Hello I just purchased and authorized Max/MSP/Jitter and I'm having a 

strange thing happening with my G4 867 titanium Powerbook

when Max/MSP is running. There is a steady, high, sawtooth-like pitch 

(a "B" two octaves above middle "C" in fact)

that comes from under the QWERTY keyboard. It seems loudest under the 

It does this only when Max is open even if there is no patch loaded and 

The sound happens constantly whether or not there are other open 

programs and whether or not Max is the forward program.

The sound will stop briefly when opening other programs or when 

I have run Reaktor, Supercollider and Pro Tools among other audio 

anything like this happening. This also happens regardless of wether 

the audio is muted or not; or wether or not there

is a mini-plug plugged in the headphone jack which is how I run audio 

Interestingly though, the sound can be heard through the headphone jack 

when the mini-plug is inserted only about halfway in the

jack. I don't know what it is (some weird software induced ground 

loop? Max/MSP hates the kind of RAM I have?), but it's pretty darn 

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hello I just purchased and authorized Max/MSP/Jitter and I'm having a 
strange thing happening with my G4 867 titanium Powerbook
when Max/MSP is running.  There is a steady, high, sawtooth-like pitch 
(a "B" two octaves above middle "C" in fact)
that comes from under the QWERTY keyboard.  It seems loudest under the 
"L", "O" and "P" keys on the right.
It does this only when Max is open even if there is no patch loaded and 
stops the instant that I quit Max.
The sound happens constantly whether or not there are other open 
programs and whether or not Max is the forward program.
The sound will stop briefly when opening other programs or when 
switching between other open programs.
I have run Reaktor, Supercollider and Pro Tools among other audio 
programs on this machine without
anything like this happening.  This also happens regardless of wether 
the audio is muted or not; or wether or not there
is a mini-plug plugged in the headphone jack which is how I run audio 
to a mixer most of the time.
Interestingly though, the sound can be heard through the headphone jack 
when the mini-plug is inserted only about halfway in the
jack.  I don't know what it is (some weird software induced ground 
loop? Max/MSP hates the kind of RAM I have?), but it's pretty darn 
annoying.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much.
-B


new-to-maxmspjitter-weird-powerbook-problem

On around Dec 29, 2005, at 8:58, Briggan Krauss said something like:

> Hello I just purchased and authorized Max/MSP/Jitter and I'm having a 

> strange thing happening with my G4 867 titanium Powerbook

There were several threads about this when the Titania first came out. 

I never owned one so I never had the problem. Suggest you try Googling 

    titanium buzz site:synthesisters.com

    tibook pitch site:synthesisters.com

or variations on the above (you can also build combinations with the OR 

I seem to recall this was eventually traced to some obscure hardware 

peculiarity, and is not consistent across all models.

| Litter Power & Litter Bundle for Jitter

On around Dec 29, 2005, at 8:58, Briggan Krauss said something like:
> Hello I just purchased and authorized Max/MSP/Jitter and I'm having a 
> strange thing happening with my G4 867 titanium Powerbook

There were several threads about this when the Titania first came out. 
I never owned one so I never had the problem. Suggest you try Googling 
the list archive, something like

	titanium buzz site:synthesisters.com
or
	tibook pitch site:synthesisters.com

or variations on the above (you can also build combinations with the OR 
keyword in Google).

I seem to recall this was eventually traced to some obscure hardware 
peculiarity, and is not consistent across all models.

yes, i had it on a titanium, and have it on a 1.5 G4 Pbook

well, at least you know than MAX is running!!!

-- 
  Kasper T. Toeplitz
noise, composition, bass, computer
http://www.sleazeArt.com


> Hello I just purchased and authorized Max/MSP/Jitter and I'm having 

> a strange thing happening with my G4 867 titanium Powerbook

You can use this application to tune the noise to whatever pitch you 

http://www.bresink.de/osx/SystemLoad.html

|| michael f. zbyszynski, ph.d. -- music composition research

|| mzed@cnmat.berkeley.edu -- +1.510.643.9990x314

On around Dec 29, 2005, at 8:58, Briggan Krauss said something like:
> Hello I just purchased and authorized Max/MSP/Jitter and I'm having  
> a strange thing happening with my G4 867 titanium Powerbook
>

You can use this application to tune the noise to whatever pitch you  
like:

|| michael f. zbyszynski, ph.d.  --  music composition research
|| mzed@cnmat.berkeley.edu -- +1.510.643.9990x314
|| http://homepage.mac.com/mikezed/

On Dec 29, 2005, at 2:58 AM, Briggan Krauss wrote:

> when Max/MSP is running. There is a steady, high, sawtooth-like 

> pitch (a "B" two octaves above middle "C" in fact)

> that comes from under the QWERTY keyboard. It seems loudest under 

> the "L", "O" and "P" keys on the right.

