Novation Impulse 49 - Sound cuts out after a few seconds

Question

Novation Impulse 49 - Sound cuts out after a few seconds

First here's the details of my setup:

MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion

Garageband 11

Novation Impulse 49 USB MIDI keyboard connected to USB port

I bought this keyboard yesterday and it came with Ableton Live Lite 8 which I've installed and everything works fine in that.

I'm more used to GarageBand and wanted to use the Impulse with it but the audio cuts off after a few seconds. The keyboard still registers MIDI signals in GarageBand but there's no audio. The keyboard has a built-in template for GarageBand.

If I change instruments in the instrument browser the audio comes back for a few seconds and then cuts off again.

Same if I click 'Play' and then 'Stop', the audui comes back for a few seconds.

I get the same behaviour when trying to play along to any of the GarageBand piano lessons. The audio from the lesson and my keyboard both come through at first then after a few seconds my keyboard audio cuts out.

I'd welcome any suggestions as I would like to get this working reliably with GarageBand.

Thanks in advance.

Bill

GarageBand (Mac) '11, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), 8GB Ram, Intel Core i7 Quad Core

Posted on Feb 4, 2013 8:24 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 4, 2013 8:58 AM in response to williamfromfintry

Just as a follow up:

In GarageBand, once the audio has stopped, if I open GarageBand Preferences and change the Audio Input or Audio Output settings which then causes the audio driver to initialise, the audio comes back but again this is only for a few seconds then it cuts out again.

Also, if I change the active track in the current project the audio returns but only for about a second.

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Answer 2

Feb 4, 2013 10:18 AM in response to williamfromfintry

Are you saying that the Keyboard makes your audio output in GarageBand disappear? That would be really strange. The Novation is a MIDI keyboard and has no audio driver that could mess up the audio portion of your system.

Two things I would do:

Check the manufacturers website to see if you have the latest update for the drive or if the current driver supports you OSX version.
Login with a different user on you computer to make sure that there are no corrupt preference files that causes the problem

Hope that helps

Edgar Rothermich

http://DingDingMusic.com/Manuals/

'I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.'

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Answer 3

Feb 4, 2013 11:34 AM in response to EdgarRothermich

Hi Edgar

Thanks for responding.

The keyboard works fine in Ableton and doesn't affect the sound so I think the issue is isolated to GarageBand, but unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with Ableton.

Some further info: once the audio does disappear even the typing keyboard that you can bring up in GarageBand doesn't produce any sound but if I change the active track (which brings the audio back) I can use the typing keyboard without issue.

In system preferences, I don't see the Novation keyboard in the sound input options but I'm not sure if I should see it or not. The AutoMap software that comes with the keyboard does recognise the keyboard though..

I've tried running Garageband with and without the AutoMap software running.

I'll give your suggestions a go and post back with the outcome.

Thanks

Bill

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Answer 4

Feb 4, 2013 11:42 AM in response to williamfromfintry

You have to be clear about something:

The Novation is a MIDI Device and not an Audio Device. It produces MIDI signals and no audio signal. THat's why you don't; see it in the System Preferences Audio window.

You have to use the Audio MIDI Setup utility app (inside the Applications/Utilities/ folder). There you can see all your MIDI devices including your Novation

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Answer 5

Feb 4, 2013 12:23 PM in response to EdgarRothermich

Hi Edgar

What you said about not seeing it in sound preferences does make sense.

GarageBand continues to receive the MIDI signals from the keyboard but its just stopping processing them into audio.

I'll fire up the MIDI utility (wasn't aware it existed) and see if there's any settings in there that might help.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Once again, many thanks for responding.

Thanks

Bill

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Answer 6

Feb 4, 2013 1:25 PM in response to williamfromfintry

Hi Edgar

I opened up the Audio MIDI setup utility and it does have the Impulse keyboard listed in the MIDI window.

Whilst this window is open, if I press any key on the Impulse I get a click when I let the key go.

Leaving this utility open, I opened GarageBand and I hear the click as well as the piano sound when I press any of the keys.

The audio still cuts out in GarageBand but I still get the click registering in the MIDI utility so it does seem that the whole MIDI side of things is fine and that the issue is somewhere in GarageBand.

I also tried creating a new account and logging in using that but the behaviour is exactly the same.

I might try removing and re-installing GarageBand.

Thanks

Bill

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Answer 7

Feb 4, 2013 2:13 PM in response to williamfromfintry

You are right, the click from the AMS utilty tells you that OSX is receiving MIDI events.

