Really, Really upset!

[Bobbers]

<image>me bangin my head against the table, scream why.. why</image>

System:
Dual G5 2.3Ghz
2.5GB Ram
300GB 9ms harddisk (dedicated to protools)
PT 7.1cs6
Mac os X 10.4.6
Mbox (original)

Session :
15 mono tracks (audio)
5 stereo tracks (audio)
7 stereo group tracks
1 stereo master

plugins:
11 Q10
6 C1
1 REQ6
1 TrueVerb
1 2 SuperTap
1 L2

When using the "system usage" my CPU is running at 75%-80% approx., using two processor
When choosing one processor it drops to 35-45%

If using mac os x "activity monitor" i can see that user cpu is at 18% when using pt with one
processor and at 30% when using two processor. This is not during playback, but just selecting
one or the other. So its "idle" cpu. ProTools is just eating up cpu cycles.

Im unable to playback the above session. After 20secs or so PT stops and gives me the "increase hardware buffer" .. already at 1024 ...
"Activity monitor" never shows any cpu usage ove 42% ... so thats leave 58% thats never used.
And disc activity is never above 20%

Got all this juicy in my G5 and im unable to use it - what joke this is

[Slim Shady]

What version of the waveshell are you using? And do you have only one hard drive?

[Bobbers]

Hi,

No the harddisk is not the boot disk.
Its a second internal harddisk and im using waveshell 5.2

[accession]

It freaks me out when I hear stories like this.

In 2000, I had a 450MHz G4 tower, Digi001 and PT LE 5.1. I regularly pulled 32 tracks and around 30 to 35 plug-ins (though, in fairness, I'd be calling upon an external Lexicon box for reverb).

I now have a 1.33GHz iBook, Digi002, and PT LE 7.1.

While I'm only getting back into it, I've got much trust in Digidesign being able to exceed my "legacy" system.

Otherwise, what's the point?

[The Dubnicks]

Hey There,

I just wanted to suggest a couple things before you give up entirely on Pro Tools. I think someone has already mentioned trying different Firewire ports and swapping cables. I'm also assuming you've done all the listed troubleshooting steps, including trashing preferences (if not, I'd do that first). First, start up from your system install disc and repair the disc, then repair permissions. Then, run Apple Hardware Test (on your install disc as well) and/or memtest (www.memtestosx.org) on loop overnight. Also, you should try pulling out sticks of memory and seeing if you get all the same problems (although, to be honest, I haven't done this myself but digi usually recommends it). Sorry if any of the former suggestions retreads from the Troubleshooting threads - just wanted to go through them. In addition to those actions, I would highly recommend investing in two applications the latest version of Disk Warrior (revision 39, version 3.0.3 - do not use the incorrect version for your Operating system - damage can be done if the wrong version of DiskWarrior is used on Tiger) and Drive Genius 1.2. Provided you have repaired permissions/disk from disk utility and confirmed that your hardware including logic board and memory is ok (memory is tricky to really test because there are issues that only show themselves while using memory intensive programs and when the computer reaches a certain heat level), use DriveGenius 1.2 to defrag your drive (do this while booted from the DG disc) and then use DiskWarrior to first graph (if a large percentage of the items is out of order in your directory, it could be that this is the issue - if you have a lot of crashes this makes the directory worse) and then rebuild your drive's directory. You need to defrag your drive first because DiskWarrior requires a certain amount of contiguous space to safely rebuild your directory without risk of losing the original directory while the process takes place. This part is kind of important, and while I have seen other DiskWarrior users post about his, Alsoft, the company that makes DiskWarrior, doesn't acknowledge this problem - DiskWarrior, for some reason, disables Journaling on system drives (doesn't do so on non system drives), this can be resolved easily by running Drive Genius afterwords and enabling journaling on the drive via the Repair/Verify application (for some reason, ever since Tiger, even though the Enable Journaling button will appear to be available in Disc Utility on an already initialized disc, it is no longer an option in the program unless you are erasing the disc and starting over), of course, if you had already disabled Journaling, this won't matter to you either way. If you do not own Drive Genius or any other application that allows you to enable/disable journaling on existing volumes, you can do so safely in Terminal - the instructions are here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107248

The article is still valid for Tiger on a non-server computer - I asked Apple about this a while back, but DriveGenius is a good program and does the same thing if you feel safer that way. Also, this might be a bit obvious, but you should back up your session drive (technically, you should back up all drives if you can) and defrag that as well. I also run DiskWarrior on my audio/session drives, although I'm not sure how much difference that makes.

