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Audio Crackles in Loopy Pro (iPad Pro 12.9 M2 + MOTU M4)
Hi everyone,
Has anyone else experienced similar issues or found a solution for this? I am currently unable to get the iPad / iPhone running Loopy Pro without audio glitches.
My Setup:
• iPad Pro 12.9" (M2) running the latest iPadOS 26.2. (Iphone13 latest Update)
• Audio Interface: MOTU M4 (latest firmware).
• Hub: CalDigit TS4 (providing external power).
The Issue:
As soon as I start a loop, I get audio crackles and pops. Recently, these crackles have also started appearing when simply streaming via Apple Music.
Using the internal apple speaker or AirPods no crackles, just the external Audio device is crackling
Troubleshooting I’ve already done:
• Cross-check: The MOTU M4 works perfectly on my Windows PC, so the interface itself seems fine.
• Power: I use the CalDigit TS4 Hub, and I’ve also tried external power supplies. I tested it on my iPhone using the Camera Connection Kit with external power, and the exact same crackling occurs. This suggests it is a specific connection issue with iPadOS 26 and iOS26 rather than a power issue.
• Cables: I tried various high-quality USB cables.
• Settings: I have tried every combination of Buffer Sizes (256, 512, etc.), Sample Rates (44.1, 48kHz), and Bit Depths (16, 24, 32). It makes no difference.
• System Load: The CPU load is very low. Even with all plugins deactivated, the audio output still crackles.
Interestingly, I have a small Fender Mustang Micro USB interface that works perfectly on the same iPad, so the iPad audio system works generally—but I need the inputs of the MOTU for my looping workflow.
Right now, Loopy Pro is simply unusable for me. I would be very grateful for any tips or advice! If this topic is already being discussed in depth elsewhere, I’d appreciate a link, as I couldn't find a matching thread for iPadOS 26.
Thanks in advance! - cheers Nick
Comments
If it's not buffer settings, then the next best guess I have is too hot output level. What happens if you bring the master fader down in Loopy? What if you bring the volume down with the device's volume buttons or with the control center.
I assume you've tried powering the iPhone completely off and back on?
@NickKo13 : please try the following and let us know the results then we can go from there
Do you get crackles?
Hi everyone,
thank you very much for all your replies and suggestions — I really appreciate the effort.
I’ve actually tried all of the usual things already: fully shutting down and restarting the iPad, different USB hubs, different cables, powered hubs, etc. I’ve also spent many hours digging through countless forum threads. At the moment I’m waiting for a reply from MOTU support and I’ll also reach out to Apple again.
Even tools like ChatGPT and Gemini Deep Research haven’t been very helpful in the end — they mostly recycle the same forum posts I’ve already read, so it feels a bit like chasing my own tail.
I’ve been making music on computers for many years, so I’m used to technical headaches. Unfortunately, when it comes to iPad audio setups, the available information is surprisingly thin. But maybe i have a blind Spot, missing the relevant Informations. My current (very much “half-knowledge”) feeling is that audio interfaces designed primarily for desktop use — like the MOTU M4 — may not work reliably with iPads, even if they are class-compliant, especially when they use multiple USB channels. This seems to be related to iPadOS restrictions rather than pure power issues.
Very simple interfaces, like my small Fender Micro, work fine — probably because they use large buffers and only handle basic mono in / stereo out. I already invested in a very expensive CalDigit TS4 hub because power delivery is often mentioned as the main Problem for greater interfaces, but that didn’t solve it either.
At this point, I’m starting to think that the iPad simply isn’t well suited for more “pro” live audio setups where stable multi-channel audio I/O is required. I play guitar and want to record vocals at the same time. When I use the internal audio device in Logic Pro on the iPad, everything works nicely — and maybe that’s exactly what it’s designed for.
Loopy Pro, however, offers so many amazing possibilities, but it really depends on a rock-solid audio input and output connection. And of course OS Updates should not affect stability.
I’m still considering one last attempt with an Apogee Duet 3, due to it is sold by Apple directly, but that’s another expensive gamble.
What makes this extra frustrating is that it does seem to work well for other people, so I clearly don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. I briefly wondered whether my iPad itself could have some kind of isolated hardware issue, but that seems unlikely — if the USB port were broken, nothing would work at all.
If anyone has additional ideas, suggestions, or similar experiences, I’d be very grateful to hear them. And if I get any updates from Apple or the manufacturers, I’ll definitely post them here.
For everyone for whom everything works smoothly: I wish you continued success and fun with Loopy Pro.
Best regards,
Nick
Seems v. unlikely that this is related to Loopy - sounds like your Motu interface may have issues, especially as it works crackle-free with your fender interface. Do you also get crackles with AUM/ Garageband?
