Random 'click' in audio playback

[bckaraoke]

Let me start out by saying i've been doing karaoke via CD+G for the last 8 years in a Windows environment using Tricerasoft software and am DESPERATELY trying to free myself from any and all things Windows, because to be perfectly honest, Windows (in all it's incarnations) makes me physically ill if exposed to it for longer than 20 or so minutes.

So here I am trying to run kJams on my PowerBook G4 500Mhz w/ 1 GB RAM and a 100GB Hard Drive.

Yes, I know the requirements say 800Mhz or faster.. 2GB RAM or better.. but believe it or not, the software runs very well on this PowerBook.. with one exception:

I'm getting random 'clicks' in the audio playback.. almost like a millisecond long stammer or hesitation.

I've set it to 'delay playing song until song is unpacked', and unchecked 'skip silence at start of song' in the hopes that perhaps one (or both) of these changes might help alleviate my audio issues, but unfortunately it's still there.

I'm running kJams 1.0d50r9 under MacOS X 10.4.11 on the aforementioned PowerBook G4, and have approximately 15,000 songs loaded into the library sourced from the local (installed) drive.

Just thought i'd post and see if perhaps someone else here had any experience on coaxing kJams to run on 'legacy' equipment or if anyone could offer some advise as to what is causing my 'clicking'.

iTunes plays without any problem, and the 'clicking' is random.. perhaps two or three times a song, and never in the same spot twice, so I know it's not a issue with the source files.

Any help, suggestions, or advise (beyond the obvious, "Get a newer Mac!") is greatly appreciated!

[dave]

i think it's just that your machine is too slow and/or not enough memory.
have you tried a fresh, empty library? and turn off the music store?
watch the tasks window, make sure nothing else is happening when you hear the clicks?

[bckaraoke]

There aren't any background processes running during the clicks.. and it doesn't seem to matter if I have one song or 15,000 in the library.. music store was one of the first things I turned off, just because it seems to take forever to parse the store and retrieve whatever data it wanted to get.

I'm just going to have to do some digging on the subject, since I have a door stop g3 iMac (500Mhz, 512MB RAM) that runs the software just fine with 10.4.11.. so perhaps I have a hardware issue. I did notice that under the system profiler when I select the built in sound card it reports that an 'error occurred while retrieving this data' or words to that effect.

The software flat out rocks.. it's intuitive, easy to use, chock full of features, and easy to look at.. unlike the version of Swift Elite i've been using for years, which by comparison looks like WinAmp on steroids with a slight heroin problem.

Guess i'll continue to fiddle with it, and in the meantime keep my eye on Craigslist for a used g4 1.67ghz PowerBook.

Thanks for a superior piece of software, and the quick reply.

[dave]

if you're getting a used mac, get an intel mac (MacBook). Don't get another PPC mac.