the Pro Tools Hangover (post loud white noise on steroids)

[jonday]

Hi Everybody,

My engineer, musician and I have another Pro Tools hangover...

For the 3rd time this month Pro Tools LE with mbox has blasted a *very* loud and distorted noise that can be compared to white noise on steroids and I jump into the air while the vocalist clutches the wall in pain from the ear damage she just experienced (did I mention the system will hang for a few moments as well).

I will gladly post my system info to try and troubleshoot when I get the courage to put my headphones back on.

For the time being I have a suggestion for Digidesign:

Please make your software/hardware in such a way that Pro Tools cuts all outputs when it senses imminent danger of crazy loud steroid-enhanced white noise blowing through the mains. There is no excuse for this happening. We've been "blasted" on both Mac and PC with two different engineers, two different pieces of Digidesign hardware, two different sessions. The best part is that it can happen almost randomly. The last time we were just sitting back listening to a take and BAM... "there goes another year of hearing" mixed in with lots of helpless yelping and curse words.

If this has ever happened to you, you must be wondering how on earth I have kept relative composure during this post.

Am I alone?

Jon

[albee1952]

I had this happen on my old PC and 002 system. 2-3 times, the system would shoot blasting noise out the speakers and lock up so I had to hit the reset button. Once I put the system on a UPS power backup, I never had it happen again. You might try it as it will be $150(give or take) well spent anyway.

[soundonsound]

Digi has released a fix for white noise problems on Mbox.

I believe it's firmware update 1.44 or something close to that number. If you search Support and downloads then Mbox downloads you will find the firmware update.

No reason you should have to deal with that issue, just update Pro Tools and your mbox firmware to the latest.

there are many other ways to cause white noise too, I have other USB devices cause that, and OLD out of date or incompatible plug-in versions can cause that.

Check Digi's plug-in compato page and make sure everything is updated, or else plug those plug-ins out of the folder!

Take care.

[Keeron]

jonday,

I've had that happen to me too...on several occasions, with different hardware (PTLE 6.4 on DIGI001 and M-AUDIO 2496 on hacked 6.9).

It was real late (3AM-ish) and boy did we get a wake up call when that happened.

It was more like pink noise...but at that volume, who cares about the colour?!@!

It hasn't happen since on the DIGI001 (at least two years) and I haven't used the 2496 in a while.

I can tell you that when I momentarily lost my hearing with the 2496, it was when I inserted RVERB on an aux strip...wham, instant deafness. Happened only that one time. Was the aux strip at 0 or -inf...couldn't tell you...I was too blasted to take notice.

When it happened with the DIGI001, it was late. I don't exactly remember what I was doing, but whamo...instant heart attack. Needless to say mixing and editing stopped there.

I haven't really changed my 001 system since and it hasn't happened since...yet.

I haven't added a power backup either.

I guess instead of getting a blue screen of death for whatever reason, we get a dose of loud noise from hell.

I've purchased a Central Station since and keep the remote right next to my left hand...just in case I need to hit the mute/dim/disable/volume control (whatever my freaked out twitching can press...should it occur again!)

Hopefully, I won't be tracking with headphones when it does...because the CS would be useless then.

Were you, by chance, inserting a plugin like I was? Some of the plugins I have weren't necessarily meant for the version of PT I run, but I still use them. Maybe it's some sort of glitch in the code. For me, once the noise was gone, the plug worked fine.

I appreciate your call to DIGIDESIGN to look into this matter...but I highly doubt they'll answer it.

Those are my experiences...
Hang in there,
KT