Motu m4, exclusive mode left channel dropping

[a_t]

Roon Core Machine

Macbook pro retina mid 2014
2.8ghz dual core intel core i5
8gb ram
OS Big Sur 11.7.4 (this machine is capped to big sur by apple)
ssd internal drive, ssd external drive (housing music)
Roon version 2.0 (build 1272) - latest version installed

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Router connected via wifi, not hard wired, no vpn. Not possible to hard wire. Please don’t blame problem on this, as it worked previously.

Connected Audio Devices

Motu m4, usb 3 connection

Number of Tracks in Library

85,000

Description of Issue

Sound drops to one channel while using exclusive mode. Unpredictable behaviour, will happen at least once a day. Happens not mid song, but always transitioning to a next song, and mostly when song is in a diff bitrate/file format.

Issue is fine once exclusive mode is turned off with OS X mixer in charge.

This started happening within the last 2 weeks. I have auto update turned on, I reckon it was an update to the roon software that has caused this issue. No such issues with audio during usage with OS X. Once roon messes up and drops a channel, I have to go to “audio midi setup” utility app to re-enable the dropped channel. Channel 1 shows up as muted inside “audio midi setup”.

[connor]

Hi @a_t,

Thank you for the report. Are you able to provide a timestamp or example track for when you last reproduced this? The team will investigate diagnostics to pinpoint the issue.

Please also share a screenshot of your Audio Midi setup under the routing conditions with which you experience the problem.

Are you using any mixer software associated with the Motu drivers (for native plugins, etc.)? I’m assuming you’re using this Motu in some sort of production setup with a monitor path, and that you’re using that path for Roon playback as well?

Designed for consumer endpoints, RaatServer often doesn’t play well with the Apple coreaudio kernel when a Zone is also routed for audio input. If you have an inactive DAW open with any routing involving the Motu - particularly if there’s a software mixer at the driver level involved - then Exclusive Mode can cause conflicts with the core audio kernel.