• Max Msp
• Melodyne
• MIDI
• Mixing Music
• Motion
• MPV News
• Music Theory
• Native Instruments
• Omnisphere
• Other
• Pages
• Photoshop
• Premiere
• Pro Tools
• Propellerhead Reason
• Propellerhead Record
• Reaktor
• Reaper
• Review
• Sibelius
• Sound Design
• Sound Production
• Soundtrack Pro
• Spectrasonics
• Trilian
• Web
• WordPress

• Ableton Live
• Adobe
• After Effects
• Apple
• Audio Hardware
• Audio Plug-In
• Audio Recording
• Audio Software
• Avid
• Cubase
• Djing
• Dreamweaver
• Final Cut
• Flash
• GarageBand
• iLife
• Illustrator
• iMovie
• InDesign
• Interviews
• iPad
• iPhone App
• iTunes
• iWork
• Keynote
• Logic Pro
• Mac OSX
• macProVideo
• MainStage
• Mastering

• The Special Needs Music Classroom: Essential Gear
• by Adam Goldberg
• Find out why Logic Pro and iPads are on the list of gear that Special Needs Music teacher, Adam Goldberg, relies upon. If you're setting up a studio or music classroom this is an essential read!

• 2011 Review : A Year in Audio Gear
• by Hollin Jones
• Hollin Jones gets retrospective and takes a look at the audio hardware and software that has helped to define the past year.

• A Guitarist's Guide to Microphones and EQ
• by Victor Mason
• Victor Mason has years of hands-on experience when it comes to working with ways to get good guitar recordings. In this article he discusses using multiple mics, placement, re-amping and more.

• Guitar: Practice Makes Perfect!
• by Toby Pitman
• Even guitar playing pros can come unstuck when faced with playing a challenging riff or two. Toby Pitman explains how going back to basic practice exercises can get you shredding again in no time.

• MIDI Guitar Controllers
• by Toby Pitman
• Using guitars as MIDI controllers is not a new concept or a passing fad. Toby Pitman explores the history of MIDI Guitar controllers from the early 80s to the crop and those yet to hit the market.

• (The) Art of Audio Recording
• Touring An SSL Console
• DAW virtual mixers are modeled after “classic” analog mixing consoles. Take this SSL tour and learn how a full-blown classic Solid State Logic Duality console actually works...

• Live 8 205
• Live DNA!
• Just as real DNA is made up of genes, Live’s Clips are the genetic materials that formulate its powerful capabilities. In this 22-video collection you’ll be exposed to the essence of what makes Live tick!

• Motion 5 201
• Crafting Final Cut FX Templates
• Did you know that Motion 5 is Final Cut Pro X’s special effects farm? They’re brother and sister programs designed to work together. In this tutorial you learn how to create all kinds of original Motion 5 effects templates that magically appear as presets right in FCP X!

• (The) Art of Audio Recording
• The Mix
• Mixing is a complicated “mix” of art and science. In this Singing Canary tutorial, follow top engineer Clint Murphy as he takes you on a 60-video, step by step mixing journey...

• Motion 5 401
• Creating 3D Text Fly Bys!
• Watch and learn how to create a complex 3D text flyby effect in this 26-video series taught by motion graphics expert, Iain Anderson...

• Media Composer 6 104
• Working With Audio
• Learn how Media Composer 6 manages sound in this audio-centric tutorial by expert editor and MPV trainer Jeff Greenberg...

• (The) Art of Audio Recording
• Recording Strings
• Learn how to record a live string section in this informative new tutorial by expert audio engineer, Clint Murphy, at Modern World Recording...

• Live 8 203
• Live's Sampler: Explored
• Ableton Live’s Sampler is extremely powerful. In this hands-on tutorial Dance music performer and sound design expert Olav Basoski shows you how he uses Sampler to create the original sounds that elevate and enhance his productions...

• Cubase 6 105
• Working With Audio
• Want to record audio in Cubase? Let Matt Hepworth show you everything you need to know about Working With Audio in Cubase 6...

• Pro Tools 205
• Elastic Audio
• Warp beats, pitch shift, and match recorded audio to the tempo of your track ... elastic audio is the tool for you!

• Motion 5 109
• Rendering and Output
• You’ve finished animating. Now what? In this concluding tutorial from our Motion 5 "100" Series, learn how to precisely Render, Export and Share your work in an array of different formats...

• Motion 5 108
• Creating Content For Final Cut Pro X
• One of the most important new features of Motion 5 is the ability to create content for Final Cut Pro X. Think of Motion as your very own "FX incubator" where everything you create can be saved as a custom plugin for FCP X. No more shopping around for those 3rd-party FX. In this tutorial Michael Wohl will teach you how to “roll your own”...

• Pro Tools 10 103
• Recording Audio
• Master the art of recording audio in these AVID Learning Partner tutorial-videos by one of macprovideo.com’s lead trainers, Scott Freiman...

