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AUM "cutting out"
I've been using AUM as my primary performance tool, with my instrument and powered speakers connected to the iPad through a Scarlett 2i4 audio interface. It works flawlessly except that the audio occasionally "cuts out" at random. I thought originally that it was because I had my Peterson tuner app also running, but that turns out not to be the case. The signal is interrupted only momentarily, like less than a second, and for practice it's not a big deal at all, but I do hope to use this setup for live performance someday, and it will definitely be embarrassing if my gear decides to go silent for a half-second at random moments!! 
The DSP figure never seems to be indicating that the system is being stressed in any way (it always seems to hover between 30 and 40% on this iPad Air 4th-gen.) My signal chain isn't all that complex. The signal is stereo in two channels with a RoughRider compressor, 4Pockets VisualEQConsole, AudioKit Rack reverb and a Baby Audio Magic Switch chorus on each channel.
Anyone seen this before? Any suggestions on what I can do to find the problem or eliminate it?
Thanks!
Comments
My suggestions - knowing that you may have already tried all of this.
The first troubleshooting suggestion that comes to mind is to try without the Scarlett 2i4 if you can. If the dropout stops then it has to do with the interface or connections to it, or the speakers. So the next thing I would do is go back to the original setup and replace the speakers with some other listening device.
After that, eliminating one thing at a time, I would go through replacing each of the cables, and especially any hubs.
If it does continue with both the Scarlett and the speakers out of the equation, then I would put the device into Airplane mode and be sure that all notifications are turned off. It's possible that some sort of notification or other system interruption is the cause.
Oh, and of course, all of this testing always done after a clean power-off/on of the iPad and the interface.
Thanks. I haven't tried any of that, so I'll see what I can do. I have an entire separate "road rig" that has a different interface, different hub, different speakers, etc. so I may try that first and see if it disappears. That will tell me whether it's in the iPad or external to it. I doubt that it's the speakers, as it's occurring when I use headphones instead of the speaker, but that still leaves everything else in-place, including the Monitor Controller that all the audio output is routed through, but still outboard of the iPad/Audio Interface part. I hadn't honestly suspected the interface as I've been using this interface successfully for years (it's no longer in production, replaced by the 2i2) but nothing lasts forever, and some malfunction may have developed in it. Hubs are another matter entirely. In fact, in my experience I've found that audio interfaces simply do not play well with hubs on a Windows system. I was very surprised when I was able to connect my audio interfaces through a hub to both my Mac and the iPad without any apparent problem, but given past experience with my old Windows system, I'm inclined to be suspicious of hubs.
I know that this procedure violates the one-thing-at-a-time principle, but with this I can remove everything external to the iPad then start adding components back in one-at-a-time which should get me to a solution.
Thanks again.
Just want to close the loop on this. @wim did indeed put me on the path to a solution.
Bottom line - it appears to have been the hub. Changed the hub and the problem went away. But I learned a bunch of interesting things along the way.
The last thing I wanted to do was have to replace my audio interface, so I worked on the signal chain between the interface and the iPad. That led to a bit of an education.
I purchased a new hub to replace the existing one. It wouldn't work, in that the power to the hub wasn't being passed through to the iPad. This is a deal-breaker as without that, the iPad's battery wouldn't last through my daily practice sessions (usually 1-2 hours.) It was a good-quality Anker hub, and I contacted Anker for assistance.
Turns out that while my previous hub seemed to work fine being powered by a 2.5A USB charger, the Anker requires 15 watts of power, and only passes through any power in excess of that. Note that converting watts to amps isn't a direct conversion (there is an efficiency factor that I don't understand fully) but for our purposes consider 15 watts to be about 3 amps. That means that the most powerful charger I had at the time (3000ma or 3A) was just barely enough to power the hub, with nothing left over for anything else, like the iPad, a MIDI keyboard or anything else I might plug into it.
So the first thing I did was just supply more power (using an 80watt laptop charger) to the old (iPad-specific CableCreation) hub. Even though it was working with the 2.5A power supply, I thought I might be pushing the power supply to the limit, and that could be causing a problem.
After testing this rig for a few days, there was no improvement.
Next I swapped the Anker hub for the CableCreation hub. That led to my next discovery. I'm sure everyone is aware of the issues surrounding that devil's spawn known as the USB "Standard"
with USB-C plugs that sometimes have to be re-inserted 180º to work, USB cables that can charge, but can't carry data etc. Add to that list the (new to me) info that cables have a limit to how much current they can carry. Note that there is "conventional wisdom" floating around that you can visually distinguish power-only and low-wattage cables by their diameter – that thicker cables indicate a) they can carry data and/or b) they can handle more power.
Bunk on both. There is no way to visually determine the specs of a cable unless you're lucky enough to have one that has something printed on them to ID their specs, which is very rare IME.
I have skinny little Apple cables that can handle data and also handle all the wattage I need, but also have some other cables that look really nice - thick, fancy braided insulation etc. that can't do data or can't handle more charging wattage than a phone.
So, once I had enough power, a new hub, and a suitable cable to provide power to the entire setup, the "dropping out" problem has (Ta-DAAAH!!) disappeared.
My conclusion is that it's likely that the CableCreation hub just wasn't up to the task for some reason.
Nice one @steve99. Thanks for taking the time to document your discoveries. Someone is going to benefit from that at some point I'm sure.
What hub did you end up with? And is the power supply that works for you the one that came with it? I need something that will power the iPad. My current one, though it should supply power on the uplink connection, does not. I have to run a second cable from one of the charging ports to the USB-3 camera adapter to power the iPad. I'd like to streamline that.
