Figured it would be worth mentioning that the USB buffer behavior is the same in SSL 2.0 and 1.9.2.

Sounds a bit weird DJMark.

Could you please file a Help Request for that issue. If you do that it's more likely to appear on the radar of the test and dev teams.

You can create a Help Request here serato.com or here scratchlive.net

Thanks

did u get the patch? i read that there's a patch released for the new 15" and 17" mbp's. can't remember if it's audio or video related tho..

I did...that came up in Software Update right after I did the OS install. It was a rather big update...400-something megabytes, and there was a bunch of other stuff with it. The only thing that Software Update brings up as of right now is "Security Update 2010-003".

Another odd Scratch Live behavior: when analyzing files, four graphs show up. (Four CPU's also are displayed in Activity Monitor). But the overview-building is really slow (MUCH slower than my early-2009 17"), and Activity Monitor only displays something around 20% CPU being used by Scratch Live when that's going on. Normally that pretty much uses all CPU resources.

Since the i7 is really a dual-core CPU with hyperthreading, I assume SSL is just a bit confused about how to use the CPU's resources on the new machines.

I did use the machine for my 5-hour DJ set tonight (doing videos with Mix Emergency), and had no real problems. Some episodes of "shaky waveforms" in the first 20-30 seconds after loading a new song was the only oddity I noticed. Operating temperatures when playing were about the same or slightly lower than what I've been used to seeing on the early-2009 17"...upper-40's/lower 50's (C).

tracks discussion...can you please link your help request as well...

dang ... doesnt sound too good so far.

Thanks for the heads up.

could be worse....

*tracking*

thank god for this thread now i can sleep at night knowing im not missing anything yet

I have an i7 pc, that runs 8 threads and is slow when building overviews as well. I account the slowness to the hard drive. Usually the hard drive is the bottleneck in the system. I'll assume you're doing video. Your PC is reading and writing 4 videos that are 80-100mb each at the same time to different parts of the HD, so it's going to be slow, even worse if your hd is fragmented. This happens on my i7 PC, so it's not just a new Apple MBP thing.

Flying bars with 8 threads:

Watchwww.youtube.com

videos or audio? approximately 100mb vs 8mb multiplied by 8.

i just tested on my machine here and it's just as fast as that video when i do just audio mp3s. also if your stuff is on an external, especially usb, it's going to be much slower.

Yep, audio. Sorry.

why would you want a buffer higher than 2 on a new mbpro?

I think the question is "why would you NOT want a buffer higher than 2 on a new mbpro?"

i thought buffer was supposed to be as low as possible to prevent latency issues when scratching?

because lower buffer = better...right?

Actually... I run my PC on 1 ms with no issues but move it to 2 ms to be safe... it actually feels as if i'm touching the music without any lag

what you said


translation

I was using "5" on my previous MPB, because I figured it lowered load on the CPU enough to be worthwhile and I couldn't detect any latency. Wouldn't matter if I was just doing audio, but I do video and have other software running at the same time.

At any rate, my new MBP seems fine with videos and the buffer at "2". I feel pretty confident that the weirdness I've run into is just something Serato will have to deal with for the new hardware, and in the meantime it's working acceptably.

was about to jump on the mac band waggon when the new ones dropped but i think i'll be holding off a bit

I've done a crapload of troubleshooting, and a clean install of the OS (few other applications installed, no Migration Assistant used).

No real change in SSL's behavior. Buffer size at "2" seems to be working fine. It also seems that "9" and "10" are working values. Any other setting I've tried = massively-distorted/garbled audio. I'm not finished troubleshooting, but I think I'm running out of stuff I can try. Running from the stock hard drive with pre-installed OS (connected via FW800) will be the next thing I try over the weekend.

The speed of the i7 CPU definitely shows itself when encoding videos. Encoding time seems like it's cut almost in half, compared to my early-2009 MBP. Also the new computer stays MUCH cooler under high sustained CPU load (like encoding video).

