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  4. PLEASE HELP!!

  • PLEASE HELP!!

    M
    M
    Hey,

    I use a pair of Tannoy monitors which are connected via my M-Audio Firewire 410 audio interface. Whenever I seem to upload a Vienna instrument in EXS24, I start to hear crackling/flickering through the monitors. I tried connecting my headphones to the Firewire 410, and the same thing happened, albeit less frequently. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to resolve this issue?

    Many thanks,

    Matt
  • L
    L
    Maybe the buffer of your sound card are set too low.
    Try increasing them to 1024 and play any sequence to check if this happens again.
    Then find the best settings according to your cpu capacity and the latency you hear.
  • cmC
    VSL Team
    cmC
    matt - are you using the term *upload a Vienna instrument in EXS24* for opening it or playing the instrument?
    if the first: it _can_ happen, that electromagnetic radiation (which occures in spinning harddisks) does influence not perfectly shielded audio-lines. try to put the audio-interface and the firewirecable on the other side of your computer or harddisk.
    if the second: have you activated *virtual memory* in the options of EXS (not logic) - if not than exs is not streaming and sound crackles.
    christian
    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • M
    M
    Christian,

    When I said uploading I meant playing a Vienna instrument in an instance of EXS24. Yeah the virtual memory is activated and I have altered the buffer size as well as a few other adjustments in the Logic audio preferences section. Still can hear crackling...I've tested the Firewire410 against the inbuilt audio, and I still get the same problem when playing a Vienna patch in EXS through the inbuilt audio. So I know there is nothing wrong with the monitors themselves or the Firewire410. My conclusion is that it may all be a bit too much for my computer...hmm...my spec is:

    Processor: PowerPC G5 1.8 GHz,
    Memory: 1.5 GB

    ......perhaps adding more ram, say 2 GB to make 3.5 GB in total, may help?

    Matt
  • cmC
    VSL Team
    cmC
    hmm ... usually in a situation you're describing i'd say the harddisk does not deliver data fast enough. firewire ... is the harddisk also connected via firewire? sometimes audiodevices and harddisks do not like to reside on the same bus, can you alternatively try to connect the harddrive via USB2?
    christian
    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • M
    M
    Hey Christian,

    Just tried it with the external HD connected via USB (was previously through firewire). Turned out to be even worse than a firewire connection...so much so that some of the VSL tracks in Logic crashed when being played back! Time to revert back to firewire lol.

    Looks like I need more RAM put in...seems like the only viable alternative..?

    Matt
  • cmC
    VSL Team
    cmC
    matt, please check out if your USB isn't only USB 1.1 (can't find USB specs for this model now) - speed would be too slow here too.
    also, doesn't the 1.8 have already an additional FW800? this would be a seperate controller and you could try to connect the harddisk to it with a special cable.
    additionally i see it has 2x sATA - in case you have only 1 internal disk so far adding a second would be the best idea IMO.
    christian
    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • M
    M
    Hey Christian,

    Yeh it was USB2...there is a firewire800 port on the back of my G5 but I can't connect my external HD via that. I think I'm going to add more RAM and see if that does the trick- no harm in doing that anyway [:)]

    Matt
  • M
    M
    CM and Matt, the G5 machines all of them, the firewire 400 and 800 are definitely on just one bus. You can check this in "more info" after clicking "about this mac" on the blue apple top left of the screen - under firewire. I've also seen apple tech document confirming this some time ago sorry don't have the link. Further, if you plug in an 800 device with a 400 device the bus drops to 400 specs and speed. If you want your audio device and hard drive on separate bus (which I personally have found is the only way to do it) then you have to buy a PCI firewire card - just a 400 cheap one should do it - plug your audio device into that, and use the 800 on your G5 for your fw800 drive. Don't plug any other fw devices into the mac unless they are 800, or it will revert to 400, and sometimes if the drive is running and you do that - bad news. It's a very poor design of the G5's IMO for a pro machine top of the line to skimp on a small detail like that - one fw bus. At the time, there were no PCI cards either which was a big let down. Anyway I'm not sure about the mac pro's but I think they are the same story.

