Your other thread involved video files, do you have video files in the library on this computer too?

A few files yes, About 20 in total. I'm getting into video at the moment.
All video files encoded by myself in Adobe Media encoder.
However I had a similar crash in 2.3.3 before adding videofiles too..

Are you using the supplied blue USB cable to connect your Mac to the SL4?

Are you using the supplied RS6 power supply for the SL4?

Here's the thread that crashed, according to your Mac's crash report.

Yes, using the red USB cable connecting on USB.

No, I usually don't, ie never...

BTW, just I remembered, when "tag-teaming" about a week ago (SL4), my dj buddy also had another issue in 2.3.3: All of a sudden his right deck would not play even though it was selected in deck the drop down menu (selected OFF on my laptop). To solve it, I had to take over the channel once again, while he restarted SSL. After restart, everything was running smoothly again. He is running on a unibody 13", Snow Leopard.


Yeah I noticed that one, are those 7 digit mumbers at the end refrences to files?
If so, how do i go about tracking these down?

Thanks, Warp

Thanks for getting back to med Shaun, any more insight?
Got a new gig on friday, and I want to stay confident in my setup ;-)

I have another gig tonight, any tips on precautions to have smooth SSL operation?

Hey Serato/Rane Id really like to have some CONSTRUCTIVE feedback at this point...

1. Why did it crash?
2. What can I do to prevent it?

Come on guys, you always used to be so helpful, I need you now ;)

They'll all be in bed at the moment in the US and NZ mate.

I know I know, I started this thread on tuesday. They've had plenty of sleep time since :D
As Rane/Serato market & sell worldwide, they might consider having some night shifts for this though... I mean, we customers need sleep too ;-)

Hoping for the best tonite, will try call support on monday.

And here we go again....

Gig went well tonite, thank god. but still would like some advice on how to avoid crashes...

do you use an external hard drive?

Hi Karl thanks for chiming in. All music on internal 1TB drive.
First crash: SL4 & Denon HC1000S connected, Bridge and DJFX plugins loaded,
no Ableton running, no other plugs, ie no sp6 or vsl.
Last crash: 68 & dicers, no plug-ins at all.

Thinking these crashes are due to some id3 tags...

here is what i would do:
-check if it happens always on the same set of files

- check how many XML files there are in your meta data folder, and if it is not too many, consider re-encoding the corresponding audio and video files, then replace originals and remove XML files. (you obviously lose your cue points and saved loops for those files)

- if you are on a mac: repair rights (had drive utility)

personally, i have started a fresh library with 2.3., i only use MP4 videos (no MOV) and had no issues ever since.

Thanks Karl, will have a go.
There is quite a few meta files, as I have some lossless in my library, ALAC & AIFF.
The mbp is running 10.5.8 still, probably be updating to either 10.6 or 10.7

Both crashes were a result of > TagLib::List<TagLib::FileRef::FileTypeResolver const*::List() + 221 < which is QuickTime related. SSL uses QuickTime to decode AAC/M4A files and video files (MP4, MOV, AVI and etc).

Quick fix, don't use those files types. If this is not an option,(which I'm sure it is not), please contact the video support team at Serato directly for assistance > serato.com

Thanks Shaun W.
So basically you would advice me against using any Apple Lossless Audio Codec,
M4A files for now? IE stick with mp3 320k?

Also will contact video support on advice for further advice on video files/codecs.

It thinks it's more of a video file issue than an AAC file one, but I would use MP3 320K files over AAC files, just in case.

A was referring to ALAC, not AAC, but I'm guessing your suggestion would still be the same?

A was = I was... ;)

I'm going to disagree with Shaun, FWIW.

Based on my past experience I'd suggest that a QuickTime problem is way more likely with video than audio files, so removing ALAC files is a waste of time unless you're gonna remove all your videos too. Which obviously you don't want to do.

Just my opinion...

Ah, sorry for the confusion :) Yes, same suggestion, as both file types involve SSL using QT for decoding.

I definitely wouldn't go through and remove (or convert) all your Apple Lossless files or AAC files, but as a suggestion, switch your Importing options within iTunes (or whatever you're using to encode your music) to MP3, so that all your new imports are MP3 :)

All iTunes CD imports are ALAC and go directly to external raid backup. Then converted to 320k mp3 for my internal mbp drive for SSL use. However, there are quite a few iTunes store purchases. I think they'll download as AAC whatever format selected in import settings...
And converting from lossy to lossy format is a big no-no....

Will remove video files for now, I don't do video - yet.
But, I will need this sorted pretty soon, as I am starting to do video this spring.
(on a new mbp)

However, Id like to add, I was in no way playing video when these crashes occoured. Makes me think this boils down to some tag reading/writing issue....?

@warpnote

by any chance do you have Perian installed on your Mac.

