Anyone else having issues with FCS and Leopard OSX 10.5.6? at DVinfo.net

Nick Weeks · March 12th, 2009, 01:50 PM

I recently (finally) upgraded my OS to 10.5.6 only to find that Soundtrack v1 crashes at startup. Well I found an article to fix this but now Soundtrack has choppy playback, and when previewing the sound effects in the search bin it only plays a portion of the file and stops. Same issue while recording. Logic Pro works perfectly.

So I thought it was the upgrade... So I erased the HD and did a clean install of the OS and FCS. Same issue (yes, I installed all of the updates).

I had planned on getting FCS 2 anyway, so I went ahead and paid for the upgrade, installed it over FCS 1, same problem.

Did another clean OS install after erasing the HD, installed FCS 2 upgrade directly without installing FCS 1 again, and I have the same issue. Logic Pro still works perfect, along with every other FCS app.

This is becoming a real problem for me, mostly because I use soundtrack daily. I'm about to go back to 10.4 but I would rather not.

Anyone experienced this? Its very frustrating, and I'm thinking of calling Apple tonight, thought I would check here first.

Also, I'm using a 24" monitor set to 1920x1200, and at boot the screen is terribly garbled and unreadable. If I change the resolution to something else, then back its perfect until next reboot, where it comes up garbled again. Never had this issue before 10.5 either.

I'm using a dual 2ghz powermac g5 with 7gb of ram and an nvidia 8600 I think (not at the mac right now). Every other app and the computer itself works wonders, just not on 10.5.

-typed on a blackberry, may have errors-

Les Wilson · March 13th, 2009, 06:15 AM

Well you've been doing all the right things. Did you try creating a brand new login and run Soundtrack?

Also, make sure you post a clear and precise description of the problem, what you've done and an easy way to reproduce it on Apple's discussion forum. I've seen problems I report that way get fixed in 30-60 days.

You may have a hardware problem... more in the old-hardware/new-software compatibility area. Choppy audio can be caused by a number of things. Given it worked before and the real change has been a move to Leopard, I think it points to things related to the new audio SW subsystem on the older hardware. That points to a software problem somewhere related to handling interrupts and keeping the data flowing to the card. It could even be Endian related but that's a real stretch.

I have a dual 2G Powermac G5 (2004) system but with 3GB ram and the ATI graphic card. I went the route of Tiger/FCS 1 and migrated to Leopard. I did have some crashing problems with Motion but was able to resolve them by a complete reinstall of FCS. But because you wiped the drive and reinstalled everything, that won't do you any good.

Do you have any USB devices plugged in? You may try unplugging and see if that changes the symptoms. Some off the wall voodoo is to pull some memory under 4GB and make sure the pairs of modules match.

Nick Weeks · March 13th, 2009, 12:12 PM

Les,

Thanks for the info.

I actually ended up going back to Tiger (OS 10.4.11) to resolve this issue. Sure, I'd like to keep Leopard, but if its hindering my audio work, what's the point?

I ended up calling Apple support last night, which was very nice. It's the first time I used their support. You actually get to talk to a knowledgeable American who speaks English, loads above any other PC or software support I've _ever_ used. I tried some different troubleshooting steps on the phone, and the tech was convinced it was a hardware issue, I just can't agree with that because it works in 10.4. We removed most of the RAM I installed, and went back to my original factory 2GB only to produce the same issue. Like you said, it has to be a problem with the way Leopard is handling the audio system.

What gets me though, is how every other application, Logic Pro, Final Cut, Quicktime, iTunes, VLC, etc. can play anything and everything without any trouble.

As far as the display issues go, I was able to fix that on my own (the Apple tech had no idea either, he said it was because Leopard was doing an auto-detect on the display??). I reset the PRAM, reset the PMU, and did a complete BootROM reset using Open Firmware (boot into Mac by holing command+option+o+f) and running some commands I found on the Internet, like magic it was fine. Those commands were (in order): reset-nvram, set-defaults, reset-all

Unfortunately that didn't fix Soundtrack.

