Lots of popping and clicking with Audiophile Firwire

[electro-sexual]

Set-up

MACbook 1.83Ghz/1G RAM/60GB HD
Audiophile Firewire
Ableton Live Lite 4

I have been reading up on latency and buffering and have some understanding of it. When I try to run more than 4 audio tracks in Live at one time, there is alot of popping and clicking. I adjusted the buffering all the way over and there still a little popping. I just dont really know what else to do. It's a little annoying since this is a new laptop and soundcard. I've been running Acid 4.0 on a PC 2.8 GHz w/an echo indigo soundcard and over 20 audio tracks running at the same time and not one click or pop. I'm a bit frustrated, hopefully someone can shed some light on my situation. Thanks

Eddie

[itsplayed]

You may need to upgrade the hard drive to a 7200rpm unit, unless you ordered the macbook with one....it is an optional choice. Then partition the drive to run audio on one of the partitions with the OS and apps. on the other.
I'm not a big Mac fan(limited knowledge here) so this may not be the answer in your case, but it's what I would advise if you were on a Windows based laptop.

[electro-sexual]

Thanks, I could upgrade the hard drive and I was looking to partition also. It's really somewhat annoying that my PC is murdering my brand new MACbook. The only upgrade I ever had to do w/my PC was RAM. I mean seriously, 4 audio tracks at once and the MAC can't handle it. What the hell! My damn cell phone can handle 4 tracks! :mad:

[TimOBrien]

3 words:

External Firewire Harddrive

------------------------------------
Partitioning will not help you. The heads still have to slew from partition to partition and that take a MASSIVE amount of time (in computer terms).

You want the recording/playback process to be uninterrupted by program/system housekeeping. That almost always means using a separate data drive.

[itsplayed]

Sorry but I disagree, you will get better throughput streaming off of the partitioned internal HD. The downside to doing this would be the added heat and shorter battery life.

[electro-sexual]

Thanks for the info but my macbook only has 1 firewire port and thats where my audiophile is connected. How about an external USB/SATA hard drive. I have a SATA Raptor ext hard drive running on my PC and that sucker is screaming! Any thoughts??

[itsplayed]

The Audiophile itself has a firewire port that you can connect to. If you already have an ext. USB drive, give it a shot, but more than likely you won't see any big improvement over the internal you already have...it may in fact be worse. What's going in your favor is the fact that it's a Raptor drive, but it still may not be enough. Like I said, you will obtain better throughput performance with a 7200rpm internal drive partitioned.

[AndyH]

I suspect changing your hard drive, unless there is some actual problem with it, will not ameliorate your problems. I have read of people doing a fair number of track more than your four with a 5400 RPM laptop drive. You may need to consider whether the drive has enough actual free space and whether that space is fragmented.

As far as using an external drive goes, consider the post made at Fri 13 Oct 2006, 12:03 in this thread
http://www.audiomastersforum.net/amforum/viewtopic.php?t=5687

[electro-sexual]

Yeah, I run the audiophile using the only firewire port on my macbook. The only option I have is to run a USB external hardive. Not really sure what you meant about my audiophile having another firewire port. It does have 2 ports not sure why???:confused:

I've actually just partitioned my HD after reading about how to streamline OS X for music production. Now I just need to figure out where I want to put everything. There is little space since my HD is only 60G.

[itsplayed]

Not really sure what you meant about my audiophile having another firewire port. It does have 2 ports not sure why???

This additional port can and is meant to be used for an external hard drive, camera, CD-Rom, scanner, etc.

[electro-sexual]

Ah, so I can chain a firewire external HD through my Audiophile directly through to the Computer? What is better, ie faster, running audio from my computers HD or the external in this case?

[itsplayed]

I've come to the conclusion that your issue stems from your version of ableton and not the drive itself. The new MacIntels are not working well with lots of other software too...ie Cubase, Nuendo, Sonar, etc.
You need to upgrade your version to version 6 for full support of the newer MacIntels.

[electro-sexual]

All in all, I am not gonna be using Live at all. I was just testing out the new rig with my Macbook and Audiophile. I wanted to see the machine scream but it didnt really but I think things will be fine when I get the software that I want. I'm looking to use MOTU's Digital Performer 5, Reason 3.0, and Bias Peak. I'll keep you updated on the success or lack there of. Thanks a million itsplayed! You have been a great deal of help. I'm really thinking about this external firwire HD connecting to my audiophile. Would that be a good thing?

[itsplayed]

Your welcome electro-sexual, Yes Digital Performer will run great on your laptop. As far as the external drive goes, it's like I said you will see better performance by upgrading the internal drive to a 7200rpm unit if it now has a 5400rpm drive. That said, an external drive is never a bad idea if for nothing other than a backup drive.

[electro-sexual]

Great! Thanks again. I'll look into upgrading in the future.