> It does this only when Max is open even if there is no patch loaded 

The sound you're experiencing is perfectly normal for some Apple 

laptops. This is due to a hardware oscillation created by the Max 

scheduler. Other things can cause this as well (Quicktime movie 

previews in the Finder when in column view do it for me).

One solution is to adjust the Schedule Event Interval to a slower 

setting in "Options -> Performance Options...". A faster setting 

gives a higher pitch, and a slower setting gives a lower one. If it 

is slower than 15ms it is close to inaudible. This may have an 

adverse effect on your patches though, so I'd not suggest it.

The other solution is to change your system performance in Energy 

Saver from "Highest" (which given your symptoms, I'm sure it is set 

> Hello I just purchased and authorized Max/MSP/Jitter and I'm having  
> a strange thing happening with my G4 867 titanium Powerbook
> when Max/MSP is running.  There is a steady, high, sawtooth-like  
> pitch (a "B" two octaves above middle "C" in fact)
> that comes from under the QWERTY keyboard.  It seems loudest under  
> the "L", "O" and "P" keys on the right.
> It does this only when Max is open even if there is no patch loaded  
> and stops the instant that I quit Max.

The sound you're experiencing is perfectly normal for some Apple  
laptops. This is due to a hardware oscillation created by the Max  
scheduler. Other things can cause this as well (Quicktime movie  
previews in the Finder when in column view do it for me).

One solution is to adjust the Schedule Event Interval to a slower  
setting in "Options -> Performance Options...". A faster setting  
gives a higher pitch, and a slower setting gives a lower one. If it  
is slower than 15ms it is close to inaudible. This may have an  
adverse effect on your patches though, so I'd not suggest it.

The other solution is to change your system performance in Energy  
Saver from "Highest" (which given your symptoms, I'm sure it is set  
to) to "Automatic".

The SystemLoad application icon makes me crack up. looney tunes and 

The SystemLoad application icon makes me crack up. looney tunes and  
all that.

Another way to turn off the buzz is to install Apple's "Processor" 

preference panel (it's in the developer toolkit, but I think there is a 

smaller download available which includes it too) and turn off the 

"nap" setting. The drawback is that the temperature of your processor 

Normal but very annoying.
Another way to turn off the buzz is to install Apple's "Processor" 
preference panel (it's in the developer toolkit, but I think there is a 
smaller download available which includes it too) and turn off the 
"nap" setting. The drawback is that the temperature of your processor 
will increase...

Thank you all for the advice on the weird sound issue.

Changing the Schedule Event Interval does change the pitch of the sound 

I don't want to mess with this until I know more about what I'm doing 

Changing the Energy Saver preferences didn't seem to have any effect 

I tried looking all over the Apple web site for Developer Toolkit and 

Preference Panel but only found oblique references which seemed to 

it may only be available to OS 10.4 Tiger (true?). I'm on OS 10.3.9...

Anyway, the important thing I've learned is that it's a harmless sound 

and doesn't indicate some kind of hardware malfunction so for now I'll 

Thank you all for the advice on the weird sound issue.
Changing the Schedule Event Interval does change the pitch of the sound 
but
I don't want to mess with this until I know more about what I'm doing 
with Max.
Changing the Energy Saver preferences didn't seem to have any effect 
though.
I tried looking all over the Apple web site for Developer Toolkit and 
Processor
Preference Panel but only found oblique references which seemed to 
indicate that
it may only be available to OS 10.4 Tiger (true?).  I'm on OS 10.3.9...
Anyway, the important thing I've learned is that it's a harmless sound 
(though annoying)
and doesn't indicate some kind of hardware malfunction so for now I'll 
just live with it.
Thanks again for your help.
-B

Briggan Krauss	
http://www.briggankrauss.com


On Dec 31, 2005, at 8:21 PM, Briggan Krauss wrote:

> Thank you all for the advice on the weird sound issue.

