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.

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

Also, ho much RAM have you installed?

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?

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)

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!

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.

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

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

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

Remember the issue I raised a few weeks ago about the latency problem with a Tascam audio interface and Ableton Live?
well
I have contacted Ableton and Tascam about it and here are their replies:

*************
Ableton
*************

Hello Andrea,

first of all sorry for the late reply.

> if I try to
> decrease the buffer size in order to decrease the latency live6 does not
> work properly anymore (it makes an orrible crackling sound)

I'm afraid this is caused by the Tascam interface. If the audio signal
begins to crackle at low buffer sizes, the interface is just not capable
to handle such small buffer sizes. You may check if an updated driver
can provide lower buffer settings than 2048 samples.

> Audio interface: TASCAM US-144 (USB) (this audio interface is supposed
> to work with zero latency)

No audio interface can have zero latency. I guess they are referring to
a direct monitoring scenario, where you bypass the A/D converters of the
interface. In any case the signal has to be transformed from analogue
into digital signals when working with audio software. This conversion
takes time and this is what the audio buffer is responsible for.
The lower the buffer settings, the higher the CPU stress. If you set the
buffer to the smallest possible setting and your interface can't handle
it, the computer will try to swap the data conversion to the CPU, which
can cause the computer to freeze.

It is however still a bit strange that the Tascam interface won't work
at decent buffer sizes. Most interfaces are able to get down to 256
samples without problems. Maybe the problem is caused by a faulty USB
connection or an outdated driver. Please try to call the Tascam tech
support. They may be more helpful with this issue.

Best regards,
*************
Tascam replied me in italian and said that they are surprised about these latency values.
They advised me to check whether the usb port was 2.0 (plug the audio interface directly to a usb port (not to a hub) and advised me to use a faster hard drive (possibly firewire). They said that the card should work fine with a setting of 512, if not 256 samples.

I had previously tried to use an external HD but it was an old HD and probably not fast enough. So I bought Hard Disk LaCie (d2 Quadra 500GB Quad Interface External Hard Drive) with the following caracteristics:
- 1 x eSATA Port
- 2 x FireWire 800 (9-Pin) Ports
- 1 x FireWire 400 (6-Pin) Port (iLink 4-Pin & DV Compatible)
- 1 x USB 2.0/1.1 Port
- Capacity 500GB
- 7200 RPM
- 16MB Cache Buffer

I also updated the OS ( my driver and firmware for the Tascam are up to date).
Obviosly I setup LIVE library to the external drive and run my projects from there.
I used the firewire 80o connection.

Well I had no improvement!!

Live still does not work properly (no sound or crackles if I decrese the buffer size ( but still works ok with a buffer size of 2048 samples).

I am now waiting for Tascam's tecnical support to come back to me.

The only thing I can think of is that either the audio interface or the USB connnection may be defected.

I will keep you updated and I would appreciate any suggestion if you have, although I start assuming that is is a hardware problem....

Thank you

Andrea

Baffling

Have you tried to use different cables for USB or FW? in case…

There is more:
I have now tried the Tascam on a PC with live 5 installed: I can get a good sound with a 12ms approx overall latency !!





sorry it was approx 20ms overall latency

for your information I have now discussed the matter with Tascam tecnical support and we came to the conclusion that thare must be a compatibility problem between tascam 144 and live ableton (when using Mac) the guy told me I was the second person to report this. The sound interface work fine with a PC but not with a mac.
I would therefore not recommend the Tascam anyway considering all the problem experienced.

I am now planning to purchase a firewire audio interface (I am thinking to buy the focusrite 10i/o).