Tonight I had two USB dropouts on mp3 files that are perfectly fine. First one was pretty bad and I had to quickly put an audio CD on. Second one was later in the evening and lasted around 5 seconds.

I am using a brand new 17" Macbook Pro, so I can't see how this happening already. Before I was on a 13" black macbook and never had any problems in the 2 years using it.

Maybe its the new SL3 box ? And I should revert to using the old one ?

Hello samyoung,

The problem isn't going to be the files you were playing but rather your SL3 not getting the bandwidth needed to function dropout free or other processes running on your computer.
I would first make sure your airport card and Bluetooth are turned off.
I would also suggest adjusting your 'Energy Saver' settings in your System Preferences.



This will ensure that you don't get dropouts due to your computer going to sleep or waking up.

If your still getting dropouts I would unplug every usb device, including the SL3, and then plug the SL3 into the other usb port on your computer.
If your still having issues, unplug any other usb device (including any external drives) and test.

Hopefully that will fix it. If not, let us know and we'll go from there:)

Thanks, I should of done all of this when I got it last week !

I'll let you know if its to do with the usb ports.

Hey, so I have played out two night in a row now and done everything you said.

But last night killer rainbow showed up on my screen when I was copying a track over to internal mode when playing instant doubles.

And the sound wave's on the screen look slightly jumpy sometimes.

But otherwise its running fine. All very strange considering how new this macbook pro etc.

Did SSL freeze to the point of needing to restart it or did it sort itself out after a bit?

I know there was a bug regarding to using instant doubles. Are you still using 1.9 or have you updated to 1.9.2?
If you haven't updated I would do so and then test again.
The bug may have been squashed in 1.9.2.

Yes I am using 1.9.2 and it happened tonight again when I was DJing normally on two CDJ's.

It seems to happen when I select a song, tonight and on Sunday morning SSL froze to the point where it cut out and I had to pull the USB out. Not a good look when you have a full dance floor !

But killer rainbow is coming up also when I use the internet and iTunes ?

I'm really confused as to what to do as with my last Macbook I never had any of these problems.

If SSL is freezing or crashing then, as far as SSL is concerned, its more than likely due to corrupt files in your library.

To find out if you have any corrupt files in your library you will need to analyze your files.
First click on the 'files' tab underneath the right virtual deck, and click the 'rescan id3 tag' option in the lower left of the files window.
This will remind SSL of what files have been analyzed and which ones haven't.
Once its done scanning, unplug your Rane hardware and click the 'analyze files' tab on the left side of the SSL screen.. above the word 'all'.

After its done analyzing for all necessary files you'll need to look through your library and delete any files that have a corrupt file icon next to it. This looks like a cd with a crack down the middle of it.

Its important to delete ANY corrupt files that SSL finds. Know that even corrupt files you never play can still cause SSL to freeze or crash.

If your still having freezing/crashing issues once your sure you've gotten rid of any corrupt files, and your getting the spinning beachball when using the internet and iTunes then you might be suffering from a hardware related problem.
At that point I would get your computer looked at by a professional.

Hey, I played tonight just using the crates in my Serato and leaving the 'read iTunes' option off. Last night was fine but tonight I had a big audio dropout on a file I know isn't corrupt.

I looked through my files and I only had 5 tracks that were corrput and one of them I remember playing the other day and all being fine.

I think it is a hardware problem, so taking this mac to be replaced tomorrow.

Corrupt files will, more times than not, play fine in SSL but there is something in the file that might confuse SSL enough to crash the program.
Its very important to delete ANY corrupt files that show up. Even a corrupt file you never play can cause SSL to freeze or crash.

Regarding your audio dropout... did just the audio cut out or did the wave form cut out too?
Did the audio come back on after a bit? If so, how long was the dropout?

The wave form vanished than come back, first few times it was pretty bad. Last time it vanished came back and on again in a few seconds.

I took the 17" back and they restored it to factory settings. Now I have re-installed iTunes and built my crates again, but for some reason SSL programme has crashed twice when I have been dragging tunes into history etc. So to eliminate the problem and make sure its not my iTunes, I'm going to get a complete new macbook. Then if it happens again I know my iTunes is screwed.

And beachball thingy has stopped coming up.

The issue with the waveforms dropping out is something we're trying to figure out.
You might just need to install the Performance Update 1.0 from Mac.
Check this out for more info --> www.macworld.com
We think this might be the fix for Macs.
Another suggestion is to rebuild ALL your overviews again using one of the 1.9 versions.
We think there might be an issue with files that haven't been analyzed in one of the current versions.

Try it out and let us know how you get along;)