Clicks, Pops and Dropouts: Fixing Your Studio Computer

Clicks, pops and dropouts are what you hear when your studio computer hands audio to your interface a moment too late, and fixing them comes down to buffer size, power settings and a clean connection. This guide walks through each fix for Windows and Mac, in plain terms, for the home studio.

The short version

If you only have a minute, these are the fixes that solve most audio glitches, in the order to try them.

1. Match the buffer size to the job. Use 64 or 128 samples while recording and 1024 while mixing.
2. Use direct monitoring on your interface when you don’t need to hear plugins, so you can record at a large buffer.
3. Freeze or commit heavy tracks, and leave oversampling, linear phase and lookahead plugins off until the mix.
4. Plug the interface straight into the computer with a short cable, with no hub or adaptor.
5. On Windows, use your interface maker’s ASIO driver, create a High performance power plan, and turn off USB power saving.
6. On a Mac, run Apple silicon versions of your DAW and plugins, keep Low Power Mode off, and keep sessions out of iCloud and other synced folders.
7. If it still glitches, turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and on Windows run LatencyMon to find the driver at fault.

The rest of this guide explains why each of these works and shows exactly where to find the settings.

What causes audio clicks, pops and dropouts?

A glitch is what you hear when your computer hands the next slice of audio to your interface a moment too late. That is the whole problem, and every fix in this guide is a way of making sure the computer is never late.

Let’s start with how audio moves through the computer. Your interface doesn’t send audio one sample at a time, because the computer would spend all its effort stopping and starting. Instead it sends samples in small batches, and each batch is called a buffer.

The buffer size is how many samples are in each batch. You’ll find it in your DAW’s audio settings, usually as 64, 128, 256, 512 or 1024.

Every buffer comes with a deadline. At 256 samples and 48 kHz, the computer has a little over 5 milliseconds to work out everything your session needs, every plugin on every track, and hand the result back. Then it has to do it again, close to 200 times a second.

If it misses that deadline even once, the interface has nothing to play. A short miss sounds like a click or a pop. A longer one sounds like a dropout or a stutter, and your DAW may stop with a CPU overload message.

Buffer size is a trade

A small buffer gives the computer less time, so it is more likely to glitch. In return you hear yourself with very little delay, which is what you want while recording.

A large buffer gives the computer plenty of time, so it copes with far more plugins. The cost is delay, known as latency, which doesn’t matter at all when you’re mixing.

This table shows the time one buffer lasts. The delay you actually hear when monitoring through the DAW is at least double this, because audio is buffered on the way in and again on the way out, and your interface adds a little of its own.

Buffer size (samples)	At 44.1 kHz (ms)	At 48 kHz (ms)	At 96 kHz (ms)
64	1.5	1.3	0.7
128	2.9	2.7	1.3
256	5.8	5.3	2.7
512	11.6	10.7	5.3
1024	23.2	21.3	10.7

Notice that 96 kHz halves the time at every buffer size. That sounds like a win for latency, but the computer now has twice as many samples to process in half the time, so higher sample rates glitch sooner.

What makes the computer late

There are really only four causes, and the rest of this guide deals with each of them in turn.

• Too much work. The session asks for more processing than fits inside one buffer.
• Power saving. The computer has slowed itself down or put parts of itself to sleep, and takes too long to wake up.
• Interruptions. Something else, such as a Wi-Fi driver, a backup or an update, takes the processor’s attention at the wrong moment.
• Starved connections. The interface loses power or data because of a hub, a cable or a port.

We’ll start with the fixes inside your DAW, because they are free, they take a minute, and they solve most problems before you touch a single system setting.

Fix it in your DAW first: buffer size, monitoring and plugins

Most glitches are fixed by matching the buffer size to the job you’re doing, and these steps are the same on Windows and Mac. The exact menu names differ from one DAW to the next, but every DAW has these settings.

Use a small buffer to record and a large one to mix

While you’re tracking, set the buffer to 64 or 128 so the delay in your headphones is too short to notice. Keep the session light at this stage, because the computer has very little time to work with.

Once the recording is done and you move on to mixing, raise the buffer to 1024, or as high as your interface allows. You’re no longer playing along in real time, so the extra delay costs you nothing, and the computer gets many times longer to do its work.

This one habit is the first thing to get right, because no system setting can make up for a buffer that is too small for the session. If a mix session starts crackling, check the buffer before you check anything else.

