Click sounds appearing after several hours

Hi, now that firmware 2.0 is being tested, maybe this can also be something worth looking into. I haven’t figured out what actually causes the issue (the MCX hardware (soundcard ?), the audio driver ?, the software (VDJ 8.2 in my case) ?) but here’s what occurs: (I had this issue 2 times) First 4 hours system was in Auto Play for background music (during diner) than I took over and DJ’d for another 5 hours. In the last hour (so system was at that point running more than 8 hours, non stop), the music started having some clicks in the sound (headphone and speakers (master out)). The clicks (ticks) I was hearing can be compared to scratches on a vinyl. And once the clicks began, it seemed like the longer I continued, the more the clicks appeared in the music (both decks) (so it got worse). Luckily the party was ending (and everybody in the public was drunk ;-)), but it got me worried this could appear again and maybe after playing lesser hours. I didn’t have the issue during shorter sets yet. Seems like when the system (controller) is running (active) for many hours, the soundcard (driver ?) is becoming unstable. Maybe something worth looking into for the 2.0 firmware upgrade ?

I work with a (Win 10) dedicated HP laptop (so no other software installed or running, besides the DJ software (VDJ 8.2)). No internet connection, no Bluetooth, no Virus scan. Only OS (Win10) and VDJ 8.2 running.

Greetz Kristof

Hi,

This is most likely hot latency versus cold latency.

Basically laptops/pcs run slower (deliberately) when they’re hot. This is a safety and cooling technique used by Intel and amd… not a problem for word processing or the occasional spreadsheet but DJing tends to push laptops to very edge of their abilities.

Whilst a system might be able to cope with any given DJ software with a super low 5ms latency when they’re cold, or just “hmmm a bit warm” - the same system might need its latency setting nudged up to 3 or 4 times that number for the laptop to be able to still process everthing when the laptop heats up and processes slower to try and cool down its cores. It’s like your i7 becoming an i5 when it’s warmed up.

Try (at home) nudging the latency up to something waaaaaay too sluggish for DJ use (just as a test) like 120ms and run a long playlist, or DJ at home for 10 hours and listen to the sound at 10 hours and see if the odd noises are still there. If not, try leaving it all switched off for a really thorough 3 or 4 hours, switch on and set latency back to its current setting eg maybe 10ms and re-run the playlist test… listen to the sound after 10 hours again and compare.

Then, let us know how it all went.

Hmz, not convinced it’s a ‘hot/cold latency’ issue. Yesterday it occurred after a few hours. I opened audio settings (VDJ 8.2) and pushed ‘apply’ (to ‘reload’ the audio driver) and the ticks were gone. Question is, is it a Denon Audio driver issue or is it a VDJ issue ?