Any ideas why PT 9 is choking while recording or playing 2 channels @ 96k?

[jwolford]

My config is as follows:

8 Core 3 Ghz Mac Pro w/ 9GB RAM
Fresh install (on a clean drive) OS 10.6.7
PT 9.0.2
Separate internal SATA boot and Record/Playback drives.
Metric Halo 2882 and ULN 8 soundcards set up as aggregate device (though have tried using only the ULN-8 to see if aggregate is the problem).
I have a lot of FW devices on the Apple FW bus. But I have the Soundcards on a PCI FW card so they don't compete for bandwidth with the drives.

I have a few plugs running, RTAS is at 15%, Elastic is at 0-1%, Disk is at 0-1%.

H/W Buffer is set to 512
No Delay Compensation
DAE BUffer is set to "Level 2" and Cache Size is set to "Large"
Plug in streaming is set to "Optimize for streaming content...."


Even in just playing back a single 96k stereo file, my system is choking with a "CPU Overload" error -6101.

I thought it might be my bloated boot volume, so I reformatted, reinstalled only what I needed, and the issue persists.

I checked troubleshooting and did a few searches, and turned up nothing. Checked the plugs compatibility grid, I am OK there. So here I am.

This machine is not new, but it's no lightweight! I get better results running Logic 9 or PT 8 LE on my 5 year old 2.16 Ghz Macbook Pro!

Suggestions appreciated, even if it's a suggestion to read an article.

Thanks,

[LanceK]

No idea why however I have the same problem using Lynx Aurora's. No plug ins with me. And I'm at 48Khz. Again like you, no problem with Logic but seems to bring PT to its knees.

[jwolford]

I am glad, and sorry to hear it is not just me.
Must be a preference somewhere that we are both missing.

[Park Seward]

How have you assigned your cores? I'd try only giving half of them to PT and play around with the amount of CPU you are giving the app.

Also, 10.6.7 has not yet been approved.

[jwolford]

Thanks Park, I have not tried assigning cores. I'll give that a shot. I didn't realize 10.6.7 was not PT approved. I figured it had been out for a while, my bad.

Avid is overly cautious about new OS's but I appreciate their reasoning on this.

[Park Seward]

Originally Posted by jwolford

Thanks Park, I didn't realize 10.6.7 was not PT approved. I figured it had been out for a while, my bad.

It was released March 21, eight days ago.

[jwolford]

Originally Posted by Park Seward

How have you assigned your cores? I'd try only giving half of them to PT and play around with the amount of CPU you are giving the app.

Also, 10.6.7 has not yet been approved.

I just got around to cutting the amount of cores available to PT from 8 to 4. It is a little better but not much.

At this point I have no plug ins active and can not run 3 channels of 96k audio while recording another for more than a few seconds.

I tried PT Aggregate audio device instead of my regular aggregate, just for the hell of it, no change..

My specs are at the top of this thread. Please tell me that I am not asking too much of this machine!?!

[jwolford]

It gets weirder..
I have 4 96k stereo tracks in a session. I can either play the top 3, or the bottom 1, but not all 4 together. It's like they cancel each other out.

I see the meters on the Master Fader moving to reflect what is on on 1-3, but I am only hearing what is on 4. If I press stop and start again, it flips and I hear 1-4, but the Master Bus meters always reflect the output of 1-3...

Good god.

Oh, and when I get the 6101 CPU overload error the Mac Console is throwing up this:
3/29/11 11:41:59 PM kernel did 1 watchdogs for pid 6845, Pro Tools (5603, 1702) delta from wd: 1500653 ns

And I am keeping activity monitor open, the CPU is fine when PT chokes....

[Carl Lie]

Try taking the lynx out of the picture so we can rule it out.

Also check the plugs for incompatibles

Carl

[Park Seward]

Plug-ins installed on your machine get loaded when you boot. You do not have to put them in a session. I'd remove them all as a test.

Your system is not performing properly. It's not PT.

You said, "I tried PT Aggregate audio device instead of my regular aggregate, just for the hell of it, no change.."

Please explain.

Also, change the percentage of CPU usage. I saw a note that it may be a problem at default setting.

Have you tried a new user account?

Have you done any RAM tests?