Protools 12.XX performance optimization script and important tips!

[abc1mce2]

Originally Posted by StillHollow

Yes I am mixing at higher buffers (512) but to test your theory I just did as you suggested and pressed play to look at the meters. The cpu usage was very high with and without the suggested tweaks at 64 buffers.

I have not tried the script, I did everything manually. I will be happy to try the script and report back but in essence the script is the same thing as the manual process from what I gather.

To clarify, I was very excited about this because I hit the wall on system resources from time to time on a mix so this is in no way an effort to rain on your parade. This seems like a nice little free upgrade to my rig, I just wish I could take advantage of and maybe I can if I realize I made a mistake somewhere. I just unfortunately didn't have any noticeable gains as a result of trying it. I haven't seen anyone else report back who is trying this for the first time so am certainly hoping we get a few more people trying this and I can figure out if it is an issue on my end or a more broad situation.

What are your system specs?

[StillHollow]

[QUOTE=ejinbc;2479142]



1)Use a CPU affinity of ‘FC’ when launching PT ('FFC' for 8700K processors) – this frees up one core for background audio processing on an i7 CPU. This is required on my system to achieve click/pop free operation at low latency – otherwise I get random CPU spikes which will halt recording. At higher buffers (e.g. 256) it is not needed.



I appreciated your post but what does FC and FFC mean?

[ejinbc]

Still

FC is hexadecimal for the processor assignment. On a 6700K (8 cores) use FC = 11111100 where the 00 are cores not assigned to ProTools.

On a 8700K there are 12 cores so I use FFC = 111111111100

Hope that helps. Otherwise, Google is your friend.

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by ejinbc

Hi



The Processor Affinity topic comes up every once in a while. I thought I might summarize my efforts for stable low latency performance for people following this thread. So taken from a few earlier posts...



Recent attempts at achieving lower latency while recording a band in PT 2018.1 / Win 10 using a mix of VIs and 12 x 24/96 kHz audio channels. We monitor midi drums (TD6V, Abbey Road Modern Kit), Various Kontakt Keys (2 players), acoustic guitar, and 4 x Vox live through PT during recording. See below for system build details.



With a MOTU 1248 (latest drivers and up-to-date Win 10) I can record without clicks or pops at 24/96 kHz with a 64 sample audio buffer and 32 sample PT output buffer (MOTU allows these to be set separately) for at least 3 hours continuous without issue. Some things that have helped:



1)Use a CPU affinity of ‘FC’ when launching PT ('FFC' for 8700K processors) – this frees up one core for background audio processing on an i7 CPU. This is required on my system to achieve click/pop free operation at low latency – otherwise I get random CPU spikes which will halt recording. At higher buffers (e.g. 256) it is not needed.



This can be achieved on Win 10 with the command line for my install:



cmd. exe /c start "ProTools" /affinity FFC "C:\Program Files\Avid\Pro Tools\Protools. exe"



(note remove space before exe to use these command lines - spaces required to post in forum)



2)Minimize the use of serial processing - recently someone on GS was discussing optimizing your DAW setup to minimize serial processing of audio signals – the more parallel the signal path, the easier it is for the program to schedule across all cores (makes sense). So I route all signals straight to Master Output channels for monitoring. I have one send setup for Vox slapback (HDelay) echo during recording for monitoring.



3)Read the chapter on Groups in PT - Groups can be used for level control to minimize the need for Aux channels (e.g. drums master) – left click to adjust the group (like a VCA), and right click to adjust an individual group members level (wow). I have also started to mix more like this and for many tasks it keeps the mix simpler and easier for me to control. Aux channels can lead to extra serial processing ???





I just built the 8700K system linked below - running Win 10, ProTools 2018.1, MOTU 1248 USB, Waves Gold + HEQ, Kontakt Komplete:



System Builder https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/6nmc3F - Core i7-8700K 3.7GHz 6-Core, GeForce GTX 950 2GB FTW ACX 2.0, Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower - PCPartPicker Canada



If you want low latency, the 8700K system is probably the way to go because of the faster single core performance.



I overclock to 5.0 GHz. Overclocking is trivial (see YouTube e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoUtA7DKXhU) and completely stable on my system. Actually, I find overclocking gives better stability/performance for DAW work. I disable all clock and power switching in the BIOS. I setup a custom fan profile in the BIOS for quieter operation. Airflow is important for overclocking. With the Noctu cooler I reverse the normal case airflow to draw in from the back directly onto the Noctu Radiator, and exhaust out the front. This gets the coolest air over the Radiator for cooling. The CPU never goes above 70C when using ProTools on a busy project.



