[QLab] Audio device did overload: MOTU Traveler

[Brian Conner]

Hi,
?Searching for a hint to what is causing this problem turned up only one instance in the QLab threads, and there wasn't a resolution found that I could see.?
Our client was given QLab 2 on Mac minis with MOTU Travelers. A simple looping wav file sent to all outputs as a test worked fine.
?Since they couldn't import their QLab ver 1 show data into ver 2, they decided to revert to using 1.3.5??
Now, they are losing audio output after a few cues fire, on both machines (main and backup) and restarting the application gets sound back. They have completely removed and reinstalled the MOTU drivers. Initially, this seemed to fix the problem as they went through their whole cue list several times, but then it started happening again.??
Console reports "Audio Device did overload: MOTU Traveler"
?These are 1.83GHz Core2Duo Mac minis with 2GB RAM, and 80GB HDs. I don't imagine they are not keeping up, but I am stumped.
Chris said "That particular message means that at some point the device driver did not receive audio fast enough to supply it to the device in time." He also suggested asking the mailing list as we are both stumped at the moment.
?Does anyone have any ideas?
I am hoping to narrow this down to either a background process taking up CPU cycles or something, or an oddity in the cuelist itself, although I can't think what might be hiding and causing this "overload"
Thanks.
-Brian

[Christopher Ashworth]

Hi Brian, just to clarify, I suspect this console message may be a red herring.  It's not the sort of thing that should be directly related to a complete loss of audio output in the device, it's more if an incidental thing. I suspect.

-C

(mobile)

[gtwi...@yahoo.com]

I had a similar problem a while back. What are your audio buffer settings for your cues in QLab? I initially set mine to .5 second and had problems, console reported driver overloads, etc, I then changed my buffer settings to 2 second and everything cleared up. Just my 2 cents.
George Wirges
Inner Child Entertainment

Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Ashworth <ch...@figure53.com>

Date: Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:36:05
To: Discussion and support for QLab users.<ql...@lists.figure53.com>
Cc: <ql...@lists.figure53.com><ql...@lists.figure53.com>
Subject: Re: [QLab] Audio device did overload: MOTU Traveler

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[Matt Carpenter]

Hey Brian,

I have encountered this message on numerous occasions on Qlab 1.3.x.  I don’t believe it is Qlab’s fault, but for me it was when using a MOTU Ultralite with a G4 tower.  The sound would glitch with a few dropped frames and the console would log that message.  It was never accompanied by complete loss of signal, just a glitch here and there.  Never found the solution; we got new iMacs and interface devices, and never saw the issue again.  But for a year solid, it was the bane of my existence.  Even swapping out computers didn’t fix it.  The one constant was the MOTU.

--
Matt Carpenter
Director of Sound
PCPA Theaterfest
so...@pcpa.org
805-928-7731 ex 3140

[Brian Conner]

Thanks all for your responses - I couldn't nail down the issue on
site, but my money is on flaky MOTU Travelers due to hotplugging
firewire or something.
I have since replaced the mini's and the MOTUs, but one quirk remains.

QLab 1.3.5 on the mac mini backup machine, and the Traveler.
GO with a group of infinite looping cues, then a fade cue to kill
them….well, they kept looping.
In fact, the only thing to stop playback was quitting QLab.
It happened twice, 2 different group of cues.
…….?
I'm thinking a MOTU driver re-install (notorious for wonky
installation?)
Again, thanks for any thought anyone might have.

I tried a search but don't know what might yield results.

-Brian

[Christopher Ashworth]

On Sep 24, 2009, at 3:21 PM, Brian Conner wrote:
>
> QLab 1.3.5 on the mac mini backup machine, and the Traveler.
> GO with a group of infinite looping cues, then a fade cue to kill
> them….well, they kept looping.
> In fact, the only thing to stop playback was quitting QLab.
> It happened twice, 2 different group of cues.
> …….?
> I'm thinking a MOTU driver re-install (notorious for wonky
> installation?)
> Again, thanks for any thought anyone might have.

Hmm...that sounds more like a QLab bug than a MOTU issue.

Did the fade cue not even take down their volume? Or do you mean they
were looping silently?

-C

[Brian Conner]

Fade seemed to be ignored. Kept looping full volume with no stopping them until I quit QLab. QLab was not frozen or unresponsive at all and actually played out the rest of the show seemingly normally. The only indication of the problem were signal lights on the MOTUs and the audio output. QLab looked as though all had gone well.

Brian Conner

Computer Department

---

 

PRG Audio 
A Division of Production Resource Group

250 E. Sandford Blvd.

Mount Vernon, NY 10550
914-662-3540 phone

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bco...@prg.com

www.prg.com

 

[Christopher Ashworth]

On Sep 25, 2009, at 11:54 AM, Brian Conner wrote:

> Fade seemed to be ignored. Kept looping full volume with no stopping
> them until I quit QLab. QLab was not frozen or unresponsive at all
> and actually played out the rest of the show seemingly normally. The
> only indication of the problem were signal lights on the MOTUs and
> the audio output. QLab looked as though all had gone well.

Is the fade cue set to "relative" mode?

It sounds like that fade cue just wasn't doing anything at all.

[Brian Conner]

I'll have to check, but this was a freak occurrence, non recreate-able, and happened on a different cue also earlier during rehearsal.

The fade worked fine when running through a few times.

Weird I know.

Any thoughts of OSX stuff maybe to check? I pretty much blow though all preferences and background stuff I can think of to keep the OS as dormant as possible.