Use direct monitoring when you can

Most interfaces can send your microphone or guitar straight to your headphones without going through the computer at all. This is called direct monitoring, or hardware monitoring, and it’s usually a button or a blend knob on the interface, or a mixer in its control software.

With direct monitoring switched on, the delay you hear is effectively zero, whatever the buffer is set to. That means you can overdub into a heavy mix session at a large buffer without trouble.

The trade is that you hear the dry signal, without any plugins. If you need to hear an amp simulator or a vocal effect while you play, you’ll have to monitor through the DAW at a small buffer instead.

When you use direct monitoring, turn off input monitoring on the track in your DAW. Otherwise you’ll hear both signals, one slightly behind the other.

Read the right meter

A common puzzle is a DAW meter showing an overload while Task Manager or Activity Monitor says the processor is only 20% busy. Both are telling the truth, because they measure different things.

The system meter shows the average load across every processor core. The DAW meter shows how much of each buffer’s deadline is being used up.

The reason they disagree is that the plugins on a single track have to run one after another, in order, so that chain can only use one core. If one heavy chain uses up its whole deadline, you get a glitch, even while the other cores sit idle.

So trust the DAW’s meter, and when it peaks, look for the one track or bus doing the most work. Many DAWs can show the load of each track or plugin, which makes the culprit easy to find.

Know which plugins are expensive

A few kinds of plugin cost far more than the rest, and it helps to recognise them.

• Oversampling. The plugin works at two, four or more times your sample rate to sound cleaner, and its processing load rises to match.
• Linear phase EQ and lookahead limiters. These need to see the audio slightly ahead of time, so they add delay. Your DAW keeps everything lined up by delaying all the other tracks to match, which is fine for mixing and miserable for recording.
• Convolution reverbs, amp simulators and large software instruments. These are simply heavy, and a few of them on one track can fill a buffer on their own.

While you’re tracking, leave these off or bypassed. Bring them in at the mix stage, when the buffer is large and the delay no longer matters.

Freeze or commit heavy tracks

When a track is finished but its plugins are heavy, ask the DAW to render it to audio. This is called freeze, commit, bounce in place or render, depending on your DAW.

The track now plays back as a plain audio file, which costs almost nothing, and you can still unfreeze it later if you need to change something. It’s the quickest way to rescue a session that has outgrown the computer.

Keep the sample rate sensible

Record at 44.1 or 48 kHz unless you have a specific reason to go higher. As we saw in the table, doubling the sample rate doubles the work and halves the time available to do it.

It’s also worth making sure your interface, your DAW and your operating system all agree on the sample rate. A mismatch forces the computer to convert on the fly, and on some systems it causes clicks or a change of pitch.

If this kind of plain explanation is useful to you, the free Mix Artistry tools are built the same way, to help you understand what you’re hearing and why.

Check your cables, USB ports and drives

Plug your interface straight into the computer with a short cable, because hubs, adaptors and long cables are a common cause of dropouts on both platforms. These checks take a few minutes and cost nothing.

The interface connection

• Go direct. Connect the interface to a port on the computer itself, not through a hub or a monitor. If you have no choice, use a hub with its own power supply.
• Keep the cable short. Focusrite’s advice is to use the cable that came in the box, or one under 2 metres.
• Avoid adaptors where you can. A cable with the right plug on each end is more reliable than a cable plus an adaptor.
• Try another port. Ports on the same computer don’t all behave the same way, so if you’re getting dropouts, test each one.

An interface that takes its power from the USB port is the most sensitive to all of this. If the port can’t supply steady power, the interface can click, drop out or disconnect altogether.

Drives

A solid state drive (SSD) is fast enough for any audio work, and it makes large sample libraries load and play far more smoothly than an old spinning hard disk. If you’re still recording to a spinning disk, replacing it is the best hardware upgrade you can make.

It also helps to keep the system drive from filling up. Both Focusrite and Ableton suggest leaving a healthy margin of free space, with Focusrite putting the figure at 20%.

If you use big sample libraries, keeping them on a second SSD stops them competing with the operating system for the same drive. For external drives, a direct connection matters just as much as it does for the interface.

Memory

When the computer runs out of memory (RAM), it starts using the drive as overflow, and even a fast SSD is far slower than real memory. The result is stutters and dropouts when you play sampled instruments.

