pro tools 12.5.2 AAe error -6101 few plug ins

[juliop85]

Hey,

I just bought an iMac 21.5 late 2015 with decent specs and I have issues when recording and playback with few or none plug ins and 2 or 3 tracks in a session. AAE error 6101 just does not stop to appear when buffer size is below 256 and it is just a nightmare. I know there are so many threads about this issue, but I've done an extensive research in this and other forums and I just can't resolve this problem. I hope someone can help me, because I really love working on pro tools, but because of this error I had to record on Logic x which by the way perform very well on the same system. Thanks in advance.

[Southsidemusic]

Hi and Welcome to the Community

One Word : Fusion Drive!

You need to watch some youtube videos on how to separate that drive into one SSD and one 7200rpm spinner. Then you can use the SSD for OS drive and the other part as a recording drive.

Is that Lacie drive a 7200 rpm or SSD?

[juliop85]

Yes, The lacie drive is 7200. I read about separating the drive in ssd and hdd, but I don't feel very confortable with that idea, because I may screw things up. However if that is the only option I have to make pro tools work I'll give it a try. any other solution? thanks!

[Southsidemusic]

Nope! No other solutions except swapping out that fusion drive for a new SSD and do a complete reinstall. That fusion drive has given issues for several years and I am stumped you missed this fact during your extensive research

[juliop85]

well, I did the research after buying the iMac when this inaceptable problem appeared. I just thought that a better mac and most powerful computer would do the job, even in the official system requirements avid post doesn't say anything about fusion drive. too bad that any other daw(cubase, logic, etc) works perfectly without any restrictive and picky system requirements than pro tools. My older system worked ok with a less powerful iMac and PT 10. any recommended link for separating the Fusion drive?

[juliop85]

So, today I installed pro tools 12.6 hoping the best, but the fusion drive issue is still present. The ssd part of my fusion drive is only 24 gb so I guess it is not enough to unfuse it. I called apple authorised service in my country and they said I can't upgrade my hard drive at least without voiding my warranty. the system usage window shows that I am only using 8 % of my system but AAe error 6101 is really annoying. so I am really frustrated right now.

[Darryl Ramm]

You can still separate the fusion drive and reinstall OS X on the HDD part. If it's only a 5,400 rpm internal HDD then the whole thing is going to be painfully slow, but it will at least remove doubts about wether any Fusion vodoo is affecting the overall system.

Take that chance to do a full clean OS X install and just Pro Tools and your audio interface drivers, do not install any third party plugins, utilities or other apps and see how that goes.

With 6101 you need to be very careful to do all systems optimizations and to do standard troubleshooting including trashing prefs, removing all third party plugins (a full reinstall as above is even better). Try with new empty sessions and from newly created OS X admin accounts. I would also remove Click II plugins from any sessions. yes 12.6 claims to fix other CPU issues with Click II that but be paranoid...

Stop looking at CPU meters, they don't tell you anything useful in cases like this.

No mention here what interface you are using, but you should test with Built-In output as the playback engine and see if the errors happen here. Lots of this standard troubleshooting you should just have run through already (all under the "help us help you" link up top of each DUC page).

If the Mac is new can you return it for a refund and buy one with the fast internal SSD?

[juliop85]

I have a Digi 003 with the black lion audio modification connected to my imac via firewire to thunderbolt adapter. I tested pro tools using built in output as an interface and I can go lower than 256 samples. With the digi 003 PT simply won't work at all with a buffer size below 256 samples. With built in output selected PT has a much better performance but 6101 is still a problem occasionally. System usage and activity monitor shows little percentage usage. Apple authorized service offered me changing the logic board of my imac with a new one under warranty. return and refund is not an option. thank you so much.

[juliop85]

The HDD part is 5,400 rpm.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by juliop85

The HDD part is 5,400 rpm.

Well that is pretty crappy and will slow down the whole computer noticeably. but that should not stop you trying breaking up the drive to see if that fixes things, after you have tried other basic stuff, and if it does then worry about replacing the slow 5400 rpm drive. An upgrade you can do yourself if brave or pay a third party Mac repair center do for you... look online for teardown videos of your Mac and info on SATA SSD upgrade options to replace that HDD for that exact Mac (they won't be near as fast as an Apple PCIe SSD).

The best bet by far would be returning the iMac and getting one with an Apple PCIe SSD... If Apple are offering to install a PCIe SSD in a board swap I would jump for that... even without knowing if your current drive setup is the reason for your problems. Those disks are just screaming fast.