Try it and see!

I think it is more in the software.
Be curious how it will behave with a newer Macbook.
:)

install 1.7 and load the latest firmware on the dx and you should be good to go...
(i think you can install the firmware from the setup menu in itch)

you may get the occasional dropout, just keep your buffer at 10ms and it should be fine..

the dropouts are getting worked on by serato, and so far since 1.6 i hardly get dropouts anymore.

i would suggest you only install itch on your new mac as we would all like to know if a fresh macbook can eliminate the dropouts... i know id wipe my mac clean if this was proven.

Hi Biczok.

The dropouts users are experiencing with ITCH 1.7 seem to be a change in behavior that we introduced that increases the load on the CPU. Nobody picked up on this in the beta process (!!) and so it's been a very frustrating time for some users I'm sorry to say :-(
We are working on this, so expect the next version of ITCH to be back to the stability you guys enjoyed with 1.5.


However, as long as user get their computer streamlined for audio use such as here you should hopefully be fine:
www.serato.com

We've got machines such as the one you have mentioned that are working fine for us.

OK Guys!

Now i have the latest MBP 13" 2x2.66ghz processor 10.6.4 system .........

My problem is fixed now,no drop outs no more....
When i install itch 1.7 i did not conect my xone xd!!!!!!! and it is just work perfect!!!

THE WORLD IS PINK AGAIN :)

Thank you guys!!!!

Biczok

Great :D

i have em again..... as much is i using it as more drop outs i have! the mac is clean and empty.... nothing on there just itch 1.7
latest mbp 13 2,66ghz 10.6.4 strongest mbp 13"
i hope you can fix this soon!
thank you!

Oh no. That's not good. Sorry to hear that.

Are you able to test using ITCH 1.6? This may help with the dropouts.
Let me know if you don't still have the ITCH install CD that was provided with the Xone:DX.

Cheers.

Hi!

well im done like 2hrs of mixing now, no drop outs, coz, i put the latency up to maximum and i did put the screen update down to 30. Like this i dont have em. im gonna keep using like this, and if i still gonna have drop outs, then i will install 1.6 !
If im downgrate itch 1.7 to 1.6, then i have to downgrate my firmware as well. Right?
How or from where i can get the right firmware which will work with 1.6 ?
by the way, thank you for fast reply!

i have seen that tractor got no problem, but im a serato fan from the begining so i know you guys will sort it out! ;)

Biczok

Hey Biczok, FYI, I have a Mac and DX and if I put the latency to max and the screen updates down it does help with dropouts but I'm still getting them in the 3+ hours of djing, just a heads up. If you downgrade to 1.6 you may have all the initial FX problems that came along with 1.6 among other problems like crashes when changing view and such.
If Matt-C is telling you to do it then I'd listen to him because he obviously knows what he's talking about but I'd do some practicing before you use it live, just to make sure. Even though 1.7 still has dropouts I find it's a hell of a lot better then 1.6.

+1

1.6 in my opinion is pointless... if it doesnt crash... you get dropouts every 5 mins.

1.7 alot better! i get the odd dropout but at least the music carries on...

Giving each option a proper test is the best option here.
I am sorry that you guys are feeling between a rock and a hard place... we've identified what we feel is the issue with 1.7 so I'm pushing for a quick fix :D

As for 1.7 - there may be some relief, if you make sure that you don't do any changing of the tags at all when you load a track up (ie. don't make a cuepoint, save a loop, or change a beatgrid). Doing any of that will make a meta tag be written when the track is ejected (ie. new track is loaded), which will cause these dropouts.

Also making sure all your tracks are analyzed will help a great deal.

If you find the above helps, let me know, if none of that helps then it's also good to know.

Cheers guys, sorry for the hassles!

Thanks Matt-C!!!!!

This is not true. I reported experiencing audio dropouts since beta testing 1.6, but they were never taken seriously or anything. Just look back in the history of my posts in the 1.6 beta and in 1.7 , they are there. Also many other beta testers reported audio dropouts in 1.7, but they were never taken seriously because the response from Serato was they never had any or they couldn't reproduce any..but after many dissatisfied users reporting audio dropouts after the final 1.7 was online, they could?

just a few..

www.serato.com
www.serato.com
www.serato.com
www.serato.com
www.serato.com

Sorry, I meant that nobody saw it was because of the tag writing issue. General 'random dropouts' issues are hard to pinpoint, as you can understand :D

Hey Matt-C, are you saying that the dropouts are only happening when the meta tag is being written after you eject a track because I have dropouts when I'm not even touching the Dx. Nothing is being ejected, I'm not placing cue points nothing. the tracks just playing and I'm standing there listening to it. I have read several other people say it is happening when they aren't touching anything either.

