Mainstage adding latency after an hour of being open

Just chiming in to say I have experienced the same exact issue under similar circumstances.

My rig was Mainstage 3, Antelope Orion, 96k, MBP Mid-2012 i7, 6 or so plugins, no patches, just running knobs live. Very simple setup. And not much of anything in common with yours it seems. Had to restart during shows twice. Always after Mainstage was left on for a while before the show. This was last summer, I haven't been able to trust Mainstage for performance since, and seeing other posts around this forum with no solutions is very discouraging.

I used to experience this when I first started out with MainStage v1.0 several years ago. I replaced the Firewire cable (to my MOTU Ultralite Mk3) with a high-quality cable and the problem disappeared. I know that sounds like a weird solution but someone recommended it to me at the time and it worked. I'd tried everything else - literally everything else - but it was changing the cable that solved my problem.

I'm sorry to read you're having the exact same problems I had about a year ago. I truly can't describe how bad it feels if you go on stage with the knowledge there's a big chance your gear will fail on you.

I'm not completely sure about it, but in one of the comments on my topic on this issue someone said he experienced the same issue in Logic, so it could be a driver / OSX issue. Upgrading to Mainstage 3 and/or Yosemite probably won't make it any better or worse.

For what it's worth: a haven't experienced this issue since I changed my Saffire Pro 14 interface for a RME Fireface UCX. Fingers crossed.

Right now I'm not sure if I can be of any help, but I just wanted to let you know if there's anything I can try to figure out what causes this, I'm very willing to help. I know how bad this issue can be.

Ive had the same problem intermittently and randomly.

Ive had 2 different laptops. Different versions of OS from 10.8 to 10.10. Alesis Multimix 8 FW and now Roland USB.

And I believe it also happened in MS 2.

I dont think it has anything to do with memory or overloading. Nothing shows up in logs.

Mainstage just goes crazy and loses its timing. Not sure its latency exactly.

Happened last night again.

2 hour long sets fine. SOP is quit MS and reopen between sets.

40 minutes into 3rd set. BOOP. All crazy. Faded song out. Restarted MS.

Back to business.

Setup is 4 inputs. 2 MIC, 2 GUIT, Track Playback, Rev, Dly and all processing in MS, taking a stereo out of computer.

Super careful with CPU, 128 samp buffer setting, typical CPU usage like 20%. Memory usage negligible.

I think this is an actual MS bug that has been around for years.

I try to plan my bailout strategy for when it goes awry.

Last night fade out worked ok.

With the Alesis I could flip the 2tk switch and get direct mix.

With the Octa-Capture i can pan back to the direct mix but it takes a few seconds and a few menus.

Its an adventure when it happens.

Ive gone on this adventure probably 8-10 times in the last few years.

Andy

Why don't you just try another cable? Mine was also brand-new but replacing it with a high-quality cable fixed my problem. It's easy enough to just give it a go.

I've been having the same problem for a while now as well, on two different Macs with two different interfaces, operating systems, and versions of Mainstage.

Setup 1: 2011 MacBook Pro

2.3GhZ i5, 8GB RAM

Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 (Firewire)

Mainstage 2

OSX Mavericks (10.9.5)

Setup 2: 2014 Mac Mini

2.5 GhZ i5, 8GB RAM

Digidesign MBox 2 Mini (USB)

Mainstage 3

OSX Yosemite

I'm noticing the problem much more frequently on the newer setup (it has happened every time MS3 has been open for more than around 45 minutes now). I have a CPU meter in my concert layout, this never exceeds 35% and usually hovers around 15-20%. No audio channel strips, just instrument channel strips running Logic/MS plugins and a few instances of Kontakt.

I'm working on musical theatre productions so I do have time in between songs to close and restart as necessary, I really feel for you guys who are onstage though!

Madddcow, I'll give your cable replacement strategy a go as soon as I can get to an electronics store.

Hi everyone,

I've been experiencing this issue as well. I've read through Pim M's original thread before I stumbled upon this one. Most of the people there have had this issue with various versions of MainStage or Logic (which apparently shares much of MainStage's core), same as here. For me it happens with other software as well (Cockos Reaper mostly, but I even tried routing everything through JackOSX and the problem still persisted).

So to summarise: this happens to people with different Mac hardware, different interfaces (firewire and usb), different versions (major and minor) of OSX, different plugins, different DAWs. There really is no observable common denominator, apart from the brand of computer and OS - so far no one from the PC parts of the world seems to share in our woe. Therefore the only thing I can think of that we all have in common is CoreAudio, as that's the underlying layer for all of us. CoreAudio is a part of OSX and so this is not a MainStage / Logic related issue, but an OSX related one.