What happens when you try your Motu on desktop?
@NickKo13 : quite a few professional performers use iPads for multi-channel audio with Loopy Pro and other hosts. Perhaps that particular MOTU M4 has iOS issues. There are quite a few other interfaces that people use -including interfaces and mixers with large numbers of channels.
What were the results with it when you tried it with other apps after rebooting?
@Mystercat
You’re absolutely right — this does not appear to be a Loopy Pro issue, but rather an iPad/iPhone → MOTU M4 issue. The same problem occurs in other audio apps as well, including Apple Music.
@espiegel123
Restarting the device, reconnecting hardware, etc. did not change anything. Unfortunately, I haven’t found many reliable reference setups so far; most reports involve different iPad models or iOS versions, which makes comparison difficult. It would be really helpful if someone could confirm a setup where the M4 works reliably with an iPad, so I can narrow this down further.
I’m still in contact with MOTU support. Their current response is basically: “The device is class compliant and should work …” — especially since it works perfectly on my Windows machine.
Next steps: over the weekend I’ll do some “hardware roulette” with friends — testing different audio interfaces and another iPad. This will take some time, but once I have meaningful results, I’ll summarize everything here.
Since this is not a Loopy-specific issue, this may not be the perfect forum — but it could still be useful information for other users. The iPad practically screams for Loopy Pro: it’s an amazing solution and was actually the main reason I bought the iPad in the first place. After years of tweaking and troubleshooting on the PC, I was really looking forward to focusing purely on making music again.
For now, that dream has once again given way to technical troubleshooting — we’ll see what all of this is good for in the end.
Hey, maybe you already did this but :
Please do. (I need to test my MOTU M2, which I haven’t used since updating to iPadOS 26.)
@NickKo13 write “ Even tools like ChatGPT and Gemini Deep Research haven’t been very helpful in the end ”
FWIW, LLM’s are pretty subject to error with iOS audio information.
I did a web search and saw a number of people saying that they had troubles with the M4 running through hubs b that went away when the connection was direct.
I have no idea if that will apply here or if the issue might be iOS26/M4 related.
@Etienne, I tried connecting directly with a bunch of different cables, from low-budget USB 2.0 up to high-end TB 4.0, but there was crackling noise. I tried an old powered hub with an old USB 2.0 cable, and, funnily enough, it worked better. The crackles came along much later, but it was still not usable. I bought the expensive hub at Black Friday, but it didn't fix the problem.
@dokwok2: I'd be grateful for the M2 test as well.
@espiegel123: I'm hoping to find out. I think it's something to do with the interface. I found some info that Multi USB Audio (M4 has 4 channels in and 4 channels out) could cause problems due to USB handling in iOS. For instance, the Apogee Duett 3 is Apple Certified and has different physical inputs, but it's just a plain 2-in/2-out USB Interface, so it's not too much for it to handle. I've also read a few posts that say iOS can handle multiple in- and out. What I can't understand is that Apple hasn't provided any solid information, so users have to figure things out by trying different things and seeing what works. When you're watching YouTube tutorials on how to use iPads, you'll often see that people tend to use older, cheaper interfaces with just stereo in and out, like the Behringer or discontinued Zoom ones. As someone who plays guitar, I thought the M4 would be a better choice because of the quality inputs and outputs. I'll try to find out more this weekend and let you know what I discover.
You’ve mentioned more than once your belief that this is due to the interface being multi-channel.
As I said earlier, there isn’t a general issue with multi-channel USB audio. People use interfaces with 24 or more channels with iOS …even with older devices. There is not a general multi-channel iOS audio problem.
@NickKo13 I have the same interface and an M1 11-inch iPad Pro running iPadOS 26; I don't experience (and haven't ever experienced) any issues like the one you're describing. If I can help in trying to reproduce your setup let me know. Do you get the same issue if you run an internal an AUv3 instrument instead of receiving audio from the interface? That could help identify if the issue is with output or a combination of input and output. Do you have other audio apps running in the background?
Update: I was able to test the specific MOTU M4 with another iPad Pro 12.9 (M1) and got the exact same dropouts/crackles. Since other users seem to run iPad Pro on iPadOS 26.2 without issues, this points more toward the specific interface than the iPad; cables and power can be ruled out. Over the next few days I’ll be able to try a couple of other interfaces and will report back—thanks everyone for the helpful replies, my motivation to troubleshoot is back and the frustration level is definitely lower now.