Yes victor_M, I do have Perian.

kewl thanks for the info...I received a similar crash as yours but mine was building overviews (no Perian). Wish the crash log could tell what tell us what file was the culprit.

I can't read too much into that crash report unfortunately. Have you had any crashes since? Can you let me know if there are any specific files or steps you can take to reproduce the crash?

Sam.

Hi Sam, thanks for chiming in.
No crashes since last crash log. Removed all my video files from the SSL library since.
Also in the process of re-analyzing all files and cleaning out anything I don't play.

Both previous crashes happened while one primary deck was playing, then hitting [cmd]+[f] for search and started typing a few letters, sound disappeared, then a few seconds later gui gone... First crash was SL4, second was 68.

Ie I have no specific files to blame, yet..
Have gigs both fri & sat, fingers crossed :)

SSL still unstable for me. Just uploaded 20 log files for you guys. Mostly 2.4.1 but also some 2.3.1, 2.3.3 and 2.4.0. Please work your way trough them, starting at the most recent one.

Stuff I've done to try prevent crashes: Stripped out all video files from the library, cut down crates from 700 to about 200, turned off "live update" for my 80 smart crates. Rescanned all tags and re-analyzed for 2.4.1.

The last crash happened friday at gig, was playing a track then [cmd+f] searching, after 3rd letter entered in search box, sound cuts of, software gui gone 2 seconds later. bam. Was using the SL4, and buddy on the other mac was suddenly unable to load on left deck, only right deck on his laptop working...

Most other crashes happened in a similar fashion, either while using SL4/68 or using the offline player. Either happening when searching for track, entering some smart crate or writing tags.

That's 20 crashes in 60 days. Really tired of these by now, and need some SOLID advice on how to avoid them. Running out of patience, at this point I'm considering rolling back to my 1.9.2/SL1 and leave the Sixty Eight/SL4 out to dry...

Thanks, Warp.

Hey WarpNote

Take a look at this thread. This guy was having issues with his smart crates being too big. I have about 150 crates but haven't had a crash since I removed my video's and removed any video association with mp3's.

serato.com

Hi Victor, will review my smart crates,
delete a few and make sure the remaining aren't that big.
Luckily my sunday night gig went well.

Will post back in a few weeks...

Can I please get a confirmation from someone at Serato/Rane that you are actually looking into my 20 crash reports posted in the archive.zip above?
Thanks, Warp.

Hi WarpNote,

firstly, thanks for your patience in dealing with this issue.
These crashes appear to be taglib related.

Could you please answer these following questions.

Are you using different versions of SSL regularly? if so which versions do you use. I would
recommend sticking to one version only.

Have you manually set many of the bpm tags in your files? or has SL created the bpm's?

Have you or do you use ITCH at all?

Do you read your library via iTunes?


This is what I recommend you do.
First clear all of your com.serato.plist files from the preference folder, which is in your user library folder.

Then please try temporarily renaming your metadata folder in your _Serato_ folder?
Then re-analyze your entire library, if you use 2.4.1, analyze them in this version & don't launch any previous versions of SL. After you have re-analyzed your library, could you then please try creating a new database V2 file by renaming the existing one in your _Serato_ folder.



I would recommend updating to 10.6.8, 10.7 is currently not as stable & 10.5 is not supported by Serato Video & will soon no longer be supported by Scratch Live of ITCH. It does not receive the same level of testing as 10.6 & 10.7 so is more vulnerable to potential issues.

I am going to speak with my colleague when he's out of his meeting & see what he thinks about these crashes. Hopefully we can sort this issue for you.

Cheers,
Zeb.

Hi Zeb thanks for getting back to me.
Yes, I have. This computer started out on 1.7 (or was it 1.6? can't remember) and I have been part of most public betas since (and the 2.0 closed beta). Currently have versions 1.9.2, 2.2.0, 2.2.2, 2.3.0, 2.3.1, 2.3.3 & 2.4.1 installed. Only using 2.3.3 & 2.4.1 lately though. Reason for keeping older versions is partly bugs in recent releases (FX bug, m4a bug) and ME compability. I don't spin video regularly, but do my own visuals every now and then. My hardware is SL1, SL4 & Sixty Eight. Will normally bring the SL4 or Sixty Eight to gigs, SL1 stays home as last resort backup kinda thing... I also have Ableton Live installed. I run the bridge at home during practice but not out while giging, due to stability worries. Also my library is quite large I believe, about 70000k tracks, about 200 regular crates and about 80 smart crates.

Would love to stick with one version, once I know what version will be most stable. Although I might have to roll back in the occation of using ME.

I always let SSL analyze my bpm's. The only issues I will manually change them is within SSL, either by TAP or double/half the value by [alt]+[arrow key]. I never enter the BPM in another program, but I do run my tracks through Mixed in key after they've been analyzed in SSL.

