arvidtp

Your Experiences With Aggregate Audio Devices

Yo all!

I've been playing around with Aggregate Audio Devices since upgrading to 10.4. Awesome concept. Usually it seems to work well but sometimes not. I particularly like the idea of using Cycling 74's soundflower virtual device as part of an aggregate audio device and using it to route audio between applications in realtime (ie logic -> A MaxMSP creation -> logic). Or getting an extra lo-fi 2 channels of IO using my builtin interface with my firebox.

I'd like to know: What are your experiences with Aggregate Audio Devices? Are they reliable? What works, what does not? Do you notice more clicks and pops?


Here are my experiences on my powerbook G4 1.25GHz with 1.5GB RAM: First audio device listed is always the "main" one in the setup.

I tried Firebox + Built-in + Soundflower-16ch:

really cool possibilities, but it sucked up a LOT of CPU (presumably for running 22x24 channels and jitter compensating 3 interfaces). Occasional clicks and pops, even when running only one sin oscillator in MaxMSP... Promising for faster systems, but NOT so good on my PB.

Firebox + Built-in

I tried recording a performance in 6 channels with this config (4 from firebox's analog ins and 2 from built-in). It seemed to work ok when i tested it, but after leaving it on for 1 hour recording with just the 1st 2 channels from the firebox (recording friends who performed before us) in MaxMSP, I went to record out performance and it the built-in inputs did not work (nothing came through them. I restarted MaxMSP and reset stuff in AudioMIDI setup, but still i didnt get anything in the builti-ns except a nasty DC offset. Everything was setup right. I gave up and just recorded the 4 working channels since we were going on, but that sorta sucked.

Unfortunately (of course) aggregate audio does not work with Mbox Figures.

best,
Arvid

Recording Multiple Midi Ch Live In Logic

Hi, got a question for experienced logic users:

I'm doing a performance where I want to connect pitch and tempo-adapting patches I have written in Max to soft instruments in logic Pro 6.4. I have connected the IAC bus (coming from Max) to aliases of the audio insts I want (through a channel splitter) in the environment and they play when the logic sequencer is playing/recording.

Does anyone know if it is possible, using logic, to record that MIDI that is coming in from Max (all the channels, not just one at a time) at the same time as audio from live trumpet playing (which is controlling everything) so that I can record the performance in a format I can play with and mix later? How would I do this? What should i avoid pressing during recording, as there are lots of buttons and such that you can touch that will stop or mess up recording in logic. I need this to to work when i perform

I would not mind if all the MIDI had to be recorded to one track, as long as it stayed channel differentiated so I could split it after the performance and move it to the corresponding instrument tracks.

Thanks.

Logic Pro 6 Opinions

Hi all,

I have been thinking of getting Logic Pro (I can get the student 1/2 price discount) for use with my powerbook (see signature).

Right now I have an Mbox and am always getting frustrated with Pro TOols LE and its various limitations, incompatibilities, instabilities and CPU inefficiency. I thought Logic would be a better option for the music that I want to make, which involves many strange sounds, virtual instruments, and lots of realtime stuff using home-made MaxMSP creations. I like to be able to compose using realtime sounds without having to mix them down so that I can be tweaking them constantly and always improvising and playing around with them. I am looking forward to using Jacktools to send audio to and from Logic and MaxMSP and other software (something that cannot be done with Pro TOols), to better CPU efficiency, and to key-command customization! Also notation and better MIDI. (even the last Logic I used, version 4.8 "fun", was nicer than Pro TOols for this.)

But I don't know about Logic's audio editing capabilities - how easy is sample-accurate audio editing? How does it stack up to Pro TOols in this department? Because this is the part of Pro TOols that I like - being able to just do all my audio editing in one window, seeing everything at the same time.

I am hoping to be able to largely say goodbye to monopolistic Pro Tools for most projects, including video sound, and maybe later even get a better Audio Interface (like something firewire) with very low latency for virtual instruments and performance.

So what are people's general opinions about Logic Pro 6? What do you think? WHat are your experiences? Should I take the plunge - will I be getting a lot more that I am now with Pro Tools?

Any comment would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.