re: SSL freezing up

I currently just loaded a few wav files on my external harddrive and noticed that SSL starts freezing up once in a while when i drag a song to either the left or right. Is it because the song has never been previewed or is it a software glitch

Does the audio drop out, or is it only the display that freezes up? Does it also happen when you use the keyboard short cuts to load tracks?

well i just bought a new g4 powerbook and only use i for SSL.The problem i get is sometimes when i load a song to a deck or if one song is playing the audio just drops.I am using a usb 2 external drive.why would this happen. is it because its wav format and need to be previewed ahead of time so the software knows where it is the next time i play it.

What is your USB buffer set at?

Could you check the disk activity section of the activity monitor and see how much data is being read per second?

how do u do that?My usb is set to 5 cause i got alot of audio
drop outs during my show. I also noticed that if i load a cd into my powerbook it takes awhile for it to load up then after it starts playing it crashes. I disabled itunes so that it doesnt start when a cd is loaded. Why is SSL crashing so much!
Isnt the powerbook suppose to be a better computer for this software.Please help me i need to figure this out before my new years eve gig.

Oh ok. Tracks on CDs generally take a longer time to load than tracks on your HD. Don't know why it's crashing though.

How fast is your external HD by the way?

Look in your Utilities folder (located in your Applications folder) for the Activity Monitor application.

Do you experience the same problems with your USB Audio Buffer set higher (eg. 10+)? Also, how much RAM do you have on your G4?

I suggest turning off all energy saving features and screen savers while using any CPU intensive audio application.

could be because the hard drive you are using is on USB, and there might be USB bandwidth issues.

Try getting a firewire external hdd instead.

well guys i just did a new years eve gig and used three crates of records and SSL. I had about 22 crashes on me and i had to reboot most of the time. Lucky i had records playing during those
times but only once the crowd heard nothing but silence. Now like i said before i just got my G4 powerbook but i recently up graded to 768Mb of ram and i have nothing else loaded to my G4.I
killed everything on my G4 so only SSL is running and i am using firewire for my external harddrive. All my files are AIFF and i have preview each and everyone of the songs in my harddrive before. sometimes the audio cuts out during a set as well. And my USB buffer is set higher than standard setting which is 5. I have read all the posts on here but it is getting frustrating cuz i have to carry all my records just in case. Please help me out!

Ouch...
Has this ever happened at home, man? You are using the latest version of SSL? Is there any chance that any of your AIFFs may be corrupt? Could you tell us more about the crashes?

I would definitely increase my USB buffer setting to 20 and then gradually decreasing it till the audio starts cutting out. You might even go straight to one above your current setting and see if that works better. Also, try decreasing it to the lowest point to see if you get the same audio cutouts as you did with the setting you had during that gig.

Well... I have a slower Powerbook (1.25 GHz) and I safely run it at Buffer=2, so I wouldn't think that this is it. Delirious: Does the program crash or do you have Kernal Panics (Screen with different languages telling yu to reboot)? Do you havea a cooling fan? (Very recommended with powerbooks, because they tend to overheat very quickly - Like iBreeze) Did you check your new RAM with a program like Apple Hardware Test? (This can be a very likely reason, that you have crashes) Is your RAM Apple supported or did you buy it at a cheap PC store? Let us know, maybe we'll get to the core of this...

I do have a platform which has to cooling fans to prevent heat.So my powerbook is cool to the touch! I also had this same problem even before i bought the ram.The ram i installed is made by Kingston and it aint cheep because Kingston is known for the best ram.No there is no messages what so ever or kernal attacks. It just when i use SSL the whole thing freezes after a few songs. All the songs i have are not corrupt they all play some times some times it just freezes SSL.The record will be spinning but it wont show the movements on the screen.I have to physically exit out of SSL then restart my powerbook.There is nothing wrong with my powerbook cuz it is brand new with nothing loaded to it not even any songs. I even tried recording each song from all my record into wav format same thing. I even tried mp3 same thing.

Do you have a power adaptor for your SSL Box? (because with some powerbooks, there are issues without one)

Delirious - can you please describe the freeze a little more?
- does everything on the screen stop responding, but the audio continues playing? or..
- does the screen stop responding, but the audio plays for a few seconds, and then stops? or..
- does the screen freeze and the audio stop immediately? or
- do you get a grey screen and a message in several languages telling you to reboot?
-do you get the spinning beach ball icon?
- what happens if you leave it for a long time after it freezes, does it eventually recover? if so, after how long (approximately)?

Also, what causes these freezes?
- is it when you load a song?
- is it when two tracks are just playing?
- a mix of the two above

can you exit Scratch LIVE using apple-q, or do you have to reboot? What happens if you disconnect the hardware when it's frozen?
thanks.

the freezing starts with the screen stop responding and there is no audio coming out.If i unplug the SSL box it shows a spinning beach ball which never goes away.This forces me to exit SSL and reboot the computer.This happens at various times for example when i load a song on to my right deck the left one stutters then freeze or if i am just playing normal vinyl SSL freezes if its not beening used for like 5 min

oh by the way i have an adapter for the SSL box which is from radio shack.

A real spinning beach ball? Where? That could be a virus...

Are your computer very hot when this happens?

Don't worry, Rev. What he means is the infamous "spinning beach ball of DEATH" this is on a mac comparable to the sandclock on windows. If it doesn't go away, it's the sign to force-quit the app and restart it ;-)

Now... Delirious. Normally you don't have to restart. just hit CMD(Apple)+ALT+ESC, this will bring up the "Force-Quit" Window, from there you can kill the app (SSL) without restarting the machine.

Did you check your RAM (i.e. with Apple Hardware Test)? Is everything turned off (AirPort, Bluetooth)? What you describe sounds like the problem I had with some corrupt MP3s. All I had to do was browse over the filename within SSL and BANG! Crash. After I identified these, no more problems.

I've found if your permissions are wacked up you can also get the beachball more often. the spining beach ball on the mac is usually put up by the system when the app is not responding to the system for a certain amount of time--which could mean a frozen app but that's never for sure--a lengthly process created by the app could trigger the ball too.

if you click on the dock and the menu says "not responding" it can be a sign the app has frozen up.

Oh ok. Mac stuff then ;)