Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

This problem revolves around Pro Tools suddenly, and randomly glitching out and making the output sound incredibly thin, distorted with high pitched noise. To describe the sound further, it's a cross between a bit-crushed and ring modulated effect over the whole mix, but doesn't sound as cool as what I'm describing :(

I've tried searching for this issue online, but haven't had any luck. For the record, I'm 99% positive it has nothing to do with the standard gain staging mistakes within pro tools. It's completely independent to any of these sounds.

I ran into this problem again last night when listening back to a session through my interface. I had not seen it since I first encountered it using pro tools stand alone on my macbook pro, but didn't think much about solving it since I hardly ever use pro tools without my interface. Now that it is happening through my interface i desperately need to solve this.

It's a major show stopper. I cannot predict when it happens, and the only way to reset the sound is to go back into the playback engine and re-select my metric halo as the output device...and then it happens a few minutes later. I believe I have had this issue on all revisions of PT10, as it initially happened on my laptop (without interface) when i was running 10.0.1, last night I tried 10.1.2 and 10.1.3. I've just done a FRESH reinstall of my whole OS, and I'm getting the issue both on 10.1.3, and then 10.0.0 when i resorted back to that.

I can rule out these factors (or so I believe):

1. Not a plugin issue. When i did the fresh OS install, I opened the session before installing any plugins and had the problem.

2. Interface - doesn't seem to be my interface as last night i was able to recreate the problem when playing the session through the OSX aggregate device setup. Not to mention, this is how I first encountered the problem a few weeks ago.

3. I thought sample rate might be an issue as at the moment it is only happening with a session at 96kHz. HOWEVER, the session I made when I first ran into this noise was at 44.1...Although it's strange that I am not getting it at the moment with sessions at lower sample rates.

4. It happens on all outputs (cans, monitors, laptop speakers), so none of these are the cause.

5. Buffer size - happens even at the largest settings

Has anyone ever seen (heard) this issue before???



Some info:
Macbook Pro 2GHz Core i7, 8 GB ram
OSX Lion 10.7.3
Pro Tools 10.0.0 at the moment, about to try 10.0.1
Glyph GPT50 External FW800 drive
Metric Halo 2882

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

I'm at a bit of a loss. I just had the issue when listening to iTunes, Pro tools not running.

Could be anything now I guess...

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

Please update to 10.1.2, 10.7.3 is not supported with your 10.0.0

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

As in my interface? I don't think that is the sole problem, because it has happened coming out of my laptop speakers. I thought it was a clocking issue on my interface, but that doesn't explain why it sometimes happens when it is disconnected.

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

I'm going to take a swing at you using an aggregate device for output?

Haven't managed to nail down the exact environment that causes me guaranteed problems but I have seen using Aggregate devices as a fairly consistent problem area. Could you try just outputting directly from the metric halo under iTunes and then under Pro Tools and see if the issue persists?

Thanks,

Ceri

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

Sorry for my late response. I am actually using the metric halo as the output device already. In my first post I state that I have had the issue on all versions of PT10. After wiping my OS, I'm back on 10.1.2, with OSX 10.7.3. I haven't had the issue with any other session (in 44.1), so I assume it is a clocking issue somewhere with 96k sessions. I have figured out it must be a metric halo issue then, since the problem pops up in itunes after running that 96k session. Once I have opened up a 44.1 session again everything is fine.

All of this does not explain how I had the problem a couple of times without any audio interface hooked up, but as you say Ceri, I also think that it is something deep in the aggregate device support etc. So, I think there are two different causes for this problem, in different situations.

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

Ive got just the same problem you got, I just upgraded to an iMac and a new interface. Been dealing with this problem way to long with no luck. Have you figured out what to do with the high pitched noise? Next time it occurs I'm going to tape it on my phone and send it to sweatwater where i bought PT10, since its clearly a software issue.

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

I never figured it out, it just disappeared with various software upgrades etc, of which there have been many since this last happened. Sorry I can't help, never worked out what it was!

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I'm suffering from the same problem, just as you described it. Seems somehow randomly originated, I can't figure out what's the specific cause. It usually gets solved either at the playback engine options or directly restarting pro tools. It's quite annoying, and it seems there's no explanation for it anywhere. I'm wondering if anyone around here has figured this out during the last couple years.
Thanks in advance!

Re: Pro Tools 10 Distorted/glitchy/High Pitched noise on Output
 

.. if you put in some system info it will help people here to help you ..