I it's supposedly only happening when the meta data is being written then wouldn't we have noticed that the dropouts are only happening when we eject a song?

Help me out if I'm missing something.

By the way, I've had my DX for 8 months now and still can't use it live do to dropouts so a quick fix is VERY needed!

same, i get dropouts without changing anything or touching the dx.

i think matt-c is saying that this is a known cause from a dropout but maybe not the solution to all..

If they still don't know what is causing the dropouts in our case and I've been patient for 8 months dealing with this, at this point is it possible to get my money back? I'm not joking! I'll gladly buy another VCI-300 guys so It's not like Serato's loosing out but this BLOWS!
I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I just feel like the fair thing to do in this situation is help those of us out that are getting totally screwed by this problem. If there is only a few of use still having this problem then how hard would it be for you guys to re-emberse me for my unit. It's clearly in mint condition because I haven't taken it anywhere. A&H? Serato? Anybody? Can I get a little help over here?

If you think it might be a hardware issue, email Allen & Heath or your retailer and demand a new unit. I had a defective unit, and got a replacement... all seems to be working great so far!

Interesting. At this point I have no idea what's causing it, hardware or software. I've seen people with similar problems and so far the informational responses from the Serato team to my personal help tickets secede a long time ago. Just like seratosnatch above they've Serato has said it is a Mac problem for a while now and this is the first I've seen them mention that it may be they're software. So I don't know what the hell to think.

Again, I reach out to the Serato team to give me some kind of help. What the hell can I do about the dropout problem? This has been the same question for 8 months now. All I've ever gotten is, "try the next Itch release and see what happens." That has yet to work. If I need to send in my DX then please TELL me to do so. If it's a problem with the program, then please Tell me so. If you think it's my Mac, then the Genius bar at Apple and a private Mac consultant I paid can't seem to understand how my Mac is the problem. Please help!

If you still have dropouts when using the DX as only a soundcard (via iTunes or another program), then you likely have a defective unit.

There are several people on this and other forums that have sent in their units for analysis, but Allen & Heath sent them back without repair, claiming there was no defect. They are now starting to acknowledge that there are some defective units.

If you have master or booth output issues, then you need to request a replacement unit. DO NOT send it in for repair, because you will likely not get it back for several weeks, if not months (based on other's past experiences).

SWEET! Well, kind of. Thanks dejabede, that's something I had not heard before.

No problem... I'm not saying that all units have this problem, but there are certainly some out there. I had to be a bit of a pest, but I did get my replacement in less than a week. I will give Allen & Heath and American Music & Sound credit for stepping up and taking care of my problem.

I think the best way to find out if you have a bad DX and it is not the Itch software is to try some other audio application Like Ableton Live (even free demo it), then choose the DX as the sound source. If no problems, then the finger points to ITCH and if still getting audio pops, then the DX.

the crazy thing is, I use my DX with Ableton. Because I have Midi in & Out and a compact device.

I use a lot of effects in my productions, so my Macbook goes up in Ableton up to 80% of processor usage, 2.5 GHz. Normally you get dropouts at 91% in Ableton.
Also you can kill processes like you want - it doesnt matter - you can pray.

I played at the Beatport Lounge in Denver (Beta Nightclub) and really I was afraid to play on 4 Channels, to use effects and all the other stuff. with each track I loaded into a deck, I prayed that it will not crash. I travelled from Germany to Denver...

However - at this evening I didn't had any dropout. Lib was rescanned also. I do it every time. The difference was, I let the device on power for 4 hrs before I started with my gig.

Yesterday I played in Radio, and I had 10 to 12 Dropouts during a 1,5 hrs set.
Just 5 mins before, i played two tracks and it crashed on 1.7

Anyway : From the Ableton Manual, maybe that helps Serato:
Any Audio Input that is not used, consumes resources.
In general - while mixing with serato - I had never an emergency device connected to it... so i do not need those inputs during a set.

But what we need is maybe a bugfix release.
I'm afraid to make appointments for gigs at the moment.
And really Serios : For a 1200€ Device - this is inacceptable. Sorry to say.

Sorry to hear that. We're still working on this, and will make sure this is resolved as quickly as possible!

