How to debug TI Snow sync errors?

    I'm using Live on OS X 10.7.2 and Desktop Konnekt 6. Buffer size 512.


    Simple setup with 1 preset seems to work.


    In a somewhat complex project I have 4 presets. I'm trying to record just one of the presets. I get constant popping and cracking. I'm trying to output to USB2L+R.


    CPU never seems to max out. But I still get the sync errors.


    What must I do now? Try to bypass USB and use analog out instead to see if it's a Virus problem or a USB problem?


    Please help. It's driving me crazy, because this project used to work. I can't record any of the virus tracks now.

    Could it be that you didn't connect the Virus to the same USB port as before? Use the system profiler as your guide to finding a port that sits under a root hub with the least amount of devices alrady connected to it. Another solution could be changing VC mode to 1 out / no in and bouncing the parts one at a time through USB1L+R by soloing them.
    Good luck!

    how's the Live tutorial song behaving? a sync error does not indicate a CPU overload but missing USB packages. in other words, the amount of patches used don't have an influence but eventually the amount of notes played. in order to fix this you need to look at your USB layout. support can help you with that.
    best, marc

    I'm using the same USB port I used to use before. It's not shared with any other USB device, I checked it on the System Information utility. Which shows that the Virus TI is attached to a single USB Bus (with a unique PCI Device ID).


    The number of notes played is small, I'm right now trying to record a single melody!!!


    I'm using Desktop Konnekt 6, which also has some funny behavior from time to time. It's quite irritating how unstable an audio configuration can be.


    IOW, changing the USB port won't help.

    Good call. The konnekt 6 interfered with some silly daemon a plugin lib. installed and that's what mostly caused the stuttering. Now that the main reason for the stuttering is gone, I can try some recording and let's wake up the neighbors with a bit of practice =)


    The bottom line is: be wary of any sound related daemons on OS X, they might have nasty consequences. Make sure you add that as an OS X FAQ? On OS X, it turns out it's also quite important to disable unnecessary daemons like the daemon that updates google chrome. I can now get OK playback with the konnekt, I'm testing just playback for a few hours, no DAW. I'll try again and report the results.


    One thing for all to check: if there are several keThread::delay messages in kernel.log, you have a low-level problem. :)

    Here is how my DAW experiment went. Problem recurs, but I've *found* that KeThread::delay messages happen only when there is some delay caused by the OS. This is mostly due to page faults. So if your system is swapping, you'll most likely lose Virus TI connectivity.


    The problem is that on Lion, the system will swap even if there are GBs of available memory. It reserves what it calls "Inactive Memory". Good job apple!


    I have no idea if that's fixable. It probably isn't without making the whole DAW run with real-time priority or something like that. Because obviously DAW will have to wait for kernel induced delays like page faults, and then buffer will be depleted.


    It'd be nice if the DAW could somehow pin all the physical RAM it needs and be immune from page faults, but I doubt that DAW designers think that far. OS X 10.7.x has a rather ugly memory policy, that would probably make such attempts futile.