For recording and mixing audio tracks, 16 GB is a comfortable amount. If you load large sample libraries, you’ll want more, and the Mac section shows how to check whether you’re running short.

Close what you’re not using

Before a session, quit your web browser, music streaming apps and anything else you don’t need. Browsers in particular use a surprising amount of memory and can wake the processor at awkward moments.

How to optimise Windows 11 for audio recording and mixing

On Windows, the two changes that do the most are using your interface maker’s own driver and stopping Windows from saving power. The steps below are written for Windows 11, and they are nearly identical on Windows 10.

1. Use the manufacturer’s ASIO driver

A driver is the small piece of software that lets Windows talk to your interface. ASIO is a type of driver built for music, and it gives your DAW a direct, fast route to the interface instead of going through the general Windows sound system.

Download the latest driver from your interface maker’s website and install it. Then open your DAW’s audio settings, choose ASIO as the driver type, and pick the entry named after your interface.

If your interface has no ASIO driver of its own, ASIO4ALL and FlexASIO are free general-purpose ones. They work, but a maker’s own driver is nearly always better.

Microsoft is also building a low-latency ASIO driver into Windows 11 for standard USB interfaces. Microsoft planned to start previewing it during 2026, so until it turns up on your machine, the maker’s driver is still the one to use.

2. Create a power plan for audio

Out of the box, Windows slows the processor down whenever it thinks nothing much is happening. The trouble is that it takes a moment to speed back up, and a moment is all it takes to miss a buffer.

1. Click Start, type Choose a power plan and open it.
2. On the left, click Create a power plan.
3. Select High performance, give it a name such as Audio, and click Next.
4. Set both Turn off the display and Put the computer to sleep to Never, then click Create.
5. Next to your new plan, click Change plan settings, then Change advanced power settings.
6. Open USB settings, then USB selective suspend setting, and choose Disabled.
7. Open PCI Express, then Link State Power Management, and choose Off.
8. Open Processor power management and set both Minimum processor state and Maximum processor state to 100%.
9. Click OK.

On a laptop you’ll see two columns, On battery and Plugged in. Change both, and do your recording and mixing with the charger connected.

Some newer laptops only offer a Balanced plan. If that’s yours, go to Settings > System > Power & battery and set Power mode to Best performance.

Be aware that a laptop on this plan runs warmer and its fans work harder. If the fan noise reaches your microphone, switch back to your normal plan when you’re not in a session.

3. Stop Windows switching off your USB ports

This is a second power setting that lives in a different place, and it’s worth doing even if you’ve changed the power plan.

1. Right-click Start and open Device Manager.
2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
3. Right-click the first item and choose Properties.
4. On the Power Management tab, untick Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
5. Repeat for every item in the list. Some have no Power Management tab, and you can skip those.

4. Keep Windows sounds away from your interface

Notification sounds can interrupt a recording, and an app that grabs the interface for itself can lock your DAW out of it.

1. Go to Settings > System > Sound, scroll down and click More sound settings.
2. On the Sounds tab, set Sound Scheme to No Sounds.
3. On the Playback tab, right-click your interface and choose Properties.
4. On the Advanced tab, untick Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device.
5. While you’re there, set Default Format to the same sample rate as your DAW session.
6. Do the same on the Recording tab, then restart the computer.

5. Trim what runs in the background

1. Right-click Start, open Task Manager and choose Startup apps.
2. Right-click anything you don’t need at startup and choose Disable.

Game launchers, chat apps and lighting-control software are typical examples. Focusrite also recommends disabling Copilot, because it can try to use your interface’s inputs in the middle of a session.

Cloud sync deserves a special mention. OneDrive, Dropbox and Google Drive will try to upload audio files while you’re still recording them, so keep your session folders out of any synced location, or pause syncing while you work.

6. Stay with the built-in antivirus

Windows Security, the antivirus that comes with Windows, is well behaved with audio. Third-party antivirus programs are more likely to interfere with interface drivers and with the timing of the system, so Focusrite suggests staying with the built-in one.

7. Keep updates on your terms

An update that downloads or installs during a take is a reliable way to ruin it. Before an important session, go to Settings > Windows Update and use Pause updates.

It’s also wise not to install a major Windows update the day it arrives. As an example, Microsoft’s own notes for the 26H2 update list a problem where some USB Audio Class 1.0 devices could fail to start after it was installed.

