Sound breaking up in OS X Mavericks

Hi, my Macbook Pro (2012) has been having sound issues after upgrading from Mountain Lion to Mavericks. When playing sound from the built-in speakers, the sound tends to "break" and get a little distorted. I didn't have this problem before in Mountain Lion. Also, my computer doesn't seem to sleep immediately after closing my screen so a lot of my battery life gets drained.
I'm just wondering if anyone else ran into these problems with the new OS and/or anyone knows how to fix these problems. Thanks in advance!

There are a few audio-related third party system modifications that are not compatible with Mavericks. Is it possible that one of them could be the reason?
To help determine the possible causes of this behaviour read the following. None of what follows is intended to fix anything, but it will provide the additional information required to advance troubleshooting:
Apple Support Communities contributor etresoft wrote a very useful app to quickly gather certain system information that may help point to a cause of this problem. Go to his website, download and run EtreCheck:
http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
Etrecheck will be in your Downloads folder. Open it from there. You may see the following dialog box:
Click Open - etresoft contributes to this forum frequently and can be considered a trustworthy developer.
It will take a moment to run as it collects its data.
Copy and paste its output in a reply.
Do not be concerned about anything that says "Problem" or “failed” or anything else that may appear in red.
EtreCheck was designed to remove any personal information (such as your computer's name and serial numbers) but if you see anything that looks like an email address or any other personal information that should not be divulged to others, please delete or obscure that information when you post the reply.
When you are finished with EtreCheck, quit the program. It occupies very little space, and you can keep it or drag it to the Trash as you wish.
After completing the above please determine if the problems also occur in "Safe Mode":
Safe Mode or "Safe Boot" is a troubleshooting mode that bypasses all third party system extensions and loads only required system components. Read about it: Starting up in Safe Mode
You must disable FileVault before you can start your Mac in Safe Mode.
Starting your Mac in Safe Mode will take longer than usual, graphics will not render smoothly, audio is disabled on some Macs, and some programs (iTunes for example) may not work at all.
Merely starting your Mac in Safe Mode is not intended to resolve the problem, it's to observe its performance without certain additional components.
To end Safe Mode restart your Mac normally. Shutdown will take longer as well.

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Sound breaking up on Airplay if I stream to Airport Express and Apple TV

I have recently bought an Airport Express and latest Apple TV. Both are running nicely on my network, and I can use Airplay to stream music to either from my iMac, but if I try to stream to both then the sound breaks up? Can anyone advise why and how to fix this? Could it be my wireless network isn't up to it (11g)
Many thanks for any advice!

I am not sure this is entirely relevant but since I found these discussions helpful when I had a similar problem here is my two penn'orth.
We have a complex system with two Airport Extremes and 4 Airport expresses of various vintages. One of these was an old (meaning 'g' only & needs Airport Utility 5.6 to service) one, but this had wireless set to 'off' and only served to stream sound to the house HiFi. This one and all but one of the others were roamed (that is Ethernet cable connected), as is the Mac Mini House server (other machines are WiFi).
Breaking up (& other intermittent network issues) only seemed to start with Maverick. I solved this very persistent problem by replacing the old Express with a new one (in fact replacing one of the others and using that). I could conjecture that this had been the only node on the network not capable of GE (though some devices like webcams are not either), but I do not see why this was important.
I still think this rather strange - even the presence or absence of high-data services like eyeTV Netstream made no difference. But having solved it I should not complain - though it would be nice to understand it. It would also be nice if the Airport Extremes included a sound port...
All the Airport devices had been carefully set up according to Apple's default recommendations - so yes some might use 5GHz, though shutting this down did not help. (they still are).
Hope this helps someone!

