Hey 'nauts,
I played a live show last night and had multiple crashes before bowing out. My Rytm MK2 would freeze, and stop sending midi to the rest of my gear. I would restart the machine, it would work again for 2 to 10 minutes or so, then freeze again.
The whole setup:
Macbook pro running Ableton Suite 10.1
APC40 MK2 launching the odd clip
Novation Launch Control XL midi control
Rytm MK2
ON my partner’s side:
Analog4 MK1
Digitone
Octatrack
The A4, Digi and Octa main outs were running into my Ableton via a Presonus Firestudio mobile, and the Rytm Audio was going through Ableton via Overbridge.
The mystery for me is that we had been practicing for months, and NEVER had any issue like this. I would run my rig at home with no issue, we would run our whole setup at the practice space with no issue.
A couple theories:
- The idea of “dirty power” was mentioned. Maybe there is something weird about the power at the venue? I have no knowledge in this area. Is “dirty power” a real concern?
- Overbridge is still too unstable for live performance? (Again, it was perfectly solid for months)
- We had swapped my cheap usb hub (which had been working fine) with an overhub usb hub, but I figured that would definitely be an improvement. I did get an error message in my Overbridge Engine control panel about the USB port not working, literally as we were about to start, but I just closed that error window and things seemed to be working ok. An odd issue, but possibly contributed to the Rytm crashing.
I realize these things are hard to diagnose, but I can’t really think about much else this morning, so would appreciate all your 2 cents. The whole experience made me pretty sad and embarrassed. I’m certainly planning on simplifying my setup. I keep coming back to it being a power issue, as this was the only variable in the scenario. But again, I don’t know anything about how that would contribute to the problem. Any thoughts / solutions / product suggestions (power stabilizer? battery?) would be appreciated.
I also lost my scarf, which is a bummer as it just started getting effing cold in Toronto.
Thank you all!