Keep your interface driver, graphics driver and motherboard firmware (BIOS) up to date as well, since old ones are a known source of trouble.

8. Restart before a session

Choose Restart instead of Shut down when you want a clean start. Windows normally keeps part of the system saved when you shut down so that it boots faster, and only a restart clears everything out.

Windows: what to do if audio still crackles or drops out

If the glitches continue after the steps above, a free tool called LatencyMon will usually name the cause. Work through this section in order, and stop as soon as the problem goes away.

Find the culprit with LatencyMon

Every piece of hardware in your computer has a driver, and Windows lets drivers interrupt whatever else is running, including your audio. A well-written driver finishes in a tiny fraction of a millisecond. A badly written one can hold the processor long enough for a buffer to arrive late.

You’ll see this called DPC latency. You don’t need to know what the letters stand for, only that it means a driver is hogging the processor.

1. Download LatencyMon from resplendence.com and install it.
2. Plug in the charger, select your audio power plan and close everything except your DAW.
3. Press the green Play button in LatencyMon, then play a busy session in your DAW for five to ten minutes.
4. Press Stop and read the result.

LatencyMon tells you in plain words whether the system is suitable for real-time audio. If it isn’t, open the Drivers tab and sort by the highest execution time, and the driver at the top is your suspect.

The usual suspects

Driver belongs to	What to try
Wi-Fi	Turn Wi-Fi off during sessions, or use a network cable
Bluetooth	Turn Bluetooth off during sessions
Graphics card	Update the driver, then turn off its power saving (see below)
Built-in sound	Disable the sound devices you don’t use in Device Manager
Network adapter	Update the driver from the maker’s website
Laptop battery (ACPI)	Update the BIOS and chipset drivers

The approach is always the same. Update the driver first and test again. If that doesn’t help and you don’t need the device while recording, right-click it in Device Manager and choose Disable device, which you can undo at any time.

Never uninstall a device, and leave anything under Processors, System devices and disk controllers alone.

Graphics card power saving

Graphics cards save power by changing speed, and that change can briefly stall the rest of the system. On an NVIDIA card, open NVIDIA Control Panel > Manage 3D settings and set Power management mode to Prefer maximum performance. AMD and Intel have similar options in their own software.

Newer processors with two kinds of core

Many recent Intel and AMD processors mix fast performance cores with slower efficiency cores. Early on, DAWs sometimes put audio work on the slow cores and glitched as a result.

The fix is to keep your DAW up to date. Ableton Live, for example, has processed audio only on performance cores since version 11.3. There’s nothing you need to change in Windows itself.

Processor scheduling

Focusrite recommends telling Windows to favour background services, which is how audio drivers run. It’s a small change and easy to reverse, so it’s worth a try.

1. Right-click Start and open System, then click Advanced system settings.
2. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
3. On the next Advanced tab, set Processor scheduling to Background services.

If your DAW feels less responsive afterwards and the glitches haven’t improved, change it back to Programs.

Antivirus and sample libraries

If large sample libraries are slow to load, you can tell Windows Security not to scan that folder each time it’s read. Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Manage settings > Exclusions.

Only exclude folders that hold samples and audio. Anything in an excluded folder is no longer checked, so never download into one.

Last resorts

These two changes have real downsides, so try them only when LatencyMon still shows a problem and nothing above has helped.

Processor sleep states in the BIOS. Both Focusrite and Steinberg suggest disabling C-states, the processor’s deep sleep modes, on systems that still struggle. The setting lives in the BIOS, which looks different on every computer, so ask the maker or a technician if you’re not comfortable in there. The processor will run hotter and use more power.

Memory integrity. This is a Windows security feature, and some users report better LatencyMon results with it off. You’ll find it under Settings > Privacy & security > Windows Security > Device security > Core isolation details. Turning it off weakens your protection against malware, so test with LatencyMon before and after, and turn it back on if nothing changed.

Windows audio tweaks you can skip

A lot of optimisation advice online dates from Windows XP and Windows 7, and most of it does nothing useful on a modern PC. If you come across these tips, you can leave them alone.

