Cutouts in audio for 4-5 seconds OS X powerbook

scientist · Post by **scientist** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 8:30 pm

updated to 3 a few days back...unfortunately the 4-5 second audio gap still happens...damn.

Alex Reynolds · Post by **Alex Reynolds** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 9:43 pm

blacklightmartin wrote:While I don't think that this should mean for Ableton to completely ignore the issue, I don't think they should be blamed for it and given a hard time either - I'm pretty sure they'd rather have a fix for it today than tomorrow, but this behaviour seems difficult enough to reproduce on purpose. I wonder if anyone has complained to Apple about this yet...

I've made 30-40 minute tracks and longer with a mix of various non-Live software sequencers and synths under OS X and can't say that I have run into problems.

Deduction would imply Live, but my setup could be special in some way and I could be wrong.

-Alex

IZNODJ · Post by **IZNODJ** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 11:09 am

Just to let you guys know, my turnaround for that bug still work... And it's a 90 minutes show, 10 times a week. It's been 3 weeks now and no bugs... I just play all my clips and scenes 5 minutes before the show...

SongCarver · Post by **SongCarver** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 1:28 pm

Who at apple do we need to contact about this?

pharmakonMtl · Post by **pharmakonMtl** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 3:21 pm

SongCarver wrote:Who at apple do we need to contact about this?

not sure if this is the right place, but is A place to give feedback:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

Alex Reynolds · Post by **Alex Reynolds** » Sat Oct 18, 2003 5:39 pm

support@ableton.com

kleine · Post by **kleine** » Sun Oct 19, 2003 8:09 pm

Alex Reynolds wrote:support@ableton.com

I could write a mail to myself - i have the same problem with my Powerbook. All i can say so far is:
- it has nothing to do with external interfaces (midi/audio)
- it happens only under OS X
- there is absolutely no logic behind this.
- it seems to happen with Powerbooks only

So, any help on this is appreciated.

Best,
Ch. Kleine

SongCarver · Post by **SongCarver** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 12:26 pm

well, lets accumulate what we do know:
(and yes, I've written to Apple)

- Powerbook
-Seems to be independent of audio hardware
-Seems to be independent of Hard disk
-Was not in earlier versions of software and OS
- Does not seem to be a RAM issue
- Seems to Occurs after 20mins or so of continuos audio
-Seems to be independant of energy settings.

Suggested work-arounds:
Pre-play all tracks which are to be used.
(I am yet to test this myself, as I rarely work this way)

Could this suggest some sort of UNIX file system bufferring glitch?

What is strange is that the app does not seem to glitch when audio cuts out. Level meters continue as normal, etc.

powerbook 667

My only other weird glitch (which is only recent) is that when I select a text field and start typing, the text does not 'register' until I move the trackpad a little. Very strange and annoying.

I recently reset my PRAM and I suspect that may have fixed that.

Any apple guys want to annonomysly comment?

-K

janklug · Post by **janklug** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 12:51 pm

yep, time to be constructive!

i'd like to add to the list of known behaviour:
-i.m.e. audio playback doesn't have to be continuous for this to happen
-sometimes happens to me much earlier than 20 min after start
-system audio (beeps etc) is still operative during cutout time.

as audio within live also seems to be ok (still measured in led's), it seems that the bug must be living at the thin connection patch between live's output and core's input.

maybe the cutout's duration could be a hint, since it's appearances seem to be similar in shape...
(for example, what core audio process happens every 4-5 seconds? or could there be a kind of buffer overflow that takes a while [20min?] to take efect & takes 4-5 seconds to be overwhelmed by core audio police?)

by the way, didn't read anything about core audio improvements in the Panther announcements.. had a bit of hope that the bug will misteriously vanish with the new os. time will tell...

greetings,

jan

onnomon · Post by **onnomon** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 5:41 pm

Imagine my dismay, on my first gig using Live 3 + 10.2.6 + the Echo Indigo (PCMCIA), when I started getting 1-2 sec dropouts. Naturally i'm a fool being so gung-ho about new HW/SW setups during a gig; pretty informal though. I don't remember getting dropouts during the portion of the gig where we're running about 12 tracks of loops (many of them RAM-based) with many Live plug-ins. Mostly during the portion where it was the more simple single stereo track coming straight off the HD. Note: Live 2.1, OS 9.2.2, RME Multiface works fine (OS 9 Echo Indigo drivers not available).

Although I haven't found the info yet, wasn't there a way to set process priorities in OS X? I was thinking that some high-priority OS X task might have been waking up and occupying the processor (power-management perhaps?). I'm pretty new to OS X so I haven't learned all it's little hidden secrets. Perhaps bumping up Live's process prio...

I'll tinker some more tonight.

Config:

1Ghz G4, 15" (nov 2002 inception)
1 GB, 60GB (5400/Av), OS 10.2.6, Live 3.0, Echo Indigo (PCMCIA)

thanks,

...

onnomon · Post by **onnomon** » Mon Oct 20, 2003 5:43 pm

I forgot to add that the 1-2 sec dropout incidents occurred on the order of 10-15 minutes apart.

dinga · Post by **dinga** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 10:47 am

Hi all,

I'm having the same problems with Live 3 on my 1ghz Tibook in OSX.8...
But I'm also having cpu- spikes (up to 144%) and related short drop outs.

Anyone else having this? Is it part of the same problem or is there a solution for this (perhaps in another thread)?

Cheerz

Ruotger Skupin · Post by **Ruotger Skupin** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:01 pm

Hi people,

thanks for all the constructive info! We are indeed working on this problem with highest priority but I really can't make any promises.

As janklug already said it must indeed be "living at the thin connection patch between live's output and core's input" as audio processing is working (You see the level meters moving, right?).
But if you have to wait for an hour to get a five second chance to hit the stop button you can hardly call that "reproducible". grrr...

What I would like to know of all people experiencing the problem:

1. Machine you use
2. MacOS Version
3. Amount of RAM you have
4. "Size" of Live set used (e.g.: Number of clips, tracks, scenes, length of clips, Ram based clips, Number of effects, Which effects)
5. Audiointerface used (did you use inputs and outputs of different interfaces at the same time?)
6. anything else that could be of interest.

with best regards
Ruotger "Roddi" Skupin

SongCarver · Post by **SongCarver** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:42 pm

1. powerbook 667 2nd rev
2. 10.2.6
3. 512
4. heaps..lots of stuff recorded live..16 scenes or more, pre-ram clips, clips about 40 i spose, 8 playback at once i would say
5. internal audio only
6. noticed this first happening in about 10.2.4 i think

Please get Apple on the phone quick about this.

Hopefully BT is having the same problem.

:-)

SongCarver · Post by **SongCarver** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:50 pm

oh yeah, and thanks for the official heads up Routger. Much appreciated. We need this fixed pronto, as you can tell. I'm actually using live less and less because of it. Also, I was waiting to see if 3 fixed it, but it didn't.

feel free to give apple my email address if they need user feeback.

info@songcarver.com

-Keith

Cutouts in audio for 4-5 seconds OS X powerbook

Chalk up another case of audio drop-out