[AndreiS]

Hello,

I’m trying to solve a problem I had in Pro Tools First v12.8.2 and now in 2018.1.0.

My system:

HP Pavilion 17-ab001nq
Windows 10 64bit
Intel i7 6700HQ 2.60GHz/2.60GHz
8GB RAM

Focusrite 2i2 (2nd Gen) as default playback and recording audio interface
Pro Tools First v2018.1.0 (planning to upgrade to Pro) as recording and mixing software

Audio settings:
- integrated Realtek audio disabled
- Windows Sounds disabled
- audio default format on Focusrite (both playback and recording): 2channel 24bit 48000Hz

Drivers: Focusrite dedicated ASIO Control Panel 4.36.5-612

All the laptop drivers are up to date.

The problem:

I open ASIO Control Panel (Run as Administrator) from Windows and I set the Sample Rate at 48kHz and the Buffer Size at 256. It seems that lower than 256 I get audio distortions or the sound freezes. So these settings (48kHZ and 256) are always saved in ASIO Control Panel and each time I reboot the laptop these settings are saved at these values.

But when I open Pro Tools First and go to Setup - Hardware, the ASIO Control Panel ALWAYS opens with these settings: 48kHz and 64 Buffer Size (which is not usable on my system). Further more, in order to set the Buffer Size at 256, which I guess is optimal for my system (?), I need to set it at 512, and NOT at 256! And that is because everytime I set a value in the Buffer Size list, Pro Tools saves it as the next lower value! I mean, if I set it to 512 and close ASIO Control Panel and reopen it imediately from the Setup - Hardware menu, it will show 256. If I set it to 256, it will reopen as 128. If I set it to 128 it will reopen as 64… This never happens if I set it from Windows! From Windows it will always save the exact value I choose, no matter how many times I reopen ASIO Control Panel.

And that is the problem I don’t understand and try to solve. Another thing: because Pro Tools always “remembers” the next lower value in ASIO Control Panel, once I close the program, this value will also be saved in ASIO Control Panel in Windows. Meaning that Pro Tools controls the Buffer Size and saves it as default in Windows (if I open Pro Tools, it will change the Buffer Size to 64; if I close the software without changing anything in Setup - Hardware, I will have the Buffer Size at 64 in Windows and it will cause audio problems in all the other audio applications; so, in order to correct that, I need to reopen ASIO Control Panel from Windows and change back the Buffer Size to 256 in order to have good audio).

This is not a big problem, now that I know about it, I can use Pro Tools and work with it fine, but I don't understand what's going on and there is this strange step I have to remember each and every time I open the software: I have to change the Buffer Size to 256 (by setting it to 512!).

This is kind of hard to explain and I’m sorry, English is not my native language. Please let me know if I need to provide any other informations.

Thank you in advance for any kind of help or explanation on this problem!