Pro Tools 9 Crashes When Selecting Audio Interface

[siraltus]

Just got Pro Tools 9 and was excited I could use it with any audio interface.

However, when I go to Setup --> Playback Engine and try to select any interface other than the default one in the Current Engine menu, Pro Tools crashes after about 4 seconds, without any error messages, after I click OK.

I have a ProFire Lightbridge (Pro Tools defaults to this interface as its playback engine) as well as a MOTU PCI-424-based system. No matter which interface I select (even the Mac's built-in audio or the PT aggregate device), Pro Tools just crashes.

Anyone else experiencing this? It makes the software effective unusable for me.

Machine: MacPro 8-Core 2.8GHz 16GB 2TB 8800GT 512MB 10.6.5

Audio interfaces: ProFire Lightbridge, MOTU PCIe-424 card with 24 I/O and two 2408mk3, latest drivers installed.

Crash report says that PT9 crashes with a KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE exception of type EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS) in thread com.digidesign.framework.DAE.

Had ProTools 8.0.4 M-Powered previously, uninstalled it using the uninstaller app and installed Pro Tools 9 using the full 4.7GB installer.



EDIT 11/26/2010: I did some testing and figured out exactly what the problem is. It is a serious bug in Pro Tools 9's Digital Audio Engine.

Pro Tools 9 will consistently crash if you select a CoreAudio device with more than 48 I/O as the playback engine. I think it has something to do with the way Pro Tools 9 enumerates available I/O via CoreAudio.

I have a MOTU PCI-424 system with a 24 I/O and two 2408mk3 interfaces, as well as a M-Audio ProFire Lightbridge.

No crash if I select the Lightbridge (this has 36 I/O) as the playback engine.

No crash if I select the PCI-424 system as the playback engine but turn off one of the physical interfaces, reducing the number of I/O available to Pro Tools on the PCI-424 CoreAudio device to 48.

If I have all three of my MOTU interfaces on and the total number of I/O visible to Pro Tools becomes 72, Pro Tools crashes every time I select the PCI-424 device as the playback engine.

If I select my aggregate audio device that combines all of my interfaces into a single device with 108 I/O, Pro Tools also crashes every time.

I also created another aggregate device using the Lightbridge and my Mackie d.4 Pro DJ mixer (which is a class-compliant FireWire device that doesn't use drivers). This device totals 54 I/O and selecting it as the playback engine crashes Pro Tools consistently as well. (Selecting the d.4 Pro mixer alone as the playback engine does not cause a crash.)

This is definitely a bug in Pro Tools - Avid, this is embarrasing. I submitted this as a case to Avid Support. Please fix it ASAP!

[Talisker]

Operating System ? Kind of Computer ? Does you computer have build in Audio ? Does that make PT crash, too ?

[forjam]

Originally Posted by siraltus

Just got Pro Tools 9 and was excited I could use it with any audio interface.

However, when I go to Setup --> Playback Engine and try to select any interface other than the default one in the Current Engine menu, Pro Tools crashes after about 4 seconds, without any error messages, after I click OK.

I have a ProFire Lightbridge (Pro Tools defaults to this interface as its playback engine) as well as a MOTU PCI-424-based system. No matter which interface I select, Pro Tools just crashes.

Anyone else experiencing this? It makes the software effective unusable for me.

I had a similar problem with my Apogee Symphony system and Rossetta 800. I had to boot my Mac Pro in 32 bit mode and reload the 32 bit Apogee drivers. I still cant engage the VBUS channels for the Symphony system without crashing Pro Tools.

[wreckthisplace]

I'm having the exact same problem.

When I try to change it from core audio to my Profire 610 it gives me the spinning beach ball and crashes.

It was also crashing a lot when I tried to boot up pro tools with just the core audio. Deleting the DAE folder in my preferences folder seemed to have fixed that.

I'm running a Mac Pro Quad Intel Xeon 2.66ghz 8G ram, Snow Leopard 10.6.4

[siraltus]

Originally Posted by Talisker

Operating System ? Kind of Computer ? Does you computer have build in Audio ? Does that make PT crash, too ?

Machine: MacPro 8-Core 2.8GHz 16GB 2TB 8800GT 512MB 10.6.5

Audio interfaces: ProFire Lightbridge, MOTU PCIe-424 card with 24 I/O and two 2408mk3

Yes, it has built in audio. Selecting that makes it crash, too. In fact, selecting ANY audio interface in the menu and clicking OK results in the crash.

[siraltus]

*bump* Anyone else having this issue? Any workarounds?

[rabraham214]

This won't help you much- but I am able to switch my audio output in current engine. I WAS having issues with PT 9 when I updated to 10.6.5.. I unistalled ProTools (decided to do a clean install as all my important stuff was on another drive), then reinstall. That solved that issue. Perhaps a similar thing might need to be done on 10.6.5 for you?

My issue is I can't get a presonus firestudio project to actually be used for input or output.

Sorry I am not of much help!

[siraltus]

I tried completely uninstalling and reinstalling PT9 and it still crashes when changing the playback engine.

Crash report says that PT9 crashes with a KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE exception of type EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS) in thread com.digidesign.framework.DAE.

Come on Avid, I know this is a .0 release, but this is just bloody embarrassing! The feature touted as one of the key selling points for PT9 - the ability to use any audio interface - is NOT WORKING.

How the hell did this slip past QA? Must have been rushed out the door faster than a diseased hooker. Time for a CS update - FIX IT, Avid!

[albee1952]

Can you create an aggregate audio setup(I'm on PC so I don't have the option). I hear some Mac users are able to get better performance out of Avid/M-Audio interfaces by using them as aggregate devices(plus you should be able to make ALL ins and outs of ALL devices available at the same time). If you get that working, don't tell me as I don't want to feel jealous

[siraltus]

I already have an aggregate device in the system that joins my MOTU PCI-424 and M-Audio ProFire Lightbridge interfaces for a total of 108 I/O and PT9 crashes on that, too. This aggregate device has worked fine for the past two years under Cubase. Go figure.

It should not make an ounce of a difference though - Avid advertises PT9 as working with any CoreAudio interfafce when it clearly doesn't. Big, big disappointment.