Op-Ed — Beware The System Upgrade or: We Have Nothing to Fear From The Robots

January 20th, 2011 by Geoff Sanoff

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I finally had to concede that it was time to buy a new computer. It seemed wasteful to get rid of a perfectly good machine, but Pro Tools 9 had just been released, and my Quad Core G5 was a full version behind and losing ground in the endless cycle of OS updates. With Christmas approaching, I knew I’d have a little more free time to deal with the headache of upgrading.

Geoff Sanoff is a Brooklyn-based engineer/producer, and chief engineer at Stratosphere Studios in NYC.

Talk about sticker shock: the top of the line Mac had more than doubled in cost to well over $5,000 since my last desktop purchase. Clearly, I wouldn’t be buying from the top tier as I had last time. I decided to go with the 8-Core Mac with the recent “Westmere” version of the Intel chip. Eight cores seemed forward-looking enough and by getting the newest chip, I hoped I’d be able to work with this computer a little longer than if I’d gone with a lower rung model.

But I wasn’t as excited as I might have been about this new machine, and it wasn’t just about the stress of shelling out a large amount of cash. Having upgraded plenty of computers over the years, I knew quite well what was in store for me: a day or two of copying over files, installing updates and dealing with the inevitable compatibility issues. It’s hard to look forward to this kind of work when the end result is having the same system you had before you started, albeit on a faster computer.

Foolishly, I decided to schlep my new MacPro on the subway. Somehow spending another $20 just to get the thing home seemed lazy. But upon entering my apartment, I thought my arms were going to fall off. I saved $20 only to spend $80 on a visit to Charlie, my chiropractor!

I managed to open the box anyway and noticed that (Cool!) the new Mac keyboard is childproof and coffee-proof. Well, that was something to be enthusiastic about. The new mouse looked snazzy too. With the enthusiasm of a geeky man-child, I forgot about my aching back. I dragged the whole shebang into my office, found my extra monitor cables and began the tedious file migration process.

My old computer had a helluvalot of files on it after 5 years of use, so I knew this was going to be a lengthy process.  Turning on the new Mac, I noticed one new feature that is possibly my favorite improvement over the G5: this new Mac is quiet! My G5 was like having a heat-generating rocketship in my studio (exactly what you want when mixing in  a 7’x9’ room right?). This Mac Pro is the quietest machine I’d ever owned, and considerably cooler. I hooked up the Firewire cables and let the computers do their thing.

Dave: Hello HAL, Do You Read Me HAL? or: Why Aren’t My UAD Cards Showing Up?

The next morning (!) the migration was finally done. “Ok,” I said to myself, “Time to see what doesn’t work.” But upon my cursory examination, everything appeared to be working fine. I was shocked…until I hit my first snag: “Why aren’t my UAD cards showing up?”

I powered everything down, reseated the cards, and turned the machine back on.

Thinking that I probably needed to get some new driver software, I went to the UA website, downloaded the latest version of their software, installed it, downloaded the authorization file, and opened the UAD Control Panel software.

Success?

Well….almost. Now the computer saw the UAD-2 card, but the UAD-1e cards were still not showing up in the UAD Control Panel. I went online, spending all of two minutes looking for answers, before quickly giving up and calling Universal Audio tech support.

Universal Audio is still a small enough company that when you have a problem with their products, you can usually get someone on the phone quickly at no extra charge. God, I hope that doesn’t change, because whether the answer to my question has been obvious (did you try a restart?) or frustrating (that’s a bug we are working on), you get a knowledgeable and helpful person on the other end every time you call.

Today was no exception. I got an immediate answer to my question: My new Mac runs natively in 64-bit mode. The driver software for the UAD-2 is coded for both 64-bit and 32-bit modes, the drivers for the UAD-1 cards are not.

It was recommended to me (!) to consider selling/replacing my UAD-1’s because 64-bit mode uses the computer’s power more efficiently and gives it access to the full amount (8GB) of RAM that’s installed. In 32-bit mode, the computer can only use half of my machine’s available RAM.

Hmmm…well that’s not exactly what I was hoping to hear. But then came the work around. If I wanted to get those UAD-1 cards to run, I just had to hold down the <3> and <2> keys while starting up, and the machine would boot into 32-bit mode.

I did it, opened the UAD control panel, and voila, saw that all three of my cards were recognized and working. Cool. While not being a perfect solution (I’d prefer not have to choose between using my computer’s 64 bit power or using the UAD-1 cards) at least there’s a way to make them functional. And it was easy to get a straight answer too.

My next step was to install Pro Tools 9. One of the things I was excited about with Pro Tools 9 was not having to spend hours with a calculator figuring out latencies or troubleshooting the ingeniously creative but somewhat bug-laden Mellowmuse ATA delay compensation plug-in.

