Weird noises when playing back in Logic Pro

Hi,

I just started my Logic projects on my new MacBook Pro and all tracks with Scaler 2 equipped making weird noises when playing back. Even when there are no midi files on the tracks. This never happened on my iMac.

So every time I play back my project I get these strange noises from every track with Scaler 2. Can barely work with Scaler 2 now :frowning:

I already reinstalled Logic and Scaler 2 but it didn’t help. I have the fill version of Scaler 2.

Thanks for your help!

Version of Logic
Version of OS
Version of Scaler needed to provide any help. If it’s a new Macbook Pro it must be an M1? Can you let us know?
What kind of noise?

Logic version: 10.7.7
OS: ventura 13.2.1
Scaler: 2.7.3

It is a MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro and 32GB.

It sounds a little different every time I open a new project but it is like a really high pitched sound.

Thanks!

Are you driving any soft synths from Scaler when this happens? Can you record a short video of this phenomenon and make the video available to help identify the issue, please?

Can you try running it in Rosetta? Scaler has had issues with the M1 chip so the M2 Chip is yet another unknown. Are you running the MIDI Control version of Scaler? If so it’s odd it would be making sound at all.

Hey! Thx for your question. I uploaded a video here

I use Serum as a plug-in and Scaler as midi fx. As soon as I switch Scaler off the sound stops.

Yes, I am using Scaler as MIDI control.

I am not sure how to install Rosetta manually. It says that Logic Pro is a program (universal) so no Rosetta required!?

I am in the Windows unoverse, but hopefully someone with more MAC knowledge than I have can now help you. Good luck

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There were/are some issues with the M1 chip and Ventura. Also, Logic broke the 3rd party MIDI FX in an update and haven’t fixed that yet. At one point running under Rosetta helped some people having problems with Scaler and M1. There are many threads about it here. here is one -

So is the sound coming from Serum then? Scaler to Serum? If you mute Serum does the sound stop?

Like @ed66, I too am a ‘Gatesian’, and my knowledge of all matters Apple ended with a ‘Macintosh’ (anybody heard of it ?) in 1986. However, with all the many puzzling posts about software compatibility difficulties with M1 / Catalina / M2 / Monterey / Rosetta / Big Sur whatever, I had a quick look at Wiki to get a brief handle on it.

I was surprised that, since 2009 (when Windows 7 was released - still working well on my spare machine - there appears to have been no less than 14 iterations of MacOS from Leopard to Ventura, as opposed to 4 from Microsoft (7,8,10.11; of which 8 was a dud nobody sane used, and 10/11 are the same thing) .

Respect then, to all you Mac users for juggling multiple OS balls with your applications, whilst working on your musical creations :astonished:

To be fair - I haven’t any issues because I always choose my sources. If my OS works for me I stay there unless I need something. No one is forcing anyone to update. If you are buying a new Mac and entering the M1 chip era, that’s another story.

Hi @Sebastian and welcome to the forum. I am going to guess this has nothing to do with Scaler.
Can you please open a vanilla logic project and open scaler to control a third party instrument. Any noise? I’m guessing not. In which case does it have something to do with the routing to Crystalliser in the project you posted? You need to mute one by one your scaler (still making the sound?) your Serum? The route to Output 1|2 rather than then bus with Crystalliser. If by chance whilst opening a vanilla Logic file and adding scaler as a midi FX produces noise then we have a problem. Let us know please.

1 Like

Hi!

So I opened up Logic with Rosetta but it didn’t make a difference first. I played back a couple other project yesterday to narrow down the problem and then something weird happened. When I played back the same project there was suddenly this permanent loud high pitched noise for like 2 seconds and then I couldn’t turn on any audio. There was no sound coming out of my speaker at all, even from applications like Spotify - nothing. So I restarted my MacBook and the sound was on again. Also, there was no sound when playing back tracks with Scaler anymore. It is still gone. But something is still off because when I use the keys within Scaler (as the controller version) they won’t work unless I press the play button. So now, every time I want to use the keys within Scaler on a track, I have to press play. This is also necessary when switch back to that track from a different one - quite annoying :frowning:

Hi Davide and thank you!

The problem doesn’t occur anymore. Still there is something off with Scaler. Here is my reply to an earlier post:

So I opened up Logic with Rosetta but it didn’t make a difference first. I played back a couple other project yesterday to narrow down the problem and then something weird happened. When I played back the same project there was suddenly this permanent loud high pitched noise for like 2 seconds and then I couldn’t turn on any audio. There was no sound coming out of my speaker at all, even from applications like Spotify - nothing. So I restarted my MacBook and the sound was on again. Also, there was no sound when playing back tracks with Scaler anymore. It is still gone. But something is still off because when I use the keys within Scaler (as the controller version) they won’t work unless I press the play button. So now, every time I want to use the keys within Scaler on a track, I have to press play. This is also necessary when switch back to that track from a different one - quite annoying :frowning:

Thanks!

Hey,

so the sound was not only coming from Serum. It was also coming when using different plugins like Native Instruments in combination with Scaler Control. But when I muted the plugin the sound stopped.

Hi @Sebastian

Looking at your video I have a couple of dumb questions to clarify. I see you are using Scaler MIDIFX. can you confirm that it is routed to a soft synth, please?

On your video I note that every time you are clicking on a block there is a click. If these are the

to which you are referringI am wondering if you have the microphone routed to a track in Logic and it is picking up th emouse clicks.

As I say these are probably dumb questions but this sort of thing is easily done: I occassionally forget to mute my mocrophone and…

Your

sounds like it could be an audio feedback loop. Do you have an active microphone in front of your speakers?

Probabl not very helpful thoughts but worth testing.

EDIT: Looking closely at the video that you posted on iCloud, I think you are picking up sound through a microphone.

Also I think you have several instruments playing on the chord and producing output. It looks as if you have tracks 1,2,3, 9, 10 and 11 all producing output.

Have you tried solong tracks which may help to isolate where the sound is being produced?

Just another thought to try to isolate the source(s) of the noises may I suggest that you capture the midi sequence in Scaler then drag it onto your Serum track to trigger Serum, switch off Scaler and see if this produces the same sounds?

Hi @ed66

Yes, I am using Scaler as MIDI FX and it is routed to a soft synth.

The clicking sound is coming from the actual clicking on the track pad of my MacBook. The sound is captured by my phone. So it is not coming out of the notebook’s speakers.

Like I said earlier, the high pitched sound which was my initial problem and occurred when playing back my project suddenly disappeared after audio breakdown that forced me to restart my MacBook.

Now, Scaler is not working probably because the preview sound within the Scaler window does only work after I pressed the play button → see new video

I have to press the space key before the sound would work in Scaler every time I switch tracks.

I have no idea what is going on…