Clicks+Pops in VEP5+DP in Mac+PC conf. and Video issues

[Sergiojl83]

Hi all!

I'm writing because I'm having a hard time with some issues using DP 7.24 with VEP 5 in a MacBook Pro + PC slave system. It's being a really headache!

I'm sorry in advance about this too long post, but I wanted to give as much information as possible.

Ok, let's start. I upgraded my mini studio by buying a PC to slave it to my MacBook Pro.
The PC specs are:
- i7 3.4GHz Quad Core 8000K
- ASUS P8H67-M PRO,H67
- 32 GB RAM DDR 3 1333
- System drive: 60 GB SSD.
- Samples drives: 120 GB SSD (Corsair Force SATA 3) + 2TB HHD (Seagate Barracuda)
- Windows 7 Professional

The MacBook Pro specs are:
- 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 8 GB RAM DDR3 1067
- 500 GB HDD
- Mac OS X 10.6.8

I'm connecting them via ethernet using a router (NETGEAR RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router WNR3500) between both systems. (I've tried connecting them directly, without a router, and I have the same issues).

My DAW is DP 7.24 and I'm using Vienna Ensemble Pro 5, with the last version/build in both systems (Mac and PC).

So, this is the scenario.

Now, I'm having some problems. The main one is that I'm hearing clicks and pops when I'm sequencing. No matter the amount of tracks being used, I hear them (it happens from a single track to a bunch of them). I tried to change, several times, the preferences configuration both in VEP and DP (hardware setup and VEP preferences of server instances inside DP), with no luck, the problem is still there.

My VEP template in the PC is using around 15 GB of samples and never have a CPU overload (or whatever is called, sorry for my English :s )

In the project I'm working now I have a metaframe in the VEP server in the PC with six instances. And in DP I have inserted those six instances + several Input Events for some of them. Each instance in DP have a latency of 2 buffers. And the VEP Preferences for the PC server are: 2 Threads per instance, and the Audio outputs are 64 per instance, MIDI Inputs 32 per instance, and Audio Inputs 64 per instance. I have the same thing in the VEP preferences in the instances inside DP. I had more instances in the VEP server in the PC in the past but I tried to reduced them since I read the more instances you have the more CPU overload you can have, right?

My Configure Hardware Driver setup is as follow:

- Master Device: Digidesign Mbox 2 Pro
- Sample rate: 48000
- Buffer size: 256 (I know some people can work with a similar configuration at 128!!)
- Host Buffer Multiplier: 2
- Work Priority: Medium

And now comes the weird/funny thing. When I'm sequencing I hear those clicks and pops BUT when I record audio, I mean, I record all my MIDI tracks to audio tracks, even when I hear those clicks and pops while recording, they don't get recorded!! The audio is perfect, without any clicks or pops in it. Isn't that weird?!

I thought then that maybe the problem was with my audio interface and I tried with another one I have (an M-Audio solo Firewire) but the problem was still the same. I also upgraded drivers for both interfaces and same thing.

So, I don't know what's going on in my system. I've tried so many options that I'm already lost and don't know what to do. I think it's a preferences configuration thing or something like that.

Another useful information is that in my activity monitor I see that DP is using 740.3 MB of Real Memory, 46 Threads and when is not playing is taking a 70 % CPU. When is playing it goes to up to 100 % CPU (or even more) and I just have a single MIDI track playing right now. So, I guess that's not normal, right?


AND

The other problem (the previous was just one of my nightmares) is about using video in DP. I'm using a video right now that is playing slow. It goes slow and from time to time it jumps to the right position. It does that also when I stop playing. This is really annoying since makes sync an impossible task. And this video behavior happens only when there is audio (or MIDI tracks) playing, which obviously happens all the time. I tried to convert the video in several ways with different codecs but the problem is still the same, even with the Photo-JPG codec, which DP seems to like the most.

My configuration is two 23" screen in which I see the track window in one screen and the mixer and plugins in the other screen. Above them I have my MacBook Pro in which I just put the movie. I'd would like to be able of putting the movie in full screen in my MacBook Pro screen but the bigger the dimensions of the video are the bigger is the (slowing) problem.

The main thing about all that, and the one that bothers me most, is that I'm using my MacBook Pro just for the DAW and the PC for samples. In this way the MacBook Pro wouldn't have to be overload or something since all the hard work is in the PC (samples streaming). I can see in the Activity Monitor that I have almost 6 GB of RAM free in my MacBook Pro, so I don't understand why I'm having these problems.


I'm sorry about this EXTREMELY LONG post but I'm having these problems for a a few weeks and I need help with that. I will really APPRECIATE your help with that. I guess someone out there has a similar configuration and working properly so any help to solve these two BIG problems will be more than appreciated.

THANK YOU VER MUCH in advance guys!!

All the best,

Sergio

[rumorcontrol]

I had issues with pops and clicks for the longest time...and then I realized that my Master Mac was connecting to my Slave Mac via wifi !!!!!
I know a few others who had the same problem/realization!!!

You might check that..

RC