ok, what's going on w/ exploding sound?!

[DigiTechSupt]

Since it appears like the only common denominator here is the use of ATA drives, I will offer this bit of information:

I have seen this problem with systems where large capacity ATA drives are used. Although I have never been able to resolve this issue, it is my guess that some drives are not capable of handling the demands required by DAE to properly stream audio direct from disk. As a result the drive throws out the equivalent of digital noise since it has no other way of handling the information.

Make sure to initialize ATA drives with the Apple Drive Setup Utility. In addition, it is a good idea to partition any drive larger than 9GB into smaller, 4-6GB partitions.

Reduce the Disk Cache in the Memory Control Panel to 512k and restart the computer.

Increase the preferred memory size of the ProTools and DAE applications. Click on the icon once to highlight it and select get info from the file menu in the Finder or by holding down the command key and typing the letter I. Increase the DAE preferred size to 70000k (70MB) and ProTools to 60000k (60MB). Never change the minimum memory size. If you have, you can set it back to the default setting by typing a 0 into the field and press Enter on the numerical keypad.

Make sure that your audio drives meet the minimum drive requirements: General drive specifications for ATA devices are as follows:
-7200 RPM or faster rotational speed
-10 millisecond or less average seek time
-3.0 MB per second or better sustained throughput

If these suggestions don't resolve the problem, I would suggest trying a different ATA drive (preferrably one that has a smaller capcity) and/or using a SCSI drive in conjunction with an approved SCSI accelerator card.

Brent

[Yontz Sucre]

Brent thanks for your comments.

But on my system I can play an 18 track audio recording all day and never get the explosion. I can get the explosion at will on an 11 audio track session by toggling on and off automation on an aux input, not an audio channel. Doesn't this mean that the disk is less likely in involved and automation is more likely involved? Also, the explosion never shows on the channel meters, just the main I/O meters. And my session worked flawlessly until I added some fairly extravagent automation, mostly to 4 aux input channels.

More info -- I'm not using any reverb, just eq and a couple compressors. So the cpu isn't taxed at all.

As I said above, I have a capture of the explosion, and I also am ready to send you guys my session. Don't you want it?

The disk is fast enough, it is a Barracuda. I have it partitioned into 9 G partitions. I use the system about 15 hours a week (since May) and this is the first time I have seen encountered the explosion. I will go ahead and do everything else you suggested when I get home from work tonight, just to rule it out. And the disk was defragged early last week.

[This message has been edited by Yontz Sucre (edited September 19, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by Yontz Sucre (edited September 19, 2000).]

[DigiTechSupt]

Yontz,
Are you using a 28 GB Barracuda ATA or SCSI drive?

If SCSI, where is it connected?

What format utility have you used to intialize the drive?

If it is partitioned, are you accessing multiple partitions simultaneously?

If you are running an ATA drive, then I would suggest backing up and reinitializing the drive with Apple Drive Setup and partition the drive per the suggestions from my earlier post. Restore the session and audio data to the drive (same partition) and try it again.

Brent

[Yontz Sucre]

Are you using a 28 GB Barracuda ATA or SCSI drive? - ATA

What format utility have you used to intialize the drive? - Apple disk setup

If it is partitioned, are you accessing multiple partitions simultaneously? - No



[This message has been edited by Yontz Sucre (edited September 19, 2000).]

[Yontz Sucre]

Ok Brent -- I did everything you said.

PT preferred size 60000 K
DAE preferred size 70000 K
Disk Cache 512K

reboot

I didn't repartition my drive. It's already down to 9 gig partitions.

Instead i created a new session and REMOVED ALL THE AUDIO TRACKS.


Now my session has only midi and aux with automation. To be safe, I copied that session to my system drive. I also kept the copy on my barracude drive. I ran one test on the system, one on the Barracuda.

IT STILL EXPLODES. BOTH TESTS.
IT STILL DOESN"T EXPLODE WITH AUTOMATION OFF

Forgive my shouting, but I am starting to lose my patience. I worked for almost 10 hours to isolate and troubleshoot what is most likely a Digidesign bug. I am once again requesting for the third time to e-mail in this session so that it can be troubleshooted by customer service. Why is no one at Digi cooperating in this regard???



[This message has been edited by Yontz Sucre (edited September 19, 2000).]

[Yontz Sucre]

Thank you. I finally got the official response and sent in my session. Am anxious and ready to move on to the next step. I am willing to help in any way I can.

[Burnt Amber]

Just read with interest about these exploding noise experiences. I had my first exploding noise at the end of a bounce to disc of a 6 minute radio piece. Only 8 tracks, and not a lot of automation, but it exploded right at the end of the bounce and the explosion showed up in the meters of two guitar tracks (that did have digi reverb and eq as well as automation on). However, the explosion didn't show up on the bounced files, which were just fine. I rebounced this session about five times, every time it exploded, but I haven't encoutered that problem bouncing anymore sessions.

Then. . .a month ago I added Waves Native I to my digi 001 setup and now I get a stuttering explosion occasionally when I hit play while +L1 is loaded on a stereo master track. If I hit stop and play again the explosion goes away. I thought it was a Waves glitch since I never experienced this sound until I got Waves. I don't have any problems unless I'm using waves plug-ins in a session.

[DanXx]

Hi mr lunch,

I had exact the same problem as you have, no Waves plugs involved!

I like you (and other people with the problem) to try this: remove the digidesign EQ from your session and see what happens. For me this was the whole soultion!

Please let me know if this helped!

Greets, Dan

[keysmia]

I use an ibm scsi ultrastar 10,000rpm drive not an ata

[DigiTechSupt]

Yontz- I think I received your session, the name of the session doc is "Copy of screws".

I followed your instructions and haven't been able to reproduce the noise yet, however on looking at your session and the included audio files I have a theory I'd like you to try out.

Try setting the MIDI track patch assignments to 'none' and simply selecting the patch on your keyboard (it's a Nord Lead right?). See if the sound comes back at that point. In addition to this I have a question, is the Nord going directly into the 001? Or is it going through an FX unit first?

Please let me know what your results are, and I'll keep trying to reproduce it here on my end using your session.

thanks,

-bryan