The way you are describing the problem looks that GarageBand is "re-acting" to the MIDI signal in a strange way. Re-installing GarageBand would eliminate any factors on the GarageBand that got screwed up. However, at the moment I would be curious about the actual MIDI signal that is coming from the Novation.

I don't know how much you know about various MIDI messages. If you just press a key, then you would end up just with a MIDI on message and MIDI off message. However there are all kinds of MIDI events that a keyboard could send out (on purpose or by accident). Maybe that happens and that is what GarageBand gets confused while Ableton just ignors it.

If you can interpret MIDI messages, I would try one of the free MIDI utilities, that logs all incoming and outgoing MIDI messages of connected devices. Maybe that will tell you something. (In the "old" WIldWIldWest days of MIDI we had those little boxes with dip switches to connect between MIDI devices to filter out specific MIDI messages)

Hope that helps

Edgar Rothermich

http://DingDingMusic.com/Manuals/

'I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.'

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Answer 8

Feb 4, 2013 3:00 PM in response to EdgarRothermich

I've just re-installed GarageBand and the issue is still there.

I'll look at getting hold of a MIDI utility and read up on the various messages to try and get a handle on what's goin on.

Thank you so much for your responses and suggestions.

I'll post back if I find anything further.

My girlfriend has a slightly older MacBook Pro so I might try connecting to that and see if the issue is just with my machine.

Thanks again.

Bill

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Answer 9

Feb 5, 2013 3:52 AM in response to williamfromfintry

Update:

A wee bit more info should anyone be reading this.

The issue does not seem to be occurring with all instruments.

So far, if I have a track set to Grand Piano (any variant) then the issue occurs. If I have a track set to Electric Piano then the issue doesn't seem to occur.

I still intend to try connecting the Impulse to my girlfriend's MacBook Pro but the above was just something that I discovered in the meantime which I thought may be useful.

Thanks

Bill

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Answer 10

Feb 8, 2013 3:27 AM in response to williamfromfintry

After opening a support case with Novation (who were extremely helpful), they have isolated the issue as being related to the GarageBand template in the Impulse 49 keyboard.

Using the GarageBand template with the Grand Piano or Classic Organ instruments results in either incorrect or missing MIDI messages to let GarageBand know when a key has been releassed. This meant that as you were playing, the notes were just building up and never releasing, until such point that GarageBand couldn't process any more of them.

The MainStage template in the Impulse 49 works fine with GarageBand and so this is the interim solution.

Eddie from Novation has raised it as a bug with their developers so there will hopefully be an updated GarageBand template available at some point to provide a permanent fix.

Apparently, this hadn't been raised as an issue before so it may have been a result of a GarageBand update.

Hopefully this information help someone in the future.

Thanks to Edgar for his assistance and suggestions and also to Eddie at Novation for being so helpful.

Regards

Bill

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Answer 11

pheal

Level 1

9 points

Jun 10, 2013 9:21 AM in response to williamfromfintry

Hello Bill,

I'm an Ableton user and I've been using the Novation Impulse 49 and this DAW for one year without problems.

I used to follow the piano lessons on GarageBand last year with that controller and I also never had a problem. But today, I tried to use my Impulse with GaraBand to resume the lessons and I'm having the same exact problem. The sound disappears after hitting a certain number of keys. The MIDI signals are still being sent out, so the problem must be exactly as you described.

I hope this will be fixed soon!

All the best,

Phil

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Answer 12

Jun 10, 2013 9:42 AM in response to pheal

Hi Phil

I've not heard anything further from Novation about a fix other than using the Main Stage template but then I haven't had any further issue with GarageBand and the Impulse 49 since switching to the Main Stage template.

Have you tried using the Main Stage template with GarageBand? Does it work for you?

Regards

Bill

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Answer 13

pheal

Level 1

9 points

Jun 10, 2013 4:32 PM in response to williamfromfintry

Hey Bill,

Thanks a lot for your quick reply. Unfortunately I don't have Logic so I guess I can't use the Main Stage template. I will look further into that issue and let you know if I find a solution.

Kind regards,

Phil

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Answer 14

Jun 13, 2013 1:12 PM in response to williamfromfintry

Hi, What is your case number so i can look in to the issue and help you find a resolution.

Best Regards,

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Answer 15

pheal

Level 1

9 points

Jun 14, 2013 5:31 AM in response to williamfromfintry

Hey Bill,

Oops, I just realized that the MainStage template can be used in Automap without requiring Logic. Still, I'm not sure where I can find that template. I checked the Novation website and found one for the Nocturn but not the Impulse 49. Could you help me out?

All the best,

Phil

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