audio has left the building ... ??? (Mac content)

[woodman]

after concentrating on getting my garden in for a few weeks, i'm back in the studio trying to get my band recording project finished. however, not having changed anything in my system, an extremely annoying problem has popped up: the system simply forgets how to generate audio, or at least gets disinclined to.

for instance, if i'm in iTunes and hit Play, the Play icon turns into the Pause icon (meaning it thinks it's playing) but the track bar doohickey doesn't advance — it just sits there in silence. ... since my monitor system is running via an Alesis Firewire interface/mixer, i'll check System Prefs ... yep, the Alesis is engaged, but the system appears to be ignoring it. then i'll restart, check Prefs again, and the Alesis has vanished from the Prefs box! usually one more restart will get things running correctly again. but this is no way to run a railroad!

as an experiment the other night, i made sure the audio was functional when i closed up shop and left the machine on all night (didn't put it to sleep or shut anything down). checked it in the morning and sure enough — audio had left the building. what in the consarned cat-hair do ya reckon is going on?

[ibobunot]

I have a Line-6 TonePort and I have to unplug the USB cable and exit GearBox when I'm done or I get all kinds of random system freak outs when I come back.


Macs and third party audio software = deep dark voodoo...

[woodman]

the Alesis is Firewire rather than USB, but there's some heavy voodoo with FW too. for the life o' me, i can't figure out why the computer keeps forgetting it's there!

[ibobunot]

I don't ask why I just reboot my hair is grey enough as it is...

[Astro1176]

The only time I have had anything like that is when I tried out the new version of Reaper on OsX, but a reboot fixed it.

Have you run OnyX system cleany up/maintenance utility? Are you positive you haven't installed any new updates or software, even apparently unrelated?

[beep.click]

Originally Posted by ibobunot

I don't ask why I just reboot my hair is grey enough as it is...

That's my S.O.P. I work on computers for a living; if I tried to figure out WHY, I'd need heavy therapy and/or sedation, and I'd never get ANYthing done!

[woodman]

Originally Posted by Astro1176

The only time I have had anything like that is when I tried out the new version of Reaper on OsX, but a reboot fixed it.

Have you run OnyX system cleany up/maintenance utility? Are you positive you haven't installed any new updates or software, even apparently unrelated?

nope, no updates. nothing's changed. ... this is happening outside recording software, like playing iTunes, Quicktime or YouTube files. the computer just can't seem to figure out where it's supposed to send the audio to be converted into sound — like it can't see the interface, although it's plugged in and turned on.

[Big John]

Hmmmm, i'm always leery about QuickTime updates, that always seems a good way of spoiling an already running Mac.

But if you haven't done any updates maybe it's a 'preference' thing, turn off all your apps and Go>Home>Library>preferences and look for your Alesis pref file and put it in the wastebasket (don't empty it yet) then fire up something with audio, if it works now you can delete the pref file if not put it back.

Repair your permissions, sometimes my Mac just forgets how things work and rebuilding is a bit like the old 'Rebuild desktop' trick that points it in the right direction again.
Go>Utilities>Disk Utility>Highlight drive>click 'repair permissions'.

Good luck Woody !, you'll probably kick yourself when you figure it's something simple.

[Astro1176]

Originally Posted by woodman

nope, no updates. nothing's changed. ... this is happening outside recording software, like playing iTunes, Quicktime or YouTube files. the computer just can't seem to figure out where it's supposed to send the audio to be converted into sound — like it can't see the interface, although it's plugged in and turned on.

Reaper caused me to lose sound sound across all aps, web browser, itunes etc etc. It only happened once, I am not trying to demonise Reaper, just saying I did have a similar occurrance. For me rebooting fixed it, but obviously this is not doing it for you.

If you do not have this free maintenance tool, then get it, and go through the options rebuilding and clearing out caches and so on, it fixes a lot of corrupt preferences and other stuff: Onyx

[woodman]

BJ, thanks for reminding me of the obvious — permissions and corrupted prefs! i was so snarled up in complex theories i overlooked these simple but often-effective procedures.

and Astro, really appreciate the tip on Onyx. i've downloaded it and will report back after i get a chance to run it.

[WickedGTR]

It's good to have another user account for troubleshooting, that's kept relatively 'clean'. If you don't have one, set it up now with admin privileges.

If you can log into the other account and have sound, you'll know it's an issue with something (likely a pref of plist) in your user account. If you get no sound on either user, then the problem lies at the root level somewhere (again, possible a pref or plist in your root library folder.)

[woodman]

Originally Posted by WickedGTR

It's good to have another user account for troubleshooting, that's kept relatively 'clean'. If you don't have one, set it up now with admin privileges.

that's a good idea, James — gonna set it up now.

meanwhile, i've run OnyX and gave it a thorough housecleaning (it checks permissions and prefs files) ... cranked up iTunes and bada-bing — instant audio! we'll see if it holds .... thanx to all!

[ibobunot]

I run Cocktail when things get squirrely it always does the trick.

[MEINSHNAKE]

You should look where your software is set to play back music through, it is possible that your hardware's software made all media items go through it, and not the computer, which may have messed up the mac.
I have it set up to go through my toneport to my mixer, then to monitors when it is plugged in, but it seems to be smart enough to only do this when the toneport is plugged in. I have a macbook pro and have never had this problem...

[billd13]

You should be able to throw away the preference, as the Mac will make a new one the next time you start the app. At work, that was the first thing we did when something didn't work right. Mostly we were on OS9 and had not yet moved to OSX before I retired