Sound break-up (crackle); loss of right channel

My Nano occasionally has sound break-up which, when in the 'hold' (locked) position I am able to operate the all functions e.g. adjust sound level. Also, it occasionally loses the right channel - gradually fading out. Its just over 2 years old ...has anybody any ideas for malfunction.

hello,
you sure can! They can probably sell you the part you need here....
http://www.apple.com/support/diy/orderoffline/
you might mave to call, but its better than nothing!
TheMacGuy12

Sound breaking up in PE7

Hi,
Sound breaks up in PE7 when I play back from the timeline. I have Vista 64 bit, Core 2 quad 4Gb RAM, GeForce 9600 GT. Scratch disks are set to E drive which are 2x1Tb drives in raid 0
Cheers

Pure2,
Your I/O looks good, with one exception - that partition.
What happens with a partition is that the OS sees that as two physical HDD's, when it's really only one - just two logical HDD's. The OS, thinking that it's talking to two, asks for things from each at the same time. The one physical HDD, regardless of cache and controller type, can only have the heads in one place at one time. The OS doesn't understand this, and keeps pressing the HDD to be in two places at the same time. This creates a big slowdown, and is often a major performance bottleneck, plus just reading the two File Tables taks even more time.
The only realistic use, that I can think of for a partition, is with a dual-boot system, where each OS is on one partition, and they are never both called into use at the same time.
Personally, I'd eliminate that partition. I've used Partition Magic in the past. It was a separate program back then, but is now part of Symantec. I'm sure that there are other partition management/elimination programs, but do not know of any.
Years ago, Photoshop could only see 4GB of HDD space for its Scratch Disks - maximum. I had to do partitions of ~ 4GB each, to get more Scratch Disk space for PS to use. About PS 7, that limitation was lifted, so I had a 32GB HDD, that could be used completely for PS Scratch Disks, without that 4GB limit. That was when I used Partiton Magic. Though I had little in those partitions, it merged them into one logical and physical drive with ease. It was so simple that I was astounded. Many have used it with plenty of data, etc., and loved it. Now, with your programs installed on D:\ and all of the Registry entries, I would definitely check very, very closely, to make sure that you can merge the partitions and not loose the functionality of your programs.
For me, even if I had to reinstall all of my programs, I'd merge the partitions, but that is just me. I like getting the most performance to my OS, my programs, and the rest of the computer, that I can.
Good luck,
Hunt

Sound breaking up, occasionally on itunes

I dont know if this is an itunes problem or my computer sound problem, but i notice it while playing songs on itunes.
sometimes (maybe one or two times a day) my itunes will just stop playing for about 1-2 seconds, and then continue playing. it just kind of breaks up, and there is nothing that i can see that i am doing that i am do that would initiate this.
i dont know if this is related, but when i am on skype sometimes the sound breaks up there too... anyone know what is causing this?

Make sure your battery is fully charged
Reset your iPod
Press Menu and Center button simultaneously for about 10 secs, till the Apple logo comes ON, then release the buttons
Select your preferred language
See this Apple support Article on 5Rs.
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/five_rs/classic/
If the above doesn't work,
Does the earphone sound good on your iTunes, playing the same music?
Most likely there are dirt or lint in your earphone jack, you can try using ear clips to clean the iPod earphone jack, with some cleaning alcohol, or blow it out with compress air. (those rubber ball with nozzle that you squeeze).
Good Luck!

Tip: Sound breaking up. Check your HDMI cable.

Having owned our Apple TV for only a week, I was very disappointed that the sound would break every 3 to 5 seconds when anything was broadcast from the Apple TV via our television set. The sound breaking occurred for both videos and audios, for both synced and streamed. When played locally on my iMac, the sound was perfect.
I finally discovered the cause of the problem; the HDMI cable.
As part of my trouble-shooting process, I needed to eliminate the cabling as a cause. I therefore switched the HDMI cable even though it was only a week old. As soon as I did so, the sound problem went away. I can now listen to music or watch videos without any glitches at all. Life is wonderful
I was lucky. HDMI cables are convenient but not cheap. When I bought the Apple TV, I bought an HDMI cable not realising that I already had one at home which came bundled with our Philips HDTV; hence a spare HDMI cable to work with.
regards,
Gregory

Thanks for the tip. I was having very poor audio problems where the audio was not synced with the video. Changed out the hdmi cable and it works great.