Just for reference: when installing certain hard drives in the new MacBook Pro's, it is still neccessary to do the "hdapm" thing that's been written about before:

mymacfixes.blogspot.com

I can confirm that this works properly on my new MacBook Pro with a 750gb Western Digital hard drive. (Confirmed by using SMARTUtility, and monitoring the "Load Cycle" count).

Without the "hdapm" fix, a replacement hard drive may very quickly accumulate a lot of load cycles, which is likely to shorten the life of the drive and possibly slow your system down. You also may hear "clicking" as mentioned in the link, though I haven't heard that happening with the WD drives.

Interesting read, thanks Mark!

I have confirmed the same issue on my new 15" i7 2.66ghz MBP. USB 2 buffer works, others give me distortion.

Sry, i know this wasn't the OP but what is the reason/benefit of overview builder...

Cool to have a second confirmation!

Are you seeing similar sluggishness as I am when building overviews? That, to me, is actually the more irritating problem.

Have now used the new MBP for three 4-5 hour gigs, with no problems.

I had to do this too so it's worth the read of you upgrade. I put a 500gb in my Macbook and had to add the hdapm trick for it to run smooth. Apple is aware of this and if working on it (so they say)

How's it runnin vsl guys? Mine will b here next week, and curious if you got the ssd? Can't wait to see how quick it is....

picked up the 15" i7 with antiglare/higher res screen just now. i cant test until thursday.

only reason i'd get antiglare is if it actually looked better outside in the sunlight, but it doesn't, it actually looks worse.

my old powerbook is antiglare and my black macbook is glossy and i took 'em both outside and compared and the glossy is actually easier to see...

i have the previous model too which is glossy... i like this one better. the glossy is too reflective. it annoys me

+1 on the anti-glare. Not a huge fan of the glossy.

my glossy pro which is the model right before the i7 annoys me. too reflective. i like this one so far. especially the bezel (no m-bezzle)

I don't mean to play "forum police" here, but I think this thread would be most useful if kept on-topic.

Anyone else with one of the new "Mid-2010" MacBook Pro experiencing any issues with ScratchLive?

Yeah, sorry bout that. I am in the market so would like to here more about issues etc.

I'll test mine this afternoon. Like you, I did 3 gigs with it for 5 hours each without an issue, but I always leave my buffer at 2.

15.4"/2.66 i7/4gb/500gb/512mb video, etc

Thanks Hardy, let us know what you find!

I just received my 15" i5 today. Plugged in ssl and had the same result. Any buffer setting other than 2, 9 or 10 resulted in choppy distorted sounds. Havent had time to do much testing since this is my first mac but I thought I'd chime in.

Confirmed...forgot to try 9 or 10, but definitely sounded distorted at 3-5.

:-/

Okay...so we've got several different confirmations about the odd USB buffer behavior on both the i5 and i7 Mid-2010 MacBook Pro's.

Would be good to hear something (either way) from people with the new Mid-2010 13-inch models (I suspect they will probably NOT have similar issues).

Also, is anyone else seeing the abnormally-slow file-analyzer performance on the new i5/i7 MBP's?

Glad I checked this post out!

I was pretty much ready to pick up an i5 15" this week (coming from a 1.5 15" Powerbook. I cant wait for new hardware!). Being that that there's some obvious issues with Serato dealing with processing on these new mobile Nahalem's its making me wanna hold back. I've had a Quad Nahalem Mac Pro for some time now, and when I build overviews on it, it jams. I'm talking like now! It will display 8 processor graph tables, but only utilize four of them (no matter how many tracks I choose to overview at once).

So my question to our Serato tech support is: Do you guys have an i5 or i7's in your lab to test with yet? If so, how soon might we expect a fix to these new issues on i5's and i7's? You do recognize this is a possibly serious issue, right?

The main reason I'm finally going to an Intel Mac is because my old Powerbook doesn't play nice with the SL3 (all kinds of screen glitches, etc.). And well.....its about time. Six years out of a lappy is record book speak.

