Well on further investigation last night I managed to do a number of things and then ended up disillusioned with OSX on the Mini.

Anyway to update. I installed ULTAVNC on my WinXP desktop which connects to the VNC server s/w (Apple Remote Desktop which comes preinstalled on the MacMinis - it just needs turning on). This worked fine albeit slow.

I used MOL3 to send MIDI. For a VST/AU host for the VI I used RAX which seemed to work quite nicely except I kept getting cracks and pops from the audio hardware (An Edirol UA1EX) on the Minis. Tried some basic tweeking (but I'm not a MAC person) and it made no difference. Crackle, Pop, Pop.

Reverted back to WinXP on the MacMinis using VSTACK (same Edirol UA1EX) and no popping or crackling at all. So not sure what the OSX issue is.

This gives me a dilema:

1. I like OSX look and feel (and RAX for that matter) and it should be more stable than WinXP but I get cracks and pops. Also VNC is slow.

2. WinXP doesn't crackle and pop, Remote Desktop is free and works quickly but WinXP won't boot up headless using BootCamp so I have to sit and wait to boot each Mini up sequenctially - even though I'm using a DrBott DV KVM - and it's just a pain.

Maybe I'm wanting too much from my system.

Regards all


Tim

Thanks for the update Tim. Remember that the mini's have a core-audio soundcard incorporated. It could be that the external soundcard you are trying to use does not yet support intel-based OSX, hence the pops. Surprisingly, the built-in soundcard on all macs is capable of low-latency, low-cpu performance (something that is so unheard-of for us PC users, that many people don't even think to try it).

So, if you'd rather be running OSX, it may be worth your while trying out the onboard soundcard with RAX. Remember the mini sports a digital output (just plug a toslink lightpipe into the seemingly analogue output).

good luck [[;)]]

I have VNC working fine, cm, but the other direction - one of my PCs has XP Home (I know, I know), and I view it on the Mac.

Ok chaps, the onboard card seems to work much better than the external edirol UA1EX. However I am still getting some odd behaviour (similar to PierreFunck in another thread) where if I leave the mac alone for a while and play a note it cuts off or cracks. Then it picks up again and all is well.

It might be the external fw HD I am using (a Lacie MacMini lookalike 250GB). I've turned the "put the harddrive to sleep" option off in Energy Saver but this doesn't appear to make any difference?

Anybody have any clues?

EDIT - also, i'm running an NTFS partition on the LACIE (as I was using the MAC under WinXP) would this have anything to do with it?

Good to hear about the onboard soundcard, Tim. This may sound crazy, but... have you tried simply streaming from the onboard hard drive, instead of the external FW drive? Just a thought.

Leon

Hi - not yet, problem being that I'm using this mac for brass+percussion and its 145GB the internal is 80GB max, and also split into to volumes (one for OSX one for XP).

I could put a few individual instruments on and see what happens. I'll try later tonight.

Meanwhile - if anyone can help out on the NTFS vs HFS query....

tim, besides we have been very happy to notice tiger can now read NTFS, we have not been lucky to gather reasonable performance for streaming.
i'm afraid you'll have to switch them to HFS+
christian

I posted something about the hard disk crackle problem in this thread.

Ok - reformatting to HFS+ (Journalled) - which I hope is ok.

Will let you know in about 1 hour...

i would format _not_ journaled, otherwise you'd loose capacity when you delete or overwrite files.
journaled does only make sense (IMO) for the system volume
christian

Lol, ok, how do I cancel a copy in OSX?

*EDIT* Doh - click the x....

told you I wasn't a mac person...

Ok, this gets wierder.

I have two Mac Mini's identical AFAIK - let's call them A and B. On A (the one I have been using primarily) I am getting really odd behaviour + pops + crackles.

I'm using RAX which has an Audio Load meter at the top. When I load up a single VI (I'm using Brass & Percussion on this Mac) and press a key I get a small rise in audio load. When I release they key the audio load meter, flies across maxing out and going red and then i get cracks and pops.

The odd thing is... the other mini B (with Woods) doesn't do this at all, so I tried swapping the samples (both are stored on an external lacie fw hd) & syncrosoft keys round so brass was on mini B and lo and behold - no massive audio load and everything works fine.

Anybody have a clue what's going on?

TIA

Tim

Well after much messing, i've come to the conclusion that Apple hardware is very good, but OSX and VI aren't so hot (at least on the Mini).

Have now gone back to bootcamp and vstack with the UA1EX soundcard and not a crack or pop in site.

Now if only I can get them to boot headless.....

tim,

OSX with VI is fine for me on my MacMini.....

Clicks and pops occur at onset of load BUT everything stabilises after some minutes of play....This is not the case with XP version?

Also ........were you running the VST version or the AU version in OSX?

SvK

Hi. I think that was part of the annoying problem - audio would work it's way out - so the first few plays it's all cracks and pops then does seem to settle down, or change instrument or leave the machine for about 5 mins and come back to it - even then you would get some pops on sustained patches.

WinXP gives me no issues which is odd.

I think it was the AU version. RAX pops up a window asking to display the VSL AU Host so I guess it's not VST.

Thanks anyway

Tim

tim,

you are right.....the clicks / pops persist in OS X ......in both VST and AU!

I stand corrected.

Hey Vienna,

I know that the library was originally concieved on PC's, but howz about giving us MAC dudes some love huh?


PS: I STILL think these problems cracks/pops have something to do with "on-the fly" decompression of 24bit files....

thanx,

SvK

Hi SvK,

Do the clicks/pops persist even when using the onboard soundcard, and internal harddisk?

Thanks [;)]

Leon

Leon

yes,


But Tom is right......it doesn't happen when booting in Win XP...

So the fault is NOT with the Apple Hardware or OSX for that matter...but instead with VI OSX implementation....

EXS24's never exhibites these problems, nor does Kontakt2 etc....

PS: I STILL think these VI/OSX problems (cracks/pops) have something to do with the "on-the fly" decompression scheme of 24bit files....

SvK

Oh yeah,

The crack / pops are not limited to the MacMini.......

They exist on G5 as well.


months ago, when I first embarked on "switching" from VSL/EXS24 to VI, I was posting pretty frustrated threads about cracks and pops....

So I started adding more computers (G5's) to lessen the load per CPU......things HAVE improved, but are very far from acceptable.

Cracks and Pops under OSX / VI are very REAL.....and after months of trying everything (ultra fast disks......loading very few VI's........Mac Intels instead of G5s....RME cards....etc, etc, etc.

None of the above REALLY gets rid of Cracks/Pops in VI / OSX .....


IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT

SvK

CM, Vienna, Maya....


So let me ask you guys.......

With your MAC rigs, you get NO cracks and pops at all? None?

SvK