So I'm back to using Tiger for now. I really miss the new iCal and its built-in Sync to Google Calendar, but I'm using Mozilla Sunbird on Leopard now. I also liked the quickview, works great for audio tracks and images. The only application I can't run anymore is the new iPhoto 09 which I used when making photo slideshows because of its very nice themed slideshows.

Perhaps I'll try Leopard again when 10.5.7 comes out, and maybe on the next protools update.

Christopher Drews · March 13th, 2009, 01:13 PM

Hey Nick,

I couldn't imagine using STP v1 for anything professional.
We just finished audio on a feature with STP v2.0.2 and still had loads of issues.
The main issues were linking files and application stability.
Although these pale in comparison to some of the problems encountered in v1.
You are a brave man but you should really try to get your hands on FCP S2.

-C

Nick Weeks · March 13th, 2009, 01:23 PM

Christopher,

I am using STP 2.0.2. I don't do a _lot_ of audio, I mostly edit video but sometimes find myself working with some of the audio for cleanup, etc. I find Soundtrack to be great for simple edit such as these, I also do a few things in the multitrack view, but not much.

Most of the work I do is with exported clips from FCP, I find this to be much easier to deal with than trying to do a send to>soundtrack.

I agree with you on stability with STP, 2.0.2 works great for me so far (knock on wood!)

Les Wilson · March 13th, 2009, 01:53 PM

You've done everything right. Evidence points to SoundTrack's use of the audio subsystem in Quicktime. Some component of Soundtrack is getting built wrong or has bad logic in the universal binary. Something may have been done for Intel that doesn't work for PPC. It's all very complicated so it happens.

Since it's such a reproducible problem I urge you to report it on the APple Discussion boards including everything you did to resolve. That's another way to help it get fixed in a future Leopard drop.

Les Wilson · March 13th, 2009, 02:49 PM

WAIT. Did you say Protools? I have seen the Digidesign software interfere with media playback on a friend's dual g5. The suggestion to create a new user takes ProTools out of the equation ... at least it did on my friend's system.

March 12th, 2009, 01:50 PM	#1
Nick Weeks Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Birmingham, AL USA Posts: 722	Anyone else having issues with FCS and Leopard OSX 10.5.6? I recently (finally) upgraded my OS to 10.5.6 only to find that Soundtrack v1 crashes at startup. Well I found an article to fix this but now Soundtrack has choppy playback, and when previewing the sound effects in the search bin it only plays a portion of the file and stops. Same issue while recording. Logic Pro works perfectly. So I thought it was the upgrade... So I erased the HD and did a clean install of the OS and FCS. Same issue (yes, I installed all of the updates). I had planned on getting FCS 2 anyway, so I went ahead and paid for the upgrade, installed it over FCS 1, same problem. Did another clean OS install after erasing the HD, installed FCS 2 upgrade directly without installing FCS 1 again, and I have the same issue. Logic Pro still works perfect, along with every other FCS app. This is becoming a real problem for me, mostly because I use soundtrack daily. I'm about to go back to 10.4 but I would rather not. Anyone experienced this? Its very frustrating, and I'm thinking of calling Apple tonight, thought I would check here first. Also, I'm using a 24" monitor set to 1920x1200, and at boot the screen is terribly garbled and unreadable. If I change the resolution to something else, then back its perfect until next reboot, where it comes up garbled again. Never had this issue before 10.5 either. I'm using a dual 2ghz powermac g5 with 7gb of ram and an nvidia 8600 I think (not at the mac right now). Every other app and the computer itself works wonders, just not on 10.5. -typed on a blackberry, may have errors- Last edited by Nick Weeks; March 12th, 2009 at 01:53 PM. Reason: typos

March 13th, 2009, 01:13 PM	#4
Christopher Drews Major Player Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 628	STP V1! Ouch! Hey Nick, I couldn't imagine using STP v1 for anything professional. We just finished audio on a feature with STP v2.0.2 and still had loads of issues. The main issues were linking files and application stability. Although these pale in comparison to some of the problems encountered in v1. You are a brave man but you should really try to get your hands on FCP S2. -C

