Unplugging USB is crashing Ableton live and motu on Mac book

[trixp]

Hi Everyone,

I'm so stuck on this. It's a mystery. Please help!!

It’s when I am using Ableton live 9 (newest version) with my MOTU Ultralite Mk3 Soundcard (drivers and FireWire up to date). I’m going to explain what is happening below;

So, just to clarify first, this problem is happening with both of the MOTU sound cards i have, i have 2 of the same models as a precaution which leads me to believe its not a fault with the sound card.

The problem is the following. I am playing tracks in Ableton live, just two channels for tracks and a third for FX. The Motu is plugged into the right USB port on the mac book pro and is powered (i don’t use the firewire 800 as to do this i would need a thunder bolt from apple and they have quite bad reviews-correct me if I’m wrong) I then have an APC 20 plugged into the other USB port triggering clips. Sometimes an LPD 8 too with drum samples. Then two stereo jacks to RCA going into the mixer on channels 1,2,3. Deck A, B and a channel for effects.

Everything runs great, it’s fast, the usage on the top right hand corner is around 6% never much more and usually less.

I am using Ableton Live Standard. OS X Yosemite. No problems. The music in Ableton is collected and save in the project.

But! If for some reason the APC 20 gets unplugged by mistake the whole thing just crashes, the audio stops, the MOTU crashes and the beach ball comes up. You can’t get out of the crash without force quitting and unplugging the MOTU, sometimes even restarting, its extreme. I just can’t see how the APC being unplugged is effecting the MOTU. It happened at a gig and was horrible, when it crashed there was a high pitched sound which suggests computer crash, which is essentially what is happening.

Heres where I get even more confused. If I cut out the MOTU from the equation, and go straight into the the pioneer DJM900 as a sound card, the problem never happens, it runs smoothy, if i unplug the APC it continues to work fast, the audio is not effected and you can plug it right back in no problem!

SO the only thing I can think is that it would be its something to do with how much power the MOTU is drawing from the laptop? Both the MOTU and the apc is powered. However, i really have never had this problem before, i used to be able to unplug anything MIDI controller wise and it would be fine. It seems like a new problem, unless i have just never unplugged the APC before wile running my set with the MOTU.

I would say maybe it’s the laptop, but without the MOTU involved and using the pioneer everything works fine. It’s really had me going crazy. Could it be the fact both the apc and MOTU is powered!?

If anyone could shed any light on this it would be a real real help.

Another update I have just tried. I closed Abelton Live, and used the MOTU as a soundcard, opened iTunes and was playing music. My apc happened to be plugged into also, when I unplugged it, nothing crashed but the audio cut out for a second. I'm not really sure what this means but it shows that unplugging the USB MIDI controllers is effecting the software on my Mac.

I have racked my brain and I just cannot see what happening and who I should be asking, apple, MOTU or Ableton?!

Any help would be very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance

[HCMarkus]

You might try the TB>Firewire adaptor if you are unable to fix... Pretty sure it would support the MOTU box.

[trixp]

Thanks for the above suggestion.

just an update on this everyone.

I have copied my Ableton set onto an older Mac book pro early 2013, OS X 10.8.5 and running the same set with the APC and MOTU and having NO problems.

So this is a problem with my new mac and it's USB ports. Anyone else experienced this?

[mikehalloran]

Bus or external power?

It could be a USB 2 issue on USB 3 ports. The protocols are not compatible and run over separate wires in the cables and connectors. Many newer hubs have separate inputs for each protocol.

TB does not support the full FW spec which means that there are some FW devices that only work with a direct FW connection. For most, the big issue with FW-TB is that there is only 7V of bus power available, less than 1/3 the FW spec.