> Changing the Schedule Event Interval does change the pitch of the 

> I don't want to mess with this until I know more about what I'm 

> Changing the Energy Saver preferences didn't seem to have any 

> I tried looking all over the Apple web site for Developer Toolkit 

> Preference Panel but only found oblique references which seemed to 

> it may only be available to OS 10.4 Tiger (true?). I'm on OS 

> Anyway, the important thing I've learned is that it's a harmless 

> and doesn't indicate some kind of hardware malfunction so for now 

You may also want to try installing the CHUD tools and disabling 

processor napping. This also works for me, and allows me to run on 

the highest performance setting and without any other tweaks. It can 

In short... deal with it. :-) You'll have a new Intellibook soon 

> Thank you all for the advice on the weird sound issue.
> Changing the Schedule Event Interval does change the pitch of the  
> sound but
> I don't want to mess with this until I know more about what I'm  
> doing with Max.
> Changing the Energy Saver preferences didn't seem to have any  
> effect though.
> I tried looking all over the Apple web site for Developer Toolkit  
> and Processor
> Preference Panel but only found oblique references which seemed to  
> indicate that
> it may only be available to OS 10.4 Tiger (true?).  I'm on OS  
> 10.3.9...
> Anyway, the important thing I've learned is that it's a harmless  
> sound (though annoying)
> and doesn't indicate some kind of hardware malfunction so for now  
> I'll just live with it.
> Thanks again for your help.

You may also want to try installing the CHUD tools and disabling  
processor napping. This also works for me, and allows me to run on  
the highest performance setting and without any other tweaks. It can  
make your fans kick on sooner though.

In short... deal with it. :-) You'll have a new Intellibook soon  
anyway, right?

On around Jan 1, 2006, at 2:21, Briggan Krauss said something like:

> I tried looking all over the Apple web site for Developer Toolkit and 

> it may only be available to OS 10.4 Tiger (true?).

The Toolkit has been available yonks (there have been developer tools 

for every Mac since 1984), but it may be difficult (even bordering on 

impossible) to find past versions. FWIW, I have the Processor Pref 

On around Jan 1, 2006, at 2:21, Briggan Krauss said something like:
> I tried looking all over the Apple web site for Developer Toolkit and 
> Processor
> Preference Panel but only found oblique references which seemed to 
> indicate that
> it may only be available to OS 10.4 Tiger (true?).

The Toolkit has been available yonks (there have been developer tools 
for every Mac since 1984), but it may be difficult (even bordering on 
impossible) to find past versions. FWIW, I have the Processor Pref 
panel installed on my 10.3.9 machine.

On Jan 1, 2006, at 9:28 AM, Peter Castine wrote:

> On around Jan 1, 2006, at 2:21, Briggan Krauss said something like:

>> I tried looking all over the Apple web site for Developer Toolkit 

>> Preference Panel but only found oblique references which seemed to 

>> it may only be available to OS 10.4 Tiger (true?).

> The Toolkit has been available yonks (there have been developer 

> tools for every Mac since 1984), but it may be difficult (even 

> bordering on impossible) to find past versions. FWIW, I have the 

> Processor Pref panel installed on my 10.3.9 machine.

Definitely included in Panther -- Not sure about Jaguar. It shows up 

when you install the CHUD tools off the Panther developer CD, or off 

the Tiger DVD. For what it is worth, Apple recommends against 

disabling napping using this anyway for any length of time.

> On around Jan 1, 2006, at 2:21, Briggan Krauss said something like:
>> I tried looking all over the Apple web site for Developer Toolkit  
>> and Processor
>> Preference Panel but only found oblique references which seemed to  
>> indicate that
>> it may only be available to OS 10.4 Tiger (true?).
>
> The Toolkit has been available yonks (there have been developer  
> tools for every Mac since 1984), but it may be difficult (even  
> bordering on impossible) to find past versions. FWIW, I have the  
> Processor Pref panel installed on my 10.3.9 machine.

Definitely included in Panther -- Not sure about Jaguar. It shows up  
when you install the CHUD tools off the Panther developer CD, or off  
the Tiger DVD. For what it is worth, Apple recommends against  
disabling napping using this anyway for any length of time.

I know I'm a bit late on this thread, but here is a patch that was 

posted on the list a while back that lets you alter the sound of the 

buzz. The last setting in the umenu makes the buzz pretty much totally 

Unfortunately I can't remember the original author of the patch.

I know I'm a bit late on this thread, but here is a patch that was 
posted on the list a while back that lets you alter the sound of the 
buzz.  The last setting in the umenu makes the buzz pretty much totally 
gone on my 1ghz powerbook.

New to Max/MSP/Jitter...weird Powerbook problem