Logic 9 metronome dropping out

[faeriepunk23]

Hiya, I'm running logic 9 on a old'ish MBP with a motu ultralite. im finding randomly after 5/6 bars or so when playing, the metronome is randomly cutting out whilst recording! its weird, if i dont play in any MIDI data it doesnt seem to happen. anyone got any clues on this ? Low latency mode doesnt seem to make a difference. I just tried it then with a higher buffer size of 512, and it dropped out after 50 bars . (the MIDI im recording isnt dropping out, just the sound of the click) .

I tried replacing the Logic pref file as well as completely reinstalling all the drivers for MOTU , to no avail. its very odd. I'm still waiting for MOTU to get back to me, however, I've tried to contact them before to no avail! Setting my MOTU clock source to Audio IPC instead of Internal may have reduced the number of missed click slightly, but its still a major problem. Looking at the CPU meter, it doesn't appear to be freaking out or anything, and it does it whether I have a session with one track or twenty. I've noticed it seems to only be a problem when recording MIDI.

Any help would be great, thanks.


geo

[Frodo]

... on a old'ish MBP...

That could be the problem. Is there a way you could run an oldish version of Logic?

It could also be an issue with either the particular interface connection if it's not being run from the card bus apart from the the firewire bus. It could also be an issue with the audio hard drive for the same bus reasons.

How oldish is your MBP?

[faeriepunk23]

Hiya, its a macbook pro 3,1 , 2.2ghz, 2 gig ram intel core duo. So I think thats from around 2007? I'm running snow leopard on it, and I'm running Logic9 on it in 64 bit mode. I have contacted Motu roughly a week ago, using a technote thing, but I still haven't heard back from them, so any help would be brilliant! thanks

geo

[Frodo]

I'm not sure if the Ultralite driver is 64-bit (need to check). Keep in mind that within the 64-bit kernel, 32-bit processes will likely be done at 32-bit.

Is there any real reason to run OSX in 64-bit? The idea behind 64-bit is to access all RAM in the machine above and beyond 4GB up to more than 16EB (exabytes), but that doesn't really amount to much on a laptop with 2GB RAM installed.

2GB is only half the max of what a single app can access in 32-bit mode. I would start by maxing out the memory in your machine.

We may even have the same laptop (3,1; 2.2Ghz; Core 2). Check out this site:

http://www.datamemorysystems.com/_apple ... y_1461.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'd say get your machine up to at least 6GB first-- or more by using the higher capacity sticks now available, and then do a serious side-by-side comparison to identify any clear advantages for you by running tests in the 32-bit kernel and the 64-bit kernel.

I just have the sense that 2GB may be "the middle seat on a crowded plane".

[faeriepunk23]

Hiya,
thanks for your suggestions. so far my best success has been by running 32 bit logic , turning off polyphonic clicks, reassigning a track as a click track and running in low latency mode. this makes for a stable metronome 90% of the time, until it invariably drops out for a few beats before coming back in. I'm looking to upgrade to some new RAM this year, so hopefully if i can get 6gig or something, it will sort itself out. still open to any more clever tips

thanks for your help so far.

geo

[faeriepunk23]

ok, my success was rather shortlived! Its back to dropping out a lot. The quest continues! Motu's tech support remains silently unhelpful. I've been trying to understand the manual, and whether I should try setting up SMPTE instead of selecting Audio IPC as the clock source, but its a little beyond me! Any more help would be great.

Thanks.

geo

[mikehalloran]

When I first read your problem, my gut said 'not enough memory' before I read Frodo's response.

2G is just not enough these days for music applications, it seems, even though MIDI has a lower drain than VIs. Logic can require a lot of overhead depending on what you are doing.

Have you downloaded the MOTU latest drivers? The latest MIDI drivers are 1/12/2010 and the latest USB/Firewire drivers are dated 3/29/2011, less than 3 weeks ago.

I am not positive either is your problem but this is where I would look first. $89 (or $55 depending on the model) for a 4G stick is certainly a good investment here.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/M ... Pro/Core2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mikehalloran]

You should definitely try this:

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =4&t=44952" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you notice an immediate improvement afterwards, not enough memory is definitely the prime suspect.