My files analyze fairly quickly, as expected on a laptop with those specs.

any one have problems using SL3? and having the buffer set all the way to 1?
this might be a problem with USB 1.0

I just ordered my i7 15" yesterday and should be getting it next week...Happy i found this thread! I was planning to go and sell my old 15" silver key MBP but after reading this i may have to keep it until this issue is resolved.

Here is my question, other then the issues mentioned have you guys had any problems with it at gigs? I mean as long as you leave the USB Buffer on 2 (Which most of us do anyway) does everything else run smoothly? I always keep my usb buffer on the lowest setting possible (which for macs is 2 as far as i know). So i should be ok using it for gigs right??

Any other issues i should know about??

is this an os issue? i want the new mac but dont want snow leopard im happy with how leopard works perfectly and i say if it aint broke dont fix it

It's not an OS issue, I have Snow Leopard and ssl runs fine, I think it is more of a chip (i5, i7) issue

Definitely sounds like an issue with the new i5 and i7 processors Apple put in the new MacBook Pros, hopefully Serato can work this out in an update (2.0.1??)

I'm gonna hold off on getting a new MBP until this is straightened out, my current MBP works just fine.

This has to be a software issue on Serato end. These new chips have a slightly different architecture which will require a SSL software update to attend to these issues. SSL must not be utilizing the virtual cores as well as could / should. That's evident in the speed decrease in the building of track overviews.

I suspect we'll be seeing SSL 2.0.1 very soon.

Wow my credit card with 2500 is coming in this week. Now Im going to have to wait until this situation is worked out.

I can confirm the latency issue with the 15" i5 Macbook Pro. I have my latency at 9 since it was the only setting that seemed to work best. All other latency settings caused distorted playback.

I am hoping that a patch or 2.0.1 comes soon.....

Setting the buffer at "2" doesn't work for you?

I wonder if the i5 works that much differently than the i7?

I knew u guys would have a solution! I got an i5 15 inch this week, brought it to a gig today and bugged. Works on buffer 2. I usually keep on 3. Thanks so much! Definately slower overview building than the 15inch model right before this one (2.53 15 inch core 2 duo was like lightning). I heard this new technology was unreal and since i just bought that one 2 weeks or so ago, i was able to convince mac to give me the new one in exchange. They really are a great company when it comes down to it. I had no idea there was i5 and i7 for 15inch, kinda wish i upgraded to i7. Maybe someone would care to explain a little more about the technology behind this new chip and what it can mean for djs utilizing the technology?

yes. would like to know the same..

I am able to set the latency to "2" "9" and "10" all other settings cause extremely distorted play back.

OK, you're seeing exactly the same results I am.

im lucky to have bought the MBP model that has the express card slot and the compartment hatch that opens and contains the battery and HD. I have been wanting to buy a new laptop but imma wait just a lil bit. The BIG issue is that on the new models the OS picks how much of the processor the app takes. It is not up to the user to decide, it's up to the OS to designate the amount f processor given to that app. What i can see happening is some one developing a program that allows the user to manually pick the settings.

I just ordered a macbook pro i5 with 7200 500gb and the hi res display - I should get it next week...

I use an SL-1 interface and will be moving over from my old whitebody macbook

I happened to find this thread :-/

Do Serato have any news on this issue, or can you guys confirm that the solution is to set the latency as lowest and then things are OK? I have seen other threads that suggest that the screen updates rate needs to be set as well to fix this?

Obviously I was expecting to be able to set the latency as low as possible anyway seeing as it was new fast machine so this doesn't sound like a massive deal but was looking for some confir,ation.

Thanks in advance

@properdom - It seems that the lowest setting (2) is working fine., as well as 9 and 10. It is just anything outside of those settings that is causing an issue.

I have also been seeing some wave stuttering as well which I didn't expect with a new mbp. Hopefully someone at Serato is able to reproduce these issues and will have some news soon....?

17 i7 500gb ssd 512 vid card 8gb ram no issues tried every buffer setting

can u request a better video card ?

SSL 2.0 + corei7 macbook pro + SL3 interace 'seems' to be ok at any settings....is the issue only Sl-1 related?

Good point. I have an SL3, 57 and access to an SL1. I'll try it out by the end of the week.