One other thing, I would most definately try is Spotless, which allows you to disable indexing altogether on drives. This can improve performance more than simply resetting the privacy settings for Spotlight because it allows you to disable Spotlight indexing altogether and delete existing spotlight indexes (which, if damaged, could cause some issues themselves). Also, I spoke with someone at Applecare and while he didn't know of Spotless, he did explain that while adding a drive to the privacy column will stop that drive from being indexed, it doesn't stop the background processing that Spolight incurs which is why disabling the Spotlight indexing altogether improves performance for some people using very cpu heavy programs. Also, according to the company that makes Spotless, if you resetting of the privacy settings occurs at the wrong time, like while the drive is being indexed, it can damage that index, which can cause further problems (again, why being able to delete the existing indexes is a good thing). I'm not sure if I'm putting that across correctly, but the way the Applecare guy expained the way Spotlight works to me, it totally explained why disabling Spotlight showed marked improvement on less powerful computers, while other Dual G5 users noticed no real impact. Anyhow, that's all I can think of - hopefully some of it is userful. Also, I should note that if you use Spotless, you will have to use EasyFind as a Finder alternative (disabling spotlight disable's finder as well).

Spotless (Shareware - free, but you have to wait 15seconds before using if you don't pay):
http://www.fixamac.net/software/spot/

EasyFind (freeware):
http://www.devon-technologies.com/pr...are/index.html

Memtest:
http://www.memtestosx.org

DiskWarrior:
http://www.alsoft.com/

Drive Genius:
http://prosofteng.com/

If all else fails and you are still thinking of switching to something else, I would recommend checking out MOTU's competative crossgrade for Digital Performer - regardless of whether you switch, it makes a great companion to PT, it's way more intuitive for PT users than Logic and it's cheap, with unlimited tracks, Automatic Delay Compensation and track freezing. As far as a bugginess comparison, it's hard to tell so far (I've only had both for about a month) - DP 4.61 seems to be pretty damn solid with just a couple known issues (I haven't experienced any), but DP 5 is brand new so I guess the kinks aren't quite worked out (haven't installed that version yet). One difference I have noticed between the two, besides DigiSupport taking a bit more pro-active roll in troubleshooting with customers, is that PT bugs seem more uniform - you see the same symptoms pop up for a number of users on this board, which probably makes troubleshooting the program a bit easier for Digi, whereas DP user's reports of bugs seem to be more idiosyncratic (might be the wrong word). I'm basing this off an informal survey of www.unicornation.com (the unofficial DP user board) and this board. For right now, I use PT primarily, but program drums and whatnot in DP (customizable drum editor is one of DP's cooler features in my opinion). Anyhow, sorry to get off topic, hope something works for you - in spite of some of Digi's misteps and the problems you are currently having, PT is worth having around.

[randyT]

did you install the waves PT7 compatability update? (it doesn't come automatically with version 5.2 like the Tiger update does...it's a seperate update)

randy

[Bobbers]

Hi All,

YES! post no. 100! ... now im going for 1000 - hopefully with lots of help for others and not just asking for help.



Thanks for all the help. I've been going over all the different tests and writing to every plugin vendor that i have a plugin from - just to hear if they have any update i need for pt 7.1.

@The Dubnicks:
I have looked at Digital Performer and it is very nice, but like old blues eyes sing : "ive got you (protools) under my skin"
About spotlight the file for stopping spotlight is in the /etc/hostconfig. You need to change the following this: SPOTLIGHT=-YES- to SPOTLIGHT=-NO-, but theres something even more simple and thats using the 'mdutil' from a console.

mdutil -i off /Volumes/ProToolsHD will turn of spotlight for the select volume (ProToolsHD) and you can always check the status with mdutil -s /Volumes/ProToolsHD. To turn spotlight on again write mdutil -i on /Volumes/ProToolsHD


@randyT:
Tx for pointing me to the waves update. Don't know why i missed it when i surfed their site.
After appying the update everything is back to normal and running smoothly. Im sooo happy.
Tx again

@digidesign:
Sorry for blaming you for an error that was with a waves plugin. Now i can finally buy the music toolkit. CPU usage is back to normal. Keep up the good work,

[Brad Gillie]

Hi,

No the harddisk is not the boot disk.
Its a second internal harddisk and im using waveshell 5.2

For PT7+ you should have Waveshell-DAE 5.3.

Also, did you download 10.4.6 from the Apple website, or did you use system update. I have heard that you need to downlad OS X updates direct from the website. I pulled this off of the Waves site.

"Important Message for All Mac Users!
The current OS-X 10.4.6 update causes problems with certain Waves plug-ins.
If you are experiencing any problems since installing this update, please download Mac OS X 10.4.6 for PPC by clicking here." http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...046forppc.html

I think your biggest problem might be the wrong waveshell though. Here is the link to the Waves PT7 Compatibility page: http://www.waves.com/content.asp?id=1798



Sorry, I didn't read your post above about your CPU usage being back to normal before I originally posted this. Glad to hear it. Hopefully all of this helps the next person with the same problems.

[Bobbers]

Hi,

My waveshell says 5.4.1 now and the system has been running soo smoothly all night.
Im cpu usage is only 20-25% and im running with voice count at a max and playback engine at
2 processors, samples at 256. Still it plays without any problems what so ever.

The sun is comming up here and im off to bed now, with a big smile on my face.
Ill say it again: im sooo happy

[dubaifox]

My waveshell says 5.4.1

Really? Is this possible?

I thought 5.3 was the highest one we were up to.