CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

I know asking this question is like banging my head against a brick wall but does anyone have anything substantive regarding the CPU spikes issue?

I went about 4 years without a SINGLE protools glitch and hung on to PT11 as long as I could. As soon as I upgraded my life became hell every time I opened up PT.

Win10
3.6GHz quad core processor
PT2018.7
RME Fireface UFX (the original one) on USB 2.0

I've done everything to troubleshoot. Latest drivers, bios changes, latest versions of everything, removed plugs from plug-in folder. No effect at all. A year ago I could comfortably run 32-48 channels with a normal compliment of plugs in mix sessions at 64 samples at 88.2 and now nothing less that 512 works, even on simple sessions (8 tracks). I can't even have a singer lay down tracks over his own tune.


Interestingly, with my CPU monitor running, PT's system monitor registers spikes that other monitors don't. Playback never stops...it's just full of garbled crap. Increasing buffer to an amount unusable for tracking is the only way to make it go away.


This has been a problem for a LONG time as far as I can tell. I'm on faculty up at Berklee and I can definitely say with confidence that from what I'm hearing those young people of today are starting to look at PT like a dinosaur and an embarrassment.

The demise of its status as an industry standard is becoming observable. Which is sad because it's great software when it works.


The music business is hard enough without this distraction. How do we work when out tools won't?

Any substantive advice would be immensely appreciated.

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

Hi friend ! I know that is frustrating beleive me .

Some things to double check :

1. Run PT as administrator and as non administrator and test

2. Set windows sounds to NO sounds

3. Install video card driver only if possible without the bloatware

Let us know

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

Will try. Thanks!

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

Also, experiment with Hyperthreading on and off to see if either gives better performance(and its likely that one way will be better, but it differs from one machine to the next):o Then, look at what plugins are in play. On my system, I can do a lot of work at the 64 buffer setting. But one instance of Ozone 8 will toss that out the window:eek:

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

Post a Sandra report.

Try with another interface, even if you have to use ASIO4ALL. Uninstall or disable all AV software. Get every optimization done and keep aggregating troubleshooting steps, e.g. remove full third party plugins and keep going with them removed. Disk cache enabled? - set to what size? Dynamic plugin processing disabled? Ignore errors not checked — do you see AAE errors?

When you are sure you have tried absolutely everything else grab a spare SSD or partition and do a full clean reinstall of Windows 10 Pro and the latest Pro Tools, ILM and interface drivers and as little else as possible and check. Do a genuine Microsoft installer install do not do a systems recovery install polluted with OEM crapware.

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

I’ll have to eke out some time and resources for that so it can’t happen today.

Incidentally, I tried everything in the first response to no avail. Symptom remains unchanged.

Also, I spaced and said it was 2018.7, but it’s actually 2018.10

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

Have a look at this thread.

And how much RAM do you have and where are your sessions. More information means more help.

Be sure to do ALL the optimizations.

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

Hi all. I am off to a gig so I’m gonna have to come back to this tomorrow or something. I have a session coming in on Monday so the heat is on.

I will do all of the optimization’s, that I haven’t done yet, if I have not done them all. I may have. I struggle with reconciling how a system can go from being mostly functional and happy to completely unusable and just a matter of a couple of weeks. A couple weeks ago I was running sessions just fine, with the occasional glitch, but nothing that his stopped me in my tracks. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it goes berserk. This literally (seemingly) came on all by itself. I have not changed anything in the last couple of weeks until the problem got really bad. Anyway, I will keep digging but I can’t stop asking myself that question.
And yes, having done lots and lots of audio design, I know that problems literally do not happen for no reason.

But with all of that, before I dig any deeper or take anymore of anyone’s time, I thought I would post a short clip of the symptom. As you will see, my CPU spikes occasionally but the audio is completely garbled and distorted. I’m just wondering if I’m not chasing the wrong problem. I thought someone could put ears on it and maybe have some insight.

Is there a mechanism here for that, or do I need to do it on YouTube or something? I’m using my phone and I can’t make any sense of what the little icons are trying to tell me.

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

Oh, and to quickly clarify, because of the nature of how the problem came on I am actually beginning to wonder if it might be a hardware issue, and I know you suggested trying a different interface. I don’t have access to one at the moment but I will get one. I recall a time some years ago when I was having some Bizzarre problems with ProTools and I went into the computer for some reason to do something and in the process the heat sink for the video card literally fell off in my hand. I change the card and everything was fine again. So I’m wondering if I’m not looking at something like that.

Re: CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.
 

I have 16GB of RAM

So after having done as many of the optimizations as possible, given that I don't have another interface or a disk image that's pre-RME, after installing AISO4ALL I've actually affected a marked change in behavior...not MY behavior...Pro Tools's behavior.

All below is at 128 sample buffer at 88.2kHz in a 35 track session with a mix session's worth of plugs, including several instances of Melodyne and several tracks with elastic audio enabled, which in the past has been no problem.

The first time a hit play with AISO4ALL as the device of choice in PT setup, it played back but it stuttered really badly.

Hit stop, hit play, stuttered for a few seconds and then played back smooth.

Hit stop, hit play, stuttered and wouldn't stop stuttering

Hit stop, hit play, played back clean and has every time since, including after reboot.

Playback has been THROUGH the RME, but apparently using the generic USB codec...question mark?

I'd swear it sounds better that way than it did using the RME driver at higher buffer sizes. But that's totally subjective. Probably just due to being relieved to hear a clean signal for once.

And NO CPU spikes. Not even close. It's not working hard at all.

This is all good and I can mix this way, but I need all of my ins for obvious reasons if I'm gonna record a band, and all my outs for headphone distro. So I have to get the RME driver to work.

Thoughts from the experts? Do I need to get RME involved at this point?