[Solved]Alsa funkiness (sound breaking)

(Note: I originally thought this was a steam issue, but turns out it's not only steam that can break my sound (see the update on the bottom))
I get an issue with Steam where I get a short (less than 1s) sound on repeat/loop (usually it's some part of the message notification sound, or a trailer that I was watching) sounding a bit like a broken record, randomly occurring after keeping steam open for long periods of time in the background. Only fix I've found so far is to restart steam.
I have the Enlightenmen 18 Window Manager.
Notable errors:
Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 70: non-double matrix element
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 78: saw unknown, expected number
[0706/170950:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(239)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.freedesktop.NetworkManager was not provided by any .service files
[0706/170950:WARNING:proxy_service.cc(958)] PAC support disabled because there is no system implementation
PulseAudio connect failed (used only for Mic Volume Control) with error: Access denied
** (steam:7341): WARNING **: Could not initialize NMClient /org/freedesktop/NetworkManager: The name org.freedesktop.NetworkManager was not provided by any .service files
(steam:7341): LIBDBUSMENU-GLIB-WARNING **: Trying to remove a child that doesn't believe we're it's parent.
[0706/171536:ERROR:reference_audio_renderer.cc(46)] Not implemented reached in virtual void media::ReferenceAudioRenderer::OnCreated(media::AudioOutputController*)
[0706/171536:ERROR:reference_audio_renderer.cc(50)] Not implemented reached in virtual void media::ReferenceAudioRenderer::OnPlaying(media::AudioOutputController*)
[0706/171657:ERROR:reference_audio_renderer.cc(54)] Not implemented reached in virtual void media::ReferenceAudioRenderer::OnPaused(media::AudioOutputController*)
AL lib: pulseaudio.c:612: Context did not connect: Access denied
I don't have any reliable method to reproduce the issue, and it does not seem to output an error of it's own in the terminal output when it occurs. I have noticed that this is more likely to occur when steam has been open for prolonged periods. I am not using pulseaudio, just Alsa. I also noticed when I was running a Wine game (not through steam) that this issue occurred, and it seemed to contaminate the sound outputs for whine too (I got like a "double" sound for every sound effect the game played). If the sound was completely broken on steam and making a loop like I explained at the start of this post and then I close steam while the Wine game is running, the sound from steam will remain until I shut down the game too (i.e. seems that this isn't just breakage internally in steam, but in alsa itself)
The one thing I have tried to solve this was install lib32-libpulse, this did not seem to fix the errors nor the problem. I imagine installing pulseaudio could fix this problem, but pulseaudio downright hates my sound card, so I would rather not use it.
I also have two other issues too that are less severe.
1: Mouse cursor sometimes gets locked in steam instance (Right clicking will show the steam context menu, pressing "stop" in that context menu will solve the issue. This sometimes happens when I use "Ctrl + C"(copy) or "Ctrl + V"(paste) when I'm typing in the discussions)
2: Fullscreen videos will not go fullscreen (they will only fill the steam window)
Update:
I found a bulletproof way to make a similar issue occur.
If I open facebook in firefox, and get a message notification while I am playing a movie in Cmplayer (my media player of choice) the sound in CMplayer breaks (but firefox's sound keeps working normally)
Update2:
I was rather desperate to get this fixed so I installed pulseaudio as much as I despise it, the quality of my audio is damaged by it, but this problem was as I suspected fixed by installing it. I am guessing pulseaudio is set up partially to prevent issues like this one, but I would relaly prefer not to have it. This does not rid me of all the errors however (reference_audio_renderer errors persist) but it does create a new error for steam:
[0706/215704:ERROR:alsa_output.cc(684)] Failed querying delay: Input/output error
Last edited by rabcor (2014-07-11 16:28:34)