I am very happy with the 8700K. I had been using an overclocked 3770K (4.5 GHz) for several years waiting for a worthy upgrade. This was it. The single core performance allows me to run at 64 sample buffer 24/96 kHz for recording (16 audio, 16 midi, 6 instances of HEQ, 1 HDelay, 1 Kontakt running AR Modern Drums, 1 Kontakt running Pianos, and then other instances of Kontakt instruments as required), and the 6 cores allow me to run many more CPU intensive plugins during mixing. All good.



I did not delid my CPU; it should not be necessary for 5 GHz. Get the thermal paste right and make sure you have the coolest air possible moving over the radiators. I just used the asus overclock profile for 5 GHz on the Asus Z370 Prime A motherboard and adjusted the XMP for my memory. Once it was working, I lowered the CPU voltage from the overclock default until my system wasn't stable in a stress test then upped the CPU voltage back a few mV. Done stable and cool.



Also note, there is a big difference in CPU load (temperatures) between running a DAW with a busy project and running a Prime stress test. On a stress test the CPU temp cycles from 60 to 85 C, but with a full DAW load it only goes up to 70 C max.



Happy Camper, Hope this helps someone.



____________________________________________

Asus Prime A Z370 MB, 8770K CPU O/C @ 5 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD, 2 TB Data drive, Gigabyte 950 video card running HDMI 2.0 @ 4K resolution, all USB peripherals plugged into USB3 ports EXCEPT Motu 1248 which is plugged into rear USB2 port, Turbo Mode Off in BIOS, C-states Off in BIOS, On-board sound Off in BIOS, HPET Off in BIOS. Command 8, Roland TD6, Edirol PCR M80, Korg SP250. Windows 10 (all standard DAW optimizations), Pro Tools 2018.1, Waves Gold Bundle, Waves HEQ, Native Instruments Komplete 10.

Superb post

[athlon64]

EJINBC:

Your discoveries are quiet much identical to what i wrote in the original subject. The only difference is, for me setting core affinity at protools startup didn't seem to work. I have to do it after the project is started.

And yes, clock is more important then core count unless you are going to have a huge number of tracks with lots of parallel processing. The 8700k seems like a great buy for a protools PC right now.

[StillHollow]

Originally Posted by athlon64

EJINBC:



Your discoveries are quiet much identical to what i wrote in the original subject. The only difference is, for me setting core affinity at protools startup didn't seem to work. I have to do it after the project is started.



And yes, clock is more important then core count unless you are going to have a huge number of tracks with lots of parallel processing. The 8700k seems like a great buy for a protools PC right now.

Athlon,
I believe your original post specified that Pro Tools must be open but there was no mention of the actual project /session being open so would this have any bearing on my less than stellar results? My process was to open PT, follow your instructions and THEN open my session.

[athlon64]

Originally Posted by StillHollow

Athlon,
I believe your original post specified that Pro Tools must be open but there was no mention of the actual project /session being open so would this have any bearing on my less than stellar results? My process was to open PT, follow your instructions and THEN open my session.

No, open up the session, let everything load. Then do the affinity and priority setup. I'm not sure weather this will make a difference for you but i have had better results if i would let the session load completly.

It was like protools would override the setting if i did it to early.
Doesn't make much sense to me but that's how it worked.

[abc1mce2]

Thank you for clarifying that. Seems I was doing it wrong also so I will try it this way once I get home.

[albee1952]

This is pretty interesting for me as I have been getting tons of -9093 errors with internet connected, and a fair amount of -9127 errors(this might be incorrect #) errors under my normal load(about 60 tracks at 48K/24bit with a 64 buffer). In my first run at testing doing the Affinity adjustment manually(unchecking the first 2 cores), I got zero errors over an hour of recording(each pass went over 5 minutes or more). The only wildcard at the moment is that I also killed Gobbler from the systray. More testing to follow, but its looking promising.

Last 2 cents, hyperthreading on/off seems(from my own testing) to be hit or miss(some systems will see improvement while others won't) so best to simply try it on your rig and see if one way gives better performance

[seanmccoy]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Last 2 cents, hyperthreading on/off seems(from my own testing) to be hit or miss(some systems will see improvement while others won't) so best to simply try it on your rig and see if one way gives better performance

Out of curiosity, aren't a number of hungry plugins designed to utilize hyperthreading?