Pro Tools and VEP6 - Mac is Freezing!

[RedEyeJedi]

Hi guys

Having the weirdest issue - Just got PT2018 and VEP6 working sending my kontakt virtual instruments to Pro tools via a Slave Network machine
All working fine in terms of playback and routing but then after jamming for a while - BOOM! mac either completely freezes or just restarts by itself

I have never had my mac freeze running pro tools and my kontakt instruments (or for any other reason to be honest) So i expect it must have to do with Vienna Ensemble network streaming
That or the mac just completely ran out of CPU and memory - something is spiking it - I have no idea

Hugely frustrating!

Any ideas?

My specs
MBP touchbar 2017 2,9ghz i7 16Gb ddr3 RAM
macOS 10.13.6
Pro Tools 2018.10
Vienna Ensemble Pro 6
Kontakt 5

[musicman691]

What's the slave machine specs? The actual VEPro terms are server and client. The machine your daw is on is the client and the other machine is the server. Ideally VEPro works best when both machines in a setup are on the same operating system level.

When you say the Mac freezes or restarts itself are you talking about your MBP?

In a two machine setup I'd check the ethernet cable running between the machines and replace it. Could be a faulty cable; sometimes the little tang that holds the connector in the computer port weakens and won't hold the cable securely.

[RedEyeJedi]

Hey

Slave is a 5th GEn core i7 3.6Ghz running windows 10 with 32GB DD3 Ram
i would say it is a quicker machine than my MPB

Im talking about my MBP - the master. Literally just blacks out and powers down

I have just installed PT2018.12 - maybe this will help - i will have to see.
Otherwise im at a loss for whats going on?

its a brand new CAT5 cable, fastened securely and running a distnace of about 10m - nothing seems to be wrong with the ethernet connection

[musicman691]

The MBP - on battery or is the power adapter plugged in and powered up?

Does the MBP give you issues like this when not running VEPro?

Got latest revision of VEPro?

What else is running on the MBP that has PT on it? Any kind of wireless internet going on?

What revision of Kontakt 5?

[RedEyeJedi]

Mac is fully powered and plugged in!
Never had an issue like this before with this or any other Mac !
Yup latest versions of VEP
Also installed PT 2018.12 and no change in the issue

My pro tools system meter was running at 73% RAM usage at time of recent crash - I was only streaming one instance of Albion through VEP
Maybe for some reason there is a spike in memory usage that maxes out my machine to 100% and it shuts down for safety

It’s the latest version of kontakt and my machine is connected to the internet via Ethernet cable not WiFi
Although I have never had a WiFi related issue in the past with pro tools and my macbook

Oh dear !

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by RedEyeJedi

Mac is fully powered and plugged in!
Never had an issue like this before with this or any other Mac !
Yup latest versions of VEP
Also installed PT 2018.12 and no change in the issue

My pro tools system meter was running at 73% RAM usage at time of recent crash - I was only streaming one instance of Albion through VEP
Maybe for some reason there is a spike in memory usage that maxes out my machine to 100% and it shuts down for safety

It’s the latest version of kontakt and my machine is connected to the internet via Ethernet cable not WiFi
Although I have never had a WiFi related issue in the past with pro tools and my macbook

Oh dear !

So your Mac is connected to both the internet and the slave machine at the same time? Try disconnecting the internet ethernet cable and see what happens. What else do you have running on the mac when working in PT? Are you trying to surf the net at the same time? I've seen some strange websites that could cause the issue you seem to be having.

Trying to wrap my head around the ram usage you say that's in a session that doesn't seem to have a whole heck of a lot in it. Albion is running on the slave so other than a small overhead that VEPro has on your Mac all the ram used is on the slave. What do you have the cache in PT set to?

[RedEyeJedi]

Ill try the internet thing!
It just happened again but without VEP - so maybe that is not it.
i saw as it happend my CPU usage hit red. it spiked from 50% to 100%
While i was just playing a piano library on kontatk
It is quite a big session with lots of audio and plugins - but not too hectic. generally idling at 27% usage and 70% RAM

[RedEyeJedi]

Also - Cache settings are set to Normal in Setup

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by RedEyeJedi

Ill try the internet thing!
It just happened again but without VEP - so maybe that is not it.
i saw as it happend my CPU usage hit red. it spiked from 50% to 100%
While i was just playing a piano library on kontatk
It is quite a big session with lots of audio and plugins - but not too hectic. generally idling at 27% usage and 70% RAM

You have Kontakt on both machines then right?

CPU spiking in piano libraries is not uncommon especially if there's a lot of sustained notes going on. Keep in mind that for Kontakt Vienna says to disable/not use the Kontakt memory server (KMS). Also some Kontakt stuff can be heavy on scripting.

The reason I mentioned the internet thing is that maybe the two ethernet connected bits are fighting each other. I had to manually setup the ip address when I had my now dead iMac working as a server to my 2012 MacPro working as a client.

Something you seem to be reticent about answering: what else do you have going on on the MBP while working in PT?

[RedEyeJedi]

Kontakt on both mahines yes

What is usually running in parallel with my sessions is:
duet screen, Sonarworks Reference 4, FLux, EUControl, sometimes (often) whatsapp and Chrome - which i know is bad, however i have been doing that always on same machine.. I have only been getting these weird crashes now in relation to using VEP.
I turned off the slave and working very slowly in PT by freezing tracks and such and not getting any issues
I tried it with Logic as well - VEP was working fine - streaming a few instances of Damage and a Piano into a very light session and mac shuts down and restarts

There is some weird CPU spike going on i think.
One thing i picked up now in activity monitor is that when I run Pro Tools there is always an instance of a Quicktime_OPserver server not responding and the Pro Tools Quicktime server not responding

Maybe it also has something to do with the video as well ? although i have an mp4, and a quicktime apple motion jpeg A version of file. both playback fine