monitoring quits every time there's silence

Question

Level 1

14 points

monitoring quits every time there's silence

If I stop playing into the system for even 10 seconds the monitoring goes completely away. Sometimes I can hit the button a couple of times and bring it back but mostly not. This is on a very new MBP retina and a just bought edition of Logic X. I was having the exact same problem with Garageband before I bought Logic X. I had hoped this was just a vagary of GB but obviously not. I have seen/read others having this problem, and on a MBP retina as well. I have tried two different audio interfaces and different sample rates. Tried resetting the output and input. The maddening thing is that overtime I think I have it solved it comes back. I did fresh reinstall of GB and it worked beautifully for a day. Then crapped out again. I didn't even get an hour of trouble free use out of Logic. I'm trying to use this for live performance, not that a strictly studio scenario would be very happy. This is impossible. Is it the MB pro's or the program? What is it? My gig this weekend is already shot. Any ideas?

Posted on Sep 1, 2015 9:54 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 1, 2015 10:10 PM in response to atomheart4

This sounds like an external controller (Hardware or iOS) of some kind is sending messages which are shutting off / muting the audio......

Try using the free Midi Montior...

http://www.snoize.com/MIDIMonitor/

...to identify what and how......

If its not that... When there is silence.. and the audio cuts out... uncheck and then recheck and apply Core Audio in Logic's prefs > Audio > General tab.. and see if that restores Audio.... If it does it indicates an Audio Driver / Core Audio related issue

However......

Note: with 10.2 on one of my testbed Macs....(only one and not all) I have noticed a similar though much, much less frequent type of similar behavior... It's happened maybe once every few hours... not after 10 secs of silence by any means..

I am still analyzing the issue and running troubleshooting tests to find a cause/solution

Reply

Answer 2

atomheart4 Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 1, 2015 10:36 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

I should have said that this is happening on audio input. I mean when the audio cuts out so does the midi. I'm using Midiguitar II (software midi conversion) which has been great, when the rest of the system is up. They swear that the newest update is compatible and it does work. And this happens whether I have Midguitar going or not.I will add that since a long time I noticed that there was a tendency for the latency to go suddenly out of whack something horrible. Then that turned into latency and noise. Almost like the buffer was too small. I usually have it set at 128 samples but same problems at 256. Then the monitoring problem started. Now it can be either that happens but mostly it's the monitoring, like 99 times out of 100. Both of my interfaces are thunderbolt. Zoom TAC2-r and Motu 828X. The motu is a hybrid and I did try the usb with the same problems. As soon as there is silence the monitoring shuts off.

Reply

Answer 3

atomheart4 Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 4, 2015 10:21 AM in response to atomheart4

So even with a complete reinstall of the OS and a new driver update for the Zoom Tac2-r, and reinstall of Logic I'm still having the same problem. As soon as there is silence the monitoring quits and it takes all kind of machinations to get it back, if at all. Has absolutely no one experienced these problems? Is there a hardware problem that could possibly be the issue? I'm trying to understand why it is just my machine that is having these problems.

Reply

Answer 4

Sep 4, 2015 10:36 AM in response to atomheart4

I think the answer to your question lies with your choice of a Zoom and it's drivers.... as what you are describing sounds more and more like a driver / hardware related problem...

Note: I always get concerned by companies that do not have an easily accessible Company run Forum..... for users and the company in question to report and discuss issues on... ( http://zoomforum.us/ isn't that useful I found)

and....

That also do not appear to publish detailed update notes so you know what is or isn't fixed... in any given update.

All I can tell you is I cannot reproduce your issue here on any of my systems.. to anything like the degree you are seeing and so I have to suspect it's something specific to your system.

Reply

Answer 5

atomheart4 Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 4, 2015 9:30 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

Yeah. More and more I think the same. Spent some time w/ Zoom support this morning and the end result was ,"Send it back to us." Which is like saying it's a hardware problem. I doubt it. The irony is they just issued a driver update. At first it seemed useless. But after it shut down and came back up it was stable. Spent about 5 hours in rehearsal and not a glitch until we started to stop and tried to get back up for a minute. Then things went completely weird. It's different but the same: no output.

I totally agree about the whole corporate website profile. Profoundly lacking in interaction. They get you with the concept. A 2 in 2 out thunderbolt interface so small it fits in an old TDK soft cassette tape case ( Ohh. Did I just date myself?) and buss powered? Perfect for a performance based rig. But w/o stability it's useless. I might just add that the sound quality is excellent? My back up is a Steinberg USB 2 in 2 out. Noise floor is horrible and really makes the Tac2-r look good (sound good). Maybe time to face up to the cost of an Apollo Twin.

r

Reply

Answer 6

Pancenter

Level 6

14,644 points

Sep 4, 2015 10:03 PM in response to atomheart4

Does the Zoom device have an external power input? If so, have you tried using it with external power?

Reply

Answer 7

atomheart4 Author

Level 1

14 points

Sep 5, 2015 10:29 AM in response to Pancenter

No, it's entirely buss powered. Curious why you would ask that, pancenter ?

I did read on older thread where someone was having trouble and discovered that the unit sends out sysex data to anything it's hooked up to.

"

"Zoom wrote me, the TAC-2(R) sends always SysEx Messages thru the OS X. The reason is horrible simple. The Audiosoftware MixEfx needs the SysEx Data to communicate between Hard and Software. You don't have any chance to stop this problem. You will receive the SysEx Data.

The next step/problem is when you record midi notes with you master keyboard then you record the SysEx data too. It *****. The only way to eliminate the SysEx Horror is to set the SysEx Filter in the Projectsettings and disable the midi monitor in the transport window."

Haven't had a chance to look into this yet. There is a box in the project settings Midi window for "Sysex with Midi through function" and then there's the "Input Filter "tab in the same window. which lists all possible data to block or allow. Here I'm assuming if I tick the box that particular data stream is blocked. I'm going to try ticking everything there and see what happens. Later.

Reply

Answer 8

Pancenter

Level 6

14,644 points

Sep 5, 2015 11:32 AM in response to atomheart4

atomheart4 wrote:

No, it's entirely buss powered. Curious why you would ask that, pancenter ?

I did read on older thread where someone was having trouble and discovered that the unit sends out sysex data to anything it's hooked up to.

"Zoom wrote me, the TAC-2(R) sends always SysEx Messages thru the OS X. The reason is horrible simple. The Audiosoftware MixEfx needs the SysEx Data to communicate between Hard and Software.

Just wondered if the problems could be power related...

But now that you've mentioned the sysex data problem I can't help but think that's the root cause of your troubles. Do you have the MixEfx software installed? I would definitely try "Settings/MIDI/Input Filter" and block incoming sysex messages.

Reply