Thanks for the replies, Stephen. Can anyone using my system tell me if more RAM would solve my problem?

@ColinThomson said:

Thanks for the replies, Stephen. Can anyone using my system tell me if more RAM would solve my problem?

Hi Colin,

I have a Macbook Pro 17-inch 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo and I believe the Intel Core Duo versions only support 2GBs of RAM. The new Intel Core !!! 2 !!! Duo versions (built as of last 2006) will support up to 3GBs of RAM. You can check your own system specs by entering your computer's serial number on the apple website.

To get the serial number in OS X: click on (Apple symbol top left corner) - About this Mac - More Info

Then go to: http://support.apple.com/specs/ and paste your serial number in the box at the upper right corner that says "Find by Serial Number".

I have ordered VSL SE, but have not yet received it to try on my system. I figure that I will not be able to run a whole orchestra of instances all at once, but will need to work on a few tracks at a time and then bounce to disk before opening more tracks with VI instances. Also, I'm hoping the RAM optimizer feature in VI will help reduce the load on my RAM.

Hope this helps, Brian

Brian, yes, my macbook pro can support 3 GB of RAM. Probably I will end up only doing a few instances at a time, but I wanted to make sure I was getting the most out of my system. Thanks.

@ColinThomson said:

Brian, yes, my macbook pro can support 3 GB of RAM. Probably I will end up only doing a few instances at a time, but I wanted to make sure I was getting the most out of my system. Thanks.

Hi Colin,

That's great! I'm wishing my Macbook Pro would support 3GBs, but I'm going to have to deal with what I've got. If I remember correctly, the Macbook Pros Intel Core 2 Duo's that come with 2GBs of RAM are built with 1GB SDRAM x 2, so you will actually have to purchase a 2GB SDRAM and take out one of the 1GB SDRAMs in order to get 3GBs because there are only two memory slots available.

Good luck! Brian

You're right about the slots, but if I purchase from eshop.macsales.com, I think I will be able to get $35 off of my old 1GB stick by trading it in. And I think it will be much cheaper to upgrade now, as opposed to having the computer shipped originaly with 3GB, because I can get a 2GB stick from this store for $209, while having it shipped would have cost an extra $575.

Hello Colin,

I don't know if you has fixed your problem with the clicks & pops, and the worst positioning of the notes, when you playback Logic after have recorded something...but you can be sure I was have the EXACTLY SAME PROBLEM, but with the Cubase SX (version 2, the SX3 has a different trick!).

I apologize for my English, but I need to explain you exactly, what is my setup in the studio, and so, you can make an idea to comparing with your rig, because I am sure you'll fix the nightmare...I was working with customers inside the control room, watching the movie with my composition to see the development, ambience, etc, and just in the "right moment"...click,clack, pop...so lets go.

My basic system is a SONY DMX R100, radar 24, and PC pentium IV 3000 mhz, 1,5 gb RAM, 128 Mb graphics card, 120GB internal hdd+ 200GB external hd (just for gigastudio,VSL,etc)USB 2.0.

I have the SONY and the RADAR 24 connected via AES-EBU with 24 ch in/out, and the MARIAN MARC X card inside of PC,connected via ADAT TOS link 8 ch to the SONY; all working at 48 khz/24bits and th e wordclock connections of that way: PC generate master wordclock signal to RADAR 24, and the last one to SONY.( I never wanted this setup, but I can do it of another way ,because the gigastudio it don't be run...).

You know, I am sure, than if you have some mistake about the right order when you start your rig you should do it with "the system wants", in my case
first I start the PC, I load the GIGA project, after a right load, inside him, I open cubase , and if all goes find, I power on the Radar, and finally, the SONY, (believe me, if I don't do it exactly how you are reading it, I will have bad sync with wordclock !!

I explain you this, because the problem than you have is VERY,VERY close about the noises I have mentioned, but these noises (the mine)are constant, sometimes it looks like a "digital broken metronome"...BUT these are a common wordclock problem (worse or deficient conections). IT'S NOT YOUR PROBLEM!!! (I wanted to explain the differences between both possible causes). lets go streigth to the another "kind " of noises, the noises than you ear...

A lot of years ago, a drivers created by Microsoft to ensure the right compatibility, more or less, with the new sound cards from those years
(90's)was introduced in every computer with Windows OS, but not with a bad idea, from a silent way, it does'n matter so much...these drivers were called "EMULATED MIDI PORT"; these drivers are "living"near to the native drivers of your sound card, and when I opened a lot of times the "device controller" of my cubase, I always saw them...and curiosity ,if you have a M-audio card, you will see too "emulated M-audio midicard " or somethig like that with the same name of your card , but you can`t choose an option that says only the name of your native driver ,dry. If all of this, it's close to
some of your feelings...here comes the solution what worked well to me at last...

I don't know the Mac's (I want to have one) but you should check all I gonna tell you, because even are different OS, it must be the same problem...Inside the main CUBASE SX directory, there's a folder called "midiportfile", and inside himself, there's a single file called with the same name "midiportfile", ok. Move this single file outside of the "midiportfile" folder, no erase nothing, and paste it in the main directory of the program (cubase, logic, whatever)so you will have an empty folder, but it must to stay so...empty, ok?

