Clicks & Pops on playback

[mikevarela]

I've got a 2007 quad 3.0 Ghz mac pro with 4 internal drives - all 7200 rpm.

I'm running on PTLE 8.0.4.

I've got a session with 38 tracks, no plugins and simple bussing to create stems, so basically like 6 Dx tracks, 16 Fx tracks, 4 music tracks and an aux master. I've got a DV movie in the session playing from an internal separate drive and the session audio files playing from another internal.

I have two monitor cards...

The last 3 jobs I've mixed all exhibit the same popping and clicking sounds on playback and even worse, while printing back into the session. My buffer is at 1024, I've tried using all the processors (4) and then 3, but it persists. The high quality dv option isn't checked and the playback buffer is normal. Plus there's no auto input monitoring.

This is such a deal breaker. I can't have clients in the studio while this is happening and I have to take my mixes elsewhere to print.

Any theories or plans of attack?

[lode]

Do you have Elastic audio on any of the tracks?
If so try disabling it.

[Newpostguy]

[bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep] Mike that sounds bad. Have you confirmed your interface is okay? Maybe its on the way out? Can you try a new audio interface like another PT box lying around or something?

[mikevarela]

Update....

I reformatted my audio drive and that didn't help either. I checked the system usage meters in Pro Tools and they registered 1% for CPU so I began to throw things across that room in anger.

Then I tired seeing if I could update firmware on the 003 rack. it reports that it needs it, but it freezes and after 20 minutes waiting I give up.

So, just for sh^&ts and giggles I plug in my mbox2 to see if that works and what do you know - it does.

Damn rack is faulty (thanks for the suggestion Matt!)

it's a 2007, so out of warranty. Wondering if I could have digi fix it cause dropping 1300 right now is out of the question.

[Newpostguy]

Np Mike, "glad" that troubleshooting got you some answers but obviously unhappy about the result! Gl mate, curious to hear what happens with digi.

[mikevarela]

well, I take back what I said... though not to you Matt.

After a bit the same problem occurred while using the mbox2 on the mac pro - so it seems that it indeed is relegated to the computer (insert bad word here).

I plugged the 003 rack into my macbook laptop (2 years old - white) with PT 7.4.2 and the session ran beautifully, no problems - and all on one internal drive. Plug the mbox into the macbook and the session still runs great... so it must be the mac pro.

thought maybe it might be the mac pro firewire bus, so i tried plugging it into the front slot, still errors. Then maybe by using usb and the mbox, I'd forgo the firewire altogether, but I still have issues.

I removed the extra 2 gigs of ram I bought a while ago (non apple) and the problem seems a little better, but still flawed.

Next is the 2nd video card.

This is crazy... it's 38 tracks and 4 busses with NO plugins - and the show is only 22 minutes long and the video is DV.

Can't seem to find why this is happening.

I'm on 10.6.5 and LE 8.0.4 with level caches normal, no elastic and I've even hard stopped the spotlight service in terminal. I've also tried permutations of using less processors and downgrading the amount of processing I let Pro Tools have... still errors.

It all sounds like buffer clicks, but I'm at the highest allowable (1024)

Any help out there?

[sunburst79]

The Host Engine "Ignore Pops and Clicks on Playback/Record" didn't some how accidently get checked in the playback dialog did it?

[mikevarela]

no, that's one of the first things I checked

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by mikevarela

no, that's one of the first things I checked

I figured as much. Didn't see any mention of it so I thought I would ask.

[Stuart P.]

My guess is bad RAM. I don't know how your RAM is configured, but if possible try removing it piece by piece, and see if the problem disappears. I'm not sure if RAM needs to be removed in pairs in the Mac Pro, so you should find that out. Bad RAM has given me and others the exact symptoms you're describing.

Good luck,
Stuart