Slow playback problem after upgrading to PT10

[plin]

Hey all,

I'm on a 2011 Macbook pro, 2GHz intel core i7, 16GB RAM, OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.5.
I used to work on PTLE 8.051 at a 2048 buffer size with an Mbox Mini. My sessions use a descent amount of tracks and plugins, but under PTLE they all worked just fine.
I recently upgraded to PT11 and installed PT10 to finish my old sessions.
Suddenly the playback was way slow and popping in every single session, so I started messing with the playback engine (which in PT10 is limited to 1024) and followed other standard suggestions (trashing DB and prefs, making sure the Mbox sample rate matches that of the sessions, updating the drivers etc..)- none of this helped. I figured it was probably because I mixed those sessions at 2048 and am now limited to 1024, but it was still weird because when I started disabling the plugins one by one, i got the system to stabilize after all but like 15 plugins were inactive (i'm talking all standard waves/mcdsp plugins). So essentially 40-50 tracks of audio/aux (no VIs, no MIDI, nada) and about 15-20 active plugins (mostly eq/comp maybe one delay) and the system maxes out- ODD.

Anyhow, I decided to rollback to PT8.051 and much to my surprise the problem was still there, in each and every session, when they all played just fine before. I started looking at the Activity Monitor and noticed that PT consumes 1GB of real memory while it plays back horribly, which is super weird, because beforehand, before I upgraded to PT10, I remember for a fact that it hit about 2.5GB of Real Memory and played back just fine. Is it possible that while upgrading something limited PT's ability to hit up 2.5GB (which is not much anyhow, but come on- 1GB?!?!)?

I've ruled out any Mbox issues, because while on PT10 i've disconnected it played without an external audio device and got the same issue.

Could this be hardware related?

PLEASE help me i'm completely lost and can't work like this. I've opened a ticket to the Avid support, but so far all they suggested was to bounce some of the plugins to audio to ease up on the session, and there's no way that's the problem because I have used PTLE with those exact same sessions and it was all good before the damn upgrade.

Thanks!

[Sparky1]

Any chance this could be a clocking issue or a setting changing from 44.1 -> ? (Or vice-versa)?

Sparky

[plin]

Unfortunately not, sessions are at 44.1Khz as is the Mbox (checked in the hardware settings screen, let me know if that's not the right place).

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by plin

Unfortunately not, sessions are at 44.1Khz as is the Mbox (checked in the hardware settings screen, let me know if that's not the right place).

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Are all your plugins up-to-date? That can be a HUGE problem if they're not. Doesn't matter if they worked in your old version of PT.
Are you recording to an external not-green hard drive?
What's the number of processors and cpu usage set to in PT 10?
You have the latest version of PT 10 (10.3.7)?
Avid hasn't yet okayed PT with OSX 10.8.5 but some people are running it with no problem.

[plin]

Hey musicman691,

So I have since restored an old backup that definitely worked with 10.8.4 mountain lion and PTLE 8.051 and the problem persists.
I am currently running another restore to get back to Snow Leopard which is the official compatible OS for PT8 according to Avid, but am not holding my breath anymore.

I think most of the plugins I'm have are up to date, the ones I use regularly are for sure. Can you elaborate a bit about this issue, as I am back to the old PT where they definitely worked (I mean the playback did), and now it doesn't.

I don't do any recording in PT (some MIDI keyboard maybe, but it's the playback that doesn't work properly).
In both PT10 and PT8 to which I reverted, I use 7 out of 8 processors at 90% and the buffer size is the maximal (in PT10-1024 and in PT8-2048). The CPU usage monitor (in PT10 it's called "(Native)" and in PT8 "CPU (RTAS)") shows in red and around 95%-100% even before I hit play.
When I was on PT10, i did use 10.3.7.

If restoring to PT8+Snow Leopard doesn't solve the problem, can I assume this is a hardware issue? Something that is preventing PT from accessing another GB of real memory it used to be able to access (Activity Monitor showed around 1-1.5GB for both PT10 and now PT8, whereas before it used to hit 2-2.5GB)?

Thanks so much for the help!

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by plin

Hey musicman691,

So I have since restored an old backup that definitely worked with 10.8.4 mountain lion and PTLE 8.051 and the problem persists.
I am currently running another restore to get back to Snow Leopard which is the official compatible OS for PT8 according to Avid, but am not holding my breath anymore.