I always had to have an asound.conf in the name of upmixing 2.0 to 5.1 This is the content of my asound.conf before I made the changes. I also had a problem with a game where I had crackling noises on 48khz so I had to tell alsa to force 96khz (or 44.1khz but since my card supports 96khz that's what I went with) to avoid that.
pcm.!default {
slave.pcm "surround51"
slave.channels 6
type route
# Front and rear
ttable.0.0 0.7
ttable.1.1 0.7
ttable.2.2 0.6
ttable.3.3 0.6
# Center and LFE
ttable.4.4 1
ttable.5.5 1
# Front left/right to center
ttable.0.4 0.5
ttable.1.4 0.5
# Front left/right to rear
ttable.0.2 0.5
ttable.1.3 0.5
Now it looks like this and everything seems to be working fine (except that mono sound only plays from my left speaker and I haven't defined a way to downmix 7.1 to 5.1):
pcm.dmixed {
type asym
playback.pcm {
# See plugin:dmix at http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html
type dmix
# Don't block other users, e.g. the Timidity midi-player daemon
# http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html
ipc_key_add_uid true
ipc_key 5678293
ipc_perm 0660
ipc_gid audio
# Don't put the rate here! Otherwise it resets the rate & channels set below, as shown by: cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
slave {
# 2 for stereo, 6 for surround51, 8 for surround71
channels 6
pcm {
# mplayer chooses S32_LE, but others usually S16_LE
format S32_LE
#format S16_LE
# 44100 or 48000
# 44100 for music, 48000 is compatible with most h/w
#rate 44100
rate 96000
# http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html
# Maybe helps
nonblock true
type hw
card 0
device 0
subdevice 0
# mplayer2 chooses 1024
# period_size 512 with buffer_size 16384 stops crackling in xmame
# 320 breaks flash - https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=129458
#period_size 512
period_size 1024
#period_size 512
# 4096 might make sound crackle
# mplayer2 chooses 8192. Half-Life 2 chooses 16384.
# If too large, use CONFIG_SND_HDA_PREALLOC_SIZE=2048
buffer_size 16384
capture.pcm "hw:0"
pcm.!default{
type plug
slave.pcm "upmix20_51"
pcm.!surround20 {
type plug
slave.pcm "upmix20_51"
pcm.!surround40 {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixed"
route_policy duplicate
pcm.!surround51 {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixed"
pcm.upmix20_51 {
slave.pcm "dmixed"
slave.channels 6
type route
# Front and rear
ttable.0.0 0.7
ttable.1.1 0.7
ttable.2.2 0.6
ttable.3.3 0.6
# Center and LFE
ttable.4.4 1
ttable.5.5 1
# Front left/right to center
ttable.0.4 0.5
ttable.1.4 0.5
# Front left/right to rear
ttable.0.2 0.5
ttable.1.3 0.5
Is there a better way for me to achieve the results of the above config? Because I'm all ears.
Last edited by rabcor (2014-07-08 11:09:23)

Sound Breaks Up Intermittently

I have a Toshiba 40 "inch (40FT1U) HDTV on which the sound intermittently breaks up during shows. It is connected to a surround sound which blinks (as it should) when the sound is breaking up. I'm sure it's the TV, I'm just not sure why it is happening. It is using the digital optical for audio output. Could the sound modules be going bad. It's only over a year old. Do I need Toshiba service out to look at it ?

I'd suggest contacting support at (800) 631-3811.
[Edited to correct phone number.]
- Peter

Sound break every 30 secs using handbrake

On my Powerbook G4 running OSX Panther, I just encoded a peice of video taken from a DVD -r I burned using my Panasonic DVD recording deck. Handbreak did the job, but I have noticed that during playback on my iPod there is a split second break in sound approximately every 30 secs. I'm not a genious when it comes to sound, but I know a little and think it may be to do with the sample rate on the DVD being different to the re-encoded sample rate of Handbreak thus becoming out of sync and cross phasing at 30 second intervals. The DVD plays fine, its just the encoded H.264 file that doesn't. Video remains fine. Any feed back would be great.
Thanks

I just played the file in quicktime on my computer and it does the same thing in the same place so its definately the file not the iPod or iTunes. There is something up with the way handbreak is encoding, I'm pretty sure its to do with sample rates or icompatibility of the mpeg 2 file on the dvd with the software.

Sound breaking up after installing Leopard

I just installed Leopard on my G5, updated the OS to 10.5.4. But I noticed that under both 10.5.1 and 10.5.4, sound "streamed" via my browser--demo'ing cuts off eMusic for instance--break up. I'd post to the Safari topic, but I've confirmed this phenomenon is happening across browsers. Firefox does it, too. As this phenomenon did not occur under any flavors of 10.4, I figure it has to be something in the new Leopard's setup.
Anyone else seeing this and is there any sort of tweak to fix it?
gf

I have a similar problem after upgrading my older iMac to 10.5.5. (YouTube videos skipping). It looks like the audio channels are confused (all output going to only one speaker, thus interfering with itself). Though it didn't happen all of the time, at first...
Ref: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8384015#8384015
I changed the Right/Left balance to full Right, which seems to have cleared up the interference. Though I haven't tested exhaustively.

