HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, thinking twice! lol. oh well wa ever works!

What are your Itch settings?

Once other alternative that may not be quite as radical to some is to just install another instance of the OS as a separate partition of the hard drive. Run all the updates and just install ITCH and other DJ programs you need. You will still have anything you need from the other (older partition), music and such.

If you play and find your setup runs more smooth, you have some options:

1) keep the two partitions: New one for DJing and the old one for testing updates and other applications. You can shift the size of the partitions to suit your needs.
2) transfer files from old partition to new and wipe out old partition. note you may need a 2nd drive to hold your personal files before you can wipe out partition.

If you are not comfortable doing these things yourself, I would consult the Genuis bar at your Local Apple store or online support.

That setup will give you the advantage of testing if that clean install resolves your issue before wiping everything clean. It will also give you the ability to test updates on your non DJ partition before you apply them to your performance partition.

This is just a suggestion... so take it for what it is worth.

well.... an easier way to do this is to create a partition if u have at least 20gb of free space left and install snow leopard, update it and install dj related apps only! i have done this from the get go and have never have problems with it! i have only installed itch 1.7.1, 1.5(just in case...), scratchlive, soundplant(not using it anymore), adobe audition and vdj(for video and very small gigs). other than this i have a second 80gb partition for regular use and that leaves me with 400gb for music (have a 500b installed).

So Rick, do you have 3 partitions?

1) OS with DJ Apps
2) OS with Other Apps
3) Data Partition for Music?

I was going to setup that way, but Apple told me I didnt need to because reinstalling the OS does not overwrite your personal files. And if I wiped my HD, Time Machine would restore all personal data.

But I like how you suggest as it does give you common access to your music in either partition, you just need to ensure permissions are not a problem?

Running buffer at 2 for both VCI and NS7. Beat Grid on, everything else set to high. I'm also running KUE-IT in the background

Just did this after seeing this thread. I was having drop out issues. But when I tested my wifes MBP it was no issue at all. Must be my MB i guessed.Decided to do a clean install after upgrading the HD from 250 to 650.

Now I have 2 partitions... one for regular everday use, and the other only for Itch with no other apps installed. So far, my drop out issue is gone.

And yes, you can still access files and apps from one partition while running the other one!

Thanks for the help guys!!

Go team!!!

Glad to hear that it worked for you!

I decided to do this, but also took the opportunity to buy and install a new 750GB 7200RPM 2.5" Seagate SATA internal hard drive for my MBP. You can get it for $130 with an installation kit at eshop.macsales.com

I installed OS X twice to two partitions:
OS X - Test (60GB)
OS X - Production (690GB)

I reinstalled all applications from their installation files. I did not restore them from my Time Machine backup. I only restored documents to the TEST partition and restored all my music and video files to the PRODUCTION partition. I will use TEST to work with documents, browse the web, install and test new versions of my DJ apps, as well as test new updates from Apple. I will use PRODUCTION for DJ performance only, as well as only install updates once they have been successfully tested in TEST.

I also reanalyzed all my ITCH library. In prior instances I only had a single minor sub second drop out on occassion with my Xone DX and ITCH 1.7.1, but so far no issues with this new configuration.

So if you are thinking about doing the wipe and reinstall, you may want to treat yourself to a brand new and BIGGER hard drive since there are many above the prior maximum of 500gb now. I almost went for the 1TB; however the fastest one is 5200RPM. I felt the 250GB was not valuable enough to sacrafice response/speed of data access. So I went with the above 7200RPM model. I still have over 300GB of free space and grow about 5GB per month. So I will be okay for a few years at that rate. So if you were having drop outs before, I would highly recommend (if you choose to upgrade your HD) you choose a higher RPM model (like 7200.) You will basically see less of an CPU drain when you load a file to a DECK.

Also, I meant to mention the instructions to swap your own hard drive for the MBP is on the Apple website. You just need to search for the one that fits your model of MBP. They are very complete and accurate for the 2009 models. It took me 5 minutes (tops.) I previously had Best Buy do it to not void my warranty with Apple. However since my 1 yr warranty is up in Feb, I thought what the heck Ill do it myself. I also have full accidential coverage on my MBP from the retail store I bought it from. So I am doubly covered in that sense.

So if you have alot of warranty left on your MBP, I would look at having it done by an approved dealer. Otherwise, I would say most people could handle the instructions. Just go very slow, methodical, and delicately. :)

Gosh, one more thing. The reinstall of OS X (twice), reinstall of office 2008, ITCH, TRaktor, VDJ, Abelton, etc..., run all the apple updates, and my Time Machine USER files took me a total of 4 hrs. Of which only required about 15 minutes of my time. The rest was the the MAC/software running, downloading, installing, etc...

However it took my MBP running continiously about 30 hours to reanalyze my library of over 20k files.... most of which are ~7-8 minute remixes.

Okay, THE END! :)

Thanks for sharing this info DJChad72

FYI You don't need to re-analize files after they've been analyzed once. The data is written on the MP3. All you need to do is rescan id3 tags. Much much quicker.

Great job on the info above!!

Oh, wow, that is good to know! :) Definitely would be a time saver. LOL

Glad the above helped or is useful. :)

I finally had no drops at my new years day gig,

I re-installed mac Os 10.6. I did the long way by truly wiping my hard drive clean that took about 3hrs and install 10.6 and updated it to 10.6.5 and then i install only
Kueit, Itch 1.5 and Numark ns7 driver 2.0.2

when to my gig and it ran flawless. no freezes in searching for songs either.