I'd just like to point out that USB-C Power Delivery can work with voltages higher than 5V; it uses 20V or more. This is how you can have an 80W charger that does not require a thick 16A cable. And the cable from hub to iPad must support Power Delivery, because there's a chip in the connector to negotiate the connection. These features should be described in the cable specs.
That was my purpose!
The hub is an Anker A8346, referred to as a "7-in-1." It didn't come with a power supply, but it was less than $30 US.
And I mis-spoke. The charger is actually only 65w but seems to be doing the job. Might be an issue if you're trying to power a laptop, but seems fine for the iPad and some MIDI peripherals. It's a TUNNU GaN charger. They don't show a mfr part no. but the Amazon ASIN # is B09PR8H6GQ. It has 2xUSB-C and 1xUSB-A ports, and can provide a number of different power outputs depending on which port(s) you use. By using only one of the USB-C ports it delivers the full 65w. It too is less than $30 US unless you buy the option that comes with a cable.
Thanks @steve99 ! Good info. I'm on a Lightning iPad, so that solution might not work for me though. Still good to know. 😎
Sure it should. You will need a USB-C to Lightning adapter or adapter cable to connect the cable that is part of the hub to the iPad. There are plenty of cables available that have USB-C male on one end and Lightning male on the other. You'll need a USB-C gender changer (I have a bunch of them) as it may be easier than finding a cable with a female USB-C. You'll run a USB-C (remember it has to handle the 65 watts) from the USB-C port on the power supply to the USB-C "PD" port on the hub. You'll then have several (I think 3) USB ports open on the hub into which you can plug your audio interface, USB-MIDI devices etc.
I have a rig on my desktop that uses the hub to connect the iPad to two different MIDI controllers and the audio interface. I also made a simpler rig for gigging or joining other musicians away from my music room that is simply the audio interface, hub, power supply and an extension cord to plug the power supply into, all inside a box that has a secure mounting on top for the iPad. I can use this setup in a hotel room with headphones or plug it into an amp or a powered speaker on stage as seen in the pics here:
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand. In my case the uplink port of the hub needs to be connected to the iPad (I assume through the USB3 Lightning adapter) and my goal is to have that same cable power the iPad. Previously I've never been able to get the hub to power the iPad through that single cable, even though the hub I have says it should and has a special cable to do so. I've always had to run a separate lightning cable from one of the charging ports on the hub to the USB3 Lightning adapter.
It's never been possible to run both data and power through a lightning cable. It has always required the USB3 adapter with a USB connection for data and a separate lightning cable for power.
USB-C is a whole different ballgame.
This is true. Power in conventional USB is always one way, from host computer to peripherals. That's why the Lightning adapter needs a separate Lightning power port. Your powered hub might be able to power the iPad if it has a non-standard connector, and a special cable from it direct to the iPad Lightning port (no adapter). Some gear, like the iConnects, have done this in the past.
My current setup is probably similar to yours, with an Atolla powered USB-3 hub, connected to the Lightning adapter by its own data cable, and by a separate Lightning charge cable. If you could identify your hub make/model, I'd like to have a look at it. See what magic it claims to offer.
I'm pretty sure I'm barking up the wrong tree here and it's not possible with a lightning iPad except with the second cable. In another thread a few months someone mentioned powering an iPad from a usb uplink using single cable and at the time I thought is was not USB-C.
The hub I have is no longer available on Amazon: Description - "Plugable 7-Port USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Hub with 25W Power Adapter and Two Ports with BC 1.2 Charging Support for Android, Apple iOS, and ..."
The uplink connector is a USB-C type B pictured here:
It's not really worth the research effort to save one cable powering a ridiculously outdated device. I just get real curious about these things. 😉
Ah! So this kind of adapter (pic below) is an absolute requirement then. I'm not familiar with these power/data limitations of the lightning port, but if you used an adapter (as I show in the second pic below) between that Anker hub and the USB-C port on that apple adapter, then ran your charger into the USB-C port, would it not a) keep the iPad charged and b) provide the iPad enough power to also run the audio interface?
If that's the case, you really don't need the hub at all except to attach additional devices (over and above the audio interface) if you need to do so. In which case, any hub should do the trick. But if you bought a power supply similar to the one I mention above, you could send output from one port of the power to the iPad through that Apple Lightning adapter, and a second to the hub. Note the diagram below for the power supply and the wattage available when using the two USB-C ports. I'd attach the 45w port to the hub, the 20w port to the iPad.
Thanks @steve99. Power management is becoming more important the more my iPad battery degrades. My current setup with two wires will have to do. 😎
Actually I shouldn't care so much about the extra cable. When playing guitar I always use external battery power to get around dirty power noise anyway.
@SteveS . I think you'll find that's not a USB-C port beside the USB-A port on the Apple Lightning Camera Adapter. That's a Lightning port, and it can only accept 5V power from a conventional USB charger. It cannot use USB-C Power Delivery. Trying to mix-and-match technologies with adapters is generally not wise.
Ah. Showing my ignorance again. But what I was suggesting was to connect the USB charger to that port, not the Anker hub, hence the need to convert the USB-C on the attached Anker hub cable to the USB-A port on the camera adapter for the data. Obviously that would also require a USB-C to Lightning cable to connect charger->camera adapter. Would that work?
Probably. But it's no better than what @wim and I have already. The conventional powered USB hubs have a separate "charging" port that supplies the same current as the iPad charger. We connect it to the USB Adapter with a USB-A to Lightning cable to power the iPad.