Hey guys. If you've not seen it yet, we've released a hotfix release for dropouts here:

serato.com

Cheers.

tested 1.7.1 -- it did NOT help to eliminate the dropouts

had 2 short dropouts during 1 hour. used xone:dx and was running ITCH on macbook pro in high performance mode, wi-fi disabled, all applications closed, USB port farthest from he screen, library completely reanalyzed with 1.7.1, etc.

to be honest, that was predictable. I appreciate the efforts in making fixes for unnecessary tag writing and CPU optimization for "history" tab in 1.7.1, but it's not really helping out. And I knew it won't help be because my library is fully analysed, I'm not making any changes when I'm playing which might cause tag writing, and I don't even use history tab.

not it's time to make a real fix, guys. no lame excuses such as "we fixed tag writing" -> "it's helping some DJs with dropouts", I have a gig tomorrow (11/11), and I know that the dropouts are there on 1.7.1. very bad feeling, you know

Hey Roman - are you able to link me to the beta thread you posted about this? I can follow this up for you. Cheers.

Matt-C,

Thank you for your reply. I didn't open any tickets on 1.7.1 beta thread because other people were posting about the dropouts already: www.serato.com and www.serato.com. I was also reporting the issue issue a while back - www.serato.com, but I'm a kind of tired now... I'm offering a lot of help in troubleshooting, but only getting basic recommendations about disabling wi-fi, so I stopped posting.

Here is the update though. I played the before yesterday on 11/11 and deliberately lowered screen refresh rate to 30 fps and set USB buffer latency to 10ms, and that seemed to help a bit:
1) I didn't have any regular dropouts (when you don't press any buttons, but the sounds drops for quarter of a second, and then resumes)
2) I had 2 dropouts related to flanger (small sound skip when I activated flanger, and then a more severe dropout). note - it was a pretty quiet time in the song, and the limiter was NOT hit

I have a live recording of this (recorded using master out, not the embedded ITCH "REC" feature):
- mix: soundcloud.com
- 1st tiny sound skip: at 1:14:18 (effect was activated, but its "volume" was at 0%)
- 2nd dropout: at 1:14:23 (after the flanger kicked in)

So, this is different from what I was experiencing earlier. But still... it's a very basic thing - 1 track playing with flanger, not hitting the limiter, CPU indicator is green. And I was mixing not using the full waveform zoom, but "zoomed out" once from the full zoom to see more - not sure if it makes the difference.

Let me know if you can file a bug for me, or I need to do something.

Thanks,
Roman

Hi Roman - cheers. Some issues are hard to track, and sometimes it's a strange combo of things that works badly for some people, but tweak one thing and things run flawlessly.

One thing I haven't asked yet, are you able to to OS X 10.6.5?

the set on 11/11 was played on 10.6.4. installed 10.6.5 a couple of days ago and it's roughly the same thing - one or two occasional dropouts every 2 hours.

please let me know what do you need from me to troubleshoot this further

Roman

This is aimed at serato...

iv had a thought, and it could be complete rubbish, but maybe its worth looking into. firstly im no expert programmer, nor do i have and knowledge of such expertise!

anyway.. i was wondering if the dropouts could be caused by the buffer not functioning correctly ?

the buffer is designed to correct any loss of data being sent.. now what if, no matter what the buffer is set to in serato, its just not rectifying any dropouts?
the reason i think this is because it seems no matter what setting people are using, they are still getting dropouts. 20ms is a lifetime in usb buffer land...

anyway, excuse my ignorance if this makes absolutely no sense to computer geniuses. its just an idea...

I'm tired of speculating to be honest

He's the biggest thing to me about this whole ordeal and "tweaking" things.

How is it that 1.5 worked flawlessly but everything since has given me dropouts?

How is it a setting when I have the same settings in 1.5 as in 1.6 or 1.7?

Even when running 1.7 with VCI there are dropouts so it's not just the dx. I have the same computer, same settings, same everything but 1.5 works and 1.7 doesn't. How is that my computer? How is that something that I have set wrong?

How is it anything other then something within 1.7 (1.6) that's causing the problem? In other words, why should I have to tweak anything, change my OSX, cables, port, etc in 1.7 if 1.5 works just fine with everything the way it is?

Cheers for the replys guys.
I'll ask everyone who isn't Biczok to start their own help thread with full details of their system and issues. This thread is now getting too cluttered to easily help everyone sorry.
Cheers.

is the same thing guys...... more drop outs then ever........

In the ITCH Setup screen, what is the 5 digit number in the lower left hand corner of the screen in brackets?

Have you made sure you are doing everything in the optimizing guide since you got your new computer: www.serato.com

When you get dropouts, do you see the CPU spike, or see anything happen on screen?