I would very much like to say that I haven't seen this issue for a while now. I'm running the latest Yosemite and it *may* be possible that one of the recent updates fixed this. Problem is, I don't have enough data to express any reasonable amount of certainty that it wasn't just pure luck - I have only run a few shows lately and none of them exceeded an hour and a half at most. But I have my fingers crossed.

I should have time during the weekend for some more extensive testing. I'll report back with my conclusions. Do cross your fingers as well if you know what's good for you ;-)

I often have my setup running for eight or more hours. I have a:

- Mac Mini 2011, i5, 2.5Ghz, 8MB RAM, 256GB SSD

- Radial Pro USB

- Nektar Panorama P6

- OSX Yosemite

- Mainstage 3

I've never noticed any additional latency over time. The only error I've seen is one stating that the CPU could not process the audio. Despite the warning, I didn't hear anything happen and this only occurs when I'm quickly changing from patch to patch. Many of the setups have multiple splits, layers, recordings, effects, etc. However, no added latency. I guess I'm lucky.

Honestly, I detect a small amount of latency all of the time. The attack of the plugins don't feel quite as immediate as most of my hardwire instruments (Korg Kronos 61X, Nord Electro 2, Roland RD300GX). It's not so bad that I'm not comfortable playing, it's just noticeable.

As with trinitycadet, I often have my MainStage setup running for anywhere between 5-8 hours and never encounter the latency issue that others have described. I'm not saying it doesn't exist...I'm simply saying that I don't think it's a universal problem. However, there must be something in common with those having the latency issues.

In fact, I've had 3 different MacBook Pro machines since 2009 running 5 different versions of OSX (Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite) and none have exhibited the symptoms that others are describing. And again, as with trinitycadet, perhaps I'm just lucky?? Apart from the different machines, I've always used a MOTU Ultralite MK3 but I'm doing a regular show at the moment just using the built-in audio with a MOTU FastLane MIDI interface (USB).

My concerts are always based on the same custom-made template I originally created with MainStage v1, although that template has changed a lot over the past couple of years. For those having issues or NOT having issues, are you using/editing MainStage templates or building your own? I wonder if that has anything to do with the latency problem? I've only ever used templates that I built from scratch.

OK I have a couple updates.

I sent a bug report to mainstage support and suprisingly got a personal reply.

I was told they were aware of the reported issue and asked me to send a support profile.

So it appears they are at least looking into it. Since its not easy to recreate Im thinking it may be a bear to sort out.

I tried the aggregate device idea. Octa-Capture + Built-In Output. It was unusable at the minimum latency I could get it to operate at.

Someone please let me know if I should have created the aggregate differently. I tried using creating one with both out then in but it insists on screwing up my input order that way.

For those who say they dont ever have a problem. What is your setup?

My sets are built from a blank. They consist of approx 20 songs each.

The set only has the Master.

Each patch is a separate song and has 4 inputs with varied fx, 2 local Aux tracks with reverb and delay and a single playback.

Interestingly.

Had a 5 hr gig yesterday.

During setup suddenly had the latency. Feels like hundreds of ms.

Restarted. Then restarted between each hr set. SOP.

Problem didnt crop up again during the 5 hrs.

Im really hoping to tame this as there is really no MS alternative for me.

I did give Ableton a good effort but it didnt fit my needs.

MBP 13 Retina 3.0/16G/ SSD. Roland Octa-Capture USB.

My setup is quite complex. I'm a sax/wind synth player and have 86 synth patches (each song is a single patch), 6 audio inputs, multiple FX on all audio inputs (reverb, delay, chorus, EQ, compression and gain...I know gain isn't FX but it still uses system resources), aux sends to my in-ears and 2 other monitor sends for other players, 2 audio outputs for sax/wind synth, 2 separate outputs for other players, 1 stereo output for backing tracks. I have a range of different softsynths including Kontakt, WIVI, ES2, Korg M1 LE and SWAM.....there are multiple instances of each synth except for Kontakt, which is a single instance running a multi-instrument rack of patches. I have several FX buses for the softsynths. My CPU idles around 13% and averages 30-40% when I'm playing....and that includes multiple audio I/O in constant use in addition to my softsynths. I have 26 meters and an LED...about half of the meters are in constant operation when I'm playing.

My current MacBook Pro is a mid-2014 15" Retina MacBook Pro, 2.8GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD and my audio interface is a MOTU Ultralite Mk 3 (FireWire only). Currently running MainStage 3.1.1 on OSX 10.10.3. I've used the template below on my old machine: a mid-2009 17" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo, 3.05GHz, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD....CPU idled around 30% and averaged around 60-65% when playing.

Looks like your setup is far more complex.

This is typical for me.

Love the integration of the FCB1010!

That was not the first layout attempt but I was pretty happy when I came up with it.

My 1010 is shortened like that with the pedals removed and gets powered via the midi out.

Works for me.