Some Logic Problems Can Anyone Help ?, EXTERNAL H.DRIVES - KEYBOARD - CORRUPT AUDIO FILES...STILL !! Options

[PAUL R]

I have got a few annoying probs with Logic - I,ve been using it a year and getting on reasonably well - infact finished my first album on Logic !
RUNNING 2.5 G5 Dual with 3 gig ram / Logic 7.2 / MOTU 24 io supports all resoloutions.

Firstly I still get the audio corrupt messages after a year when opening a song damaged audio file message comes up...Also whist actually tracking,occasionally the new audio recording will just play back as white noise !!
I'm set up for 24 bit recording and tried all other different settings,resoloutions and audio formats,still this happens quite randomly..I then have to close and re-open the song THEN Logic 7.2 allows me to repair the audio file - Its not a major problem but HAS ANYONE GOT ANY IDEAS ??? Logic support never could figure it out.....

Secondly - my keyboard ( not contoller the typing one ) will stop working - again randomly - I can't stop or start logic and Zoom etc stops working...again I close it down and it is fine for a while..just an annoyance..ANYONE HELP ?

The latest annoyance is with plug-in samplers - I bought BFD drum unit and more recently EWQL symphonic orchestra.
Knowing how these take processor and hard drive space I bought 3 Lacie extreme drives one for drums one for audio and one for orchestra - I got a pci card for hi speed firewire and off I went.
The BFD won't work in 24 bit mode ( my project is set to record 24 bit - but should'nt affect the drum sampler )
it chokes,stutters and generally is a pain...it will however work in 16 bit mode - that gives less detail and footprint on my system...ok I can get by thats fine..
THEN recently ( a month or so after BFD ) I added ni kompact Strings plug in/library from Eastwest Symphonic and...guess what? Same problem as BFD !! Chokes,white noise..its horrible..but with EWQLO you can't change the sample resoloution - Although I got the Direct From Disk stream running etc.
Yep - I tried support and updates on these units.
Yep - I installed latest updates.
Yep - I contacted support and related forums.
Yep - No change - still chokes and garbage noise in both units...
I have moved the samplers and libraries to different hard drives including the internal one and still no change...
It is my guess that the external hard drives can't 'KEEP UP' with the processing
To be honest - I really don't know..thats why I'm here.

I just wanna make music not spend all my time in forums and support lines.

Logic as a programme is excellent - I'm not tempted to but my old 16 track back ( anyway it went to Jamaica - some reggae band bought it ) but it seems that some external hard drives and 3rd party plug -ins don't interact correctly with Logic !

They say that their products work seamlessly but I wish these manufacturers would own up and tell you that your gonna have problems before you have parted with all the cash and done troubleshooting for them !! They NEVER offer your money back - which in any other product service would be illegal - if it don't work - then money back I say.

Sorry
Thats my rant over with...

BACK TO THE POINT OF THIS

Can any one offer realistic comments and possible soloutions to my hard drive / sampler debarcle - Is there a way of testing the speed of the Lacie / pci firewire units ??
Maybe I expect too much from My G5 Logic set-up..
By the way the samplers were all running inside an otherwise empty song - so what chance would I have of running BFD 24 bit and a string section inside a tune with guitars and vocals ???
Less than NONE says my cynical side.

ha ha.
Thanks for reading
Paul

[Mac Daddy]

Whew. Wow. Whoa! Damn! I feel your anguish. Ow. I think this is one of the worst stories I have heard this late in the development of Computer Music. I remember reading these stories in the Mid 90's, minus the Plug-Ins and Library Issues... They were not developed yet. But, to be experiencing such problems today?! You have obviously invested heaps of time and money, as well as seeming to know 'How To Use'. Maybe you just got stuck with a bad piece of gear somewhere in the Set-Up? I hope you get it fixed. Would drive me nuts. I'd want to smash the crap, but it's too expensive. I have only ever smashed one piece of equipment. A Mac Wireless Keyboard... Twice...

Good luck...

[PAUL R]

Thanks for your compassion !!
So, at least 1 person has read my post...lets hope I get more offers of support and maybe some advice.

Please don't get me wrong - the move from regular PC (or Peice of Cr++p) to Mac/Logic is the best thing I ever did !! Its a breeze (even with these problems) compared to the nightmare of my old C++ase and Windows set up.
Its not me that is a jinx or a bad-vibe-with technology guy,my set-up works for the basic task of producing Punk/Rock tunes.
I think that I possibly expect too much from computer recording.
Doing the rock thing I hear big production in my head that I can,after years of hard-work kinda copy and I am getting better at producing each year - BUT lets face it the major producers of say 'Lost Prophets' , 'Greenday' and 'Foo Fighters' use BIG SSL desks and top notch outboard, I never heared of anyone mixing internally !!

No disrepect to dance but knocking out a tune inside a DAW is acceptable - I've heared some excellent stuff done on a PC and Cubase - but its different for modern rock I think.

Please no one tell me to f+++ off and get a tape machine - cos I love the editing power of my system,boy it is quick when writing

So I am aware of the limitations of computers but I thought by now things would be better.

