Live 6 & Tascam Us-144, latency Options

[fluxia]

I wonder if anyone can help me with this one.
I have recently both a mac book pro and live 6 software. I use TASCAM US-144 as audio interface(USB).
i set it all up and works fine with buffer size at 2048 (I/O) but if I try to decrease the buffer size in order to decrease the latency live does not work properly anyymore (the sound crackles); when I brought the buffer to theminimum live froze and I had to force it to quit.

Obviously cannot work with an overall latency of 304 ms!!!
I have never had a Mac before and I cannot figure out what the problem is.

[lepetitmartien]

Are you recording/reading audio files from the system hard drive? If so… use an external HD.

Also, ho much RAM have you installed?

[fluxia]

Thank you for your reply.
I have 1giga or RAM. Yes I am reading/recording from the system HD which is a sata drive.
I assumed that accessing data of an internal drive would be faster than if I used an extrenal drive; am I wrong?

Are you recording/reading audio files from the system hard drive? If so… use an external HD.

Also, ho much RAM have you installed?

[lepetitmartien]

You're wrong, unfortunately. OS X mays be great for a lot of things but it doesn't like reading/writing at the same time for the system, the virtual memory swap, the apps and their files (hence your audio). The only way to be sure it's not the drive which is too accounted for is to use an external drive only for samples/audio files, preferably in Firewire.

I'm sure it'll like the RAM maxed out too. (more RAM = less swap)

Also, if you have other apps running in the background or networks stuff going on, it may be enough to make the CPU hiccup (your problem is characteristic of either the CPU can't follow or the drive can't or both, the reduced latency heading to force quit is CPU related). Verify your energy saving preferences in the system preferences are set to maximum performance when running on the mains.

I hope you get the big picture of the different issues. It may be all, or some only. Get gat first to a normal buffer and start modding the set up (preferences and apps running, drive, ram)

[azkid]

Regarding recording to an external hard drive... I have a very basic (dumb) question, and want to make sure that I'm doing this correctly.

I have a PowerBook G4 and an external hard drive with both firewire and USB connections, a Mackie Onyx 1220 and using Traction 2 recording software.

How exactly, do I record TO the external hard drive? Is it a matter of simply copying the Traction 2 application to the external hard drive and running it from there during recording?

I have my Powerbook firewire connection to the Onyx firwire port 1, and Onyx firewire port 2 to the external hard drive firewire port, "daisy chained" and can see everything from my PowerBook desk top. I could also set it up with the PowerBook USB connection to the external hard drive... to eliminate some traffic on the firewire bus, but how do I know or make sure that I'm recording to the external hard drive and not the PowerBook hard drive?

Are there other preferences or options to set? I can't find any in the Traction 2 software that specifies where I'm recording to...

Thanks!

[lepetitmartien]

NEVER EVER move an app from the application folder on the system drive (you can order most of the non apple ones into folders if you want, but keep everything in the app folder. Don't move Apple apps from where they are ! It is possible to move the whole app folder on a different drive but it needs some diving into the OS X innards, not very sexy nor for the faint of heart.

[ottawa]

When you select "New Project" in lower left hand side of Tracktion a dialog box will appear with Save Tracktion in the Menu Bar with a "Save As:" untitled in box. You type in name in box where "untitled" is and
you use the pull down labeled "Where" and select your external drive. Anytime you are presented with a Save as option you give your file a name and select the external hard drive in the pulldown menu labeled "Where".
This is how you record a project and or a file to external drive. Most any audio application will ask what you want to call a file and where you wish to save it. By selecting external drive in the "Where" Pull Down Menu
when asked what to call your project and or file in the "Save as" option you will then be recording that file to the external drive.

Brian

[azkid]

Thanks very much Brian! I'd been recording to my G4, hadn't used the PowerBook and external hard drive yet and I totally lost "touch" with that beginning step, and the option of WHERE to save the New Project...

Thank you

[fluxia]

Thanks very much Brian! I'd been recording to my G4, hadn't used the PowerBook and external hard drive yet and I totally lost "touch" with that beginning step, and the option of WHERE to save the New Project...

Thank you

Sorry
I was not able to access internet in the last few days. Thank you very much for all your replies. I will view them and reply to your suggestion shortly.

Thanks again

Andrea

[fluxia]

ok; I will try to use an external firewire drive (and optimize the performance) and I ll let you know if this resolves the problem.
In LIVE, however, it does not appear that the CPU is overloaded (it's only using 6- 10 % of the CPU power): I had to force LIVE to quit only once or twice and it may be that, at the time, I had more than one app running. I ll keep your advices in mind though.
Thank you for you help.

Andrea