Old advice	Why you can skip it
Turn off visual effects and animations	The graphics hardware handles these now, and the saving is too small to hear
Defragment your drives, or stop Windows doing it	SSDs don’t need defragmenting, and Windows looks after them itself
Turn off the firewall	It has no effect on audio and leaves the computer exposed
Set a fixed page file of 1.5 times your memory	Letting Windows manage it works fine on an SSD
Edit the registry to stop core parking	The High performance plan from the last section already keeps the cores awake
Turn off hyper-threading in the BIOS	Current DAWs are built to use it, so leave it on unless your DAW’s maker tells you otherwise
Switch off Windows Update for good	Pausing it before a session does the job without leaving you unpatched
Memory tweaks for 32-bit Windows	Every current DAW and version of Windows is 64-bit

The pattern is worth remembering. If a tip doesn’t remove a source of lateness, such as power saving, an interruption or a starved connection, it probably isn’t doing anything.

How to optimise a Mac for audio recording and mixing

A Mac needs far less setting up than a Windows PC, and the change that matters most is running software built for Apple’s own processors. The menu paths below are for macOS Sequoia 15 and Tahoe 26, and the newest release, Golden Gate 27, may word a few of them differently.

1. Run the Apple silicon version of everything

Macs made since late 2020 use Apple’s own processors, known as Apple silicon. Software written for the older Intel Macs still runs on them through a translator called Rosetta, but translated software is slower, and it’s a common cause of overloads in a DAW.

1. Open Finder > Applications and click once on your DAW.
2. Choose File > Get Info.
3. Look at Kind. It should say Universal or Apple silicon, not Intel.
4. If you see a tick box called Open using Rosetta, make sure it’s unticked.

Plugins matter just as much. If a plugin is Intel-only, your DAW may have to run under Rosetta just to load it, so check its maker’s website for a current version.

There’s a deadline here as well. Apple has said Rosetta will keep working in full through macOS 27, and will be cut back to a few old games from macOS 28, which is expected in late 2027. Any Intel-only plugin you depend on will need replacing before you move to that version.

2. Check the interface setup

Most USB interfaces work on a Mac without installing a driver, because macOS has audio support built in. Some interfaces do come with their own software, and macOS may ask you to approve it under System Settings > Privacy & Security.

You set the buffer size in your DAW’s audio settings. To check the sample rate the Mac itself is using, open Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup, select your interface and make sure the format matches your session.

3. Stop the Mac saving power

On a MacBook, go to System Settings > Battery. On a desktop Mac, go to System Settings > Energy.

• Energy Mode. Choose Automatic, and never use Low Power Mode for audio work. Some Pro and Max models also offer High Power Mode, which lets the fans run faster so the Mac can keep up under long, heavy loads.
• Sleep on a MacBook. Click Options and turn on Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off.
• Sleep on a desktop Mac. Turn on Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off.
• Hard disks. If you see Put hard disks to sleep when possible, turn it off.

Record and mix with the charger connected. If you choose High Power Mode, listen for fan noise before you record with a microphone in the same room.

4. Keep sync and backup out of the session

Cloud services try to upload audio files while you’re still recording them, and a backup can start halfway through a take.

• iCloud Drive. If Desktop & Documents Folders is switched on under System Settings > your name > iCloud > Drive, anything saved in those folders is uploaded. Keep your sessions in a folder that isn’t synced, such as Music, or on a separate drive.
• Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. The same applies. Pause them while you work, or keep sessions outside their folders.
• Time Machine. Go to System Settings > General > Time Machine, click Options and set the backup frequency to Manually while you’re in the middle of a project. Run a backup yourself at the end of the day.

5. Trim what starts with the Mac

Go to System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions. Remove anything you don’t need from Open at Login, and switch off anything you don’t need under Allow in the Background.

Leave on anything that belongs to your interface, your DAW or your plugin licences, such as iLok.

6. Take control of macOS updates

A new version of macOS can stop a DAW, a plugin or an interface from working until its maker catches up, which sometimes takes months. Avid, for example, advises Pro Tools users to turn automatic updates off.

Go to System Settings > General > Software Update, click the i next to Automatic Updates and turn off Install macOS updates. Before any major upgrade, check the compatibility pages for your DAW, your interface and the plugins you rely on.

7. Watch your memory

Memory on an Apple silicon Mac can’t be added later, so it’s worth knowing whether you have enough. Open Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor, click the Memory tab and look at the Memory Pressure graph while your biggest session is playing.

Green means you have room to spare. Yellow or red means the Mac is using the drive as overflow, and you’ll need to close other apps, use lighter sample libraries or freeze some instrument tracks.

