M-Audio Ozone Problem

This does not sound like a keyboard problem, many people have frequented this forum who have this keyboard.

The latency you speak of is most likely having to do with either other applications on in the background while your using garageband, (possibly a dashboard utility?) or not enough RAM. You didn't list how much RAM your mini-mac had.

Make sure other applications are not running and also make sure your keyboard is hooked up before you power up Garageband too.

Others will probably add their 2 cents worth soon. But I really don't think it's your keyboard.


G5 1.8ghz Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Forgot, you also might try checking the Audio/Midi pane of the GarageBand preferences, make sure you have selected "Optimize for minimum delay" while you are recording.

Exactly how much RAM do you have?

how many RAM slots does the mini mac have?

1

Based on your system and the RAM you have, you should not be experiencing noticeable latency. We need to do some more troubleshooting.

What version of Mac OS X Tiger do you have, and what version of the M-Audio driver for the Ozone are you using?

Have you been to the M-Audio web site to download and install the latest driver, or are you merely using the one that came on the CD with your keyboard?

256 MB RAM is just about the minimum that Mac OS 10.4 Tiger needs to boot up and run. So there's no RAM left for the programs you want to run on top of it.

All new Mac minis come with 512MB RAM standard, because Apple realized that they just didn't run well with the original 256MB configuration.

I believe that if you upgrade your Mac mini to 1GB RAM you will see much better operation in all applications, and the elimination of your latency problem with GarageBand and your MIDI controller.

Upgrading the RAM in a Mac mini has to be performed by a qualified technician. It is not something the average user should attempt.

RAM is much cheaper when ordered online compared to purchasing it in a local store.

Do a search at http://dealram.com.

You need to make sure that you are purchasing genuine Samsung RAM, which is not the least expensive.

Your Mac mini has only one slot for RAM, so if you buy a bigger RAM chip you will have to remove the 256MB chip already in your Mac. You might be able to sell it on eBay for around $10.

You can purchase a 1GB chip for your Mac mini for about $100.
You can purchase a 512MB chip for about $50. But I would go for the 1GB.

Finally, you need to find a qualified technician to install your RAM.

My first Mac, in 1987, had 1MB of RAM, and to purchase 2MB for an upgrade would have cost $800.

Of course my first Mac could not have run GarageBand.

My first Apple Computer had 48 KB of RAM, and later my first hard drive (10 MegaBytes!) cost me $1,300 including the SCSI card interface.

There are some things I definitely do NOT miss B-)>

Oh, yeah? In my day, sonny, we had to write all our code on punch cards and translate our trigonometric calculations from slide rule to binary numbers using only an abacus and a chalkboard to keep track of where we were. Then we had to telegraph the results in Morse code to some guy in Armonk, New York who promised to run a batch job some time before the next spring thaw, and return the results to us via carrier pigeon.

I owned an Apple IIc, and worked on an Apple II at school, years before I got my Mac Plus.

Grumpily yours,

Wheat

In MY day, "code" was a set of behavioral expectations, and there wasn't so much knowledge in the whole known world that it wouldn't all fit on one side of a carved stone tablet. We spent our days foraging for edible roots and trying to figure out ways to make fire portable.

Our local witchdoctor had an abacus though, and Football Manager II ran on it like a dream. Aaahh... those were the days.