@espiegel123 Thanks for the hint. I think I may have been on the wrong track—after too many late-night forum searches and a lot of troubleshooting (including a long ChatGPT session), I ended up with the idea that multichannel USB audio + Apple’s more restrictive USB behavior could be part of the problem. Whether that’s actually true or just noise, I can’t even say anymore. At this point I suspect my specific Interface might simply be faulty. The only confusing part: I briefly tried an Arturia AudioFuse 4 in the past and saw similar behavior.
@Grandbear Thanks, that may be useful. The crackling happens in every audio app (AUV Instruments, Apple Music streaming, etc.), so right now I’m leaning toward a defective Audio Interface. I will try a different Interface within the next days and report back.
@NickKo13 : ChatGPT and other LLMs often provide poor quality information about iOS audio topics. (As they are summarizing posts they find in these topics without knowing whether the information is reliable).
Update: I’ve now tested the interface with a MacBook Air and I’m getting the same audio crackles there as well. That makes it look like the issue is specific to the interface. The big mystery for me now is: why does it run perfectly fine on my Windows 11 PC?
Have you checked that you are using the latest firmware? Does it use custom drivers on Mac or Windows?
I just did a 10-15 minute test with my M1 11" iPad Pro on iPadOS 26.2, with sample rate 48 kHz, 24-bit recording, and buffer 32. I was tracking stereo guitar into a MOTU M2, via an old USB 2.0 powered hub that seems to keep working despite its age and cheapness. (I also have a newer Nucleum that has worked well so far.) All my guitar processing was outboard: the only app running on my iPad Pro was Loopy Pro.
No crackles. (I'm saying this to document and because you asked, not to gloat or suggest anything is your fault.)
@espiegel123: Yves, the latest firmware is installed, as well as the latest divers on MacBook Air and Windows Machine
@dokwok2: Thank you very much for your time and effort — this really helps me a lot. I’m glad to hear that everything works fine on your end, as it helps narrow the issue down further. Maybe I just got a “Monday interface” with a very specific defect. And of course, I can’t completely rule out that the problem is sitting in front of the screen. 😄 According to my wife, it’s always my fault anyway when something doesn’t work.
With modern devices, there are very limited ways for me to really diagnose where the problem comes from. I’ve been making music for over 30 years, built countless audio PCs, and have been working with MIDI and audio since the Atari ST days — but when it comes to pure driver or chip-level issues, that’s clearly outside my expertise. So all I can do is test everything step by step and work by elimination.
Due to work, I don’t have as much time as I used to, which is why I switched to an iPad after 25 years of Windows audio, assuming it would be fully plug-and-play. Maybe it is — but I seem to have stepped into a very specific edge case.
I’ll report back once I’ve tested the other interfaces. I still haven’t given up hope that a different interface will solve the issue. Perhaps I can get another MOTU-Device for testing. Thanks again for testing and sharing your feedback.
May not help, but wanted to mention a couple of things to just double check.
I was running a MOTU Ultralite AVB and 8A on the PC for quite a while, but at one point starting seeing that after running the Ultralite for 30 minutes or so, it would suddenly start glitching out, causing significant crackling for playback and recording. It's not an uncommon issue with a few different MOTU interfaces, and while there have been driver updates in some cases that are supposed to help the issue, one that stuck out waaaaaay more often was just the USB cable itself. Several people mentioned in various forums the issue went away completely with the right cable.
Now, it's been a couple of years, and I'm not sure there was enough feedback at the time around that, so I didn't solve that then and moved to a Babyface. However, I have now run both the Ultralite AVB and 8A through the Babyface on the iPad over ADAT for extra inputs, and even after a couple of weeks have not seen that behavior come up again - whether the original issue was Windows driver related or a USB cable, I'm not dealing with either now since I'm only using the optical ADAT to the Babyface, and have mostly just been glad to learn it doesn't seem like the Ultralite AVB was broken at all. So on that note, there may be something to your seeming to get at least a bit different results by using a different cable, and the right one may actually resolve the issue.
However, I had a different experience yesterday that also made me realize something I haven't seen a response to yet from you that @wim mentioned.
I recenty added an IK Multimedia ARC On Ear to the Babyface headphone out, which is how I'm listening to everything now. However, when you select a headphone profile, it automatically defaults to adding a "Safe Headroom" -dB, the amount depending on the headphone model, but ultimately making the output much quieter, often (as in my case) to the point where even turning the volume dial to max still not being loud enough.
In my case, this caused me to increase my Babyface volume out quite a bit, and while it didn't show up for every sound, I started noticing more and more crackling without realizing what I had done - the Babyface audio wasn't showing peaking on out, so it was a bit hidden.
So, first I just want to ask if possibly there is a gain issue somewhere. I bring everything in at a consistent -18dB, through the mixer, through the Babyface router software, and then also check with BFM in the iPad in Loopy Pro to be sure, and yet still missed what was happening.
