Computer for Pro Tools

[MusicMadness]

Hi guys,

I have maxed out MacBook Pro 2015 and Pro Tools 12 Native. This configuration is well-known as screwed up as PT spits out CPU errors very often. I'd like to stay with Pro Tools anyway so I think about changing my computer. Does any of you have a stabile config with PT 12 Native? I mean that you can use many buss tracks and stress CPU up to at least 70% without dropping 9173 or so. I'm interested in both laptops and towers, preferably Mac. I know there's a supported computers list on Avid's site but I'd like to hear some feedback from actual users. Cheers

[Darryl Ramm]

The supported list is near meaningless.

Your budget?

Your choices are slim. If you want a lots of power in a genuine Mac the iMac Pro is the current darling, with positive reports you can read here from early users. The Mac Pro trashcan is not that compelling,... slow ThunderBolt 2 and Slow USB 3/3.1 Gen 1, and is basically a dead product walking. I'd personally be waiting to see what the new Mac Pro looks like (I run mostly on a 2016 MacBook Pro, maxed out, its an impressive Pro Tools laptop, 16GB memory limit is the biggest annoyance, but not a hard problem for my Pro Tools use).

I'm not so sure your Mac is known to be that problematic, so be careful making assumptions about what better hardware will get you.

[MusicMadness]

I've heard about many people using the same laptop as mine having exactly the same issue. Unfortunately, I cannot afford iMac Pro, I was thinking about iMacs but because of 9173 every 10 sec when stressing CPU >40% I'm not sure how much CPU power do I really need. I believe 2015 iMac maxed out would be more than enough, however, my interface is incompatible with this one (iMac17,1) and so I picked my MBP that's turned out to be PT incoherent. Moreover, on Avid's Pr Tools compatibility page they pointed that iMacs could be unstable with smaller buffer size so I will much appreciate to hear from some new iMac users how does it behave in real

[Darryl Ramm]

iMacs are not much more than a MacBook Pro in a different box.

What are the exact specs of your current system? model or EMC numbers, drives etc.


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[MusicMadness]

Maxed out MBP 2015

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/m...lay-specs.html

I'm not good at drivers on Mac as it's my first device from Apple and I was expecting from it to plug and go. If you could specify what data are you particularly interested in, I can check it for you of course

[TNM]

your system is identical to mine.. all that was changed with yours is the graphics card to ATI, it uses the same cpu. oh, and your model which is the one that is directly after mine, has a faster SSD, that was when apple updated them from 1GB/S theoretical to 2 gb/s.

I have issues all the time..

My 6.5 year old imac performs better.. because it's a desktop CPU that doesn't "throttle" it's speed anywhere near as much. imacs use much better processors which will make a difference, as well as being able to be configured with much more ram than the macbook pro. Can you show me where Avid said that low buffers are an issue on imac? This might have to do with my topic i created today and is already a known issue.

Unfortunately you didn't say what you were really trying to do when it happened.

And crucially, what buffer size you have chosen in preference.. As i have discovered recently and made a topic here myself, pro tools goes crazy under 128 buffer.. if it happens on mine will happen on yours, we have almost identical machines with absolutely identical CPU.

Just let me know how many tracks your project has, what your buffer setting is, and if you are using aax instruments. It could be that you have simply reached what pro tools can do with your computer.

[MusicMadness]

Here's the link, low buffer issue is mentioned in iMac tab

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...m-Requirements

My problem is 9173 error. It drops out when I use 20-40% of course and it's strongly connected to number of aux channels I have - the more auxes the less CPU I can use. It was widely discussed on many threads on this forum and many others. I believe it's a matter of computer as my MBP is not listed on the page I linked above. So, does anyone have an iMac other than 17,1 that works with Pro Tools HD 12 Native without any (bigger) issues?

[TNM]

very interesting thanks..

I have seen that page so many times and never thought to expand each individual computer icon *blush*.

Well our macbooks aren't there, yet a macbook air with dual haswell processor IS there.. that absolutely and utterly doesn't make a lick of sense.

I also find it real curious how the imac is not supported at under 128 buffer, yet even a mac mini is..