Because UA plug-ins are processed on the UAD cards, their latency is significant, approximately twice the audio buffer size (one trip to the UAD card and one trip back to Pro Tools = 2 times the audio buffer). Mixing at a buffer of 1024 samples means that each plug-in has around 2048 samples of latency! Use two or 3 plug-ins on a track and the audio really gets delayed. So this was a major headache for me.

UA’s workaround, Mellowmuse’s ATA plug-in, does help, but it’s not foolproof. And in my setup, which includes an M-Audio ProFire 2626 I use for extra outputs, a Rolls Folcrom I use for analog summing, and a Mytek 8×96 DA I use for getting back into Pro Tools, the ATA plug-in was extra buggy. It did work substantially better when mixing completely in the box. But, the minute I start breaking the tracks out into stems for summing, the whole ping mechanism of ATA goes haywire, and I’m forced back to the year 2006.

Doing everything semi-manually in order to get the Mellowmuse ATA plug-in to function costs me about an extra 30 minutes per song (approx.) on a mix. That factor alone made my decision to upgrade much easier. 30 minutes a song on a 10-song album is almost an extra day of work. Save enough time this way and the computer pays for itself.

HAL: I’m Sorry, Dave. I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That or: FYI, Core Audio Doesn’t Work With Every Product

The other major selling point for me with Pro Tools 9 is that you can now expand your system to include non-Avid hardware. Apparently you can even combine different products using Core Audio’s aggregate I/O. I’ve been using a Black Lion modified 002 console and an M-Audio ProFire 2626 to allow me to do 14 channels of analog summing while mixing.

They’re connected via optical cable, but one of the other major quirks with my system is working at 96kHz. At higher sample rates, the 002 does not use SMUX or give you the use of its optical outputs, so the number of potential outputs at 88.2khz/96khz is reduced to 10 (8 analog, 2 coax SPDIF). I had heard that you could use an Mbox with other pieces of gear and so I was hoping to be able to bypass this problem by using both the 002 and the ProFire as standalone I/O routed via Core Audio.

When I opened Pro Tools and went to the I/O menu I saw that I had a choice between either the 002 or the Pro Tools Core Audio Aggregate. Well that sucks. I can’t have them both? After futzing with Core Audio for an hour I become entirely frustrated because I didn’t understand why it wouldn’t let me add the 002 into the Pro Tools Aggregate I/O grouping.

Next step: the internet. After searching the Avid User Forum (formerly the DUC) I discover a few other people asking the same question and the answer is…

It doesn’t do that.

WTF?? That’s not very satisfying.

I wondered “Why would Avid sell 2 products, the ProFire from Avid’s M-Audio division and the 003 from Avid, that compete both at price point and feature set and yet one, the cheaper M-Audio ProFire, is able to do Core Audio and the other, the company’s flagship Firewire interface, the 003, cannot?”

Perhaps once upon a time, Core Audio was less desirable? But if it’s good enough for Pro Tools 9, someone must have worked some bugs out.

So, if they already know that the 002/003 family of products does not support Core Audio, how hard is it to actually post this information on the PT9 section of their website so that people like me and the 20 other people poking around the User Forum that day don’t sit around scratching our heads with frustration, wondering why this isn’t working?

In search of some more clarity on this subject, I emailed a friend who works at Avid about my confusion. Well, truthfully, he emailed me first after seeing my bitchy postings about this on Facebook. He was equally perplexed when I explained my questions to him, and said he’d look into it.

I was rewarded in a couple of hours when he had a “clearish” answer for me. And it is summarized thusly:

The 002/003 family of products (and the HD hardware as well) communicates directly to the DAE (digital audio engine) and circumvents Core Audio altogether. Thus, it cannot be aggregated in Core Audio. The ProFire, by contrast, communicates via Core Audio to the DAE and so it can be aggregated.

I was also referred to a disclaimer about Core Audio and Pro Tools 9 on the Avid website which says that Core Audio doesn’t work with every product.

“Ok,” I thought, “that is sort of what I gleaned from the Avid User Conference, albeit with more detail. But what’s up with referring me to their disclaimer? It’s totally opaque.”

The first part of the response was mildly enlightening. I could imagine that rewriting the 002/003 (or HD hardware) drivers to work with Core Audio might be an expensive undertaking, assuming that it’s even possible to do this. So I can’t really fault them for not wanting to attempt it since it seems like it could be more time consuming than is worth the effort (not unlike rewriting 64-bit drivers for the UAD-1.) I tried finding out if there were any plans to do this, but that question has gone, so far at least, unanswered.

