{"id":24355,"date":"2019-02-19T16:35:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T21:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=24355"},"modified":"2019-05-27T15:36:39","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27T19:36:39","slug":"t2-macs-have-a-serious-audio-glitching-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/19\/t2-macs-have-a-serious-audio-glitching-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"T2 Macs Have a Serious Audio Glitching Bug"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Kirn<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\n

The problem is, it appears that this new chip has introduced glitches on a wide variety of external audio hardware from across the pro audio industry, thanks to a bug in Apple’s software. 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.)<\/p>\n

Switching off “Set date and time automatically” in System Preferences will reduce, but not resolve the issue.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

To clarify: all T2-based Macs, that is all Mac models from the 2018 generation, are evidently unusable with USB 2.0 audio interfaces, irrespective of vendor. Audio interfaces using FireWire or Thunderbolt are reportedly unaffected by this particular bug, but USB 2.0 is for the moment the most popular bus for audio devices, so nearly all owners of the new machines are encountering the issue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2019-02-20): See also: Stephen<\/a> Hackett<\/a> and Jason Snell<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Marco Arment<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I haven’t, but I’ve heard about it from enough people that it’s probably a significant issue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

McCloud<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I’m curious to know whether dropouts were occurring on older models when bandwidth heavy devices were in use - were the internal cameras on older macs connected over USB? Is that something anyone you know can try?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

McCloud<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The problem is that USB was never a “real time” bus - usually, traffic on it can be kept to a minimum when you only have the built-in keyboard \/ mouse being the only consumers, and so the audio chips would get their way the vast majority of the time…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Stephen Nellis<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

These reports are all the more interesting because, in the days of very powerful phones and tablets, one of the few really good reasons for buying a full-on laptop is processor-intensive work like pro audio.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Ricci Adams<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Note: switching off “Set... automatically” doesn’t eliminate the issue because timed appears to still sync on occasion, even when off. There are likely other issues at play too. Unloading timed entirely fixed it for me, but not everybody.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2019-02-21): Ricci Adams<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Follow-up: The issue still occurs for me after running sudo pmset nopoll<\/code> when timed is loaded. There may be different issues at play, however.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Also, in case it helps anybody else, the best way I’ve found to test is to rapidly check\/uncheck “Set date and time automatically” during playback while searching Console for “pauseAudioEngine”. If the engine is pausing, you will<\/em> glitch at some point.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2019-02-22): See also: Accidental Tech Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2019-02-26): See also: Joel Hruska<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Update (2019-04-08): Geoff Duncan<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Since the introduction of the iMac Pro—and continuing with newer T2-equipped Macs—users have reported occasional audio glitches: little clicks, pops, or bursts of noise that seem to happen at irregular intervals. They occur with both audio playback and audio recording, and can happen using any app, whether listening to Apple Music, watching a video on YouTube, playing a game, or—uh oh!—playing a hot DJ set at a party or recording a live symphony orchestra.<\/p>\n

The problem seems most common with USB-connected audio devices—whether consumer-grade headsets, podcaster-level microphones, or professional audio gear—but the glitches also happen with built-in speakers and microphones as well as audio devices connected via Thunderbolt. How often do they happen? Hard to say. Some users see a few every hour, others maybe only one per day.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

However, for others, these glitches are literally showstoppers.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

All that said, if you rely on your Mac for audio—whether recording podcasts, DJing parties, or as a professional engineer or musician—I recommend avoiding T2-equipped Macs until audio issues have been verifiably resolved for quite some time.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Update (2019-05-27): Peter Kirn<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

The T2 security chip continues to wreak havoc with audio performance – and the 2019 MacBook Pro, like all Macs since a 2018 revision, continues to use it and inherit its audio stability issues.<\/p>\n

Even after a recent OS update that “addressed” performance, we are still hearing widespread reports that the new Macs exhibit this issue. And normally when I say I’m “hearing” them, I mean people are writing to tell me about it. In the case of the T2 issues, I actually keep literally hearing it. You’ll go to a concert or festival, and listen to one MacBook Pro after another glitching with the issue. You’ll sit for a meeting and hear it going on in the background.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

See also: MacBook Pro 2019<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Kirn (via Hacker News): The problem is, it appears that this new chip has introduced glitches on a wide variety of external audio hardware from across the pro audio industry, thanks to a bug in Apple’s software. Issues with the way the new chip synchronizes timing causes dropouts and glitches in the audio stream. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2019-02-19T21:36:02Z","apple_news_api_id":"f1fc06a8-f8ed-4a7a-84ea-02e77712700c","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2019-05-27T19:36:43Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A8fwGqPjtSnqE6gLndxJwDA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1607,95,131,1586,30,557,1173,100,1609,364,175],"class_list":["post-24355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple-t2","tag-audio","tag-bug","tag-imac-pro","tag-mac","tag-macmini","tag-macbook-air","tag-macbookpro","tag-macos-10-14","tag-time","tag-usb"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24355"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25386,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24355\/revisions\/25386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}