Computer for Pro Tools

[MusicMadness]

This time I made some notes to make sure I'll cover all of the questions you asked

I am using internal SSD drive only. I have 1TB capacity and never thought that it can be not enough or sth. For testing purpose I could use WD Elements USB3 drive if you think it may change something (probably not, too slow) but what I think is that Pro Tools must work on my internal drive. Period. I don't want any other external drives and if that's really the issue, I'll downgrade my computer setup and save some money.

This Intel Power Gadget - I've just wanted to install it when something told me to read comments on download page and there are many people seriously complaining on it so I'm gonna let it go and stay with default energy consumption meters.

Anyway, this energy consumption thread can be important part in solving this problem. When I bought the computer I didn't have Pro Tools yet so I was using it to everyday entertainment (mostly internet browsing) for a week or so. The battery lasted then ~8-9 h. After I installed Pro Tools, battery life reduced more than twice. Now, I cannot use the computer for more than 3 h. With Pro Tools running it lasts maybe 1h. Power consumption is huge. I left the computer for certified Apple repair spot (but not Apple store) and they said that it's all good but they f***ed up a couple of another things and I don't believe them. They told me to replace PSU to genuine as it can cause those problems (I replaced and of course no change). I have 6 months of Apple Care left so if it's hardware issue (CPU paste or sth), it can be cheaply solved.

But going back to software - I've tested several versions of Pro Tools - 12.6, 12.7, 12.7.1, 12.8, 12.8.1, 12.8.2, 12.8.3 and 12.4. The best performance was on 12.4, however it was not free from those errors, I had 5-10% more CPU to use.

As it comes to real life plugin use - I'll try to describe one of my projects to show you the picture:

Drums: 11 tracks (2-3 plugins on each, 6 plugins on 2 tracks, no sends) -> drums bus (comp) -> master
Bass: 2 tracks (freezed) -> bus (1 plugin) -> master
GTRs 1: 2 tracks (freezed) -> bus (2 plugins) -> master
GTRs 2: 2 tracks (freezed, 1 send on 1 channel) -> bus (no plugins) -> master
GTRs 3: 2 tracks (freezed) -> bus (freezed!) -> master
GTRs 4: 2 tracks (freezed) -> bus (freezed!) -> master
Vox: 1 track (10 plugins, 2 sends) -> master
2 aux tracks with reverbs, one of them eqed.
8 plugins on master track.

Making it short:
22 audio tracks, 6 bus tracks, 2 aux tracks + master.
3 sends in total from 2 tracks
58 active inserts

Buffer size 1024, ignore errors during playback/record on, dynamic plugin processing off.

avg single core stress 12-15% (min 9%, max 20%)

That's enough to spit AAE-9173.

The higher temperature computer has, the quicker error occurs.


The real problem with reinstalling my system is that I've bought the computer with very expensive preinstalled software that I cannot buy any more and don't have any installers and so I have no idea how to save it. Maybe it's easier than I think so please fill me in.

[MusicMadness]

Unfortunately, I couldn't check my external drive as it's formatted in NTFS. When I'll find a while I'll download program to write NTFS on Mac and see how it goes.

I've just got through every single advice from Avid's optimisation guide except formatting hard drive and reinstalling PT (what I did many times) - no difference.

I forgot to add before that most of times when I get 9173 there's a playback issue straight after that and it starts to warp. The only way to make it work again is to completely restart PT.

I also have difficulties when switching playback hardware on new user's account as it drops error saying the program cannot have an access to save some files and blocks the change

[Avid]

Thread closed and posts that violate the ToU and/or are not on topic have been removed.

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