I’ve just moved from PC to MAC …however a few issues.
I’m on RME HDSP driver 227 and Cubase 6.04
MAC OSX 10.6
Direct monitoring is greyed out! I am currently using the soundcard at the lowest latency possible to run the recording but need to fix this!
Anyone had trouble with this.
Probably every Mac user has “trouble” with ASIO Direct monitoring. Apart from that you can use totalmix “by hand”
Getting scared!
All worked on PC just fine!! Main reason I’m jumping ship is for general reliability and to run a concurrent ProTools HD system that wouldnt work with a new PC assemble. But I’m starting to regret it!
Do I not get simple Direct Monitoring using a MAC? I dont want to go near the RME mixer…the Cubase mixer looked after everything on the pc properly
M
Getting scared!
All worked on PC just fine!! Main reason I’m jumping ship is for general reliability and to run a concurrent ProTools HD system that wouldnt work with a new PC assemble. But I’m starting to regret it!
M
The Mac guys can explain it better, I think…
But AFAIK Mac does not support ADM
That’s right, CoreAudio unfortunately doesn’t support Direct Monitoring, it exists only in ASIO on Windows. I’m afraid you have to use RME Totalmix instead…
Can someone tell me about a possible working method then using Cubase for a drum tracking session on MAC OSX and TotalMIX
I want to do a drum drop in as it is I get the drummer to play along with the track and hit punch which activates monitoring and only then I get to hear the live recorded version
My understanding is that if I use total mix the mics would be live at all times causing the recorded and the live versions to be playing at the same times if your doing a dropin?? How have people being working on the MAC this way? I’'m not getting it I’m afraid!!
Why is OSX meant to be the most advanced OS for music if windows looks after monitoring better?
Learn Total Mix…
There’s a bit of a learning curve, but, what isn’t when it comes to digital audio?
It might put a wrinkle or two in your brain, but that’s a good thing.
I too have switched to Mac after 12 years of frustration with Windows. This year I did a complete new system upgrade with all of the fastest, baddest PC hardware, Windows 7 with all updates and current drivers, and I still got audio glitches, which is totally unacceptable when recording sessions. I spent about 3 months running system latency tests, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I spent all of my time troubleshooting instead of creating. Mac has been solid, but, yes, the direct monitoring thing is a drag.
If your Mac is fast enough you could probably run your Fireface at 32 samples and you wouldn’t need direct monitoring.
Maybe you could use Boot Camp and run your session on the Windows sector.
Just as a note. I do kit drop ins all the time with total through latency of around 7ms and have never had a drummer complain, from the total rubbish to session drummers.
Hi,
I do kit drop ins all the time with total through latency of around 7ms and have never had a drummer complain,
what latency/buffer is that and this is the round trip DA / AD right ?
thanks
regards S-EH
I know technically 64 buffers would yield 5.6ms round trip Ok so maybe I’m getting 6 or 7 ms, whats a couple of milliseconds between producers (about 2/3rds of a meter)
My quoted figures are off the top of my head as I’m not at the studio to confirm the actual reported latency but it’s close enough (for jazz)
It’s what’s reported via Cubase in + out so 3.5 (ish)ms + 3.5 (ish)ms (64 buffers) not measured the actual DA/AD trip but it’s not far off.
Never had any complaints about latency with any musician come to mention it? (unless I forget to set it back from 1024)
It’s “samples” not “buffers”.
Digital audio SAMPLES the position on the wave form (points on a graph) many times a second. At 48kHz you get a sampling rate of 48,000 times a second, which means, if you are running a BUFFER SIZE of 48 samples, you should have a latency (delay) of 1 thousandth of a second - actually more round trip.
I use some M-Audio near field monitors in my studio when practicing. When using virtual instruments (Ivory) I have absolutely no issue with latencies (buffer size) of 128 samples, or really even 256 samples because all of the sound is coming through the speakers.
However, when singing, where I can hear the sound source (my voice) AND the monitor, there are phasing issues even at 64 samples. I’m OK with 32 samples (Mac goes to 32, PC to 48 with my Fireface). Unfortunately, my entry level MacBook Pro cannot keep up at 32 samples, so I use direct monitoring.
Sorry 
Oh, I was talking 44.1KHz
Totalmix is your friend. I guess so is Cuemix DSP, though I could never get on with it when I used MOTU kit.
It’s a different working method to the old ‘analogue’ way - which gave no source signal in playback until the drop-in, whereas with Totalmix and Tape-style monitoring in Cubase, you hear the source/talent as well as the recorded track, until you drop in, at which point you just hear the new take.
Also, your monitor mix is completely separate from your playback mix (only really significant when tracking the whole band).
I hated working like this at first, but now I love it because you can hear the talent shouting “I’m not ready!” before the drop-in…
I tried monitoring through Cubase in the early days, tried ignoring the latency - it just never worked for me. Partly because you might start with low latency, but as the project progresses, more plug-ins get loaded, latency goes up. With Totalmix, latency is never an issue.
The only real drag about no Direct Monitoring for Macs is that the Control room is much less useful you don’t use it for headphone mixes - but then I use Totalmix for all my headphone feeds - I can send 8 different stereo headphone mixes to the band… it does get complicated though…