Apparently the recent update to Vienna Instruments is wreaking havoc with the sample rate under Mac OS 10.4.9? It seems to be causing Audio MIDI Setup to set the sample rate to 192 kHz for external audio devices (in my case, the RME Fireface 800), irregardless of whether I choose 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (the only two available choices) from Vienna Instruments' Preference window. Using Built-In Audio for the output does not cause such problems (but then, Apple Built-In Audio is limited).
If I bring up the RME Fireface 800's settings, it does not reflect the "new" 192 kHz setting, unless I turn off DDS (a feature that allows for microtuning the sample rate to match for video editing). I only turned on DDS to try to prevent this problem initially, as I didn't know why the Master Clock on the RME unit was reading 192 kHz at first, since I was setting output to 44.1 kHz in every standalone Virtual Instrument I was using.
The first problem I noticed was Friday, shortly after the VI update, with crackly and herky-jerky MP3 playback (along with system lock-ups) inside websites (such as when listening to short sample library demos), but I did not initially connect the dots; thinking instead that maybe some of my RME Fireface 800 settings had arbitrarily switched from my preferences. and that I needed to re-read that manual again (I recently switched from the MOTU 828 mk II).
I thought at first that it was a CPU or memory problem (I have an 800 MHz G4 iMac with 768 MB or internal RAM), or even a playback format or browser plug-in issue, but the same problem occurred in Safari, etc. So I went to Apple's website and found there was a recent QuickTime update, and performed that update as most website MP3's on the Mac play back using QuickTime. The problem was still not solved, and was also unrelated to the QT update which I did after the problem started. At this point in time, I had not yet noticed that my Virtual Instrument standalone versions were also affected (I haven't run Vienna Instruments in plug-in mode inside Digital Performer this weekend so cannot report on that yet).
So today when I started up my RME Fireface 800, it brought up an alert box that there was an update, which I promptly downloaded and installed. This still didn't solve the problem either. I remained mystified about the source of the problem, but doing the Fireface update at least showed me that the sample rate was occasionally switching to 192 kHz, as I had not yet noticed that since I generally leave my settings alone and set the Fireface to Master Clock (vs. Auto-Sync, which can cause problems if you have the S/PDIF cables hooked up but the device at the other end is not turned on), and don't bring up the Fireface Settings window for the most part unless I want to change the cached settings.
So I turned DDS on in the RME Fireface 800 settings to try to force its Master Clock to stay at 44.1 kHz, since I couldn't figure out why the Master Clock would keep jumping to 192 kHz. And Vienna Instruments then started giving me errors saying the output device couldn't be matched, or something like that, when I would reset the output from Apple Built-In Audio to the Fireface 800. So I went to the Audio MIDI Setup window and was surprised to find the output at 192 kHz, even after I reset it several times to 44.1 kHz.
Maybe I didn't read the update notes carefully enough? I'll try to find those and see if this latest update for VI was only meant for Intel macs.
As the problem only occurs during login sessions in which I bring up the standalone version of Vienna Instruments, and as it began shortly after I did that update and before I did any of the other updates, it seems highly likely that the VI update is at fault. I am guessing that there is still some ways to go before all the audio apps are fully in sync with each other after Apple's OS 10.4.9 debacle (for those who don't know, they made some non-backward compatible changes to Core Audio and maybe Core MIDI in a point release, and this took everyone by surprise).
If I bring up the RME Fireface 800's settings, it does not reflect the "new" 192 kHz setting, unless I turn off DDS (a feature that allows for microtuning the sample rate to match for video editing). I only turned on DDS to try to prevent this problem initially, as I didn't know why the Master Clock on the RME unit was reading 192 kHz at first, since I was setting output to 44.1 kHz in every standalone Virtual Instrument I was using.
The first problem I noticed was Friday, shortly after the VI update, with crackly and herky-jerky MP3 playback (along with system lock-ups) inside websites (such as when listening to short sample library demos), but I did not initially connect the dots; thinking instead that maybe some of my RME Fireface 800 settings had arbitrarily switched from my preferences. and that I needed to re-read that manual again (I recently switched from the MOTU 828 mk II).
I thought at first that it was a CPU or memory problem (I have an 800 MHz G4 iMac with 768 MB or internal RAM), or even a playback format or browser plug-in issue, but the same problem occurred in Safari, etc. So I went to Apple's website and found there was a recent QuickTime update, and performed that update as most website MP3's on the Mac play back using QuickTime. The problem was still not solved, and was also unrelated to the QT update which I did after the problem started. At this point in time, I had not yet noticed that my Virtual Instrument standalone versions were also affected (I haven't run Vienna Instruments in plug-in mode inside Digital Performer this weekend so cannot report on that yet).
So today when I started up my RME Fireface 800, it brought up an alert box that there was an update, which I promptly downloaded and installed. This still didn't solve the problem either. I remained mystified about the source of the problem, but doing the Fireface update at least showed me that the sample rate was occasionally switching to 192 kHz, as I had not yet noticed that since I generally leave my settings alone and set the Fireface to Master Clock (vs. Auto-Sync, which can cause problems if you have the S/PDIF cables hooked up but the device at the other end is not turned on), and don't bring up the Fireface Settings window for the most part unless I want to change the cached settings.
So I turned DDS on in the RME Fireface 800 settings to try to force its Master Clock to stay at 44.1 kHz, since I couldn't figure out why the Master Clock would keep jumping to 192 kHz. And Vienna Instruments then started giving me errors saying the output device couldn't be matched, or something like that, when I would reset the output from Apple Built-In Audio to the Fireface 800. So I went to the Audio MIDI Setup window and was surprised to find the output at 192 kHz, even after I reset it several times to 44.1 kHz.
Maybe I didn't read the update notes carefully enough? I'll try to find those and see if this latest update for VI was only meant for Intel macs.
As the problem only occurs during login sessions in which I bring up the standalone version of Vienna Instruments, and as it began shortly after I did that update and before I did any of the other updates, it seems highly likely that the VI update is at fault. I am guessing that there is still some ways to go before all the audio apps are fully in sync with each other after Apple's OS 10.4.9 debacle (for those who don't know, they made some non-backward compatible changes to Core Audio and maybe Core MIDI in a point release, and this took everyone by surprise).