Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#321

Post by rock_artist » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 5:05 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #314

rock_artist wrote: post #64

I'm a former full-time musician working as an audio dev those days. Developing audio-plugins (AU) make you use a lot of DAWs (digital-audio-workstations). There's some issue with Logic Pro X that has been logged for quite a while now. A few days ago I heard the reason it isn't addressed for more than a year now... The developer in-charge on that feature isn't allowed to access other parts of code needed for fixing th…

I've used Logic since 2004 and quite frankly in its current state it seems Apple is barely keeping it alive for old users much like Motion which hasn't seen a major release since 2011.

Logic actually got some great improvements and it's one of the best value for money product out there.

- They bought Camel Audio and got Alchemy. - They've added more nice instruments to their arsenal. - They did a UI redesign. - They've add ARA2.

Compare those updates to other mature products (Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Cubase) it's not bad.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#322

Post by docker_up » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 7:40 AM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #279

docker_up wrote: post #41

Apple appears to be coming to some sort of head at this point. This is speaking as someone heavily invested in Apple products and shares. Their iPhones have reached a peak, where it appears people are no longer willing to pay so much for them. They are too damn expensive, with nothing to justify their costs. I am one of the morons who upgraded to the XS, but only because I needed the 512GB storage. If not for the inc…

Great post. If you don't mind me asking what do you store on your phone that takes up 512GB? I've always wondered what people store on their phones that takes up the room. I know I am definitely in the minority, but my iPhone SE with 32 GB never gets full now that I use Google Photos to backup the images and delete them from the phone whenever it gets full.

I store all my videos of my children on my phone. I have backups on iCloud and Google Photos, but I prefer to have them on my phone. It's personal preference, and I know others do it differently, but I don't want to waste time looking at a spinning wheel waiting for the video to download if I'm looking at old videos. I'm lucky in that I can afford the extra storage.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#323

Post by tempodox » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 9:18 AM UTC

> But more alarming is that this is another serious quality control fumble from Apple. The value proposition with Apple always been that the company’s control over its own hardware, software, and industrial engineering meant a more predictable product.

I can't believe they don't know that themselves and act accordingly. How much more incentive do you need? What the heck is going on at Apple?

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#324

Post by jonaswouters » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 10:15 AM UTC

mrinterweb wrote: post #20

I have a 2017 MBP, and it regularly has audio issues, among other issues. Sometimes I'm able to kill the audio daemon, and get my audio back. Other times I have to reboot (sometimes I have to reset the PRAM in order to get audio back). I have audio problems at least once a week. I know two other people with 2017 MBPs that have the same regular issues I do. I assume there are many more. I feel that recent Apple laptop…

I had a 2017 MBP and the USB speakers I had caused issues. I sold them thinking it was an issue with the speakers, but the next set of USB speakers had the same problem. Eventually, I just used AUX to connect them.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#325

Post by ddalex » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 11:07 AM UTC

LoneWolf123 wrote: post #220

puranjay wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And here I am switching to Mac after a lifetime on Windows. All the things you say about Apple might be true, but the alternative is substantially worse. Microsoft dropped the ball way more than Apple ever did with Windows 10. And hardware quality among laptop manufacturers is frustratingly inconsistent, even within the same brand. My last Lenovo worked great for 5 years despite being a low end machine. My much more…

What about Linux laptops? Are you considering that alternative?

Not OP. For home, I'm using a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu on it, for office I use a MBP 15.

There are upsides and downsides to either of them. The Ubuntu is super snappy low latency desktop, it's a pleasure to type on it (running i3 as window manager); but the sound randomly disappears so much that I'm forced to use bluetooth speakers; and the backlight / network managers controls randomly stop working on upgrades. When I'm tinkering with stuff, I can hunt what's wrong and fix it, but when I'm working, I want stability.

So the MBP is the workhorse. But it struggles a lot with a high res external monitor connected via DisplayPort, and even worse, the UI starts to hiccup when I'm running a heavy load, like executing the test suite in parallel. The Linux scheduler is much better in this regard.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#326

Post by spiralx » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 11:45 AM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #136

MattBearman wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on your Macbook's age and your location, you may be able to get the keyboard replaced due to sticking keys. I ended up getting a brand new MBP when they repeatedly fucked up repairing my sticking keyboard. Obviously it would be better if the keyboards didn't break so easily to begin with, but at least you may not have to put up with it :)

Once I entered an Apple store with a cracked case (white MacBook fell from the table). I left with a brand new lower part (hard disk excepted - they moved mine to the new machine) for free. There was a recall for the case, IIRC, one for the upper palm rest (something to do with magnets that made the plastic crack) and they replaced the keyboard for no reason. I have to say Apple's support experience is stellar. I can…

I've had a Dell technician come to my office within a day of reporting an issue and replace the screen on my XPS 13 there and then, that was just with the standard warranty.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#327

Post by anentropic » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 1:55 PM UTC

_rs wrote: post #233

anentropic wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favourite bug is the one where your audio gets randomly panned until one day you realise you're only listening to the Left channel of the music, and you have to go into audio settings and pan it back to the centre

Yep, I've had this problem too many times. This app seems to fix it for me: https://www.tunabellysoftware.com/balance_lock/

dude, thanks so much!

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#328

Post by puranjay » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 1:59 PM UTC

ddalex wrote: post #325

LoneWolf123 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Linux laptops? Are you considering that alternative?

Not OP. For home, I'm using a Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu on it, for office I use a MBP 15. There are upsides and downsides to either of them. The Ubuntu is super snappy low latency desktop, it's a pleasure to type on it (running i3 as window manager); but the sound randomly disappears so much that I'm forced to use bluetooth speakers; and the backlight / network managers controls randomly stop working on upgrades. When…

In my case, one of my core use cases is music production. Linux is as good as useless for that - no major DAWs support it.

My other use case is writing. A LOT. I really need a good keyboard for it. The older MBPs had great keyboards. The newer ones, not so much. Outside of Apple, the only competent keyboards I've seen are on Thinkpads

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#329

Post by sramsay » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 3:38 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #312

sramsay wrote: post #225

From the article: "Issues with the way the new chip synchronizes timing causes dropouts and glitches in the audio stream. (It seems basically all USB 2.0 audio interfaces will be impacted. This of course unfortunately leads users to blame their interface manufacturer, but the fault lies with Apple.)" As someone who works with a lot of pro audio gear on the Mac, I can say that it's hard to describe what a show stopper…

> Still, I'm not sure many people using pro-grade audio interfaces are still using the USB 2.0 bus Audio AD/DA hasn't changed a lot in the past 10-15 years. A good USB 2 interface is still perfectly valid as long as the manufacturer provides drivers. For example the legendary RME Babyface Pro.

That's true. RME (definitely on the high end) is remarkably good about supporting a wide variety of connection technologies. Include Firewire.

Re: Apple’s Latest Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug

#330

Post by JohnJamesRambo » Wed, Feb 20, 2019, 3:40 PM UTC

docker_up wrote: post #322

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great post. If you don't mind me asking what do you store on your phone that takes up 512GB? I've always wondered what people store on their phones that takes up the room. I know I am definitely in the minority, but my iPhone SE with 32 GB never gets full now that I use Google Photos to backup the images and delete them from the phone whenever it gets full.

I store all my videos of my children on my phone. I have backups on iCloud and Google Photos, but I prefer to have them on my phone. It's personal preference, and I know others do it differently, but I don't want to waste time looking at a spinning wheel waiting for the video to download if I'm looking at old videos. I'm lucky in that I can afford the extra storage.

That makes sense. I need to start shooting more videos instead of photos.