hi all,

i'm working on a multichannel installation that will be up in a gallery for a few months, running pd (relatively simple patch that incorporates a few .wav files). i'm currently running this off of a mbpro (10.13.4, late 2012 - not terrible, but not especially powerful), which is also usb-powering a half-rack motu as the multichannel interface.

the mbpro is also my main laptop, and bc the show will be up for two months, i was hoping to run everything off of a very clean 2008 mb, but i just hooked this all up and the sound is really staticky.

question 1: is there something i can do to optimize the old macbook to get rid of the sound issues?
question 2: if not, what is the cheapest rig i can use as a substitute? i was feeling like a laptop is a bit of overkill anyway, but because i need this to run not just the patch but house wav files, the motu software, and power the motu, i'm thinking that a pi or an arduino (both of which are currently out of my experience set) wouldn't cut it? perhaps i'm wrong! i've run patches off of iPads/iPhones before using MobMuPlat and PDParty, but I need a USB-out to power the motu, and i also need to house a few gigs worth of wav files.

was thinking something like a refurbed mac mini, but the gallery people are going to probably need to start the patch each morning, so a no-mouse/screen/keyboard setup may not be ideal. looking to spend as little as possible as this project has already been a $-suck, but potentially willing to invest if there is a reasonable workable solution that could also benefit future installs.

thanks, apologies as i'm sure this is a very newbie question.

j

@dakota I have had problems with Motu drivers... solved by opening the Motu Mix interface and closing it again. All "static" gone.. usually until the next boot.
Probably not useful information though.

Check this first...... https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/210296445-Mac-Tuning-Tips-for-Audio-Processing ........ disable the Wi-Fi, extra graphics card, etc. (if you can).
Is the Motu driver correct for that OS?
Try relaxing the latency (Pd audiosettings "Delay").
On a mac (not sure about 2008) a lot of internals.... keyboard, trackpad, dvd drive etc. are connected to the usb hub. Disable what you can get away with, and if there are two usb ports one might be cleaner than the other.
The Motu is probably USB 2.0. If there are any USB 1.0 devices on the same hub it will have checked round robin style and reduced the hub speed to USB 1.0.

If no luck then buy a cheap windows7 laptop.
David.

this is great. lots of homework, but all doable. will report back. thanks much!!

I don't see why a Raspberry Pi won't be able to power up the sound card, but then I don't know if the MOTU runs on Linux. If it does, I think the Pi is the best way to go. You can set it to run the patch on boot, and you can also easily add a push button to shut the system down. Though, if there's no writing to the SD card, unplugging the power shouldn't be a problem.