I don't own any Itch hardware, but have rented both NS7 and NS6 for gigs in the past. A few weeks back I had a Twitch on loan for testing. I wasn't sold on it, partly because itch 2.2 did not even seem to start with my large amount of crates. I had to temporarly remove the crates to get itch running. So currently have ITCH 1.5.0, 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.1.0 & 2.2.0 installed.
I also had a look at DJ intro offline player 1.0.1 and 1.0.5. Have both installed. One of my residencies actually have a Numark MixDeck stoved away as a backup mixer.

No, I don't. At one point pre 2.0 I had major issues with iTunes and SSL, and was advice against it by you guys. The only thing I'll do is drag the contents of an SSL crate into an iTunes play list, in order to sync my ipod later.

Ok, done...

Ok, done. Its about 240 mb, I know this is gonna mess up my AAC/ALAC genre & year tags badly, but sure, will give it a try.
Starting asap, Will try to get done before weekend comes, have gigs both fri and sat, hope to make enough time. Might bring out my new mbp Lion i7 with external drive just for the gigs, and leave the dj computer home for analyzing.

Thanks, will do as soon as I have gotten around to a more recent system backup.

Thanks again for getting back to me, will keep you posted on the progress!
Warp

Hey WarpNote,

2.3.3 & 2.4.1 should be safe to go between, it's the pre 2.3.3 versions that I would stay away from. I understand the concern about stability & the reason for keeping installs of older versions, that is the smart thing to do. The thing is we added taglib in 2.3.3 & changed some of the tag handling, which could create problems if tags are being written to by earlier versions.

Did you try repairing your disk permissions? if not I would try that too.

Have you ever created beatgrids in ITCH with a version pre 2.0.0?

Glenn is going to decode a bunch of crash logs at the same time, he said he will look at this asap.

Cheers.

Thanks! noted.

Will do. Running analyze atm, Have been hard at work slimming down my library lately, and actually had about 38k tracks in there. -better than 70k right? ;-) About 5k done analyzing by now...

I am not entirely sure. The first time I messed beat grids in ITCH, was right after Twitch was released. Not sure what version was launched with it? However, did no more than 5 tracks, probably less.

Really appreciate you taking time to look into the issues!
Will keep you posted on further progress.

Analyze finally done. Played last night on another computer late 2011 mbp i7 17" lion,
tracks on external, went well.
Wish me luck for tonite, gonna use the old one. Been practicing for an hour, seems stable...
However I might need to reinstall something to get the bridge started again?

Gig went well saturday... The only small bugs I encountered was one of those "black label" virtual decks > serato.com - and every now and then the small overview will not show all saved cuepoints until I actually press them. Find that kind of strange as I analyzed everything, Oh well..

Zeb, Shaun & Samuel, after deleting the com.serato.plist files, I cannot seem to get the bridge running. I currently have Ableton Live 8.2.6 installed. Should I just install Ableton 8.3, connect my 68 then everything will be back to normal?

Have not yet installed Ableton 8.3. Have to do some id tag work first.
Guys, after deleting the com.serato.plist files and re-analyze, Im not able to change ANY ALAC/AAC tags in 2.4.1 ! In 2.3.3 ALAC/AAC tagging works though....
Anyone else have this issue or do I have some 2.4 anti karma going on? ;-)

2.4 really hates you... Lol

Lol
So Bob, you're using AAC/ALAC in 2.4.1 without issue?

I'm not actually using 2.4.1 any more I'm afraid mate. I only use 2.3.3 with ME or Itch 2.2.

Didn't have any problems with AAC tags when testing the 2.4.1 beta though, and I have a large proportion of my library in AAC or ALAC. Have you checked that there are no metadata files in the _serato_ folder for the files in question?

Couldn't help commenting, I'm keeping an eye on the thread as 'edge cases' like yours are often the most useful as I'm always learning more about the ins & outs of the software.

Thanks for anwering Bob.
No metadata for the files in question,
This tagging bug first appeared after re-analyzing all tracks in 2.4.1

Even though I don't play video out, I actually own ME too,
so will keep 2.3.3 installed either way. Also will install Ableton 8.3 later this week.
Probably update from Leopard 10.5.8 to Snow Leopard 10.6.X next week.

At this point I definitely think moving to 10.6.8 is a good plan. AFAIK Serato don't really test current software on 10.5 any more.

I moved all my machines to Snow Leopard late last year (I'm a late adopter too) and I'm totally happy with it.

Yeah, I held back on updating the os because of a lot of graphics applications running on this machine. Have moved all graphics apps over to a new Lion i7 17" mbp, so will install 10.6 on this older one soon.

Hi Warpnote,

in terms of the bridge, you should launch LIVE, then SL, then go to the plugins tab & re-enable the bridge plugin. Then it should work, wiping out the preferences puts everything back to default.

The AAC tag bug that you reported in the 2.4.1 beta has been fixed in 2.4.2, this should be in public beta very soon.

P.S, thanks for answering all my questions :)