One potential test around this then too is to record something through the M4 in Loopy Pro where you can see the inputs are obviously not too hot. Then if you listen to that recorded loop using a different interface, is it also crackling? Is the crackling occuring through M4 when both recording and listening, or only when listening?
If it's both and you can clearly see it's not hot when recording, then yeah, you may have either a bad interface or bad/invalid cable, but it's something to potentially validate.
@EnergyCrush
Thank you very much for your detailed description and the helpful suggestions — I really appreciate you taking the time.
I actually suspected the cables early on as well, which is why I tested quite a few high-quality ones. I even ordered UDG Audio–certified cables and tried everything from older USB 2 cables to brand-new TB4 cables, across different ports and several hubs. The chips built into the cables can definitely be a potential source of interference. Interestingly, the older and simpler the cable, the later the crackling appeared: with TB4 it happened almost immediately, while with an old USB cable it only started after about 15 seconds. Using an old USB hub also helped in the sense that the crackling was delayed. So it really seems to be related to the data connection somehow.
In the studio I generally use high-quality cables that work perfectly fine with my other audio gear, so this behavior is quite unusual.
I can also rule out volume as a cause. I tested several apps (AUM, Audiobus, Spotify, Apple Music), played very quiet samples, and kept the overall system load extremely low. The same projects run completely crackle-free with the Fender Micro. I also disabled the usual suspects like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Siri, etc., just to be sure.
Over the past 25 years I’ve occasionally run into interfaces that simply wouldn’t behave properly with a specific computer setup. I even had a painfully expensive Yamaha digital mixing console that did nothing but crackle when connected to a computer. Back then, my Apple-using colleagues confidently claimed it was just a Windows incompatibility — that was a long time ago. From many conversations with support teams and fellow users in online forums, I’ve learned that there can be a huge number of complex variables involved, and sometimes there simply is no clear solution. In the PC world especially, things like interrupts, network cards, or specific chipset revisions could cause issues, and in some cases it came down to incompatibilities between certain hardware generations. That turned out to be the case with my Yamaha mixer as well — the problems only occurred with very specific combinations of motherboard type, revision, and chipset.
Regarding the iPad, I should hopefully be able to provide some feedback over the weekend.
Thanks again, and best regards.
Lol ... you're reminding me of an issue that nearly drove several people insane, where they would start hearing the Windows USB connect/disconnect noise whenever they got up, sat down, or moved in some way while at their computer. I saw this play out over several forums and posts, and the common denominator started to boil down to a combination of static electricity build-up from hydraulic chairs.
Yeah, gear and issues can be super weird.
I actually just dealt with a little bit of this, as I've got two Furman PL-8Cs plugged into a Cyberpower 1500 UPS. I'm currently down in Mexico, where there are frequent power outages or disruptions, though they don't usually last long. I will periodically notice that both Furmans have tripped with an "Excessive Voltage" red light, even when there has been no power outage, which is especially irritating since the Cyberpower is not only a line conditioner and surge protector itself, but also uses a simulated sine wave conditioning that is supposed to avoid those exact types of behaviors.
While I'm still waitong for a response from Furman themselves, a single post I found indicated Furman support told them they needed to put a non-intelligent, simple surge protector between the UPS and Furman's to prevent that issue. I did that yesterday and haven't seen the issue since, but of course need a bit of time to be sure.
Between that and intermittent behavior with the Babyface before swapping out the type of adapter connecting the iPad, there's been some fun issues to hunt down for a dawless setup.
Yeah, I hear you, and I hope you figure it out.
Problem solved – quick update 😊
Hi everyone,
just a short and happy update from my side.
It turned out to be a faulty device. After running several more tests, the same interference noises finally appeared on a Windows computer as well. The music workstation had simply delayed the behavior much longer, which made the issue harder to pin down.
I was also able to test other audio interfaces with the iPad, and those worked perfectly without any problems. During the whole troubleshooting journey — with a lot of help from ChatGPT — I went deeper and deeper into possible causes like power supply, cables, grounding, and so on… while in the end it was simply a defect in this very specific unit.
I also got in touch with Motu support, and they were extremely friendly and helpful. Nothing to complain about at all. Defective components can happen from time to time, unfortunately.
I’m now trying to get a replacement device through the dealer and am already looking forward to making music again 🎶
Thank you so much to everyone for all the suggestions and previous posts. I really appreciate the help. My takeaway (and maybe a tip for others): if something doesn’t work, don’t overthink it for too long — try another device early on or contact support right away.
Best regards, and Merry Christmas to all of you!
Thank you for that report, and I’m glad you found a solution (in this case, a replacement).
Seconded, good you're able to move forward