Processor Spiking with 4.52, Tiger

maintiger · Post by **maintiger** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:05 am

I just got a 2.0 G5 and I'm running DP 4.52 with Tiger- the processor runs about half what my old dual 867 used to but I am getting spikes on playback, even with the processor under the under half way mark- suddenly a red spike will appear and ocasionally it will go all the way to spike and impact the audio on playback- any ideas? This certainly did not happen in my old dual 867 eventhough the processor was way more maxed out that in my new 2.0 G5

maintiger · Post by **maintiger** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 5:13 am

bump- nobody else has encounterd this? I get a red flash in the performance window in the cpu meter- sometimes it will go to spike and cause audio to drop. The cpu level is otherwise at 1/2 or less-

glmusic · Post by **glmusic** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:11 am

What is your audio interface? Is the priority thread set to high, med or low?

What latency are you running on your VI's? 256 is good, 512 is better if you can do it.

How many tracks of VI's are you running at the same time? Freeze processor intensive tracks once you have them where you want them.

Is your audio streaming from a seperate, fast HD?

How much RAM do you have? 2 gigs or above preferred

Do you have the processor prefs set to highest performance?

Do you have sleep turned off?

Just some immediate thoughts.

Studio615 · Post by **Studio615** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 6:36 am

Check Out this post, It deals with the same issue. I have fixed this problem on my powerbook.
http://www.unicornation.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002697;p=2

tomzink · Post by **tomzink** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 8:40 am

This one happens to me on a dual 1.25 G4 with panther, so I don't think it's system specific. The suggestion to turn off all backround processing/ beat detection etc sounds promising - I'm goin to try that.

maintiger · Post by **maintiger** » Fri Jun 17, 2005 10:01 am

Originally posted by glmusic:
What is your audio interface? Is the priority thread set to high, med or low?

What latency are you running on your VI's? 256 is good, 512 is better if you can do it.

How many tracks of VI's are you running at the same time? Freeze processor intensive tracks once you have them where you want them.

Is your audio streaming from a seperate, fast HD?

How much RAM do you have? 2 gigs or above preferred

Do you have the processor prefs set to highest performance?

Do you have sleep turned off?

Just some immediate thoughts.

828 interface, it happens even at 1024 latency (for playback)
Even with all the VI's frozen it does it. I have 2.5GB ram
I have a second 72o00rpm sata maxtor drive, 250 GB, in the G5 for audio files only. I'm begginning to think they might be something wrong with this drive as when I click on its icon it takes a while to open- I never had this happen with an internal drive before. Like there is a delay accessing the files.

Frode · Post by **Frode** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 2:50 am

I have a 1 ghz PowerBook with 1 gig Ram, a Metric Halo 2882 and a TC Powercore firewire, running 10.4.1. I connect the TC through my main firewire bus and the MIO through a firewire 400 card to avoid any problems.

I have had spikes for a looooooooong time. But not in 4.12 running TC driver 1.9.2. I thought the current problem had to do with the TC drivers, which I still think was the case for awhile, but after they recently released driver 1.9.5 I am wondering.

I have worked on a session trying to mix it and I am getting spikes all the time. Mind you, if I disconnect everything, take out the battery and Ram, I might be able to play 10 to 20 minutes before the spikes start hitting!

Yesterday, a friend let me borrow his Cubase SX 1 and you know what? I could actually mix the whole session without any spikes!
This is not a heavy session: 5 tracks which go through a Folcrom summing buss, a TLA preamp and a Joe Meeks SC2 compressor before being rerecorded in the computer.

TC has been a problem in the past, but it looks to me 4.52 is the problem at the moment - at least for me. Could it be the plug-ins compensation or the new system where the plug-ins only work when they are being used (I donâ€˜t know what thatâ€˜s called)????

So far, I have only had good things to say about DP. Now I am wondering.....

Anyone with similar problems?

best

frode

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 5:43 am

SX may indeed, in some instances appear to run faster on a Mac laptop but there are many things that are required to get DP to run efficiently.