I think most of the plugins I'm have are up to date, the ones I use regularly are for sure. Can you elaborate a bit about this issue, as I am back to the old PT where they definitely worked (I mean the playback did), and now it doesn't.

I don't do any recording in PT (some MIDI keyboard maybe, but it's the playback that doesn't work properly).
In both PT10 and PT8 to which I reverted, I use 7 out of 8 processors at 90% and the buffer size is the maximal (in PT10-1024 and in PT8-2048). The CPU usage monitor (in PT10 it's called "(Native)" and in PT8 "CPU (RTAS)") shows in red and around 95%-100% even before I hit play.
When I was on PT10, i did use 10.3.7.

If restoring to PT8+Snow Leopard doesn't solve the problem, can I assume this is a hardware issue? Something that is preventing PT from accessing another GB of real memory it used to be able to access (Activity Monitor showed around 1-1.5GB for both PT10 and now PT8, whereas before it used to hit 2-2.5GB)?

Thanks so much for the help!

There's nothing really to elaborate about having your plugins up to date. Just make sure they are and however you do that is up to the particular developer's plugs you're using.

I'm confused about something. In your first post you write this: "So essentially 40-50 tracks of audio/aux (no VIs, no MIDI, nada) and about 15-20 active plugins (mostly eq/comp maybe one delay) and the system maxes out- ODD." and in your latest post to which I'm responding you say you don't do any recording but you do some MIDI keyboard. Which is it? It's totally possible that what you say in your first post could bring a underpowered system to it's knees. That 2GHz cpu is something of a limiter with that kind of load.

You also haven't said if you're recording to a separate non-green hard drive. THAT could be an issue if you're not. Have you also done all the recommended optimizations of your Mac?

[plin]

Generally, I use PT for some MIDI recording but I bounce all of it to audio. The rest of the audio is not recorded into my system, it is recorded into other computers and passed on to mine for editing purposes. So all I have in my sessions are audio and aux tracks + plugins. Anything else is inactive.
2GB of real memory is great, that's what the Activity Monitor used to show for the exact same sessions. Now it shows around 1GB, and the playback is totally off. If it used that additional 1GB it would playback normally, i'm sure of it. Something is preventing it from doing so.

Regarding a separate hardware, I do not record anything, but what about the audio itself, does it have to be stored on a separate drive? I'm referring to the session itself. I've always used it on my Mac's drive and didn't have a problem with it...

As for the optimizations, I did all of them.

Thanks!

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by plin

Generally, I use PT for some MIDI recording but I bounce all of it to audio. The rest of the audio is not recorded into my system, it is recorded into other computers and passed on to mine for editing purposes. So all I have in my sessions are audio and aux tracks + plugins. Anything else is inactive.
2GB of real memory is great, that's what the Activity Monitor used to show for the exact same sessions. Now it shows around 1GB, and the playback is totally off. If it used that additional 1GB it would playback normally, i'm sure of it. Something is preventing it from doing so.

Regarding a separate hardware, I do not record anything, but what about the audio itself, does it have to be stored on a separate drive? I'm referring to the session itself. I've always used it on my Mac's drive and didn't have a problem with it...

As for the optimizations, I did all of them.

Thanks!

It still has to be on a separate drive. Doesn't matter whether you record it yourself or have it passed on to you. All session stuff should be on a separate drive.

I'm still confused by your recording process. You say you bounce all of your MIDI to audio. Is that the audio that gets recorded into other computers and then passed back to you or does that audio stay on your computer? If that audio stays on your computer that's the same thing as recording actual audio from something like a microphone or other external source and it needs to be recorded to a separate hard drive.

What is so hard to understand that you need to have a separate hard drive to record to? It's been part of the PT spec for ages. Doesn't mean how super-duper your system drive is; it still only has one read/write head.

[plin]

Hey,

I had a chat with an Avid Tech Support rep and he said that indeed it may help to store the sessions on a separate drive, but if I would be burdening my local drive I would receive -9073 errors, and the System Usage would show the Disk meter in Red. Well, I barely get up to 20% of it and get no such errors, nor have I ever had this problem and have always had everything on one system.

But just for the sake of it, I tried opening the session from a separate drive- it changed nothing and the problem persisted.

Any other suggestion?

Thanks!