So I recently did a few upgrades to my set up and I have a few questions. Here is what I did to my MacBook:
Upgraded to 4 gig of Ram
Swapped the 160 gig 5400 HD for a Seagate 500 gig 7200 HD
I also picked up a Presonus Firebox to use instead of my Audio Kontrol 1. With only 2 usb ports I had to switch to firewire.
Everything was installed and set up properly and correctly.
So now when I run traktor pro the cpu bar on the top is slightly bigger. I thought that the upgrades would have reduced the the stress on the cpu, no?
Also my main concern is now while a deck is playing and the other deck is cued, if I seek through the cued track with the jog wheel I can hear some very small pops in the audio through the phones and the main output. It doesn’t do it all the time only while seeking through a cued track, but its been happening often enough to have me concerned.
Even after the upgrades that I though would make me a little faster I find myself changing settings for a slower pc. I increased the latency to around 15 - 19 range and it still happens. With the Audio Kontrol 1 I could drop to around 7ms. I also had to change the key lock quality from the fast cpu setting to the slow ones. What gives?
Why did you bought another soundcard in the first place? A (powered) USB-hub would have done the trick for you. From what the specs say, the firebox looks like a decent audio interface. It’s just weird that you need so much latency to get it close to stable. Data processing with FireWire is done by the FireWire chip, as with USB this is done by the CPU, so theoretically the move to FireWire should have given you more CPU resources. Have you tried disabling/quitting all the applications and processes that you don’t use when DJ-ing?
Totally, I turn off everything. I’m kind off stumped. Other than turning off Bluetooth/Airport and background programs and changing the energy settings what else should be done?
Could it be the hard drive? I can put the old one back in and test it with the firebox. Those are the two new variables, the HD and the firebox.
Wouldn’t bet on it. If you have the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 16MB cache 500GB, you have the fastest laptop harddrive (except for SSD) at the moment. Don’t you have a friend who has an other decent soundcard which you could borrow, just to look what kind of latency you could accomplish with it? The best would be an NI soundcard, just to try if you could use your “old” settings…
I still have the AK1, hooked it up, and had the same thing, more cpu usage in the bar and little pops in the main out and phones only while seeking through a cued track. Other wise I can drop the latency down to say 10 or 11. This is the only way I get any kind of latency issue.
I was gonna try to pick up a power adaptor for my vci today to see if that helps. Maybe its power related.
I don’t own one, but the topicstarter was complainting about that he had to set his latency between 15 and 19 milliseconds. I personally don’t think that the harddrive eats latency, so if the topicstarter tried another soundcard, you can get that out of the equation.
You should check the specs of your old memory and the new memory. Maybe your old memory was faster than the new one (CL 4 vs. CL 5). That’s the only thing I can come up with…
This does seem strange. I am using a MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz, 6 GB RAM, and 500 GB hard drive at 7200 rpm with a Presonus FireBox. The CPU bar in Traktor never reaches past ~10% and don’t experience audio artifacts with 5 ms of latency. I think a lot of people in this forum use the FireBox and have good experiences with it.
Have you downloaded the latest firmware/drivers/software and set up audio preferences correctly in Traktor and the Presonus Mixer?
This is in no way meant to be a complaint. I made the switch from an AK1 to a firebox, some issues arose with my set-up, with the specs I am running I wish to troubleshoot the problem. All opinions are welcome.
The firebox comes with software to update the firmware, I ran that. Can someone who has one tell me what it says in their firmware date mine is 9/25/2007
Since the issues are happening with both audio cards, it looks to be pointing back to the memory or hard drive. Can you swap the new memory with the old to see what happens?
FireBox
Mac OSX (10.3.7 - 10.5+) FireBox Mixer application and Control Panel (Universal)
download
(Please note: no driver installation is necessary for Mac users)
Taken from the Presonus website.
I am NOT hating on the card!!! For the record. I picked it up because you all love it and speak highly of it.
The size is not the only thing that is of importance when it comes to memory. Frequency and latency are also important. If you have an old MacBook the frequency of you RAM has to be 667 MHz or higher to make fully use of the bandwidth and for the unibody MacBook this has to be 1067 MHz or higher. Latency on an old MacBook can be 4 ms or 5 ms and this can be checked on the memory modules themselves. They will say CL 4 or CL 5. For an unibody this will be CL 8 or CL 9. Maybe your 2GB of RAM was low latency memory and your new memory is higher latency. This could contribute to the higher latency, but not to audio artifacts.
Reverted back to original set-up, 2 gig ram, 160 gig 5400 HD but kept the firebox as the sound card. I was able to drop the latency in traktor to 5.5ms.
I still get a small occasional pop ONLY while one track is playing and the other is cued and seeking through the track with the jog wheel. If you do this on your own you will see it blip the cpu meter in traktor. That is what is happening when the audio artifact is heard.
I’ve tried all possible combinations of HD’s , soundcards (firebox or AK1), and Ram (2 or 4 gig).