New reason to buy Mac for making music.

[peter2002]

A bug in the design of the P4, PIII, and AMD processor has been exposed. Using plugins during a period of near silence, causes the CPU too spike which can cause unwanted noise, sluggish performance during playback or recording, and even crashing.

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/oct02/articles/pcnotes1002.asp

Peter

 

[P-Worm]

Well that proves it! PC's suck!

P-Worm

 

[beatle888]

has anyone heard about apple solving the
noise issue they have with OSX?

Also:

has anyone experienced a strange audio
click or tick when moving windows around or
scrolling windows and also moving the cursor
over links on a web page? i had my stereo
connected to my mac and i heard the click/tick
through my stereo speakers...it even happened
when turned mute on.

 

[uhlawboi80]

as long as the topic of music has come up...good digital mixing program for a mac would be......?

(um, thats where you all insert your wise opinions )

 

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by beatle888
has anyone heard about apple solving the
noise issue they have with OSX?

Also:

has anyone experienced a strange audio
click or tick when moving windows around or
scrolling windows and also moving the cursor
over links on a web page? i had my stereo
connected to my mac and i heard the click/tick
through my stereo speakers...it even happened
when turned mute on.

I have heard of this but the last time I experienced it was the first version of OS9. There are some current similar issues with G4 Upgrade cards.

Also you might check here at the XlR8yourmac.com site.

 

[Pepzhez]

The now infamous "snap - crackle -pop" is still present in OS 10.2. It odes it in all my G3s and G4s. Let's just say that 10.2.1 doesn't do it quite as much as 10.1.x , but stil does it regardless. Maybe Apple will get this fixed once and for all one of these days (sigh).

 

[Falleron]

Well, apparently, 10.2.2 has been seeded to developers. Maybe there will be a fix in there for us.

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/macosx1022.html

However, I must have been lucky! I have no audio problems with my machine (Dual 1ghz - old style).

 

[loft115]

Destructive audio problem (G4/1.25/512/os10.2.1)

After plugging in external speakers and enjoying good audio performance for about 8 hours (i recieved my G4 two weeks ago)
they suddenly began emiting an extremely loud digital distortion sound! The audio is completely ruined, it has dropped one channel completely and the other is constantly screeching, this only happens with the headphone jack and the speaker jack at the rear and not the built in speaker. Worse still IT HAS DESTROYED ONE OF MY BRAND NEW SPEAKERS!

I have read on the apple support discussion board that many people are suffering the same problems, some have also been able to 'fix' it by plugging & unplugging their speakes, i tried this and it has no effect.

Audio editing is one of the reasons i got the G4 in the first place and this has rendered the machine utterly useless for this task. I do not know weather to send it back or wait for a fix (though it sounds like its a hardware problem).

I am shocked (after 6 years useing Apple computers) that so many new machines have shipped with this fault . I am also concerned that they appear not to have adressed this problem on their support pages, a very bad move ( particularly in the light of your recent takeover of Emagic, makers of Audio Platinum). This could easily undermine Apples reputation among audio professionals.

All i can say is that i will now be contacting the Applestore where i purchassed the machine for some answers, i fear the worst. Lets hope it's not a sign of things to come!

Does anybody else have the same problem? Or any suggestions as to what could be causeing it?

Thankyou for your time,

loft_115

 

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by beatle888
has anyone heard about apple solving the
noise issue they have with OSX?

Also:

has anyone experienced a strange audio
click or tick when moving windows around or
scrolling windows and also moving the cursor
over links on a web page? i had my stereo
connected to my mac and i heard the click/tick
through my stereo speakers...it even happened
when turned mute on.

My new Dual/Ghz/DDR doesn't do it. Maybe ther reason it doesn't has something to do with the new audio system on the DDR machines

 

[MacBandit]

Re: Destructive audio problem (G4/1.25/512/os10.2.1)

Originally posted by loft115
After plugging in external speakers and enjoying good audio performance for about 8 hours (i recieved my G4 two weeks ago)
they suddenly began emiting an extremely loud digital distortion sound! The audio is completely ruined, it has dropped one channel completely and the other is constantly screeching, this only happens with the headphone jack and the speaker jack at the rear and not the built in speaker. Worse still IT HAS DESTROYED ONE OF MY BRAND NEW SPEAKERS!

