Receptor + Digital Performer audio dropouts

[dapa12]

I'm getting unacceptable audio dropouts using Digital Performer 7.21 on a MacBookPro connected via Uniwire to my Receptor 2 Pro Max with Komplete 5 inside. Akoustik Piano is great but not with the audio dropouts. Unfortunately, I read too late on the forum that I should not have upgraded my Mac OS to 10.6.4, but I had already done so. I've already set my DP Preferences to "audio plug-ins in real time", but that did not help. I tried disabling dual core mode and Zload on the Receptor and that also did not help. I'm only running DP by itself on the MacBook Pro and I've got 6 Mb RAM. I'm running a 256 buffer and a 48000 sample rate. Is there anything you can think of that I can do to eliminate the dropouts? Do I have to wait for a Uniwire and/or Receptor OS upgrade?

[batgab]

The only thing I can think of is increasing your buffer size to something greater than 256. Have you tried that? I will also add that I don't have most of the software you mention, so maybe somebody else has some other ideas.

Good luck!

[dapa12]

I'm getting unacceptable audio dropouts using Digital Performer 7.21 on a MacBookPro connected via Uniwire to my Receptor 2 Pro Max with Komplete 5 inside. Akoustik Piano is great but not with the audio dropouts. Unfortunately, I read too late on the forum that I should not have upgraded my Mac OS to 10.6.4, but I had already done so. I've already set my DP Preferences to "audio plug-ins in real time", but that did not help. I tried disabling dual core mode and Zload on the Receptor and that also did not help. I'm only running DP by itself on the MacBook Pro and I've got 6 Mb RAM. I'm running a 256 buffer and a 48000 sample rate. Is there anything you can think of that I can do to eliminate the dropouts? Do I have to wait for a Uniwire and/or Receptor OS upgrade?

Thanks, batgab, I've tried that and it doesn't help; I get more latency with audio dropouts. I'm stumped at this point.

[Kevin@MuseResearch]

Make sure your Apple airport card is turned OFF/completely disabled while running uniwire. Having this on will most certainly create dropouts.

- Kevin

[dapa12]

Thanks for the info Kevin; that had not occurred to me. I'll try it and post the results.

[dapa12]

I tried turning off Airport at the top menu (which I think is the right way to do it) plus increased the buffer to 512, but continue to get audio dropouts.

[Zappler]

i think uniwire has problems with cubase and digital performer....In cubase the audio dropouts make it unusable for me but with logic 9 it works pretty fine.....dont use digital performer but maybe it help you.

[dapa12]

Thanks, Zappler; I'm going to try using Receptor Uniwire with Garageband as a test and see what happens. Meanwhile, can anybody at Muse verify the Uniwire-DP issue? Thanks to all with your help and hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

[Kevin@MuseResearch]

dapa12,

What kind of processor is your system running? It could be an issue we've seen with some of the multi-core intel processors and DP.

- Kevin

[dapa12]

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version (system): 1.18f5

[Kevin@MuseResearch]

So, the question would be, if you start a new DP session and just have one Uniwire track, no other virtual instruments. How reliable is the connection?

A good way to test this is to put a couple measures of notes in the sequence on your Uniwire track and loop the 2 measures until you get a note dropout.

If your successful doing this (and don't have any drop outs) try adding a second uniwire track (and follow the same process). My suspicion is that you may see audio drop outs at that point. This is due to some kind of issue with the way DP is handling plugins within the 2 cores.

- Kevin

[dapa12]

After turning off Airport, I followed your suggested process and had no audio dropouts with just one Uniwire track and no other virtual instruments. I added another Uniwire track and sure enough as you said, I experienced audio dropouts. I then deleted the second Uniwire track and added a DP supplied virtual instrument: Bassline. I recorded the bass over the first Uniwire track with no audio dropouts. I added a NI Kore 2 instrument to the mix and again recorded with no audio dropouts. I added the second Uniwire track back in and experienced audio dropouts immediately.

At that point, I began researching articles and forum threads, experimenting until I ended up with DP and Receptor adjustments that allows me to work with three Uniwire tracks (Akoustik Piano, Elektrik Piano and Kontact) plus the Bassline and Kore 2 instruments at once with little or no audio dropouts. I may get one dropout per hour of playing/recording, but that is negligible compared with the previous situation.

These are the procedures that were followed:

Turn Airport off (as you suggested in your earlier post)
Turn Dual Mode off on the Receptor (power the unit off and back on to ensure the Dual Mode stays off)
In Setup.Config Audio System> Config Studio Settings, disable the Prefill buffer and increase the Max Work Percent from 80% to 90% (devoting more processing to the audio engine).
In Preferences>Audio Plug-Ins> set all plugins to Real Time Mode
In Setup>Configure Audio System>Configure Audio Driver> Set Work Priority to Low

I hope this information is valuable to all those who experience DP/Receptor audio dropout issues.

[Kevin@MuseResearch]

Thanks for taking the time to experiment with this a little further and post the details of your solution.

[johnrangel]

I have a similar setup...

DP 7.22, MacBook Pro, OSX 10.6.5, and Komplete 7 installed on Receptor 2.

What seems to work form me is to sync my Receptor to the S/PDIF sync using the MOTU 896 as a clock. Use Crossover Ethernet instead of a hub.

Make sure in your audio setting the Virtual Instruments are in real time. For some reason that can actually cause Receptor to play track almost a second earlier in DP 7.

Some times I am too impatient negotiate with Uniwire as my audio input into DP 7, and I resort to the ADAT outs or Audio outs to get the job done.

Best,

John

[dapa12]

Thanks for the info, John. My understanding was that Uniwire would handle synchronization between the Receptor and my MOTU 828mk3, but if it works for you, I'll try synching with a S/PDIF cable.