Troubleshooting USB dropouts (Mac)
Am I getting USB dropouts?
A USB dropout in Scratch LIVE is shown by the USB dropout indicator lighting. If you're getting audio glitches, and the indicator isn't lit, this article is not applicable to you.
What is a USB dropout?
Scratch LIVE creates what's known as an isochronous stream of audio data over the USB bus. That is, it is 'fed' at precise intervals from our USB buffer. If for some reason what is in the buffer can not be fed onto the bus, the USB dropout indicator will light, and more often than not, you will hear an audible click or glitch in the audio. This is a USB dropout
Troubleshooting a USB dropout:
There are only a few things that can cause dropouts on a Mac. Here is a quick checklist to run through that helps cure most Mac USB dropouts:
1. Make sure your Airport is off.
2. Make sure your Bluetooth is off.
3. Make sure your Screen Saver is set to 'never' come on.
Go to System Preferences > Desktop & Screensaver
4. Uncheck 'put hard disk to sleep when possible'.
Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver
5. Finally, make sure you are plugged into the "good USB port"*
*Macs generally have one good and one bad port, try connecting your Scratch LIVE interface to a different USB port and see if there is an improvement.
If you are still having problems after running through the above list, start a new thread in the help area and we can give you further assistance.