Powerbook/Tiger/DP 4.6/DROPOUT PROBS..help? (thanks!)

[jescoelvis]

•••Powerbook G4 12" 1.33 Ghz
•••1.25 Gig RAM
•••OS 10.4.3
•••DP 4.6
•••MOTU 828 Mk I
•••Tango 24 (connected via ADAT TosLink in/outs)
•••Apple Keyboard
•••Kensington USB Trackball
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•••EZQuest Firewire DVD RW
•••EZQuest Firewire 100gig drive (7200 rpm)
•••Western Digital/MacAlly Firewire 300gig (7200 rpm)
•••additional 17"CRT montor hooked up to powerbook monitor output, •••allowing 2 monitors (1 being the Powerbook)
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some settings....

•••Buffer size-1024
•••Host Buffer Multiplier-1
•••Work Priority-Medium

•••Studio Configuration...

-mono voices - 28
-stereo voices - 2
-stereo buses - 2

-Disk Read Write size - 150
-Buffer Size per voice - 150
-(Automatic & Pre Fill boxes UN Checked.

-Direct Hardware Playthrough checked
-only during and punched in checked

-The settings above are standard or were arrived at trying to solve the following problem.

-Brief (hopefully) description of problem...

•••I work almost exclusively with audio, with occasional forays into MIDI for clicks, additional percussion, kybrds, etc.

•••Currently working on a set of songs, each with around 18-24 mono tracks and 1-3 stereo tracks, a master, 1 compressor and 1 reverb, tops.

•••Recorded in 24 BIT (I usually, though not exclusively, work in 16)

I'm playin the existing tracks and recording overdubs on new tracks, 1 at a time, with up to 3-4 new tracks only added to each song. During the recording and playback process the playback suddenly stops, for anywhere from a half to 3 seconds, then starts in again, not necessarily where it left off. I've monkeyed around with various settings, combinations there-of, removing all but the recording firewire drive, using only 1 monitor, studio size, etc etc etc. Nothing really helps. While looking at the Audio Performance monitor during recording or playback, it seems to be idling along just fine, not getting overly taxed at all (exactly as with other set-ups or at 16 bit) but then right during the drop out or stop, the CPU usage bar suddenly spikes to full, lighhting the over indicator, and then drops back down to it's normal 25-35% level.

I'm about to copy one of the songs from the project and convert that test to 16 bit to see if it's just the 24 bit that's doing it, but that doesn't seem likely. Any tips, suggestions, experiences with this. Help me, people! I also am aware of but haven't implemented the separate "account" on this computer just for audio as suggested elsewhere in the forum. Could someone link me to this again, and , do you think anything that might be "running" or using CPU power could be causing this. (I don't have the airport card on, there is no email client or entourage running or on the computer...i don't really know how to shut off widgets but surely would if I could)

Muchos Gracias for any and all help.
m.

[Shooshie]

Regarding the widgets, if you do not open them after starting your computer, they do not add to your CPU load. After starting them the 1st time, they continue to use your CPU until you restart your computer, even when they are closed, though not as much as when they are open.

If you want to switch them off, you can utilize an Applescript via a tiny application called DashOff_101.

This works very well. I've used it a lot. The negative reviews on the site are inappropriate. I've had zero problems with it. Worst case, even if it DID cause problems, all you would have to do is restart. As far as I can tell, it is not capable of causing the problems those guys were having.


Shooshie

[methezer]

One thing I did which seemed to help was to not let spotlight look at my audio drive. This is in system settings-> Spotlight -> privacy settings (or something like that...)

[peteruno]

Don't know if the tango uses firewire or pci or usb but if its firewire and you are also using 2 firewire drives you may be maxing out the firewire bandwidth. I ran into this with my alubook, with fw 800 drives and Mlan on the 400 port. It worked better when I recorded to internal drive. Also try playing around with the the multiplier and priorty settings: try 2 even if you are only using one. Its a laptop thing that works in some cases.

[alobonzo]

Hi
Go to Configure Studio Settings, change Studio Size to "Caf-o-rama", deselect Automatic Plug-in Latency Compensation and Pre-fill file buffers for Quick Start.
I agree with Peteruno, go to Configure Hardware Driver and change the Host Buffer Multiplier to 2 and work priority Medium.
I'm using external fw drives with the motu 896, everything runs well now, no cpu spiking and no alert messages about buffers.
good luck