I have read on the apple support discussion board that many people are suffering the same problems, some have also been able to 'fix' it by plugging & unplugging their speakes, i tried this and it has no effect.

Audio editing is one of the reasons i got the G4 in the first place and this has rendered the machine utterly useless for this task. I do not know weather to send it back or wait for a fix (though it sounds like its a hardware problem).

I am shocked (after 6 years useing Apple computers) that so many new machines have shipped with this fault . I am also concerned that they appear not to have adressed this problem on their support pages, a very bad move ( particularly in the light of your recent takeover of Emagic, makers of Audio Platinum). This could easily undermine Apples reputation among audio professionals.

All i can say is that i will now be contacting the Applestore where i purchassed the machine for some answers, i fear the worst. Lets hope it's not a sign of things to come!

Does anybody else have the same problem? Or any suggestions as to what could be causeing it?

Thankyou for your time,

loft_115

They may be holding off on a fix until they figure out exactly what is causing it and how to handle it. Anything these days also has to be ran through the lawyers to ensure that the way they handle it doesn't preclude lawsuits. You can thank sue happy america for the slow down of america and raising costs of almost everything

 

[peter2002]

as long as the topic of music has come up...good digital mixing program for a mac would be......?

(um, thats where you all insert your wise opinions )

1. Studio Vison Pro (best buy, only $99)
2. Digital Performer
3. Cubase SX

 

[snoopy]

Originally posted by peter2002
as long as the topic of music has come up...good digital mixing program for a mac would be......?

If you are running OS X, Emagic has an OS X version of their program. It is called something like Logic. I have friends in the business, but I do not use music software. Apple now owns Emagic and I think they will do a great job, like they did with Final Cut Pro.

If you run OS 9, both 1 and 2 get high marks from my friends, but not Cubase. Digital Performer is usually the choice for OS 9 or OS X Classic mode. Studio Vision lacks something or does not do as well at it, but I cannot remember what that something is. They really like the Studio Vision interface, however. At $99 it you do not risk a whole lot.

 

[Pepzhez]

Believe it or not, I've actually grown to like BIAS Deck 3.5 (and Peak 3.1). I find it to be quite intuitive - much more so than Logic Audio, and it suits all of my needs. The V Box plugin control panel is a very good idea once you get used to it.

Also, the interaction these BIAS apps have with QT video is absolutely fantastic! So fast and accurate. I could not live without them now. I don't bother to do much audio work in FCP (other than simple edits) ever since I got these two apps.

There are some problems with dual processor machines. Or maybe some apps are just not yet fully optimized for them. People are having a hard time of it getting FCP 3 to work properly with dualies (just check out the Apple FCP forums for more info and horror stories on this). The 3.0.1 and 3.0.2 updates are mainly aimed (99%) at fixing this. Interestingly, most of the problems associated with FCP 3 and dualies are all audio-related.

Because of this, I'm sure that we'll be seeing FCP 4 sooner rather than later.

 

[JSRockit]

Originally posted by P-Worm
Well that proves it! PC's suck!

P-Worm

Funny. How come I don't hate PCs? I just use both and deal with their respective quirks. It just doesn't pay to only use one machine if you use your computer for multiple reasons (audio, games, internet, etc).

 

[tjwett]

Originally posted by beatle888
has anyone heard about apple solving the
noise issue they have with OSX?

Also:

has anyone experienced a strange audio
click or tick when moving windows around or
scrolling windows and also moving the cursor
over links on a web page? i had my stereo
connected to my mac and i heard the click/tick
through my stereo speakers...it even happened
when turned mute on.

i'm now on Logic Platinum 5.3 but i still can't run it in OSX because of noise. kind of dissapointing. i seem to get noise from the mouse and my Wacom tablet when i'm moving around and pushing buttons. it's annoying but the sound does not appear to be making it's way into my mixes and is not picked up by Logic so that's a relief. i don't use sotware monitoring and do my initial mixing inside Logic with the output going straight to the mains. then it goes to the studio at work for a real mix. at home i'm on a 733 G4 with 1.2 gigs RAM, emagic emi 2|6.

