Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
hipdeejay
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 4:42 pm

Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by hipdeejay » Fri Nov 01, 2013 5:26 am

Ok so I just got my brand new 2013 15" Macbook Pro retina, fully maxed out with 1TB SSD and 16gigs of RAM. Going through the long process of reinstalling everything and putting my settings how I like them when I noticed something weird.

When I open up Ableton, under the Audio preferences tab it says it has 19+ milliseconds of Overall Latency. With no audio interface connected, this is just stock with Core Audio. This is weird because my previous gen 2012 MBPR had 7.80ms Overall Latency, with the same settings, no interface, nothing, fresh out the box.

This doesn't make sense to me. I didn't do anything different. And I haven't even installed a single plugin yet. Why does the new gen MBPR have much higher latency fresh out the box? I thought it was supposed to be faster. It boggles the mind.

Any ideas what could be contributing to this? Anyone else experiencing similar issues? Could it be defective? Or does it have something to do with the newer chipsets causing more latency for some reason? I don't get it.

I'm hoping it's just a simple setting I need to change, but really I have no idea what would cause this. It should have just as much latency as the previous gen does but instead it's much much higher.

I've also noticed some weird screen flickering, especially when quitting Ableton. I really hope it's not defective. Any thoughts? Thanks

Gringostar
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2012 10:26 am

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by Gringostar » Fri Nov 01, 2013 9:22 am

Hi.
I was planning to buy this macbook today and I just found your post. I will wait a little bit and see what comes out.
Did you make more tests?
Do you use live 9.1 beta?

cheers

Chris

Kent_in_CO
Posts: 159
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:45 pm

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by Kent_in_CO » Fri Nov 01, 2013 12:20 pm

Yeah...wondering if this could be a Mavericks issue. I'm assuming your new Macbook has OSX 10.9 on it. If so - and you're not running the 9.1 Beta - that might explain the flickering and possibly the latency issue.

Also interested in how your sound interface (if you have one) is performing with this set-up.
Hong Kong: 2050 A.D. You're about to inject a dose of mind-altering nanobots. This is the soundtrack to your trip. https://seven7hwave.bandcamp.com/album/cyberia

hipdeejay
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 4:42 pm

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by hipdeejay » Fri Nov 01, 2013 4:38 pm

Yes I'm running 10.9 with Live 9.0.6
I'm hoping it's just a Mavericks issue that will be fixed. Haven't tried the beta yet, maybe I'll give it a try and see if anything changes.

And no I haven't tried any external audio interfaces yet. This is just with the built in audio so far.

Moosebear
Posts: 80
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:46 pm

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by Moosebear » Sat Nov 02, 2013 5:29 pm

Hipdeejay you do realize that Ableton recommends the 9.1 Beta for Mavericks, don't you? They've admitted problems with 9.06 and the new Mac OS. Hope the beta cures the problem, let us know.

I bought a new MacBook Pro last week but returned it because the one I got had the freezing issue. Which has yet to be resolved.

PremEye
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Sep 10, 2013 1:10 am

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by PremEye » Sun Nov 03, 2013 1:25 pm

Moosebear wrote:I bought a new MacBook Pro last week but returned it because the one I got had the freezing issue. Which has yet to be resolved.
What freezing issues?
What led you to take back the computer?

I just bought a new MacBook Pro also and I am having audio issues with my Apogee Duet iOS.
It works fine on boot up then starts to freeze audio and audio players and UNKNOWN USB appears in system preferences.
I called Apple to see if this was a computer problem but they said it was an Apogee issue.
So I contacted Apogee and I am awaiting reply.


Thanks,
Prem

hipdeejay
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 4:42 pm

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by hipdeejay » Mon Nov 04, 2013 1:49 am

PremEye wrote:
Moosebear wrote:I bought a new MacBook Pro last week but returned it because the one I got had the freezing issue. Which has yet to be resolved.
What freezing issues?
What led you to take back the computer?

I just bought a new MacBook Pro also and I am having audio issues with my Apogee Duet iOS.
It works fine on boot up then starts to freeze audio and audio players and UNKNOWN USB appears in system preferences.
I called Apple to see if this was a computer problem but they said it was an Apogee issue.
So I contacted Apogee and I am awaiting reply.


Thanks,
Prem
Could you check and see if yours also has high latency without the audio interface?
My hinge was also making a weird noise so I had to send it back to Apple. Waiting for a replacement, hopefully this next one is better.

dolomick
Posts: 38
Joined: Mon May 12, 2008 7:16 pm

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by dolomick » Tue Nov 05, 2013 6:55 pm

I am getting the same latency numbers, double what my '08 macbook on 10.8.4 is showing :(

hipdeejay
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 4:42 pm

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by hipdeejay » Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:06 am

dolomick wrote:I am getting the same latency numbers, double what my '08 macbook on 10.8.4 is showing :(
Have you tried the 9.1 beta? I'm waiting on my replacement machine. Let me know, thanks

timothyallan
Posts: 5788
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:05 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia
Contact:

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by timothyallan » Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:43 am

What buffer size are you using?

Tarekith
Posts: 19121
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:46 pm
Contact:

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by Tarekith » Wed Nov 06, 2013 5:49 am

Stop Tim, let this play out :)

timothyallan
Posts: 5788
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:05 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia
Contact:

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by timothyallan » Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:05 am

:lol: I can't help myself.

hipdeejay
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 4:42 pm

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by hipdeejay » Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:47 am

timothyallan wrote:What buffer size are you using?
The buffer size is irrelevant. We're not retarded. Fact is the SAME SETTINGS on the last gen retina had significantly lower latency.

Other users are reporting the same issues with Logic and various buffer settings.
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-co ... issue.html

If you don't have anything helpful to say....

timothyallan
Posts: 5788
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:05 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia
Contact:

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by timothyallan » Wed Nov 06, 2013 8:02 am

hipdeejay wrote:
timothyallan wrote:What buffer size are you using?
The buffer size is irrelevant. We're not retarded. Fact is the SAME SETTINGS on the last gen retina had significantly lower latency.

Other users are reporting the same issues with Logic and various buffer settings.
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-co ... issue.html

If you don't have anything helpful to say....
Great! Thanks very much for being so helpful. I was wondering so I could check my own computer.

Tarekith
Posts: 19121
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:46 pm
Contact:

Re: Weird 2013 Macbook Retina Latency Issue

Post by Tarekith » Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:26 pm

16.7 at 512 here, though since you can just change the latency if needed, not sure why this is an issue for some people.

Post Reply