I wonder just how thoroughly avid perform those tests.. I find it a bit dubious I have to be honest.

at 20-40% and drop out is not good.. which is once again, why i ask you *again*, what buffer are you running at. Also, please expand your performance meter to show all the cores and let me know what you see.
Are you recording to the internal macbook pro drive or an external one?

You are very hesitant to give more info about your system,. and I don't know why, as we are trying to help.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by MusicMadness

Here's the link, low buffer issue is mentioned in iMac tab

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...m-Requirements

My problem is 9173 error. It drops out when I use 20-40% of course and it's strongly connected to number of aux channels I have - the more auxes the less CPU I can use. It was widely discussed on many threads on this forum and many others. I believe it's a matter of computer as my MBP is not listed on the page I linked above. So, does anyone have an iMac other than 17,1 that works with Pro Tools HD 12 Native without any (bigger) issues?

Many many people are running on all sorts of iMacs with no problem (modulo some known issues like GPU performance, what are really more software and in some cases plugin issues). The issues to worry about are likely not a specific model number. It's what budget you have, picking the best config iMac and configure it best (storage, memory, etc.) within that budget.

EDIT: deleted request for more hardware info, sorry I see now you gave a link to a specific config above.... I would not normally consider that a problematic computer for Pro Tools.

Many problem are setup and plugin related. Its not clear what troubleshooting you have tried here, or what your sessions/setup look like, or again even what computer you are running on... you are not going to get much useful advice here without that info.

Can you describe some of that, sample rates, playback buffer size, number of tracks, plugins used, wether you are chaining deep aux busses, etc. Have you fully optimized the system... every last thing done?... we've seen recent cases when people have rediscovered that simple stuff like WiFi being on really can break a system. And in addition to all the normal stuff I would also make sure dynamic plugin processing is disabled, ignore errors are disabled, and I would disable spotlight on all drives (mark them private) at least to see if that helps.

Before deciding you need to replace the hardware, I would hope you do careful standard troubleshooting and maybe a full clean install on your system and seeing if that runs OK or not. All a useful test to see what is happening. You might even use building a new clean Sierra or High Sierra boot disk and reinstalling everything clean there as as step towards getting a new system. If along the way you find/solve some issues then great, if you do end up getting a new/or used computer you can clone the new image you have built to that (or test by just remote booting off your current computer in disk target mode...).

[MusicMadness]

Thank you, guys for getting deep into this. My problems with Pro Tools started from very beginning after I bought a MacBook Pro and installed PT. The first session I ran was official demo session from Avid's site. The computer was then as clean as could be - just a default system config + Pro Tools. I wasn't able to play it for more than 20-30s without AAE-9173 error so I started to search for advice. I started a case with Avid (terrible experience - very slow response and I feel they treat me like an idiot), I configured system according to Avid's recommendations and still it didn't change anything. I tried all of buffer values, currently I don't use less than 512, usually 1024. By the way I realized that this problem is very common and there could be no help.

The real breakthrough was when I found a topic on this very forum in which guys started to do tests on different systems. Apparently, CPU spikes causing AAE-9173 on 30-40% stress occurs only with PT Native and not on every computer. What is curious is auxes number to max CPU stress ratio. The more aux channels you use, the smaller average CPU stress is required to 100% spike and AAE-9173. I personally tested behaviour of several plugins (API 2500, Pro-C, Pro-Q, default Pro Tools eq and dynamics, some McDSP and maybe something else). The results were generally repeating - I could run 300-400 instances of API2500 (~40% avg stress) on tracks and 80-100 on busses before spike hit 100%. In Reaper I could run 600-800 instances and with ~80% avg stress playback started to warp. With different plugins I had different numbers but general rule remains the same. In real session I observed that the more buses signal come through the easier for error. I had it once with <20% avg stress after I created a bit more complex routing.

The same guys proved that this error occurs regardless of system configuration, the plugin you use and all the other things you can hear from customer service. The biggest improvement I experienced switching to PT HD 12.4 (I got only 3 months license for testing purposes, they want me to buy reinstatement now). Anyway, if someone would like to list how to configure my system step by step (Avid's recommendations and whatever you might thing will work), I could surely try it once again (everything apart from wiping data).

Therefore, I haven't heard about anyone using PT on the same computer as mine without any issues and so I'm afraid that computer change can be the only solution. Hopefully, someone will prove me wrong very soon