Interesting. All of my testing has been using (several different damped of) the TTM-57.

Maybe this is USB 1.x related?

Samples, not "damped". Thank you iPhone auto-correct.

has anyone seen this issue with the standard SL-1 interface or so far just the all in one TTM-57 rane mixer?

any news from serato?

Properdom, what are you using?

I have the 57 and Im getting a MBP this week. Am I going to have problems or is this only for SL1 users? My boy just got a MBP 13, it works perfectly fine with 2.0. But Im looking to get the 15 inch with the i5 processor.

I have the issue and I am using the SL-1.

i was getting a 15" i5 but I only made the order yesterday so quickly canceled the order, I'm going to wait a while see when this kink gets ironed out and re order then

well.. i think my rane 68 will be here this week, and then probally thursday i will order the i7 15inch 2.66

so i guess next week i will be able to test stuff out.

All my testing has been done on the TTM57. I played out 4 times in the past week using the "2" latency setting and have not experienced any issues. So it seems the "2" setting is a sufficient temporary fix.

I have a sl-1 box as well, I will give it a test at home and post my results.

this is a bug in 2.0 i was informed and should be fixed in a maintnence release

so what do u guys think is better ?

the i5 17 inch 2.53

or

the 17 15inch 2.66

i mean the 17 is 100 bucks more. what do u think ?

Henry. I really see no difference between the 2.53 or the 2.66.. My question to you is why a 17 inch? Im guessing this is for djing right? Dont you feel the screen is a little too big? I compared them and
1. it felt heavier
2. the screen was big.
If and when you get the 17 inch, let me know how you like it.

had the 17 inch for about 3 years and the screen was nice but it was a pain in the ass transporting it. Sold it and got a 15 inch and life is better!

yeah. i have a 15inch.. 2.33
and wondered about the 17.. but no need for it, other than doing video edits at home, and having a bigger screen to see ish, but not hugely important

im ordering one of these tomorrow, just which one ?

i think i like the 15 better

henry..... did you get the mixer?

do the 15. if you are gonna do edits at home just get a monitor to plug into. 17 is annoying to carry around.

Im going with the 15 aswell. 13 is small and 17 is big. 15 is the perfect size.

tuesday it comes in.


what are u guys using to convert from mindisplay port to svideo or composite ?

computer out to this www.amazon.com then into this www.daydeal.com

apple minidisplayport to vga into avermedia quickplay

damn. thats alot of work.


cant i use this ?
i97.photobucket.com

ive had this for a while(ordered the wrong part a while ago)

not sure if thats a mindisplay port or not. it has the svideo and compisste on the other side..

every solution i've seen involves 2 cables because you have to make the macs digital out analog

thats just crazzy.. all these cables just to convert? isnt there a simpler way?

im used to just using the dvi to svideo converter. and bam. done LOL

its not that big of a deal. i keep my quickplay and apple adapter always connected. so its like having 1 cable. and it has s video, composite, and component

that quickplay looks interesting!

i have the quick play too. but hate how u have to plug the the usb in for power.

lrock.... does it have a mini display female?

which one? the apple minidisplayport to vga connects to the mac then you connect the vga to the vga on the quickplay

yeah i know that sucks but it doesnt bother me. i dont need the other usb for anything.

but dont u have to charge up the quickplay ?
it doesnt work for me when i go to rgb

ok... i got it!!!

just get one of this bad boys fumo.biz

i dont know anything about having to charge it. its been plug and play for me

There's a lot of information about the Mini DisplayPort to analog connectivity issues in the Video-SL forum.

Anyone else with one of the new Mid-2010 MacBook Pros seeing issues with SSL?

Even if just to confirm the issues already posted here, it would be useful to hear about it.

Please include which Rane hardware you're using.

mark are u using video at all ?

