23 years using f'n osx&macOS;using overbridge elektron 4 last year or no driver, I'm hearing sound glitches/ dropouts,when loading tabs when refreshing,when opening YouTube etc. what's up with that.
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That is incredibly frustrating. After 23 years on Macs, you already know that an M4 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM should absolutely laugh at loading a YouTube tab while running audio. If it can handle hundreds of tracks in Logic without breaking a sweat, it shouldn't be choking on a web browser.
What you're experiencing isn't a lack of CPU power—it's a system audio routing and prioritization bottleneck that is notoriously annoying on recent macOS versions and Apple Silicon chips. When you use Logic, it requests a dedicated, high-priority audio buffer. When you browse the web, macOS relies on a shared system audio buffer (coreaudiod) that is highly vulnerable to UI and GPU spikes.
Since it happens with both Overbridge and class-compliant (no driver) modes, the issue is sitting between the browser, macOS System Audio, and the USB bus. Here is what's most likely going on and how to fix it:
### 1. Browser Hardware Acceleration (The Most Likely Culprit)
When you open a new tab or load YouTube, the browser relies heavily on the GPU to render the UI and video. On Apple Silicon, sudden spikes in GPU/hardware acceleration requests from browsers (especially Chrome, Brave, or Arc) can cause micro-interruptions in the unified memory architecture, briefly starving the coreaudiod buffer and causing a dropout.
* **The Fix:** Go into your browser's settings, search for **Hardware Acceleration**, and **turn it off**. Relaunch the browser and see if the dropouts stop. (If you use Safari, you can't toggle this easily, so test with a different browser like Firefox to isolate the issue).
### 2. Sample Rate Mismatch
Elektron gear (especially over Overbridge) is usually strictly locked to **48kHz / 24-bit**. Browsers and macOS system sounds, however, often try to default to 44.1kHz. When you open a YouTube video, macOS might be trying to resample the audio on the fly to match your Elektron output, causing glitches.
* **The Fix:** Open the **Audio MIDI Setup** app (in Applications > Utilities). Find your Elektron device in the list (or whatever interface it's passing through). Ensure the output format is manually locked to **48,000 Hz**. Make sure your Mac's default "Mac mini Speakers" are also set to match.
### 3. Apple Silicon USB Polling / Hub Issues
Even without the Overbridge driver, Apple Silicon handles USB bus routing differently than older Intel Macs. If your Elektron device is plugged into a USB hub—especially one that also handles external drives, a webcam, or an ethernet adapter—the burst of network traffic from loading a webpage can interrupt the USB audio stream.
* **The Fix:** Plug the Elektron machine directly into one of the Mac Mini's back ports. If it's already direct, try a different port (Thunderbolt/USB-C ports on the M4 often sit on different internal buses).
### 4. The coreaudiod Hangup
Sometimes the macOS core audio daemon just gets its wires crossed after switching between Logic's dedicated audio engine and the Mac's system audio engine, leaving the buffer corrupted.
* **The Fix:** Open **Activity Monitor**, search for coreaudiod, select it, and click the **X** button at the top to force quit it. It will instantly restart itself with a fresh buffer.
To help me narrow this down further: **Which specific web browser are you using, and does this dropout happen *only* when the Elektron is set as your Mac's primary System Audio Output?**
lol
What you're experiencing isn't a lack of CPU power—it's a system audio routing and prioritization bottleneck that is notoriously annoying on recent macOS versions and Apple Silicon chips. When you use Logic, it requests a dedicated, high-priority audio buffer. When you browse the web, macOS relies on a shared system audio buffer (coreaudiod) that is highly vulnerable to UI and GPU spikes.
Since it happens with both Overbridge and class-compliant (no driver) modes, the issue is sitting between the browser, macOS System Audio, and the USB bus. Here is what's most likely going on and how to fix it:
### 1. Browser Hardware Acceleration (The Most Likely Culprit)
When you open a new tab or load YouTube, the browser relies heavily on the GPU to render the UI and video. On Apple Silicon, sudden spikes in GPU/hardware acceleration requests from browsers (especially Chrome, Brave, or Arc) can cause micro-interruptions in the unified memory architecture, briefly starving the coreaudiod buffer and causing a dropout.
* **The Fix:** Go into your browser's settings, search for **Hardware Acceleration**, and **turn it off**. Relaunch the browser and see if the dropouts stop. (If you use Safari, you can't toggle this easily, so test with a different browser like Firefox to isolate the issue).
### 2. Sample Rate Mismatch
Elektron gear (especially over Overbridge) is usually strictly locked to **48kHz / 24-bit**. Browsers and macOS system sounds, however, often try to default to 44.1kHz. When you open a YouTube video, macOS might be trying to resample the audio on the fly to match your Elektron output, causing glitches.
* **The Fix:** Open the **Audio MIDI Setup** app (in Applications > Utilities). Find your Elektron device in the list (or whatever interface it's passing through). Ensure the output format is manually locked to **48,000 Hz**. Make sure your Mac's default "Mac mini Speakers" are also set to match.
### 3. Apple Silicon USB Polling / Hub Issues
Even without the Overbridge driver, Apple Silicon handles USB bus routing differently than older Intel Macs. If your Elektron device is plugged into a USB hub—especially one that also handles external drives, a webcam, or an ethernet adapter—the burst of network traffic from loading a webpage can interrupt the USB audio stream.
* **The Fix:** Plug the Elektron machine directly into one of the Mac Mini's back ports. If it's already direct, try a different port (Thunderbolt/USB-C ports on the M4 often sit on different internal buses).
### 4. The coreaudiod Hangup
Sometimes the macOS core audio daemon just gets its wires crossed after switching between Logic's dedicated audio engine and the Mac's system audio engine, leaving the buffer corrupted.
* **The Fix:** Open **Activity Monitor**, search for coreaudiod, select it, and click the **X** button at the top to force quit it. It will instantly restart itself with a fresh buffer.
To help me narrow this down further: **Which specific web browser are you using, and does this dropout happen *only* when the Elektron is set as your Mac's primary System Audio Output?**
lol