 

[samdweck]

Originally posted by P-Worm
Well that proves it! PC's suck!

P-Worm

yep, that's pretty much the nail in the coffin, but there were so many nails they needed another coffin!

 

[Pepzhez]

Which mouse are you using? I ask because I recently replaced my Apple Pro Mouse with a Logitech Marble Mouse and the noise is now gone! I'm using the Logitech mouse software for OS X, running Jaguar. It has to be in the mouse software, don't you think? I can't really explain it, but I do know the noise has ceased entirely since installing the new mouse and software.

 

[zimv20]

digidesign!

Originally posted by peter2002
as long as the topic of music has come up...good digital mixing program for a mac would be......?

(um, thats where you all insert your wise opinions )

1. Studio Vison Pro (best buy, only $99)
2. Digital Performer
3. Cubase SX

don't forget protools. i use LE, free w/ their $800 digi001 (a/d & d/a) converter.

best value is pro tools free. it's, er, free.

 

[samdweck]

Originally posted by Pepzhez
Which mouse are you using? I ask because I recently replaced my Apple Pro Mouse with a Logitech Marble Mouse and the noise is now gone! I'm using the Logitech mouse software for OS X, running Jaguar. It has to be in the mouse software, don't you think? I can't really explain it, but I do know the noise has ceased entirely since installing the new mouse and software.

Firstly, I don't ahve that problem you have... secondly, how did it happen, and what kind of noise was it? I dont' think that the mouse software itself did it, it had to have been something remotely related.

 

[groovebuster]

Re: Destructive audio problem (G4/1.25/512/os10.2.1)

Originally posted by loft115
Audio editing is one of the reasons i got the G4 in the first place and this has rendered the machine utterly useless for this task. I do not know weather to send it back or wait for a fix (though it sounds like its a hardware problem).

No offense intended...

... but you buy the flag-ship of the G4s for around 4,000.- US$ and you edit sound with the onboard sound of the G4, which is just cheap crap, connected to some PC-Speakers to the backside jack??? And that's what you bought the machine for?

I really can't believe it!

Buy a decent PCI sound card and you can work flawlessly with a very good sound. The sound-card shouldn't be the problem compared to the money you shelled out for your new G4... And also plug the card into a mixer and the mixer to some studio monitors (they are not that expensive anymore). The sound card will also give you digital in/out...

I am shocked (after 6 years useing Apple computers) that so many new machines have shipped with this fault . I am also concerned that they appear not to have adressed this problem on their support pages, a very bad move ( particularly in the light of your recent takeover of Emagic, makers of Audio Platinum). This could easily undermine Apples reputation among audio professionals.

And I am shocked that so many users again and again are using really "weird" set-ups for their intended work. Maybe you should have saved some money by just buying the little brother of the top-model and spending it for some pro hardware, giving you the tools to really do what you want to do...

All the professionals are using pro hardware and not the on-board sound of the G4, so what's the deal?

All i can say is that i will now be contacting the Applestore where i purchassed the machine for some answers, i fear the worst. Lets hope it's not a sign of things to come!

Good luck...

groovebuster

P.S.: As I said before... no offense, but be true to yourself! Of course there seems to be a bug somewhere with the onboard sound in some cases, but it sounds a little but funny that you have the most expensive Mac you can buy for editing audio and you don't use a good sounding sound-card instead of the onboard-sound. When you are satisfied with the sound of the onboard chips I doubt somehow that your "audio tasks" really need a machine like the DP1,25GHz G4. Even an old G3 iMac (same sound quality) is cool for that. My wife got one a few weeks ago and she is doing all the sh*t with it... ripping and listening to mp3s and it is connected to her stereo... she never had a problem so far and the puppy is running the whole day in her little home-office. And it is running MacOS X 10.2.1...