I have reintsall os 10.6 b4 but the difference his time is that i did more than quick reformat. and i use to install Itch 1.7.1 also but i still use to get drops and freezes nothing to serious but i jus didnt like it.

Even if u change the name of itch 1.5 and install 1.7 i use to get drops so now i only install 1.5 and i was good to go,

My opinion it can be the driver is not compatiable wid 1.5 causin drops. cause i remember a time back after i install 1.7, i tryed installing Ns7 driver 2.0.2 it told me that i have a newer vdriver already.

Everyone's environmental variables (en.wikipedia.org) are a vastly different, even with similar operating systems, installations, and configurations.

For example, usually, I use Windows 7 Ultimate when DJing with ITCH.

Today, I decided to switch up a bit. I created a 100GB VHD and installed Windows Server 2008 R2 to it (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 support native booting of proprietary virtual drives) since I had an unused license just sitting around as I was curious as to whether or not ITCH (and the audio driver for the NS7) would work in such an OS - and it did. I mean, absolutely flawless performance, mind you though that this is an absolutely fresh install and it's running off a virtual HDD, but there is no OS virtualization occurring in any way, shape, or form.

However, I was still seeing unexplained CPU spikes, but no scratches / skips were heard nor were there drop outs. Overall, though, CPU load was rather low at 12-25% on average and would hit about 60-70% when spiking (Up to 100% if scanning for a BPM on an untagged mp3), but never 100% for no reason when not scanning a file.
(i54.tinypic.com - Screenshot for Reference)
Setting was 33RPM and 2ms. C2D T9600 / 4GB 6-6-6-18 800MHz / GTX 260M

BadBoyChubs, if you install a separate instance of OS X, you can install 1.7.1 and test it on the fresh install and see if it works better. Then you do not have to worry about driver or no driver.

As I stated before... having this "test area" if you cant afford to have 2 identical units around can allow you to do these types of things without putting you in a time crunch for your gigs.

I am not seening any issues when I properly configure my machine (ie wifi/bt off, etc...)

Papa Midnight, completely agree. I think sometimes our confidence in what we "think" we know what we are doing backfires on us. Like, how in the world could Office conflict with ITCH or Time Machine with ITCH. We tend to think of only like applications affection one another... but what it comes down to is any new application can alter the state of your machine. Time Machine has a "wake up" process always running looking at USB connections. Office has reminders always running, even when Entourage isnt.

You just never know... which is why I am a big fan of having dual particitions. One to work with every day and one for live performance only.

@djchad72 i try that once to install another os like 10.5 and i partation my hdd to 10gb and try to install it froze my computer and had o wipe it clean, maybe i did something wrong, but i doubt it

maybe u show me the best link on youtube to install a 2nd OS. i will do it

You need more than 10gb. I use 60gb for my test partition. Must seem to be fine with 20 or 30gb.

@DJCHAD72,

Great suggestion and information. Thanks.

I did the same a while ago... Still getting drop outs.

8 GBS of ram also on a Macbook Pro 1 TB Hard Drive w/ 850 GBs free.

You did what the same?

off topic: out of curiosity why do you like your wavforms vertical instead of horizontal?

Force of habit. Having worked with Virtual DJ (using an SSL clone skin called vinyl scratch vert - www.virtualdj.com) for quite a while in addition to Serato Scratch Live, both of which present the wave form vertically. Due to this, I've grown accustomed to it being vertical and actually have found difficulty adjusting to the usage of horizontal waveforms.

Start from 0
Snow Leopard wipeout and reinstall...

Still getting dropouts

questions?

Did u install only 1.5 and install the driver 2.0.2 for the ns7?
are u using external hard drive on a hub?

try not to in 1.7.1. all my previous reinstall i install 1.7 and i got drops the minute i only install 1.5, it works clean

I tried it again but, the installation freezes, i partation my hard darive and install another 10.6 but it wont allow,

BabBoyChubs,

Make sure your data is backed up. Clean the hard drive. Start over.

When you go to install OS X the first time, you need to go into disk utilities in the OS X Install menu (Under Utilities) and select a 2 partition configuration. You will see 2 partitions listed in a box below the partition drop down options. Select 1 at a time and can use the boxes on the right to name them and specify the size.

For me:
I named the 1st one OS X - Test and sized it to exactly 60gb
I named the 2nd one OX X - Production and left it sized to the remainder of the hard drive (in my case since I had a 750gb, it was nearly 690gb left after the 60gb TEST partition.)

But the key is to use Utilities - Disk Utilities and select 2 partition setup upon installation. I am not sure I had learned this with the first install. I think I just said to make the first installation 60gb and the rest of the drive was left unpartitioned. When I tried to install the second time, I realized I had to select 2 partitions from the drop down.

You could do 3 if you wanted. 2 for your OS Test and Production and a 3rd for your data. But honestly everything seems to work smoother with the data in the USER folders. I put my music and videos on Production. I put my documents and iweb files on TEST.

I tried it and didnt work. I only have a 250 on a macbook. i try it on an external hrd drive split it in threee, and install 10.5 and 10.6 and it worked. maybe my mac hd dont alow more than 2 OS, cause i cant even install windows either! via bootcamp!