8. Leave the core settings alone

Apple silicon mixes fast performance cores with slower efficiency cores, and current DAWs already keep audio on the fast ones. In Logic Pro, Apple recommends leaving Processing Threads on Automatic, and the same goes for the equivalent setting in other DAWs unless you have a reason to change it.

A note on Intel Macs

Intel Macs can’t run macOS 27, so Tahoe 26 is the last version they’ll get. They also run hotter than Apple silicon Macs and slow themselves down when they overheat, so give them room to breathe, keep them off soft surfaces, and expect to freeze tracks sooner.

Mac: what to do if audio still crackles or drops out

If a Mac still glitches after the steps above, the cause is nearly always the session itself, a wireless feature or the connection to the interface. The Mac has no equivalent of LatencyMon, so you narrow it down by switching things off one at a time.

Turn off wireless features

Avid’s setup guide for Pro Tools recommends turning off both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and Focusrite gives the same advice for recording. Opinions differ on how much this matters on Apple silicon, so treat it as a test. Turn them off, and if the glitches stop, you have your answer.

• Wi-Fi. Turn it off in System Settings > Wi-Fi.
• Bluetooth. Turn it off in System Settings > Bluetooth, unless your keyboard or mouse needs it.
• AirPlay Receiver. Turn it off in System Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff. It lets other Apple devices play to your Mac, which you don’t need in a session.

Let Spotlight finish, or keep it off your sample drive

Spotlight is the Mac’s search feature, and it reads through every new drive you connect to build its index. While it’s doing that, the drive is busy, and large sample libraries can stutter.

The simplest fix is to wait. Connect a new drive, leave the Mac alone until indexing finishes, and the problem goes away by itself.

You can also stop Spotlight looking at a drive altogether. Go to System Settings > Spotlight, click Search Privacy and add the drive or folder. On older versions of macOS the same button is under Siri & Spotlight and is called Spotlight Privacy.

Pro Tools users should think twice before doing this. Pro Tools uses the Spotlight index to search for files in its Workspace browser, and Avid has long advised leaving drives indexed.

Avoid combining two interfaces

macOS can join two interfaces into one, called an aggregate device, in Audio MIDI Setup. Each interface keeps time with its own internal clock, and two clocks slowly drift apart, which you hear as clicks.

If you do need an aggregate device, choose one interface as the Clock Source and tick Drift Correction for the other. A single interface with enough inputs is always the more reliable answer.

Find the heavy track

If none of this helps, go back to your DAW’s own meter. Mute or bypass tracks one at a time while the session plays, and watch for the one that brings the meter down.

Activity Monitor is useful here as well. The CPU tab shows whether another app is busy in the background, and the Memory tab shows whether you’ve run out of memory.

Restart

A Mac that has been running for weeks collects background tasks. Restarting before an important session clears them, and it takes less time than chasing a glitch halfway through a take.

Common questions

Once the computer is out of the way

A computer that keeps up with you is only the starting line. With the clicks and dropouts gone, what’s left is the mix itself, and no buffer size or power plan can tell you whether the vocal sits right or the low end holds together. Those are decisions, and if you already know your tools and want to learn how to make them with confidence, that’s what the Level Up Pro Mixing System teaches.

Sources and further reading

The settings in this guide were checked against these manufacturer pages in October 2026. Menu names change between versions, so if a path doesn’t match your screen, the maker’s page will have the current wording.

Windows

• Focusrite: Optimising Windows for audio
• Ableton: Optimizing Windows for Audio
• Ableton: Monitoring Live’s CPU usage, including performance and efficiency cores
• Steinberg: How to set up and optimize a Digital Audio Workstation on Windows
• Microsoft: the new built-in low-latency USB audio and ASIO driver
• Microsoft: Windows 11 version 26H2 known issues
• Resplendence: LatencyMon

Mac

• Apple: About Power Modes on your Mac
• Apple: Set sleep and wake settings for your Mac
• Apple: Prevent Spotlight searches in specific folders or disks
• Apple: Change the number of cores used by Logic Pro
• Avid: macOS Tahoe 26 optimisations for Pro Tools
• Focusrite: Optimising macOS for Audio
• MacRumors: Apple’s timeline for phasing out Rosetta 2

Mix Artistry — learn to mix commercial-quality music by understanding the why, not just formulas or endless techniques. Free tools + Pro Tools and guided learning with the Level Up Pro Mixing System at https://www.mixartistry.com.