIS Storage, along with two 4K60hz Displayport monitors. I've tried to spread the thunderbolt devices across the three busses of the 2013 Mac Pro, but I may have to experiment more. The Ultrastudio is connected to the Mac Pro via an Apple Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 adapter. I've been keeping our edit suite Desktop Video apps up to date but the OS "Sound Card" glitches have persisted.

Hi, this is still happening to my editorial team daily. Using the latest desktop video drivers on high Sierra. Creative Cloud has occasional dropout of audio. Have to switch to desktop and then switch back to re-initialize premiere audio. Playing back video files in the Mac Finder or other media playback applications results in either skipping immediately to the end of the file, or playing back at something like 20x speed. Unworkable unfortunately and I hear about it from my editors every single day with quite colorful language if you catch my drift.

Pretty much happening with any video playback app. I'm going to contact Blackmagic Support but as of Desktop Video 11.4.1 most video playback outside an editing application plays back in fast forward with no audio when the default system audio device is set to Ultrastudio 4K Extreme 3. My only other mitigation solution would be to abandon the Ultrastudio and switch to built-in line out.

Hello,

We are having a very similar issue with audio dropping out and having to go to the desktop and click back to Premiere to get the audio back. Did you get a resolution to this issue?