The second part of the response I got through my friend was aggravating though. The fact that Avid’s marketing materials vaguely suggest “Buyer Beware!” with regards to what may or may not work with the Pro Tools Aggregate I/O seems evasive. Avid knows that 2 families of their products (003 and HD) will not aggregate under Core Audio with other products, third party or otherwise, so why wouldn’t they make this explicit and clear on their website and in their manuals?

It’s confusing and doesn’t need to be. Especially when given the fact that some of their products, the M-Box and M-Audio gear DO actually work with Core Audio.

The advertised possible 32 ins and outs in Pro Tools 9, is actually impossible on some of their most popular hardware, despite the new Core Audio support (which is great by the way. Mixing on your laptop with only an ilok is going to be rad).

I LOUDLY applaud Avid for liberating their software from their hardware, I just wish I had known the answer to this question before I’d begun my upgrade.

Well, at least I was lucky to get this issue addressed easily.

HAL: I think You Know What The Problem Is Just As Well As I Do or: Another (Small But Frustrating) Bump In The Road: Mac + ProFire

It has become my rule of thumb that the smaller the stakes, the bigger the headache. My next stumble was both the most frustrating and the least important.

I’ve tried to keep in mind that this is somewhat of an arcane issue, but still, I couldn’t believe how hard it was to find an answer. At issue initially was the digital input of my Mac: it wouldn’t clock to the optical output of my ProFire 2626 at any sample rate other than 44.1khz.

I use this connection to play mixes back into my computer and stream them on the web via the program Nicecast. For those of you unfamiliar with Nicecast, it’s an awesome and cheap product that allows you to stream audio over the web. I use it when mixing to get feedback from clients in real time. They click on a link, and can listen to the mixes I’m streaming on their laptop or home stereo and then suggest changes to me over the phone or IM. It’s obviously internet-dependant, but when it works, it’s a real time saver.

My first attempt at troubleshooting was to disconnect the optical cable from the back of my Mac. But I found that I still couldn’t change the sample rate on my computer’s digital input using the Audio/MIDI setup menu. That seemed odd, so I called Apple. I explained my problem to a series of tech support people, who gradually were more and more familiar with digital audio. It took 15 minutes and 3 tech support people to get to the advanced Apple Engineer. He couldn’t figure out what the problem was either, but promised to get back to me within 24 hours. 48 hours later I emailed him. Then I emailed again, and finally 4 days later, I called again.

Since it was the weekend, I got a different Apple Ninja on the phone, but after looking at the case notes, this guy seemed to think it might be hardware related. He had me do a clean OS install on the computer’s second internal drive. That was complete two hours later, but the problem was still happening, and I remained unable to change the sample rate on the Apple’s Digital input. At that point I got an RMA from Apple and was ready to return the computer.

It was going to be a real pain in the ass if I had to go through the whole installation procedure again, so I hoped that the good people at Tekserve —where I bought the new machine — would find a way to make this easier. I went back and forth with Jeff (who puts the tech in Tekserve) over the next hour in an effort to work out the problem before I took the computer in.

He setup a new machine at the store and found to our mutual dismay that it was doing the same thing, not letting him change the incoming digital sample rate. I started thinking darkly conspiratorial things: Had Apple unleashed a defective product upon the professional market? Was this a hardware design flaw like the iPhone 4 antenna? Given that Apple was so quick to let me exchange the computer and clearly didn’t know what the problem was, anything seemed possible.

Thankfully, Jeff’s cooler head prevailed. He had me try clocking the Mac to the 002, which I had avoided doing because it was a little awkward to pull everything apart in order to switch out cables. Given that the next step was going to be returning the computer, I followed Jeff’s directions. And lo and behold, the sample rate changed. The Mac had no problem switching to incoming 48khz or 96khz audio coming from the 002.

Hooray! The problem was not with the Mac!

Now I just had to figure out why the ProFire optical output B only worked at 44.1 kHz.

Dave: HAL, I Won’t Argue With You Any More! Open The Doors! or More Adventures in Tech Support & Eventually, An Answer

I spent an hour or so on the internet looking for insight. I tried reinstalling drivers several times, and I tried every configuration change possible. I even found out about some bugs I’d had no knowledge of when I bought the thing. But in the end I realized I needed phone support from Avid, M-Audio’s parent company.

When I looked them up, I discovered that you now have to have a code to get any kind of phone support. You get one with new purchases or you can buy a code from Avid’s website. Unfortunately registering Pro Tools 9, did not qualify me for a code. BUT I realized that I had forgotten to register the ProFire when I bought it 8 months ago, and minutes later, after registering it, I was “rewarded” with a free phone code.

I’ve never been to the Twilight Zone before but I think I just wrote the script for a future episode featuring M-Audio technical support. Or maybe it was just a reverse prank call. Regardless, it lasted for what seemed like forever but in reality was only about two hours, half of which was spent on hold, literally.

