MachFive v2, Leopard and Pro Tools 8?

[3over3]

... has anyone any reports of M5v2 working with Pro Tools 8?

I'm using an Intel iMac and M5v2 doesn't play with 7.4.2 at all, so before I upgrade, any reports would be sorely appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Yukulele]

It kindda work, but i have huge performance issues (CPU wise). Even with a 2048 buffer size, i'm getting lot of CPU errors from Pro Tools. To summarize, it's just unusable...
Something is wrong with MachFive under Pro Tools 8, that's for sure...
I don't have this issues (but others) under Nuendo 4, but that's with VST, not RTAS...

Pro Tools LE 8.0.0cs1, Complete Production Toolkit, Mac Pro, OS X.5.6.

Bye.

[guiguy]

Same problem here
I can't work with Machfive under Pro tools 8, too much CPU overload. It's very annoying.
Furthermore, sometimes Leopard freezes during few seconds. This problem totally disappears when M5 is disactivated.

Protools LE 8.0.0cs1, DV toolkit 2, 10.5.6

Guiguy
France

[Yukulele]

I think we all should contact tech support at motu.com:
https://www.motu.com/techsupport/tracker/index.html
I opened a techlink a few minutes ago.

Please MOTU, fix this !!! MachFive2 is just unusable right now...

Bye.

[3over3]

Thanks for the responses.

Is it me or is MOTU's attitude just weird?

They haven't fixed it for 7.4. It doesn't work with 8.0. There's no mention in the technotes of this, as far as I can see (though I'd love to be proved wrong).

So it's no longer RTAS compatible, is it?

When does "the universal sampler" become a misleading description? The specifications ask for a RTAS-compatible sequencer. Don't I have one?

At least it works fine in Logic on the same machine and OS. What?

[Yukulele]

MOTU told me, via a TechLink on their webite, that they'll have a look, and fix this. In the meantime, the told me to lower the number of CPU cores in the Playback Engine, to reduce the occurences of these CPU spikes.

Bye.

[3over3]

In the meantime, the told me to lower the number of CPU cores in the Playback Engine, to reduce the occurences of these CPU spikes.

And does that work?

(By the way, I love the "use fewer cores" fix - it's also seen elsewhere for various PT and Logic issues. Either you support multiple cores or not, surely?)

[guiguy]

well, it seems to be ok with 3 processors, weird...

Guiguy
France

[Yukulele]

In the meantime, the told me to lower the number of CPU cores in the Playback Engine, to reduce the occurences of these CPU spikes.

And does that work?

Nope, as i was already using 3 cores among 4. And i will NOT set a value down that value, as i need the RTAS processing (native system).

(By the way, I love the "use fewer cores" fix - it's also seen elsewhere for various PT and Logic issues. Either you support multiple cores or not, surely?)

That's the theory, but it seems to be a little more complicated, maybe OS related for example? Dunno, really...

well, it seems to be ok with 3 processors, weird...

Nope, it's not. It's less severe, but the problem is still there. Try setting a 64 or 32 buffer size, you'll see what i mean Guillaume .

Bye.

[bizzbag]

These guys just don't seem to care. I had problems over a year ago with MachFive. They agreed that there were problems. They said that they were already aware of some of them. Then I received a response saying my problem was resolved, but there was no new update, so how could it be resolved? When I asked about it, they didn't respond. Then I got too busy to record for awhile, but just started up again. I installed ProTools 8 - MachFive performs like a dead dog. I assumed there had to be an update since so much time had passed since I looked. Then when I looked for updates, I saw they haven't had one since late 2007, which is the version I had when I had the problems in the first place. I see the same threads I looked at back then that just slowly lost steam and ended - everybody gave up talking about the issues - they just faded away. It's pathetic.

[3over3]

MOTU's tech notes system can seem quite disengaged from their customers. I can understand a "never explain, never apologise" mentality, it's just not very friendly, although when they do do something (and it's good), we're all happy.

Our lot is that as uninvited outsiders in their development process we just can't really tell the difference between "working on a fix with an undisclosed release date" and "not doing anything at all". History like the amount of time between M5v2 being announced and publicly demonstrated and its release (with nothing announced in between) increases the uncertainty.

Also, as we see more improvements to the products we're expecting their software to work with (PT 7.4, 7.4.2, 8.0, etc), by comparison, MOTU's output looks smaller.

[bizzbag]

I believe what's happening is that MachFive is a resource hog in the ProTools environment. Then, since each new version of ProTools is more CPU intensive, it makes MachFive appear worse, because it has less resources available to eat up itself. I could live with this except for the fact that Motu has known about this for years and has not had a new update since the end of 2007. I think that pretty much points to a complete lack of concern over our plight. One would have to ask "If they can't cut it, why do they continue to suck $$ out of ProTools users?" ... The answer appears obvious.

[bizzbag]

Went back to 7.4. At least, got the slow crawl back to a slow limp.

[sleepypete]

Dear friends,

I also am a Pro Tools user that has been experiencing poor MachFive 2 performance in PT 7.4.2. I have a nice machine, an 8-core Mac, and was also told about the workaround of lessening cores to increase performance. While this seems counter-intuitive, dropping from 8 cores to 4 has certainly helped. I have come to understand that MachFive runs a lot of processes in the background and having extra cores to run that code frees up it's real-time functions.

Some have also reported buffer related-errors in MachFive. I have heard (but don't know for a fact) that having more RAM can help in this case as an idle-processor can cause these buffer errors. More RAM enables the processors a steady stream of work and can prevent these errors. I will know more along these lines this week when I up my system RAM from 2GB's to 4GB's in a matched-quad configuration.

I have to agree with what a few posters noted about the long time between updates for Machfive 2. 1 and 1/2 YEARS is a very long time to wait for such an update where one is so obviously needed. Pro Tools may not be what Motu envisions as Mach Five's primary platform, but it is certainly making a bad mistake by not addressing these horrible performance issues. As a first time buyer of this Motu product, they're not doing much to keep me around. I hope that changes.

pete