Optimize Your Mac For Audio

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Fri Jan 11, 2002 4:31 pm

On 2002-01-11 09:17, Gregory wrote:
And strangely when I changed the main drive and reinstalled Pulsar the "cset.ini file" in my Pulsar went from saying it was 153 K in size to saying it was 4 K in size. I don't know if that's bad or good.

If you can, compare the contents of the two files (change their names to cset.txt and open with simpletext). If they are the same, don't panic. If they are different and nothing special happens with your pulsar - don't panic, too. One of the rules of the thumb is to have the cset.ini back-upped to replace it if necessary (the file gets corrupted from time to time)

coc999 · Post by **coc999** » Sat Jan 12, 2002 10:31 am

hi samplaire

Does it mean that if one day for example
we are big friends and make a meeting
somewhere on planet mars you with your g4 under 9.0....and above and me with my g3 os8.6,I could not put my Pulsar projects in your machine?and you could not give me a pulsar project from your machine?.

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Sat Jan 12, 2002 4:55 pm

No, it just means that you can't run 8.6 on G4s (it's a pity because I like that OS very much and found it one of the most stabile systems at all). Pulsar projects (Pulsar devices, etc.) are not OS dependend and we could share them even with PC users!

Air_PoLLo · Post by **Air_PoLLo** » Sun Jan 13, 2002 10:10 am

M-audio has OS X drivers dor their cards wich are ROCKING at 1ms latency!

Hope creamware updates to OS X. just waiting for logic 5 OSX.

Btw, I posted my first track here (I mean the first time). It's not complete. Almost.
Need feedback?

breeves · Post by **breeves** » Sun Jan 13, 2002 2:13 pm

I wonder if pulsar is good for macs ?
it seems to create a lot of problems...
maybe a motu 828 is better ?

coc999 · Post by **coc999** » Mon Jan 14, 2002 12:03 pm

I don't think that motu 828 has syntessyyyzzeerrz like pulsar.

Air_PoLLo · Post by **Air_PoLLo** » Mon Jan 14, 2002 3:03 pm

we have a mix & mix+ cards aswell as the adat interface for use with TDM. I'll be switching back to logic TDM as soon as we get the mix24+ system. The pulsar will be used as a naughty synth machine.
I'll be able to use TDM in OS X

wohoo! heh ciao.

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 11:16 am

Also some more Mac tips & tricks from another thread in the tips & tricks forum:

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... &forum=3&2

Air_PoLLo · Post by **Air_PoLLo** » Tue Apr 02, 2002 1:54 pm

Subby, nice of u to keep this thread in your mind.

talk to u later dude.

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 12:41 pm

hi,
I found what exactly was the cause of my Cubase-launch frequent crashes problem (described earlier in this thread) and want to share it with you (perhaps this one will be fixed in 3.1 but...). The problem lies inside the "Luna Midi Source" module - it is 'active sensing' sensitive and can crash your sequencer with the 2 or 3 error or #10 bomb error. The situation occurs only when you have the 'Luna Midi Source' module in your project: "Pulsar Midi Source" module is free of that bug. But if you arte forced to use the module (have Luna II only for instance) - try the workaround of having the OMS app open during your whole Luna session - it really works. That may explain the absence of this kind of problem in Air_Pollo's system...

I also prepared a rather complete guide on how to optimize your Mac for smooth Pulsar/Luna operation - you can find it here: http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... &forum=3&0
_________________
Sam Plaire

[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2002-04-19 13:46 ]

[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2002-04-19 14:01 ]

borg · Post by **borg** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 3:12 pm

and i can advise every mac user to follow these guidelines.

with a bit of improvisation, all works fine over here. now it's just a matter of pushing the system to the max...
mmm, a new hard disk and video card... looks nice.