Software insrumen sounds break up when played - 3 EXS projet

My project has 3 EXS tracks.
They're all based on the same Piano patch.
One is ringshifted, the other has AVerb on it and the third has no effects.
When I play no. 1 the sound is OK.
But I only have to play a few quick notes on 2 or 3 to for the sound to become discontinuous or break up completely.
Preferences: I/O buffer 1024, process buffer "large", 24 bit recording off.
Machine: MBP with 4 gigs, 56 gig disk space.
I'm o a MacBook Pro - but something similar is

Once I get mine shipped, I'll let you know how mine is compared to my friends X200 which I'v e used a few times last week. I did not test out any DVD's since it lacks a DVD drive but will copy a movie onto a memory stick that has lots of deep blacks. Perhaps Vin Diesels Pitch Black would be a good one to test out and Aliens. My order has been delayed over a month and a half because of a shortage of 9-cell batteries. (at least that is what they are saying since I placed my order on 08/05/08 and today is 9/15/08.
If I were you, I'd register in these other two forums where people talk about the X200 because sometimes this one doesn't move for days and you'll have a better chance of getting a reply.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewforum.php?f=43

Sound distortion, sound breaking up

I need help. my itunes seems to crash. i'll be playing songs, and then the sound starts to break up, and sounds like blown speakers. i have to restart the computer to get it to work again. it started a couple months ago and would only happen when i was importing music, but now it happens after a few minutes of listening. i tried to reinstall itunes but that didn't help it.
any words of wisdom?
-laura
pc Windows XP

hi llaurak!
hmmmm. okay, let's try steadily working through the possibilities described in this document (if you're using itunes 5.0.x or higher, you'll need to do the QT 7 version of the waveout fix):
iTunes and QuickTime for Windows: Songs and other audio don't play correctly
keep us posted.
love, b

IPhone ringtone sound breaking up.

I just purhcased some ringtones and the sound seems to be breaking up. I believe its the bass on the song thats causing it. Do you guys have the same problem? I tried to go to the ringtone file and set an Equalizer preset but that option isnt available. Apple needs to do something with the speaker that cant handle bass at all!
Message was edited by: jamesjm88

The problem with that is though when I am listening the music through iPod mode, I will have to change it again which could become annoying.

Any solutions to stop picture and sound breaking u...

After five trouble-free years and one slightly problematic week with a silver box, I have been forced to upgrade to a black box.
Altogether an inferior product with which I am VERY disappointed. I have been sent a new remote (better not great) and have followed instructions given over the phone to get rid of problems with live and recorded TV breaking up (little squares, like when before the days of broadband when media buffered, and loss of sound).
BUT the picture still breaks up with loss of sound. The so-called ‘home for Sports’ ruing the Tour de France for me.
Any solutions on getting a clean programme? It happens on live and recorded TV, not i-player and I never watch demand so can’t answer for that.
(My broadband is working fine and like I say it’s a problem unique to the new device).
Thanks,

You are a software build behind I suspect as the signal strength meter is only in the latest build.
Can I suggest a factory reset?
Factory Reset
Switch off the Vision+ box at the mains socket
Hold down the front panel OK and down arrow buttons
Switch on the power to the Vision+ box
Allow the box to start up (about 15 seconds)
Release the OK and down arrow buttons
The Vision+ box will then contact the servers to get a new copy of its firmware
If this doesn't work and a rescan with the aerial out and then a reboot an a rescan with the aerial in then can you tell us if the aerial being taken out of the box and plugged into the TV does it work ok?
If you've done all that
Then it is either an aerial fault or a faulty box.
So having done all that come back and let us know.
I would add that the black box requires a stronger signal than the silver box. You may need a booster, my mother did,
Life | 1967 Plus Radio | 1000 Classical Hits | Kafka's World
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MIDI Sound Breaking Up

I'm having serious problems with MIDI breaking up and getting 'crackly' sounding and warbling when I try to play or record any MIDI in Logic Pro. I'm running 7.2 now, but it was happening when I was running 7.1.x as well.
I'm using a M-Audio Keystation 61es attached directly to the Mac via USB.
Please, any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

Thanks everyone, that was quick. I increased the buffer size and it seems to have helped.
Any suggestions on how high or low I should have the polyphony set?
Cheers,
GS

Sound breaking up in OS X Mavericks

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