    Miklos.
  • M
    M
    Hi Miklos..

    Problem is I cannot connect my external HD via firewire800- only 400. Same goes for my audio interface, the M-Audio Firewire410, which has only 2 400 ports.

    Matt
  • cmC
    VSL Team
    cmC
    miklos, this is an interesting information, thank you. i always thought there are two controllers, but as you say there is only an additional FW400 connector ... strange design ...
    finally that means the FW400 audio interface is also only connected to a dropped down 1394b-bus - here we might have to find a reason ...
    christian
    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • M
    M
    Yes cm, it's only a connector, not another bus, which is indeed a strange design and one can only put it down to some weird senseless minimal cost cutting idea - it's so backwards, it's like using a cheap latch on the door to your bmw.

    Matt: if both your devices are 400, once again the pci fw400 card would probably fix the problem as you can plug one device into the 400 port of your G5 (one bus) and the other device into the pci card, which way you do it is up to you. My set up is[:O]ne fw 800 drive in bus one of the g5, one pci fw 800 card with two more drives running at fw800, and my audio interface on a third fw400 card. You can plug fw 400 devices into an 800 chain or device and it should revert to fw400 spec, but you cannot obviously do the reverse.

    Hope that helps,
    Miklos.
  • cmC
    VSL Team
    cmC
    last edited
    last edited
    to add an info you might have missed ... on the RME-audio website there is an interesting information about compatibilities - as usual they provide some in-depth information
    christian
    and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.
  • N
    N
    cm, there's actually only one FW bus on Macs. If you use a 400 device, the 800 bus slows down. It is strange, I agree - what's the point of 800 in that case?
  • N
    N
    Hehe.

    A day late and a dollar short. Sorry about that.


    [:O]ops:
  • M
    M
    Nick: basically if you look at it this way, the G5's have a fw800 bus on them, which is backwards compatible with fw400. It will run fw800, but if you plug something in to it which is 400, it will revert to the old spec, for backwards compatibility. So it is still worthwhile as an 800, but you just can't run different spec devices on the same bus. You have to install other buses to do that. Even then, if you only had fw800, and it says you can run a million or whatever number of devices off that bus - it's not true, in my experience, don't run more than 2 drives on any one bus (no matter how many ports it has), don't mix and match your specs, which anyway is bad because you lose the speed of any 800 devices there, and don't mix and match your devices *on any one bus*, you CAN have audio devices, hard drives, cameras - whatever as long as each type of device is on a separate bus, and even then, don't mix cameras on the same bus - just one per bus is enough. That's my experience anyway since dealing with fw for many years on macs.

    Miklos.
  • M
    M
    Miklos,

    How likely do you think having my audio interface and external HD each on a different bus will solve the crackling and popping? I've ordered more RAM, which should bring it up to 3.5GB - if that doesn't solve the problem I will get a PCI firewire card...I mean I could do that anyway, because from what you guys are saying it's a much safer way and ensures that there are no crosspath data issues between the HD and audio interface.

    Matt
  • T
    T
    I'm not sure RAM is the culprit, unless you are trying to do too much.

    I was using Nuendo on a G5 Dual 2g and some firewire drives with only 2.5g memory. I ran maybe 5 VIs at once. No problems.

    Now I'm on two new Intel Macs. The Mac Mini is running with 2gs and the SAME DRIVES as I've had for VSL. Now I'm getting clicks and pops just playing one instrument at a time.

    TH
  • M
    M
    Hey guys...put more RAM in and am still having the same crackling/popping noise as before...will probs keep the RAM in there as it will most definitely come in handy in the future......anyway, now onto plan B.

    Can anyone recommend a reliable PCI Firewire card I can put in to my Apple TowerMac G5? What do you guys think about this...

    http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=151938# ?

    Thanks,

    Matt
  • J
    J
    I tried to setup a client with an m-audio 410 and found it to be absolute garbage. Sorry, but that was my experience. The drivers were dreadful and I had nothing but problems. The client took it back and swapped it for a motu device (can't remember which, Traveller, I think) and all was fine.

    I'm running an RME DIGI96/8 card in my G5 (PCI-X, not express) and it's been great.

    J.