Pro Tools SE 8.0.3 hangs at Xpand!.dpm on Win XP SP3 and Crashes on Mac OS 10.6.8

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by SmartAlex

Yep. IE8 like all good XP SP3 systems. That is the last browser for XP.

Well you need to unisntall IE 8 and go back to IE7, or easier just install Mozilla Firefox or Chrome.

[SmartAlex]

Did a search for Pro Tools SE and IE8 on this site and Google, but haven't found any threads indicating incompatibility. Where did you see that IE8 causes problems with Pro Tools SE?

[Darryl Ramm]

This IE8 incompatibility problem hit multiple different editions/versions of Pro Tools 8. There were fixes in 8.0.3 releases of Pro Tools LE and HD that addressed some core IE 8 compatibility issues but not the XPand! and some other plugin compatibility issues. Whether all the IE 8 and Xpand! issues were supposed to be fixed in 8.0.3 SE or subsequent update I'm not sure. And meaningfully detailed release notes for Pro Tools SE or patch updates, ah they just don't seem to ever have existed. And I don't think you can just install the updated standard version of Xpand that fixed all the IE8 compatibility problems in other Pro Tools versions as the plugins in Pro Tools SE were uniquely customized/crippled.

So you can waste a lot of time trying to find out more or you can just try uninstalling IE8, which I suggested a few posts ago. There are no guarantees, but IE8 incompatibility is the singular widely known cause of exactly what you are describing.

DUC is a user forum, effectively no other users here, well not ones that post much, use Pro Tools SE. And again GC sold you an old discontinued product. If you want more detailed help you can try contacting M-Audio support (http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=...25fd69470b3dc1) . The (discontinued) product bundle you purchased was taken over by M-Audio when that business was sold off by Avid.

[SmartAlex]

Turns out that the hanging problem is that Pro Tools SE and maybe the other versions of Pro Tools are completely incompatible with any other software. If you setup a PC with a clean install and then install ProTools SE, it will stop hanging. This error has nothing to do with IE8. I'm running XP SP3 with all the latest updates. I used the KeyStudio 49 and wasn't impressed because there is enough delay through the USB MIDI connection to throw off your playing. The sounds were OK, but the effect plugins look generic and simple minded. The Pro Tools SE interface and operation reminded me of a dumbed down version of Sound edit 16. For example when you hit stop there is no automatic return to the start of the song or the last cursor position. You must hit rewind like a tape deck. Setting a loop section was easy, but to my knowledge, you can't drag the loop area to another part of the song. You must select another area of the song and set the loop again. Other programs like ACID, Logic, MixBuss, Cakewalk, Nuendo, and Sonar seem to be much more advanced with a better user interface experience and are compatible with multiple other audio applications. You can even run more than one sound application at a time and the software will switch the sound card appropriately without crashing. Honestly, I don't know what all the hype over Pro Tools is about. It's a basic audio program with simplistic features and capabilities like a tape deck that has been claimed to be the "industry standard". Personally, I don't see it. It's propitiatory garbage. Don't waste you money on these products unless you have absolutely no experience with audio recording or making music. You can always export your tracks to wav or aiff files from the other programs I mentioned and import them into a Pro Tools project if necessary.

[Darryl Ramm]

Oh well, I tried to encourage you to return it. Still if you wanted a $50 MIDI controller you got one. And as you note there are many better/more current/actively supported product out there than Pro Tools SE. Even full Pro Tools is not a great composition platform. Pro Tools really shines as an audio tracking and editing workstation through to massive systems for post/movie work. Many Pro Tool users will use Logic Pro or similar packages for composition/VI/MIDI editing work. Pro Tools SE was a silly marketing idea by Avid to try to sell something for low-end consumer use. One of the worst of it's many crimes is that you could not install any third party VIs.

BTW the delays are not from USB per-se, they are from the latency of the IO buffering in Pro Tools. You can tune that down in the playback engine settings, at the risk of the whole thing becoming unstable (you need a well optimized/setup fast PC with fast dedicated audio disk drive to run at small buffer settings)

[Dcader10]

Hello,

I had the same problem with PT freezing up upon loading Xpand!.dpm.
I had an interface driver conflict. I had the M-Audio Fastrack USB interface driver before I installed the M-Audio Mobile Pre interface driver that came with PT SE 8.0.3. Once I removed the Fastrack driver it solved the problem.

Hope this helps,
Dcader10

[Shan]

Just to clarify, Pro Tools HD, HDX and HDN are the industry standard in most high end facilities, not Pro Tools SE. I myself have never seen PT SE even in smaller project studios that bring in a monthly income, not even on an editing workstation. PT SE was a very stripped down introductory version of Pro Tools.

Shane