Hi Knightfx,

I do apologize about the inconvenience and delay. I was out of town. What is your computer specs? processor? ram? etc. Does the output come in and out like a usb drop out or does it stop for 2 to 3 seconds and the output comes back in? Let me know. Thanks.

Regards,

Ron

Sorry for the delayed response. I am back from a trip and I think my problems are finally starting to go away. I have to turn off every function on my computer, and use only one specific USB port for the VCI 300 to not crash my computer. Question. Do you think the controller will work better if I use a firewire external hard drive? Please advise.

I am still having the same problems with the ITCH and or the VCI 300MKII crashing. The software keeps working, but I get zero audio output to the headphones or the 1/4"/RCA outputs. It is killing me! I see my CPU monitor in the red when the irreversible drop outs occur. I have to reboot in order temporarily fix the issue, only to have it crash again several tracks later. The crashes are intermittent, but they always seem to happen when I am playing live for an audience. My computer has all the needed specs, and I have tried just about everything other than purchasing a new computer to fix the problem. Do you have any other suggestions?

Hi Knightfx,

Please refer to these articles to see if this helps. Let me know how it goes. Thanks.

serato.com

serato.com

serato.com

Regards,

Ron

Hi Ron,

I have read all of the articles and configured my computer so it is optimized to run ITCH. All of my music files are analyzed as well. I do not have any problems with the output when my Mac is configured properly unless I try to record my sets. My first two recordings were successful, but the software has crashed during my last three attempts. Weird! It worked at first and then it just stopped working. My system is configured properly, but it just stops outputting to the speakers and headphones. The software and LED meters on the controller does not stop functioning, but there is no output to the speakers or headphone. Is it possible I your minimum system requirement are rated to low? Please what I should do next.

The controller and software continues to run as you can see, but there is no output.

Here is a copy of my crash logs.

Hi Knightfx,

What are your computer specs? Processor? Ram? Etc? The manual states the minimum requirements but it doesn't hurt to have better specifications. I will also, have serato read your crash logs as well. Thank you.

Regards,

Ron

Hey Knightfix,

I would be interested to know if you have tried a different USB cable? It's strange that it crashes when using one particular USB port too.

Could you also let me know if there is any particular series of steps you can take to reproduce the crash every time?

Could you also let me know if you see the USB dropout indicator light up when the output cuts out? If you use the VCI-300 as your default soundcard in Mac OSX and play something in iTunes do you get consistent output?

Cheers,

Sam.

Hi Ron and Sam,

Thank you for getting back to me. I have tried different USB cables. The USB dropout indicator light is not on when ITCH crashes. The CPU meter is in the red, or close to it when it crashes. I can usually expect ITCH to crash when I am recording a series of tracks from a WD external firewire hard drive. ITCH did not crash after I moved all the tracks I was mixing from the external hard drive to the computers hard drive. I do not quite understand how I would use the VCI-300MKII as a default sound card. Here are my computer specs.
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,2
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz

Cheers,

Knightfx

To set it as the default sound card, just connect it, open sound in the system preferences and then select the VCI-300 from the list. Let me know if this still drops out while playing tracks in iTunes?

It sounds like this could be related to your hard drive though. Can you verify and check your disc for errors using Disc Utility? You can find this application in your Utilities folder within the Applications folder on your computer.

Sam.

I have simply had it with ITCH and its claim that all I need is 2G of RAM to run it. ITCH crashed again during my last live performance. I see the resource bar at the top right of the display max out and then the software crashes my computer. I have invested too much in the controller and I like the portability of this system, so I am shopping for a new computer. Will this laptop be sufficient? TOSHIBA Satellite C855-S5231 Notebook Intel Pentium B970(2.3GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel HD Graphics. Please advise.

Hi Knightfx,

I can understand your frustration with this. I would recommend getting a computer with a different graphics card if you plan to use Video. The intel graphics cards will not work with our Serato Video program.
However they will work on a Mac.
Also check out our laptop buying guide here - serato.com
Let me know if I can offer any more assistance with this

Matt P

Hi Matt,

I am hoping three minds working on resolving my issues with ITCH can help. Please review my discussion with Martin from Serato. Any other recommendations will be welcome. Thanks.

Knightfx 9:29 AM - 17 October, 2012
I have simply had it with ITCH and its claim that all I need is 2G of RAM to run it. ITCH crashed again during my last live performance. I see the resource bar at the top right of the display max out and then the software crashes my computer. I have invested too much in the controller and I like the portability of this system, so I am shopping for a new computer. Will this laptop be sufficient? TOSHIBA Satellite C855-S5231 Notebook Intel Pentium B970(2.3GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel HD Graphics. Please advise.
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Martin C 1:41 AM - 19 October, 2012
Thats a shame!

The computer you are looking at sounds fairly decent. However, you will not be able to run Serato Video (if that ever interests you) and you might want to think about trying to upgrade the harddrive to a 7200rpm, it will be able to access information a lot faster and as result access the files in your ITCH library with less issues.

If possible, see if you can test how your VCI-300 works with the computer first, or see if there is some sort of return policy on the computer in case it doesn't work out.
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Knightfx 7:51 PM - 20 October, 2012
Thank you for the advise. Would you recommend I purchase another apple machine?
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Martin C 2:42 PM - 21 October, 2012
Yes, generally speaking, Apple computers run audio software a lot better than Windows computers.

A few things I thought we could try with your current machine:

1. Update to 10.6.8? I recall 10.6.3 to be problematic, and technically speaking, is below our minimum spec, we no longer test on machines below 10.6.8.

2. Did we already try rebuilding the database? You could try doing that on your external drive and see if we can eliminate crashes: serato.com
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Knightfx 9:10 AM - 23 October, 2012
Hi Martin,

Thank you for the advise. I am already running 10.6.8., but I have not tried rebuilding my data base yet. I will try this next, and would you recommend I give up on this computer if this does not work? I am wondering if anyone else is having problems with this generation of Mac Book Pro's, or is this problem unique to my machine? Please advise.
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Knightfx 9:42 AM - 23 October, 2012
Hi Martin,

I am reading the instructions on how to rebuild my data base, but my music files in the finder are

sound cloud mix 1
098 bpm - Kurtis Blow - AJ Scratch.mp3
Ableton
Audacity files
GarageBand
I-tunes
iTunes
new mix
S.K. Battle Tracks
ScratchLIVE
ScratchLIVEBackup
Serato Recording 11 .

The database V2 file is found in Scratch Live. Could this be part of the problem? Please advise.
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Knightfx 9:49 AM - 23 October, 2012
Martin,

Please note that this is how the music files on my finder are for my internal hard drive. My external hard drive looks like this.

sound cloud mix 1
_Serato_
_Serato_Backup
Digatized tracks
Lacie Disk Music
Music

Should I proceed with rebuilding my data base through the Scratch LIVE file?
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Attach A File
Attach a relevant file to this discussion.

HI Knightfx,

I'm going to let Martin to continue to help you with this. Its better to allow one person to focus on the problem to keep it consistent.

Thanks
Matt P

Copy that. Cheers!