PT crashing despite having 24 GB of RAM.

[Burstbucker]

I have an up to date i7 desktop computer with a large hardrive and also a SSD. The RAM is 24GB.

I didn't foresee any problems with RAM but it looks like 24 GB might not cut it after all.

I thought that 16 GB would be plenty but I recently read something where they recommend 32 GB or higher.

Pro Tools is showing me that RAM usage is like 100% !

But CPU usage is way down low, so no problems there.

Mind you, I do have over 20 tracks going at once and there are a lot of plug-ins involved. A lot of MIDI tracks with various instrument plug-ins. Amp sims, reverb, Slate SSD drums, etc....

I tried using Freeze Track on all my tracks including MIDI tracks but then encountered big problems that made PT crash. Then I read that it is super risky trying to freeze MIDI tracks.

So all that I managed to freeze were the audio tracks along with their plug-ins but that didn't make a dent in the RAM usage.

Short of installing more RAM, is there a work around for this?

[Burstbucker]

If I Commit the MIDI tracks, would that be less likely to crash my PT rather than trying to freeze the track?

If you Commit the track, can it be un-commited like you can un-freeze something?

Is that the same as printing a MIDI track as an audio track and using the Hide And Make Inactive feature on the original MIDI track?

[Burstbucker]

Or is part of my problem having a bunch of alternate tracks laying around in the background, maybe that chews up available RAM?

If going into the alternate clips folder and getting rid of unused clips will improve my RAM I will get busy doing that pronto.

[huzzam]

It's a *good* thing that all of your RAM is full. That means Pro Tools is efficiently using the resources to their fullest potential. Unused RAM is wasted RAM.

As for your crashes, you need to be more specific —*what is happening exactly, what error codes are you getting, when do they occur?

Alternate playlists are very unlikely to be the cause. Much more likely is out of date plugins.

Please read this post & respond accordingly here. We'll all have a much better chance of solving your problem.

[huzzam]

Originally Posted by Burstbucker

If I Commit the MIDI tracks, would that be less likely to crash my PT rather than trying to freeze the track?

If you Commit the track, can it be un-commited like you can un-freeze something?

Is that the same as printing a MIDI track as an audio track and using the Hide And Make Inactive feature on the original MIDI track?

Yes, committing is a good way to reduce overhead. (I'm not sure if it's more stable than freezing, as i've never had problems with either.) It creates a new track with the instrument rendered to audio, & all other plugins copied over, and then hides & disables the original Instrument track. So you can get the original back anytime you want. And thus, yes it's essentially equivalent to printing & hiding/deactivating the track, but with a quicker workflow.

[lesbrunn]

Originally Posted by Burstbucker

Or is part of my problem having a bunch of alternate tracks laying around in the background, maybe that chews up available RAM?

If going into the alternate clips folder and getting rid of unused clips will improve my RAM I will get busy doing that pronto.

You can try de-activating all unused tracks. Can you post your full system specs?

32 GB may be better, but I don't think the 24GB RAM is what is giving you problems, unless you are using lots and lots of RAM hungry plugins. There are guys who run large sessions successfully on laptops with 16GB.

Do all necessary PT optimizations and make sure you don't have stuff running in the background that you do not need.

Most of my midi is in instrument tracks, and I haven't had any issues freezing those. Freezing is great for conserving system resources. You cannot 'un-commit', but you can always go back and re-tweak the original tracks if you're unhappy with the committed ones, and re-commit.

[Burstbucker]

Many thanks for your help guys.

I am getting pop-up windows telling me that I am low on RAM. So, I then click "don't show again" and ok until the next time I open Pro Tools 12.

I'm finding that PT is starting to be more and more futsy when I try to open it too, it just freezes up and I get a message like " A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available".

Sometimes PT will open right up without a hiccup and other times it might take two or three attempts at launching it before it responds properly. Weird!

I don't know if my iLok is getting cranky again, I used to have terrible problems occasionally with it on my laptop when I first started with PT 12.

I will post specs of my wife's desktop computer later when I have a minute. Maybe that will help.

[nedorama]

First things first - what computer do you have, what OS, what version of Pro Tools, what interface, and what external audio drives? It makes it a lot easier to help diagnose your issue if we know what you have.

Hint - put this info in your signature and then you've done it once and it's there fo r any post or question.

[junkgear]

Like the others have already stated; the more info we have about your system, the better we can help you.

We also don't know what is using your RAM. Is it all Pro Tools or do you have other things running in the background that is chewing up the RAM PT needs? Is this a dedicated DAW PC or is this also your everyday PC? What optimizations have you done to the system? Are all your drivers up to date? The list goes on. Please read the Help Us Help You thread, then post back your details. It would also be helpful to know how many VI tracks you have and what instruments you are using. Some VIs are more memory hungry than others, so yes, it could be multiple instances of a certain VI that is eating up your RAM.

[john1192]

Originally Posted by junkgear

Like the others have already stated; the more info we have about your system, the better we can help you.

We also don't know what is using your RAM. Is it all Pro Tools or do you have other things running in the background that is chewing up the RAM PT needs? Is this a dedicated DAW PC or is this also your everyday PC? What optimizations have you done to the system? Are all your drivers up to date? The list goes on. Please read the Help Us Help You thread, then post back your details. It would also be helpful to know how many VI tracks you have and what instruments you are using. Some VIs are more memory hungry than others, so yes, it could be multiple instances of a certain VI that is eating up your RAM.

to add to this .. in Theory, if you allocated all your Ram to PT there would be nothing left for the system to use and run smoothly .. right !!