I spent 60 minutes in increasing intervals out of a two-hour phone call on hold with tech support. And it would have been worth it too, if the auto-generated email I received afterwards from M-Audio describing the call had accurately described the call. But they didn’t even correctly identify the piece of gear I was calling about, never mind the content of the “conversation.” The call also failed to troubleshoot my problem.

[Note to Avid: if you are going to outsource your tech support to a place where people are neither fluent in English nor in audio, please include a free option for therapy and /or alcohol.]

Seriously, I can’t believe how patient that guy was, staying on the phone with me while I degenerated into a Tourette’s-like state, using swear words as if they were air, as if the only way I could accurately describe the problem with the ProFire’s digital output was by using language that would melt the face off a newborn baby. It’s also amazing that my friend on the phone let me describe the problem so many times (was it 5 or 6?)  considering how (or was it as a result of) my descriptive abilities were trending bluer and more violent by the minute.

I think it was at minute 75 that I began requesting that someone with more experience take over the call.  Finally, at hour 2, after this endurance test of a phone call was about to enter into its 3^rd(!) Dada-esque hour, I managed to get my M-Audio “tech support engineer” to schedule a call back for the following day with what I assumed/hoped would be a senior “engineer.”

Perhaps this is how they weed out the serious problems. Either cough up $40 or go through the Minotaur to get to the solution.

Well, imagine my surprise when the return call the next day at noon was the same guy.

Of course it took me about 15 minutes to realize it was the same guy.  After describing my problem yet again, and being asked to repeat myself yet again, I had the realization that I would not hold up long under torture. And with this newfound knowledge of self, I demanded to speak with someone else and was promptly placed on hold…for 40 minutes.

After this 2^nd call had been underway for an hour, I was informed that I would be receiving a call from someone else within the next two hours. Four hours later I received that call, again from another offshore support “engineer.”

This time however the call lasted a mere 40 minutes, was clear, directed and while it did involve being put on hold for 10 minutes at a time, the guy completely understood what I was explaining to him. At the end of 45 minutes, he asked if he could check into it some more and call me back the following day. Sure, why not?

The next day I got the call and after another 20 minutes of trying stuff, this second guy finally conceded defeat and promised to refer me to the next dude up the chain.

By this point I had not only called my friend at Avid, who got a very precise description of my experience, but also the head of Avid Public Relations, who couldn’t have been nicer. I knew that I was going to get someone who had a clue on this next go around. But I was curious to see who got me there first.

In the end, it was the triple onslaught that sent Duane my way. Here was an obviously competent and knowledgeable engineer, he might have been working at Universal Audio or Tekserve. His manner was genial, his attitude curious, and his knowledge of the product up to the challenge. And what we uncovered was this: it’s a fucking bug.

The ProFire 2626 for whatever reason doesn’t output optical SPDIF properly when using the port B set to SPDIF at sample rates other than 44.1khz. Duane’s solution was to send me a product called the Transit which reads the optical output of Port B on the ProFire at whatever sample rate you send it and then connects to the Mac via USB where the computer accesses it through Core Audio.  My problem was kind of solved and my curiosity abated, though I do look forward to learning what the nature of this bug turns out to be.

And that is the end of this saga, the moral of which is that we have nothing to fear from the robots. Computer self-awareness is decades away. They can’t even decide whether they prefer 32-bits to 64-bits, optical SPDIF to optical ADAT or Firewire 800 to USB 2. There will be no Terminator any time soon. Ray Kurzweil will need to do a half-century of beta-testing on himself before I’ll even consider any kind of cyborg operation.

The computer systems we are designing are becoming complex and interdependent to the point that nobody can know everything about a product or how it will interact with the myriad other products out there.  It’s almost a miracle that things work as well as they do.

Anyway, when you finally do get to upgrading to Pro Tools 9, you will enjoy it if you are coming from the LE side of things. The new features are worth the upgrade price. Just try to avoid having any technical issues if you can. Use the web first, especially the DUC.

If you do end up having to buy tech support from Avid I’d make sure you use a credit card that will allow you to challenge the charge just in case your number comes up like mine did and you end up with the Crank Yanker’s answering your call.

And now off to mixing the fuck out of something and enjoying using PT9 in conjunction with my UAD 2 card on my new MacPro. I still can’t believe I can do this at home. Anyone want to buy a quad core G5? I’ve got one I’ll sell you cheap.

Geoff Sanoff is a GRAMMY-winning NYC-based producer/engineer and musician who’s worked with Fountains of Wayne, A Camp, Obits, Blk Jks, Keith Urban, Michael Stipe and Green Day (among many others!). Contact Geoff through Dan Backhaus at Just Managing.

SonicScoop wants to hear your tech stories — the nightmares and the breakthroughs, the rants and the raves! Reach out via submissions@sonicscoop.com.