March 13th, 2009, 06:15 AM	#2
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	Well you've been doing all the right things. Did you try creating a brand new login and run Soundtrack? Also, make sure you post a clear and precise description of the problem, what you've done and an easy way to reproduce it on Apple's discussion forum. I've seen problems I report that way get fixed in 30-60 days. You may have a hardware problem... more in the old-hardware/new-software compatibility area. Choppy audio can be caused by a number of things. Given it worked before and the real change has been a move to Leopard, I think it points to things related to the new audio SW subsystem on the older hardware. That points to a software problem somewhere related to handling interrupts and keeping the data flowing to the card. It could even be Endian related but that's a real stretch. I have a dual 2G Powermac G5 (2004) system but with 3GB ram and the ATI graphic card. I went the route of Tiger/FCS 1 and migrated to Leopard. I did have some crashing problems with Motion but was able to resolve them by a complete reinstall of FCS. But because you wiped the drive and reinstalled everything, that won't do you any good. Do you have any USB devices plugged in? You may try unplugging and see if that changes the symptoms. Some off the wall voodoo is to pull some memory under 4GB and make sure the pairs of modules match.

March 13th, 2009, 12:12 PM	#3
Nick Weeks Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Birmingham, AL USA Posts: 722	Les, Thanks for the info. I actually ended up going back to Tiger (OS 10.4.11) to resolve this issue. Sure, I'd like to keep Leopard, but if its hindering my audio work, what's the point? I ended up calling Apple support last night, which was very nice. It's the first time I used their support. You actually get to talk to a knowledgeable American who speaks English, loads above any other PC or software support I've _ever_ used. I tried some different troubleshooting steps on the phone, and the tech was convinced it was a hardware issue, I just can't agree with that because it works in 10.4. We removed most of the RAM I installed, and went back to my original factory 2GB only to produce the same issue. Like you said, it has to be a problem with the way Leopard is handling the audio system. What gets me though, is how every other application, Logic Pro, Final Cut, Quicktime, iTunes, VLC, etc. can play anything and everything without any trouble. As far as the display issues go, I was able to fix that on my own (the Apple tech had no idea either, he said it was because Leopard was doing an auto-detect on the display??). I reset the PRAM, reset the PMU, and did a complete BootROM reset using Open Firmware (boot into Mac by holing command+option+o+f) and running some commands I found on the Internet, like magic it was fine. Those commands were (in order): reset-nvram, set-defaults, reset-all Unfortunately that didn't fix Soundtrack. So I'm back to using Tiger for now. I really miss the new iCal and its built-in Sync to Google Calendar, but I'm using Mozilla Sunbird on Leopard now. I also liked the quickview, works great for audio tracks and images. The only application I can't run anymore is the new iPhoto 09 which I used when making photo slideshows because of its very nice themed slideshows. Perhaps I'll try Leopard again when 10.5.7 comes out, and maybe on the next protools update.

March 13th, 2009, 01:23 PM	#5
Nick Weeks Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Birmingham, AL USA Posts: 722	Christopher, I am using STP 2.0.2. I don't do a _lot_ of audio, I mostly edit video but sometimes find myself working with some of the audio for cleanup, etc. I find Soundtrack to be great for simple edit such as these, I also do a few things in the multitrack view, but not much. Most of the work I do is with exported clips from FCP, I find this to be much easier to deal with than trying to do a send to>soundtrack. I agree with you on stability with STP, 2.0.2 works great for me so far (knock on wood!)

March 13th, 2009, 01:53 PM	#6
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	You've done everything right. Evidence points to SoundTrack's use of the audio subsystem in Quicktime. Some component of Soundtrack is getting built wrong or has bad logic in the universal binary. Something may have been done for Intel that doesn't work for PPC. It's all very complicated so it happens. Since it's such a reproducible problem I urge you to report it on the APple Discussion boards including everything you did to resolve. That's another way to help it get fixed in a future Leopard drop.

March 13th, 2009, 02:49 PM	#7
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	WAIT. Did you say Protools? I have seen the Digidesign software interfere with media playback on a friend's dual g5. The suggestion to create a new user takes ProTools out of the equation ... at least it did on my friend's system.