Audio glitches after long standby

Question

Audio glitches after long standby

Hi,

I got a mac mini server, i7quad core, all my audio files on the 2nd hard drive. Mainstage 2.1.3. In the enegy saver preference pane, I put hard drive and screen to never sleep, also uncheck the hard disk activity so it stays on all the time.

I use a Fireface UC soundcard, run at 48k, latency at 128 samples. I use Kontakt 5 and Omnisphere as my main Audio Units.

If I don't touch Mainstage for 10-15 minutes, the audio glitches, and the only way to fix this is to restart mainstage. Else it plays fine even when I change patch.

I see that it seems to be a common issue here, is there any way to tweak this?

Any info would be appreciated.

Also, how do I download the 2.2 update? I can't seem to find it on the apple website.

Thanks

MainStage, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 2, 2012 7:48 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 2, 2012 1:30 PM in response to busterkubrick

You have to pay for 2.2, on the App Store. Lots of gripes about that, but at least its only $30.

That MAY fix your problem. Sometimes these sorts of problems are specific to an audio I/O and its drivers. In my case, I had been having similar problems with a MOTU Ultralite, but they seemed to have vanished with the most recent version of MainStage and Lion.

You could try running your soundcard at 44.1 and see if anything changes.

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Answer 2

Apr 3, 2012 6:39 AM in response to dingdangdawg

Downloaded 2.2, I'll see if that works. I also updated my soundcard driver. I'll post if the glitches happens again.

Thanks

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Answer 3

May 24, 2012 6:53 AM in response to busterkubrick

After 1 month of use, I can say that Mainstage 2.2 doesn't work that well. Still, after a long standby, the audio is glitching. My workaround to this is to use a 256 samples buffer, with the security buffer enabled. It feels a little late when I play, not very pleasant...

Should I update to 10.7.4? I fear problems, as I saw on other posts with the Lion update.

thanks

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Answer 4

Madddcow

Level 2

457 points

May 25, 2012 5:26 AM in response to busterkubrick

This sounds very similar to an issue I had ages ago when I first started using Mainstage. I posted about my problem on this board and someone suggested that I try a high-quality firewire cable to use with my MOTU Ultralite MK3 (firewire only). I had serious doubts that a better cable could possibly be the answer to my situation but - for reasons I can't begin to fathom - it seems to have worked as I haven't experienced the same problem since using a significantly higher-quality (and much more expensive) cable.

I see that the Fireface UC uses USB connectivity so try a high-quality USB cable and see if it makes any difference.....I know it sounds crazy but a good cable fixed the problem for me. I use a bunch of different softsynths to play live and am running at 64 samples with safety buffer on MS 2.1.3.

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Answer 5

May 26, 2012 8:58 PM in response to Madddcow

it is the original cable that came with the RME Fireface. I updated the driver, don't know why it was that outdated (v1.62 instead of 1.69) I only installed it a few months ago.

now 2 days in a row without glitches, hopefully it fixed the problem.

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Answer 6

May 31, 2012 8:38 AM in response to busterkubrick

One new element I found. I did a change in Mainstage, started glitching a while after. I hit Save, then the glitches were gone. I thought I had to restart MS to get rid of the problem.

I bought an SSD drive, hope it will fix the problem.

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