I know others are using laps with success and I would look around on the threads and find the discussions and what they did.

For myself, I won't use a lap until MacTels are available with dual processors.

Frode · Post by **Frode** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 8:57 pm

Hi Gary.

I love my laptop which I use a lot to record concert performances. and with the TC, I can do pretty sofisticated mixes.

But I thought we were discussing spikes - not laptops! Since I wrote my first reply, I worked for about 5 hours yesterday with Cubase SX. Again: no spikes. I reopened the same session in DP and there were spikes all over the place. Going back to Cubase again showed no spikes at all.

To me, this looks very much like there is a problem within DP.

I am new to this forum. Do DP people read these comments or should I inform them what I have found by mail?

best

frode

GMarcelK · Post by **GMarcelK** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 9:21 pm

Frode,

The link that somebody earlier this thread suggested is very useful.
I'm having the same problem on my G5. I solved it with increasing the buffer size per voice dramatically. I had the spikes and dropouts on a 40 track project though. I think we all hope for a soon update of DP.

Let us know if you could solve the problem!

Marcel

Frode · Post by **Frode** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 10:18 pm

Thanks for your reply Marcel.

Could you please be a bit more specific about the increased buffer size. What numbers are we talking about?

best

frode

maintiger · Post by **maintiger** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 6:22 am

does anybody else have the experience that the drive icon does nothing for a few seconds after clicking on it, then the wheel spins a few more seconds before it (the drive window) opens? I'm thinking that my problem with the spikes might be linked to this occurrence. It happens both with my second sata internal 250 GB drive and with my external firewire drives. My dual 867 never had this problem, when you clicked on the icon for a drive it always opened right away. - and I had four separate drives on that machine.

qo · Post by qo » Wed Jul 06, 2005 8:59 am

Originally posted by maintiger:
does anybody else have the experience that the drive icon does nothing for a few seconds after clicking on it, then the wheel spins a few more seconds before it (the drive window) opens? I'm thinking that my problem with the spikes might be linked to this occurrence. It happens both with my second sata internal 250 GB drive and with my external firewire drives. My dual 867 never had this problem, when you clicked on the icon for a drive it always opened right away. - and I had four separate drives on that machine.

This sounds like Power Management stuff i.e. drives going to sleep. What are your System Prefs set to? I'm not at a mac right now, but I _think_ the thing you need to look at in Preferences is Performance. There should be an option that essentially prohibits the drives from spinning down.

jimmy330 · Post by **jimmy330** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 7:57 pm

Just to throw my 2 cents in... I have a dual 1.25 G4 1.5G RAM OSX 10.3.9 DP 4.52, and I get those spikes all the time. Sometimes with a minimal amount of tracks. Also first time I play, audio stutters when tracks play. They become smoother working upon repeated plays. Sort of like my body when I wake up in the morning before a hot shower. I've tried giving my Mac a hot shower now the whole thing's busted!

Seriously, I think it's a DP issue. Some files play more solid than others. I've always suspected that DP corrupts itself every now and then. Buffers help for a little while, but the spikes come back sooner or later. I'm bummed that G5 users are experiencing this also!

davidmorton · Post by **davidmorton** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:18 am

I've had the same problem with CPU spiking on an older G4 - 800 MHz, 1 GB RAM.

I've contacted MOTU several times about this problem. They tell me to either:
A. Buy a faster computer
or
B. Record at 16-bit, 44.1kHz.

That's the same answer I get everytime.
Ironically, I still have no problems using Logic in OS X with the same track count, buffer size, 24-bit, 48k.
I mentioned the discussions going on here about this problem, and they tell me to either A. or B.

As a matter of form, they won't use the term "known issue."
And they assure me that no real problem exists with DP 4.52, therefore they will not be addressing this problem in a future upgrade.

DavidM.

MOTUnation.com

Processor Spiking with 4.52, Tiger

Processor Spiking with 4.52, Tiger

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