 

[samdweck]

Re: Re: Destructive audio problem (G4/1.25/512/os10.2.1)

Originally posted by groovebuster


No offense intended...

... but you buy the flag-ship of the G4s for around 4,000.- US$ and you edit sound with the onboard sound of the G4, which is just cheap crap, connected to some PC-Speakers to the backside jack??? And that's what you bought the machine for?

I really can't believe it!

Buy a decent PCI sound card and you can work flawlessly with a very good sound. The sound-card shouldn't be the problem compared to the money you shelled out for your new G4... And also plug the card into a mixer and the mixer to some studio monitors (they are not that expensive anymore). The sound card will also give you digital in/out...



And I am shocked that so many users again and again are using really "weird" set-ups for their intended work. Maybe you should have saved some money by just buying the little brother of the top-model and spending it for some pro hardware, giving you the tools to really do what you want to do...

All the professionals are using pro hardware and not the on-board sound of the G4, so what's the deal?



Good luck...

groovebuster

P.S.: As I said before... no offense, but be true to yourself! Of course there seems to be a bug somewhere with the onboard sound in some cases, but it sounds a little but funny that you have the most expensive Mac you can buy for editing audio and you don't use a good sounding sound-card instead of the onboard-sound. When you are satisfied with the sound of the onboard chips I doubt somehow that your "audio tasks" really need a machine like the DP1,25GHz G4. Even an old G3 iMac (same sound quality) is cool for that. My wife got one a few weeks ago and she is doing all the sh*t with it... ripping and listening to mp3s and it is connected to her stereo... she never had a problem so far and the puppy is running the whole day in her little home-office. And it is running MacOS X 10.2.1...

saw a quote in theere about audio professionals, but don't think there is a worry, b/c q-bert just came on a switchers commercail!

 

[daveg5]

onboard chip sounds better than some sound cards

Dont put down the onboard chip sound too much. From personal experience I compared the PM 7500 rca inputs and outputs using monster cables for instruments and mic cable for mic fed thru a mackie 12 channel mixer and I kid you not, it sounded better than a friends with a audiowerk 2 16bit card with playing the same tracks in thru the same speaker to these ears at least. Dont let specs choose what sounds better, let your ears. Of course this was before 24bit cards were affordable and upon looking at the stats the AW2 card had a higher SN ratio and less THD. Even now many people in sound will swear to you that a korg 1212 or audiomedia 111 card both 16bit sounds better than some of these new usb 24bit cards and that the Yamaha DSP factory 24/48 card sounds cleaner and fuller than many 24/96 card with better specs. One reason is the drivers have matured on the older cards and/or they have higher quality contruction and converters. Many of the best sounding and selling albums in the world were done on these earlier cards and native systems built-in audio and many more were done on warmer sounding tape. Although I do agree that having the absolute top g4 with out a good low-cost 24 bit soundcard seems a little extreme, even though it is going to be sent back to cd at 16bit or even worse mp3. At least until Apple produces a solution to allow us to do 5.1, 6.1 DVD-AUDIO. Peace cubase SX is almost here

 

[daveg5]

Originally posted by tjwett


i'm now on Logic Platinum 5.3 but i still can't run it in OSX because of noise. kind of dissapointing. i seem to get noise from the mouse and my Wacom tablet when i'm moving around and pushing buttons. it's annoying but the sound does not appear to be making it's way into my mixes and is not picked up by Logic so that's a relief. i don't use sotware monitoring and do my initial mixing inside Logic with the output going straight to the mains. then it goes to the studio at work for a real mix. at home i'm on a 733 G4 with 1.2 gigs RAM, emagic emi 2|6.

This is most likely a usb hub, or cable problem. take everything off the usb port restart, shut down hook up the keyboard and a different mouse (USB 2} and the usb sound card (usb1} only start up. see what happens and ofcourse see if you can reinstall the ame 2/6 drivers if you still get the noise there maybe electronic interference { tv, phone airport, monitor, speakers, too many plugs in the surge, or you may just need a PCI USB card.
Good Luck Cubase SX almost HERE!!