So I finally pulled the trigger. Last night I bought my first MACBOOK PRO.
I got
MBP 15-inch: 2.53GHz
Intel Core i5
4GB Memory
500GB hard drive1
SD card slot
Built-in battery (8-9 hour)
Intel HD Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with
256MB
Also got an all in one printer (Wireless) for 30 bucks.. Now Im going to test it on my equipment. Im running the 57 mixer.

erie county is a lil bigger, but who knows

+1 on the 15. 17 is too big IMO. I played a gig with DJ Scribble awhile back and he had a 17. You couldn't even see the dude behind it.

no homo???

haha, none what so ever.

i just picked up the 15inch 17 2.66 today.

gonna try and do some tests and see what i find out. i couldnt wait LOL

i def dont liek how the power pack plugs into the macbook. its like to the side... instead of straight forward. takes up room??!

henry.... making them big bucks!!!!!!!!

nah. i just have a little money saved up. and a stupid addiction to dj toys.

happy for ya homie!!! let us know how it performs

thnx mang.

i will. im hoping to do some testing tonight.

It's a much better design for durability, and it seems like the magnetic hold is stronger now.

Guess the convenience (or lack of) depends on your usual setup...

And by the way, yes I'm doing video (otherwise a 17-inch i7 would be ridiculous overkill).

***** FIXED!

What happened with the 17 inch?? LOL. I was playing with that monster yesterday (nh).

hey mark

what settings are uisng for the 2nd window(i currently have it 640 by 480 60hz)

now i went with 800 by 600 60hz(looks alot better)
dont know if thats what i had on my older macbook


but i havent noticed chopping of waves or video

running 3 sound efx. and its not even slowing my shit down... with vsl on too

ok. so i used my new macbook(15 inch 2.66 i7) and had no serious issues...

only thing i noticed was that my bars were going into the red. but that was only when i scratched. but thats been happenin ever since i been using 2.0

they always did that...it shows poor tracking(which is whats happening when scratching etc)

yeah. at least the new mac it handles it alot better. but i dont understand why it does with 2.0

This is my equipment.
MBP 15-inch: 2.53GHz
Intel Core i5
4GB Memory
500GB hard drive1
SD card slot
Built-in battery (8-9 hour)
Intel HD Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with
256MB
Im running the 57 mixer.
Im using 2.0 and my buffer is at 10. I have had ZERO PROBLEMS. So I dont know what OP is talking about. So is this problem only happening with SL1??? Hope this info helps people.

If you had carefully read through the rest of the thread, you would have found the additional information that "2" "9" and "10" appear to be working buffer settings for those of us with the new i5/i7 MacBook Pros, with *seriously* distorted sound at most (or all) other settings. You would have also read that my results are on a TTM57SL.

Try some other buffer settings, and see if you find the same thing or something different.

Also, see if your overview-building does 4 files at a time and seems much slower than you'd expect on this speed of computer.

The more valid information that can be assembled here (with the least amount of off-topic chatter), the more likely this thread will help the developers narrow down the problem and hopefully fix it.

Of high interest: are people with SL-1, SL-3 and Rane 68 hardware seeing any similar issues? (Not getting my own Rane 68 till next week...being really busy work crap got in the way of buying it).

Just to add to the list. My first gig out tonight with the mbp and while doing some scratching I lost the wave. Had to reload the track. So this along with stuttering waveforms and distorted sound with different buffer settings has got me nervous.

Just for the record Im running:

MCP i5 2.5 320g 5400
Serato 2.0
Sl-1 box

i used the mbp 15inch i7 2.66 all weekend and sl-1 and had no issues.

@Henry - Which version of SSL? As stated above somewhere, maybe it's a 2.0 issue?

Ok, scratch that question, I looked in the thread and saw that you are running 2.0. Maybe its something I am doing wrong?

2.0 with vsl 1.2

With a Rane Sixty-Eight in place of the TTM57SL (and using the 2.0.1 version of ScratchLive included with the mixer), the distortion at most USB buffer settings does not seem to be happening.

I was also running VSL 1.2. I let it run in autoplay/internal mode with videos on both decks overnight, and it was still working fine when I set the decks back to relative and started playing around on it again about 10 hours later.

How can I overview 4 or more files? I downloaded 2.0 for my home computer and It only does 2 at a time. And its slow as shit. Took over 8 hours to do 5,000 songs.

