Time to upgrade?

[brianjanthony]

I've been using PT now for 2 decades. I'm still on a Cheese Grater 2010 5,1. Lots of ram and space. New video card etc.

I run HDN and PT12.5. And it's been great for mixing. Before that it was HD5 TDM.

More recently, when I'm tracking large sessions (32 ins for example), my CPU meter is spiking 100 on any useable buffer. I've been using HDN for nearly 2-3 years. I don't recall it being an issue till lately. These sessions even have few plugins for my tests. But especially if I arm something bussed (like drums), forgot it.

So, is my computer finally dying? Is it wiser to upgrade my tray via eBay? Or is hdx a wiser choice. Or do I just have some buggy sessions?

Guys who've upgraded trays, has it helped? Again, mixing has been ok. I could always use headroom. But tracking has been goofy. And my folks are used to seamless ops.

I should mention the CPU spikes around 100% even when the cores are running at 20 ish percent and they don't budge. And I use 10gig as a disk cache.

Any thoughts?


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[YYR123]

PT what?

Have you trashed prefs?

[brianjanthony]

PT 12.5.2. I gave up on Sierra and 12.7. Too many issues to list.

I trash prefs daily.

[YYR123]

So 12.5.2 and Yosemite?

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by YYR123

So 12.5.2 and Yosemite?

12.5 should run just fine on Yosemite so hopefully OP hasn't "upgraded" to ElCrap...

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by brianjanthony

And I use 10gig as a disk cache.

Why so much for tracking? I use 4GB and don't have issues tracking 64 tracks at once.

In theory using Disc Cache for tracking should be slower and more troublesome than without it at all, IF (and this is a big if) the storage system can deliver the performance you need. If not, caching helps in disk throughput hiccups, and as it usually is with spinners, the perfromance isn't there so some amount of caching is helpful.

But as said, it's a two-edged sword; you only need very little caching for tracking -- for large mixdown it's a totally opposite, you would want the whole session to sit in the memory. Tracking however is just storing ones and zeros; they come from AD converter, travel via interface and into the computer, there's already some caching happening because converters don't work with one sample latency, and withing the computer the software using the stream caches the bits to Disc Cache before sending them to storage subsystem which has its own operating system dependent cache, and finally to the storage device which again has a cache before the bits are written to the platter or whatever. All those caches are filled and emptied independently and the more caches you have the more chances of some kind of overload you have. Or other random performance issues between different memory areas.

Try lower amount for tracking and you might be amazed.

[YYR123]

SSD or spinner? As the main drive?

What about the target recording drive?

[brianjanthony]

Yosemite - yes. Tried Sierra, Didn't do Crapitan.
PT - yes. 12.5.2
Cache - I'll try lowering on tracking days. And for my tests.

I have SSDs for system/samples. I use spinners for the record drives. Spinners are always less than half full. Currently 6TB drives. 2-3TB used for current clients.

Video card is robust - a couple gig of video memory onboard I think. Only running a Slate Raven and a 27" monitor.

It seems to be less troublesome when the rec armed track is going out Mains (i.e. Main LR). But if the drums are bussed to an aux, then thrown into record, CPU gets jumpy. It can go from hovering at 30 and have giant spikes that hold at 99.

I haven't gotten to do the whole 1 plugin at a time thing yet. In the middle of mixing about 2 dozen projects. Its just that I've had some tracking thrown in and it is all of a sudden super glitchy. I can't think of anything major I've done...

[brianjanthony]

So on further investigation... I have my drums parallel bussed. One is the dry bus (it has one Slate VMR), another is the smashed bus (same VMR, just crushed with a limiter). When I remove the second bus, all goes back to normal ish. Meaning CPU jumps/hovers to like 30. If I activate bus 2, it gets hectic again.

Or if I put a reverb on the smashed bus, all hell breaks loose (think of it as my meager attempt at getting a large room drum feed). This is all at 64 buffer, 44k/24 bit.

So then my question would be, would increasing my cpu to the 12 core upgrades on eBay help that load? Or would HDX help the load better? I won't be ditching the Native plugins, so I know that I won't be leveraging the DSP for plugin power.

[Rich Breen]

You might consider changing your tracking workflow; in general routing live tracks through an aux with *native* processing on it will create latency issues regardless of Native/HDX. An HDX rig will eliminate all these latency headaches as long as you stick to DSP plugs on live tracks and auxes those tracks are routed through. Reverbs on sends will not be a problem.

best,
rich