< Back to IRCAM Forum

A bug in spat.transpan~?

Spat
#1

Hello,

I’m having an issue with the spat.transpan~ object but I’m still not sure whether this object is the culprit or if I am mistaken.

Here is my actual setup: 2 computers (1 macbook pro from 2011 and 1 mac pro from 2009) are linked by ethernet using the Dante protocol (it’s a dedicated network). On the macbook pro, 1 patch is holding the panning engine (High Order Ambisonic, 25 outputs) and the Mac pro is taking care of the rendering through the transpan object. Everything works fine, sounds amazing except the audio just randomly stops coming out from the mac pro. It can happen after 10 minutes or 2 hours. To restore the audio, I have to erase the transpan object and recreate it or simply restart the computer.

I can confirm it’s not coming from the Dante virtual soundcard, or from my audio interface (focusrite scarlett). I reinstalled the OS (latest version of Mavericks) on both computers and tried with Max / Max runtime and standalone version of my patchs.
I Just would like to know if the Ircam team knows about such a bug or if they think that my setup is just wrong?

Here are more details:
Max 6.1.6
Spat 4.6.9
OS X 10.9.1
I am also using soundflower to route the audio from a DAW to the first patch.

Thank you for reading.

#2

Hello,

I am not aware of any such bug. However I dont think there is anything wrong in your setup.

First of all, could please confirm if I understood your setup correctly :
DAW --> soundflower --> Max HOA --> Dante --> Max transpan --> audio interface

You wrote « the audio just randomly stops ». Could you be more specific:

  • Is there still audio coming into Max (on the mac pro) ?
  • I understand there is no audio out of the spat.transpan~. But is there audio going out of any other objects you might have in your patch ?
  • You « have to simply restart the computer », really ??! Quitting and restarting Max is not enough ??

In any case, it would be very helpful if you could post/email your transpan patch (or at least the relevant part of it) so that I can see which mode/attributes/messages/filters you are using. And then try to narrow down the issue.

T.

#3

Thank you for your quick answer,

“DAW -> soundflower -> Max HOA -> Dante -> Max Transpan -> audio interface” is the exact setup I am using.

Concerning the audio, it takes around 15 seconds for it to disappear completely. It starts with distortion and noise and then, 15 sec later, there’s no more sound. I first thought it was a problem with the Dante virtual soundcard because it’s not clocked (I don’t have a Dante enable hardware) so when it happens, I immediately monitor the Dante status (by simply opening audacity and check the dante inputs) and it confirms that sound is still arriving to the computer. Then I open the “meterin” patch of Max from the “extras” menu to check its input status and no more sound is entering max. Restarting Max doesn’t solve the problem. I have to reboot.

The audio in my patch is simply going through the transpan~ object and then is routed to a spat.align~ object out to the interface. I am joining the full patch to this message. I made it as simple as possible because of the heavy load of the audio processing (adding the double-transaural/binaural treatment adds around 40% of CPU load).

I have the feeling that it is more a max issue. It’s frustrating because it can happen after 1 or 2 hours without any problem, so when you think you solved the issue, it just appear again :frowning:

Thank you for your support,
Philippe.

5.1-rendering-2014.01.301.maxpat (190 KB)

#4

Hello Philippe,

It’s difficult to blame transpan~ when there is no audio entering Max…
I’m afraid it might be either a clocking or a Max issue.

What i would try to do (if that’s possible):

  • on the macbook :
  • create an aggregate audio device combining soundflower and the dante virtual soundcard.
  • Use dante as master clock.
  • use this aggregate device as your audio driver in both DAW and Max
  • on the macpro :
  • create an aggregate audio device combining dante and your audio output peripheral
  • set the sync source as the dante input signal
  • use this aggregate device as your audio driver in both DAW and Max

Hopefully that would make all the devices synced, and the dante virtual soundcard of the macbook would be the master of all this.

Best regards,
T.

#5

Hello,

Sorry I didn’t mention it in the previous posts but I was already using the aggregate audio device on both computer. I deleted them this afternoon to see if it changed something but I got the issue again. Still, I may have a clue on the origin of the problem: I think I have misconfigured the “energy saver” settings. The “authorize reactivation through the network” option was checked. When I unchecked it, killed the coreaudiod processus and restarted max, the audio was back. Strange but as I don’t have a master clock, there may be a link. I’ll continue to investigate and post the result if I find the solution.

We can safely say that transpan~ is perfectly ok :slight_smile: and everything just sounds amazing!

Thank you for your help ^^
Philippe

#6

I’m working at 96KHz, what solution would the use of hrtfs abstraction?
If I load directly binaural files to spat.spat ~ (@panning binaural @decoding null) using the “load” message (eg.:“load filename.hrtf” ) that’s work, even if at 96KHz, but if I load directly transaural files to spat.spat ~(@panningbinaural @transauraldecoding) does not work.

Thanks
Best
Raúl

Doubt-hrtfs.maxpat (29.9 KB)

#7

Sorry this is the wrong discussion…

Best
Raúl