Dante issues on Mac Pro 7.1 (Catalina) upgrade, worked on Mac 5.1 (Mojave)

[tones]

I have just upgraded my rig with a new Mac Pro (2019) and I am encountering an issue with my Dante setup. I use Dante Via and Controller to route audio from Apps and the web into Protools through my MTRX studio, for monitoring while I work, and also use it to route the output from a Kyma (pacarana) into protools as well.

On my old rig (Mac Pro 5,1 cheesegrater running Mojave) it all worked great, but now on the new rig (Mac Pro 7,1 running Catalina) I get audio initially, but over time the sound starts to distort and dropout and then it mutes.

I have read that there might be a compatibility problem with the Dante software and OS Catalina, does anyone know this to be the case? It might be a clocking problem but I can't see anywhere where it is giving me a clocking error.

Any Dante experts seen this happening?

[Marsdy]

Originally Posted by tones

I have just upgraded my rig with a new Mac Pro (2019) and I am encountering an issue with my Dante setup. I use Dante Via and Controller to route audio from Apps and the web into Protools through my MTRX studio, for monitoring while I work, and also use it to route the output from a Kyma (pacarana) into protools as well.

On my old rig (Mac Pro 5,1 cheesegrater running Mojave) it all worked great, but now on the new rig (Mac Pro 7,1 running Catalina) I get audio initially, but over time the sound starts to distort and dropout and then it mutes.

I have read that there might be a compatibility problem with the Dante software and OS Catalina, does anyone know this to be the case? It might be a clocking problem but I can't see anywhere where it is giving me a clocking error.

Any Dante experts seen this happening?

DVS doesn’t currently work the the ethernet ports on 7.1 Mac Pros. You have to use a USB to Ethernet adapter. Perhaps the same applies to Via?

[BScout]

Dante (period) doesn't work off of the 10GBe ports.
You need a 1GBe ethernet/usb dongle.

[Huby SEA]

Did you switch on/off your Wifi on the MacPro?

Same symptom still happening! It happened recently during a show after I switched on the Wifi for internet acces on the iMacPro, after the internet acces via the 2nd ethernet connector went down.
The crackling and dropout thing happened after about 1 hour I switched on Wifi, in the middle of the show!
After I switched off the Wifi on the iMacPro, everything worked fine again. I had to reboot the iMacPro though.
Must be a DANTE bug Dave!

The DANTE Rig: SSL Live 300 v5.2, SSL Blacklight NW bridge & 256ch DANTE io, SBBS 32-24,iMacPro, 16 Amadeus PMX-nnDante loudspeakers, iMacPro running Ventura, and a few other Dante boxes, all @ fs=96kHz.


Huby

[Welderman]

Hello, how do you find such dante audio dropouts? Does the software hints it via popup or just be manually monitoring the audio?

[creativecontrol]

Dante Controller provides reporting for clock status, network issues, and various other conditions as well as visual indication for streaming / signal presence for connected subscriptions. The latest docs can be found here:
https://dev.audinate.com/GA/dante-co....15.x-v1.1.pdf


best,


Jeff

[Frank Kruse]

Audio dropouts are often connected to sub-optimal latency settings. There are a few good videos about this on Audinate's YT channel. Also there's currently a bug that can show excessive dropped packets in Dante controller with certain Mac Models (even when you don't hear dropouts). There's a support article somewhere on the Audinate page. Also DVS on Mac needs a certain type of USB-EN adapter (also mentioned in a support article). So there can be many reasons for dropouts, from any of the above to network congestion.
But the clock "LED" in Dante Controller is a good starting point to narrow down the issue. Look for red "LED" there when the dropouts happen.

[uptheoctave]

In addition to everything else that has been said- I had a few issues with drop outs after all the other suggestions above being implemented.

I fixed it by creating a port based VLAN for Dante devices so that only Dante devices sat on those ports.

Another little tweak, if you have the ability (ie an MTRX with two Dante cards) is to separate out the high and low latency Dante devices.

I now have the AM2 and X2P devices on a separate VLAN to the lower latency Dante devices.