Now you reset the computer, and you go back again inside the "device configurator", and check if you see the "emulated drivers" or not, but surely you will see the native drivers of your sound card dry, select all your tracks with the right and "new" midi in/out drivers , play something, record it, and AFTER 15 or 20 minutes,( I always did have problems after this time, more or less)NOT BEFORE, and if you will see than your music plays perfectly adjusted to your click, or synchronized to another machine, they goes fine...voilà!!. Look, I was working with a single sound of the Vienna symphonic library, an EH_ensemble_horn OF 24 BITS, and the CPU indicator becomes red, and the clicks were terrible, but I knew I have an enough power to run 2 programs with a lot of instruments inside (with limits of coarse)but with a single instrument, without reverb, makes the CPU's full loading?...

Actually, I am working on ambients, and looking for the characters of how the music must sounds, and I have 21 heavy instruments loaded on gigastudio 3, with a pair of Absynts 3 on CUBASE SX, some audio reference tracks, a video track with an mpeg reference file, two keyboards attached to Marian both to real midi time performance, and it's not enough, I have a Wave IR-1 convolution reverb at the master bus...and works better than great!!!!no problems with "my" loved noises, no problem about midi in/out...only if I put some track more of VSL percussion, the CPU'S rises sometimes...the red bar, but very few times, so I am happy now.

I hope this "option" can help you, but one is PC, and the other is a Mac and I don't know nothing about Mac.

Good Luck

Xavier Duch
Wildsoun studios
Barcelona

Thank you very much for the information, Xavier. I can't find any file called "midiportfile", and I have done some searching. Does anyone using a Mac know how I can impliment these suggestions?

Hi Colin,

Uhhh, I knew it would be difficult to find the midiportfile in a Logic/Mac versión, it's normal, but the facts,the noises... are the same!...

I am sure it must be a relationship between ASIO,GSIF, the native drivers, whatever model you have, because the noises...may come from aspects like main board, "poor" ram a USB port failing, a super loaded hard disk...but the MIDI timing problems, that's so common to me...

I did have to restart all the system, to can have once again the MIDI right to record a good melody, sometimes inside the edit controller, I did slide all the notes 1 or 2 8th or 16th beats...

Be patient, use the force, and keep investigating in this direction.

good luck

Xavier Duch

Oh, and the pops and clicks are completely sporadic, and seem to be worse when a larger amount of instruments are playing at once (or it just stops and I get the core audio overload message), so it doesn't seem to me that it is a midi clock problem (but then, I am new to all of this).

And I am using the built-in audio on my macbook pro.

Yes, you are right, it doesn't seem a midi clock problem , I thouhgt that too, because audio is thing totally different, this is exactly the strange part of this, but when I was looking for help, like you now, to fix the problem, that it was the same kind of troubleshooting than the people did have then...displacement of recorded notes after recording, and the noises sporadic too (not like a wordclock error) because it will be continued)the only difference is the Mac and Pc OS with different machines, but the software may be almost the same, exists asio drivers for Mac, no?, if it's yes , and you are working on hard disk sampler to play the Vienna...

Think about this, the connection of midi and audio, it's not relevant for itself, but when we are playing the keyboard, with latency 0ms, it's a big
challenge for computers...you play, the midi signal goes to interface, that sends the signal to your sequencer, and that does the same sending the processed midi (yet with all data about your velocity, pressure, bending, modulation wheels, foot pedals, whatever, that midi information will trigger
your violins, drums, choirs...the recorded parts and the real time information that comes from your keyboard!! all this in 0 or 2 ms!!, so the sound has to playback perfectly all are you playing with those midi controllers, if you touch the modulation wheel to change an articulation of the Vienna we supose... changing from violin_sus_f to violin_tremolo_f, it makes the sampler change the sounds too...yes, with the virtual instruments there is a close relation with midi & audio...because it affects to his response velocity the enough delay to create the "nightmare", sure.

I will try to investigate here this problem with mac users,ok?

regards
Xavier Duch

Thanks, Xavier. I have looked at the MIDI setup for both the Logic Pro program, and the settings on my computer, and all seems to be fine. But, like I said before, this is all new to me. I have had a mac for about 2 months since switching from PC, and Logic Pro for about one month, and it is the first sequencer that I have ever used (unless you count the free download audicity).

Guys, and Audio Buffer of 512 or 1024 is simply not acceptable. I know that if I set my buffer high enough I can run VSL on a Commodore 64, but that's not the point. In my personal experience, anything higher than 256 makes everything way too sloppy, even for orchestral stuff. I know guys who won't even run anything higher than 128.

So the question is, how come I can run tons of EXS24 instances loaded to the gills with big instruments, yet a couple of instances of VSL VI will bring Logic and my Dual 2ghz G5 to its knees with crackles and pops?

Anybody know what's going on? Any known issues with Digidesign Hardware? Any known issues with some AU plugins? Any known issues with SATA drives?

I'm on a Dual 2ghz G5, 3gigs of RAM, latest OS, latest drivers and everything and Logic Pro.

Anyone got some answers?

For some reason, the audio buffer doesn't seem to make hardly any difference with me. So I will usually keep it at 256 with close to the same results as 1024 (as far as pops and clicks go).