917x errors, RTAs overload

[Dynamixaled]

I've been having 917x problems (9171, 9172, 9173) problems ever since i moved up to HDX and I've just taken another time-consuming stab at finding some sort of resolution, but to no avail. I went through this with Avid techs when i was still on their plan, and they couldn't help (which is why i stopped subscribing), and i know this has been a point of frustration for a lot of others so I'm wonder if anyone has found a way of living with it.


When i have a session with a fairly number of plugins, i see the system usage CPU meter at the top keeps spiking red to 100%, even when there's no playback. Slots 6 and 7 (there are 12) do the same thing - but how do i know what those slots are running? I thought it must be a faulty plugin somewhere down the line but i haven't been able to isolate it.



I have a lot of plugins, and i went through the painful task of putting them back into the system in batches, and while I found the old Console G app from Plugin-Alliance seemed to make things worse, I couldn't find a clear culprit. I have rendered quite a few tracks to ease drain on CPU but there are times when even 90% of tracks are rendered, it still has errors. Usually it starts with 9171 as soon as i start playback, then 9172, then 9173 (RTAs overload). I usually set the HW Buffer size to 1024 but have tried 2048 with Ignore Errors checked, and not much difference.



I'm running PT 2018.1 (i've tried going bnack to 12.8.3) on a Mac Pro (mid 2010 3.33 Ghz 6-core Xeon w/24 GB RAM) into an Apogee Rosetta 800 (I just switched from my Aurora 16 to see if that made a difference. It didn't).


I did recently upgrade my OS to High Sierra - and perhaps this was a mistake. I had been on El Capitan but now I'm unable to get to Sierra. A couple of years ago when i started having these problems, I tried starting from scratch with a fresh HD and re-installed everything, but it made no difference. I had Avid check my HDX card and have done DigiTest - and there was one test that failed, but i believe that was because i was using Aurora 16 and not an Avid converter.



Does anyone have any advice? I have read one suggestion that it's better not to pile up plugins within the same track, but to make more use of aux buses. Also, is it inadvisable to run an RTAs, eg Melodyne, followed by a DSP plugin, and then by another RTA?

[albee1952]

Not the final answer, but RTAS does not work at all with any version of PT newer than 10. There is no reason to install the RTAS version of any plugin. Not all plugin installations offer a choice, but if they do, installing RTAS versions is just wasted drive space

[Southsidemusic]

I would turn OFF Hyperthreading ASAP as we have had a HUUUGE improvement with this ”feature” Off.

Many members here has had a much better experience with Hyperthread turned off so maybe try that before you go any further with testing new OS/PT versions..

Please let us know how you get on!

[Southsidemusic]

Here is some useful info on the success of others with HT turned off.

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=402295

[Dynamixaled]

Yes, de-activating hyper-threading helps a lot! I'm using virtual instruments like Omni 2, and Kontakt so these seem to be super-hoggish on CPU, but at least now I can keep a session open long enough to re-edit the MIDI tracks and then render before the 917x crashes. Thanks!!

[Dynamixaled]

i had removed hyper-threading and it helped for a day or so, but the next day things were so unstable that i was unable to work at all. I decided to start from scratch, which i had done once before - beginning with a new HD and reinstalling EVERYTHING. One rather huge mistake i had made before things started to go downhill was installing High Sierra - it was the closest OS i could get to El Capitan, which I had been using, but it was not compatible with the latest version of PT i'm able to use - 2018.1.0. I was able to get a Sierra installer from our local pro audio shop and was able to load from a bootable USB drive. i think Apple support might have helped me accomplish that if you're lucky enough to talk to a knowledgeable support person. There's a compatibility chart available from Avid outlining which OS's are tested with the various PT versions.

The great thing about going through all of this was it forced me to go back to the sources and get the latest versions of all of my plugins. Since PT HD is 64-bit, i'm wondering if you're having issues with 32-bit plugins.

in my case, the CPU was spiking up to 100%. I had been using the highest buffer size with 'ignore errors' checked and was still having crashes. Now that i've re-installed everything i noticed yesterday that i was running on 256k buffer without problem, although i had previously rendered some of the tracks with CPU intensive instruments - ie Omni2 and Kontakt.

i hope this helps - please let me us know.

[Howardk]

In my case turning off Hyper Threading did not seem to help. The AAE 09171 or 9173 halts seemed to occur just as frequently.

[Howardk]

With further testing, I am finding that Hyper-Threading off is helping a bit with one of my test sessions with just 3 Native Plugins, and smaller buffer sizes.