This thread is specifically for issues with SSL and the new April 2010 i5/i7 MacBook Pros.

same with the rane 68. i have had nop problems with the 17 2.66 15 inch. no lag issues ...nothing

I went back to 1.9.2 to see if it was a 2.0 problem and the buffer and tracking problem still persists for me.

do you have a 4 core processor or an i5/i7?

Nope. If thats it then ok I understand. I have an i5 on the new macbook pro so I'll just work off of that. Thanks for the answer.

That was an insanely easy fix.

If you have one of those new Macbooks... just buy a SIXTY-EIGHT to fix your buffer issues ;)

so is 2.0.1 fixing the issue? is that out or only with the 68 or their not releasing 2.0.1 untill the 68 hits?

Im wondering if someone could PM me a link to download an 'SSL v2.0.1' DMG file ?

/end thread jack

SSL 2.0.1 (the version that ships in the box with the Rane Sixty-Eight mixer) behaves exactly like version 2.0 on the TTM57SL. Does NOT fix the heavy distortion on most USB buffer settings with my i7 MBP.

I methodically tried every single buffer setting this time, and found that 18 and 19 also seem to work OK. 20 does not. Hadn't caught those two before just because I've never had any reason to use such high settings.

So it seems like the biggest problem with the new MBP's is having the USB buffer in almost every setting above 2.

But I always have my USB buffer set to 2, the lowest I can set it for my TTM57SL.

So would I be OK to use a new MBP with SSL 2.0 as long as I keep the USB buffer at 2, at least until 2.0.1 comes out and fixes it, or are there other performance issues?

I'm really torn right now between buying a new MBP vs a last generation MBP with the old core2duo. I hate the idea of buying into old technology with an outdated processor. But stability is priority #1 when it comes to using Serato at a gig. This new MBP i-chip /serato combination doesn't sound stable enough for me yet. Are the 2009 15" core2duo's subject to any performance/stability issues that I'm overlooking, or are they good to go for the long-haul?

Note: I'm aware of the current 13" MBP use of of the core2duo. I prefer to have a 15" screen though which is why I'm more interested in last years Macbook lineup.

15 " MBP UNIBODY 2.66 core2duo 4 gigs of ram 10.5.8.......LIKE A FUCKING CHAMP!

has anyone had any issues with the new 13' MBP?

nope non other than the SP6 Problem that seems to be prevelent in 2.0

this app may help some what. Check it out www.engadget.com

so it looks like the i7 system uses the lower power gpu when serato is running?

can anyone confirm this?

should just be able to tell it not to switch and then it always uses the better card...

you are able to force it to use the nvidia

You can force it with the following progam: codykrieger.com

you can force it without any program. just go to energy saver in system preferences and untick auto graphics switching

True, at least this program shows you when the switching is occuring. Didn't notice it switch when in SL offline mode, though it kicked in when I fired up ableton live.

i opened up SSL offline and when I opened up Video SL offline the nvidia kicked in. and i looked at gfxcardstatus and scratch video plugin is listen under dependent processes

listed not listen

I can confirm that the process of 'building overviews' is very slow and taking up a lot of resources. It feels like this is a change in 2.0 rather than an issue with the i7 processors. What do you guys think?

2.0 builds overviews fine for me on my core2duo

builbing overviews on my new MBP i5 is fast... it's great getting 4 building at a time!

i have the same problem with distortion on any buffer settings other than 2,9 or 10, but setting it on 2 is fine so not really a problem

I have the new mac pro icore7 15" 2.66 yesterday I had the same problem sometimes the audio comes and goes and the headphones the audio was terrible distorsion hope serato fix this problem soon I'm running scratch live 2.0

WOW - so glad I found this - I was wondering what was going on...new 15" mbp 2.66 i7 and same exact issue - can't wait for the fix!

Confirmed in both 1.9.1 and 2.0 - good job DJMark

- X

Has anyone been experiencing abnormal heat temperatures with their 15" MBP i7 2.66ghz machine?

Any abnormal heat issues on the 17" i7 MBP ?