When I do the basic Rock thing my system is really great - I'm a very happy guy ;-0

I posted my problems with the hope that other users might offer help and support even sympathy thanks mac daddy.
Although a 24 bit drum kit and orchestra is nice to have- it really is'nt the end of my world if it does'nt work....
Its the principle of the whole thing that makes me angry...spending lots of cash and it does'nt even 'get off the ground'.
I can't expect a symphony orchestra to run alongside a rock song and have it mixed ALL inside Logic even my mighty G5 could'nt handle that - but where I stand right now - a couple of cello's and a rock beat have the poor girl choking and spluttering...
Any users out there that do the rock / symphonic thing ???
Do I expect too much from my set-up ???

listen to some clips here.....
http://www.lastrockers.com/music.html

Love and respect to all out there
Paul

[lepetitmartien]

Outside some issues inside Logic/plug-ins…

Makes me think about some hardware issue:
Are you running your setup from a power conditionner or not?
Have you tested your RAM thoroughly? (use memtest in Single User Mode)
Have a look at it using my tip in Open Firmware as explained here in the post of "Sun 18 Jun 2006, 20:40"
Is your Lithium battery ok (should be tested 3.6 V in place +/- 0.4V)
What's plugged on your Mac in firewire and USB?

Some tips are on the hairy side, if you want detailled procedure, I'll explain. (I know, I'm a geek…)

[hahaworld]

Hi, Paul R,

I had similar hellish problems last year with Logic and my G4 laptop. I called Apple support, and they basically told me, "Well. . .I don't know what else to tell you," so here's what I did:

I wiped out my hard drive completely and re-installed everything from the ground up. It took me a whole day to do this, but it was worth it because when I started everything up again, it worked like a dream. That's been over a year ago, and I'm still running fine. I know it sounds extreme, but maybe you can just back up all your files and try a complete start-over.

Now, this worked for me, but you might want to get second and third opinions from the brilliant geniuses who haunt this forum. I do not even consider myself to be in the same league with a guy like lepetitmartien, so you might want to ask him first. That guy is frickin' awesome.

hahaworld

[Mac Daddy]

Did you say Record Punk? Rock? Paul, Tape is the only way to go. If you want that "Turn it up louder mate music" Tape is the way. I never heard them say it's too loud in the old days... 70's-90's... Computers are great but they will not stand a snowballs chance in hell next to a Marshall... Stacked! Nor will your Home Studio. Neighbor. Neighborhood for that fact. Punk needs Volume, ditto for most Rock. You can use the Computer to Mix... I mean, Total Recall. That is where the Computer kicks ass. MIDI, yep, that too, but sho nuff make your ears ring for days must be, has to be, Live or Recorded on Tape. I know I'm going to catch hell on this one, but, only if 'Professional Examples' can be shown, i.e., Big Time Rock or Punk CD Recorded on Computer... No Avant Garde Stuff, only real, legit bands we all know, have heard of or can Google... if I'm wrong, teach me. I like to learn fool for the moment wise forever.

[minskybabs]

This is only referring to a part of the post! A while ago we had problems with our MAC, seemed really weird looked like there was disk activity going on when there shouldn't be, and intermittent crashes poor performance etc. etc. To cut a long story short, it turned out to be a dodgy (ie broken) USB mouse, that was plugged into the keyboard. Although it was an apple mouse the cable was slightly broken and when it was moved sometimes would not work, giving the appearance of a crash!! If you can try borrowing a different mouse & keyboard, or at least re-plugging them just to be sure!
Jake.

[lancet]

Outside some issues inside Logic/plug-ins…

Makes me think about some hardware issue:
Are you running your setup from a power conditionner or not?
Have you tested your RAM thoroughly? (use memtest in Single User Mode)
Have a look at it using my tip in Open Firmware as explained here in the post of "Sun 18 Jun 2006, 20:40"
Is your Lithium battery ok (should be tested 3.6 V in place +/- 0.4V)
What's plugged on your Mac in firewire and USB?

Some tips are on the hairy side, if you want detailled procedure, I'll explain. (I know, I'm a geek…)

I second the memory thing.

Software is unlikely to be causing file corruption like that.

any time you get white noise like that it's probably because some key bits of the audio format has been lost or jumbled around and the little ones and zeros are no longer lined up as they should be , basically resulting in junk. In audio, junk = white noise

Scan ALL you hard drives for bad blocks too.

It's also possible that the CPU is faulty in some way and is failing math every so often. If 1+1=1.009673862 the rest of that process will be junk.

try and rule out the MOTU as a problem too, run BFD in 24 bit with just built-in audio for example.

This post has been edited by lancet: Mon 10 Jul 2006, 11:58

[lepetitmartien]

seemed really weird looked like there was disk activity going on when there shouldn't be,

Side note, disk activity when there shouldn't be can be Spotlight in Tiger, it can get pretty busy at time for no known to man reason…

I second Lancet for the drive and CPU

[gdoubleyou]

Also make sure you have the Apple Pro Application Support Patch, should be on Apples site or you should be able to find with the software update utility.

Also observe the Activeity monitor found in the utilities folder, to help determine if its a cpu or disk problem.

You can use the system profiler to get an overview of the hardware and software on your machine.