• Pro Tools 10 104
• Editing Audio
• You’ve recorded the tracks. Now let’s get into editing! Get the basics of audio editing in Pro Tools 10 in these AVID Learn Partner tutorial-videos by MPV’s Scott Freiman...

• Motion 5 107
• Working in 3D
• Add another dimension to your motion graphics in this exhaustive 24-video exploration of Motion’s complete set of 3D animation tools. Best of all, you don’t even need to wear those goofy 3D glasses! See how the multidimensional Michael Wohl creates 3D magic using virtual cameras, lighting, reflections and shadows...

Preview these Motion Tutorial-Videos

If you’re a digital musician who performs live, chances are you’ve done your best to optimize your system for live playback. Whether you use Logic, Mainstage, Ableton Live or any other audio application this could mean anything from making sure you have at least 20% of free space on your system drive, running samples and projects from an external firewire drive, optimising the energy saving options (such as preventing the hard disk from going to sleep when idle) and running various system optimization scripts before performing live. 

However, there is a built-in sensor on all Intel-based MacBooks and MacBook Pros which can cause all sorts of unwanted audio drop outs during a live performance: The Sudden Motion Sensor. This sensor is designed to protect the internal hard drive by parking the hard drive heads should the computer be dropped (or be subjected to a significant amount of vibration). This is extremely useful in everyday use, but vibration is part of the course in most most live venues and nightclubs. And the last thing you, or your audience want, is for the audio or video playback to be interrupted mid-performance! 

In this quick tip we’ll look at how to disable and re-enable the Sudden Motion Sensor using The Terminal in OS X 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 (and possibly 10.7 Lion).

Step 1 - Get to the Terminal

Mac OS X is built on a Unix foundation. Put simply the Terminal gives the user access to the innards of the OS via a command-line based interface, or CLI.

Terminal can be found in Applications/Utilities folder. Double-click its icon to launch it.

Step 2 - Check the Sudden Motion Sensor Status

Before we try to disable the Sudden Motion Sensor we can check its status. Type in the following...

sudo pmset -g

...and hit Return. You will be prompted to enter your administrator password.

Once you enter your admin password and hit Return you’ll see a list of items. If the value next to sms is 1 your Mac’s Sudden Motion Sensor is turned on. We can go ahead to the next step to disable it.

Step 3 - Disabling the Sudden Motion Sensor

Still in the Terminal window type in the following...

sudo pmset -a sms 0

...followed by Return. You can now check that the SMS has been disabled by following Step 2 again or typing:

sudo pmset -g

Hit Return and the sms value should read as 0.

Step 4 - Back From the Gig > Bring Back SMS

Once you’ve finished performing live it’s a good idea to re-enable the sudden motion sensor. After all, it’s designed to protect your drive and your data. Fortunately, it’s just as easy to turn it back on.

Open the Terminal and type in:

sudo pmset -a sms 1

and hit Return.

If prompted, you’ll need to enter your admin password again. Then double-check that SMS is indeed enabled with this command followed by Return:

sudo pmset -g

Check the sms value is back at 1 and you’re all done. Quit Terminal and carry on safe in the knowledge that should your Mac be accidentally bumped or dropped the Sudden Motion Sensor will kick in to protect your data.

To learn more about optimizing your system check out this Hub article on Optimizing your system and this article on using Disk Warrior.

To learn more about using the Terminal, check out: Mac OS X 10.6 Advanced Snow Leopard.

Preview these Motion Tutorial-Videos

Rounik Sethi

Rounik is the Editor and Lead-Writer on the MPV Hub. As an Apple Certified Trainer for Logic (and a self-confessed Mac fanatic) he's taught teachers, professional musicians and hobbyists how to get the best out of Apple's creative software. He is a Visiting lecturer at Bath Spa University's Teacher training program, facilitating workshops on using iLife and digital media tools in the classroom. If you're looking for Rounik, you'll most likely find him (and his articles) on the macProVideo.com Hub & Forums.

Sudden motion sensor, Live performance, Audio drop out

Comments

Aug 22, 2011

I am running Logic Pro 9 on a MacBookPro 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo to play backing tracks and send MIDI program changes and control messages

In rehearsal on a concrete floor, we've never had a problem. Not once has it ever stopped
Live it stops every set, sometimes once every song. There is no error message, the track just skips like a CD and then playback stops. Very frustrating, I have now turned off the SMS but our next show is kinda important and we can't afford for it to go down.
Does this sound like the SMS, or could it be something else?

cheers for showing us how to turn it off though, it makes sense that that's the problem as it only happens live, but everyone I talk to has never heard of it being that bad, maybe my sensor is particularly sensitive.

Reply  

Aug 23, 2011

Rounik

Hi!

It sounds like it could be the SMS...Are these audio or Software Instrument tracks that skip? Are they samples (in EXS24 for example).

It has happened to a fair few people. Here's an example on the MPV Forums - whereby the SMS was the cause of the problem:
http://www.macprovideo.com/forum/logic/mainstage&id=33917&sid=#33926

Let me know how you get on.
Rounik

Reply