No sir. Although like I said earlier, the lappy seems to be heavily taxed when I build overviews for some reason.

So far (it's been over a month now) I haven't seen a single "abnormal heat issue" on the i7 17-inch MBP. As I said before, if anything it seems to run slightly cooler than the previous Core2Duo version.

The Scratch Live overview-building process is messed-up, but looking at Activity Monitor while it's happening reveals that the system is not "heavily taxed" at all.

Normally, the overview-building takes up a lot of CPU resources, but on the i7 there is much less CPU being used than is normal, though the overview-building does give the appearance that the system is struggling.

Pretty sure the correct "fix" would be for Serato to somehow limit the analysis to 2 files at a time on these machines, since there's only 2 "real" CPU cores. I think the hyperthreading/"virtual cores" (i5 and i7 CPU's reporting 4 cores to the OS) is screwing things up.

If you build 2 at a time by manually selecting them, the process/speed seems pretty much normal.

On my 15 inch MBP, I've notice the waveforms seem to tweek everytimg Im adjusting the speed on the turntables. It doesnt mess with the sound, but I can see it doing it. Is anyone else notice this?

i did build overviews on 100 new tracks on both c2duo macbook pro and the i7 macbook pro and the i7 was done when the c2duo still had 25 files left to analyze. the i7 for me is much faster analyzing 4 files at once

im having a similar issue with my new macbook pro also when i downloaded serato 2.0 and opened it i couldnt get much of a signal and i know its not the ground or the needles because when i plug my old macbook into it it works fine any ideas?

Sounds like you're running at a "bad" USB buffer setting, IF you have an i5 or i7 MacBook Pro.

Try 2, 9, or 10. (I also found that 18 and 19 seem to be working settings on these machines, not that most people would want to run with the buffer that high).

does your old macbook have 1.9.2? if you're using unofficial/bootleg vinyl, they might not work in 2.0.

thanks for the input fellas.

I got my new MBP 15 inch 2.66 i7 a week ago, tested out today and I also have the same problem.
(buffer setting other than 2,9,10).
- Put my buffer on 10 and it works fine.. I feel it sounds okay.
- I don't get the file analyzing time problem since my previous laptop was C2D macbook 2.0. my new i7 seems much faster!!
- Running VSL.. haven't had any problems yet.

tested with TTM57SL with the latest firmware, and also the latest version of SSL+VSL

i have heard from several people about how dark the video is now. and have noticed it myself!

people say to downgrade to 10.6.2

anyone ?

As I've mentioned elsewhere, 10.6.3 seems to have re-set display calibrations to default settings.

If you had previously created/saved custom calibration settings, they should still be showing up in the Displays preference (in the "color" area), and selecting those settings should make your screen look the way it did before.

Unrelated to 10.6.3 reverting custom calibrations to defaults, Snow Leopard changed default gamma from the old 1.8 setting to 2.2 (making it basically the same as Windows). That change can also make screens look "darker" or more "contrasty".

In either case, creating a (or using an existing saved) custom calibration should be able to give you good results. You certainly shouldn't have to be reverting to an earlier OS version.

Anyone with the new MBP's see any improvement or difference after updating to OS X 10.6.4?

Download it at support.apple.com

Just got a new 15" i5 MBP. Updated to 10.6.4. I can confirm that the problem is still there; audio only works on buffer settings of 2, 9, and 10.

15inch i7 2.66 MBP, updated to 10.6.4 yesterday,
still having same distorting sound issue.

I found an interesting article regarding the USB ports of the iX MacBook Pro's, check it out here: www.hardmac.com

Apparently, the USB port closest to the user when facing the laptop is significantly slower than the farther one (the one closer to the power port). The article compares the read/write speeds of both ports. It has to do with how the USB ports are wired to the chipset and what it's shared with.

Could this have something to do with the latency issues with SSL 2.0?

wouldn't surprise me - there's alway been issues with one port over the other even back since the G4 powerbook days...

Great article

Thank you for this!

What was the processor speed and RAM count of your c2duo MBP?