thanks again voidtech

borg · Post by **borg** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 7:14 pm

i just had a quick browse for a display card. AGP seems to be better than PCI. my first search results were going in the direction AGP is not possible on my mac G3. is this correct? anyone care to explain what AGP is and it's advantage compared to PCI (better reverb results seems obvious)? it's about time i get to know my machine a bit...

a good link will do too of course.
thanks

subhuman · Post by **subhuman** » Fri Apr 19, 2002 9:31 pm

AGP: Accelerated Graphics Port - this type of connection generally has its own bus and therefore (depending on your motherboard's implementation) does not share bandwidth/traffic with the PCI bus, freeing it for other tasks (reverbs/delays! etc)

Edit: Here's a great link to learn more: <a href=http://www.agpforum.org/faq_ans.htm>check it</a>

[ This Message was edited by: subhuman on 2002-04-19 22:49 ]

borg · Post by **borg** » Sat Apr 20, 2002 12:46 pm

thanks sub!

i got a litlle further now. i've seen the ATI Radeon mac edition, but it's for 'AGP-based macs'. i still haven't found out if my B/W G3 has this quality... i suppose not. most testing was done on G4. nVidia is for sure only for G4.
there's the ATI Radeon 7000 AGP, 64MB (see link), but it's a bit confusing to me. it's for older macs without AGP slots to work on PCI, but do i benefit from this concerning audio performance?
mmm

http://computers.cnet.com/hardware/0-11 ... 10957.html

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Sat Apr 20, 2002 1:27 pm

Hi Andy,

According to the Apple spec. library ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43123 ) your blue & white G3 has got no AGP port... As Subhuman said, AGP port brings your DAW some benefits (AGP video card doesn't disturb the PCI bus allowing more reverbs to work etc.). I believe my Mac was the first to have AGP port (G4/400/AGP - there were earlier versions of G4/400 with PCI graphics, too)

_________________
Sam Plaire

[ This Message was edited by: samplaire on 2002-04-20 14:33 ]

samplaire · Post by **samplaire** » Thu Apr 25, 2002 8:32 pm

Here's a tip for Nuendo users (and probably others, too) http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=19&0

Air_PoLLo · Post by **Air_PoLLo** » Sun May 05, 2002 7:09 am

cool info... thanks

Btw sam, check your private msg's...

dodge · Post by **dodge** » Wed Sep 11, 2002 6:37 am

Hello.

I recently bought a Pulsar 2. I'm now using a Mac QuickSilver G4 at 933 MHz, single cpu, with 1GB RAM, running OS 9.22. This OS works just fine with the Pulsar 2. I've started optimizing the system a few weeks ago and right now the Mac needs just under 20 seconds to boot (from the moment of pressing the powerkey until all the internal drives are ready in the Finder desktop). I've disabled a lot of extensions, including the internet and tcp extensions, location manager and multiple users etc. Besides OS 9.22 the following software packages are installed: Pulsar SFP 3.1, Cubase VST Score 5.1, Peak TDM 2.6 and OMS 2.38. I'm about to begin working on an installation guide for this combination. Anyone got any comments? The system is stable and runs very fast. The SFP 3.1 software runs better and faster after I disabled just about every extension possible. (I've got a regular networked system install on a different partition.) Personally I'm quite happy about the performance of the package alltogether. The only thing I don't like about the SFP Software is the font (typeface) it uses for parameters and info. Is there any way to change the built-in font for a Geneva or something?

Regards,
dodge

Gregory · Post by **Gregory** » Wed Sep 11, 2002 10:10 am

That's about as fast as you can possibly get that setup to go. Lean and mean. Good job. Make sure your colors are set to millions to see the fonts as best as possible. I don't know of a way to change the fonts.

jupiter8 · Post by **jupiter8** » Wed Sep 11, 2002 11:30 am

Control Panels/Apperance/Fonts
Turn off "smooth all fonts on screen"
Saves you a couple of CPU cycles.

Update to OS 9.2.2
SFP runs so much better with it.