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  #1  
Old 07-28-2017, 05:27 PM
Eric Westfall Eric Westfall is offline
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Default Crackle, Loud Beeping before crash

Running Pro Tools 12.4 on a 2010 iMac, 30.06 GHz processor. No audio interface, I simply output from the headphone jack to speakers (which I really like the sound of). Mixing for a client who brought in a project recorded at 96k. Mixing proceeds smoothly for 5 or 10 minutes when a loud crackle, followed by loud beeps in groups of three. Computer freezes.

I suspect a sound card issue in the Mac, but clueless what to do about it.

Thanks for any help.
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  #2  
Old 07-28-2017, 06:14 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Crackle, Loud Beeping before crash

You need to start with standard troubleshooting, see the "Help us Help You" link up top of this web page. And describe exactly what try.

"Just Freeze" tells us nothing useful. What exactly you happens? Screen goes blank? Solid color? Mouse cursor stops or keeps working? All apps freeze or just Pro Tools? What do you have to do to get the system back?

Make sure no other apps are running.

In Console.app logs us there anything showing up around the time this happens?

Try treating the problem as a Pro Tools one (helps exclude some stuff...)

Always start with trashing prefs.

Make sure the playback engine is Built-In Output not an aggregate device. That is about as a reliable interface as you can get.

Then you are going to suspect plugins (because its easiest to check)... Are all plugins up to date? Temp. move all plugins out of their folder and start Pro Tools. Does that play through the problem area?

If that does not fix it it is likely a corrupt session. You can try a save In and see if that helps, but quite likely you are going to need to rebuild the session by hand.

If the client had this content as a Pro Tools session does it play OK on their system?

Is your system fully optimized?

You curiously misquote CPU clock rate but leave off anything actually useful to tell if your system is sufficient. Like exact iMac model, OS version, memory, specs of the disk drive you are recording to, wether you have a Fusion drive, how many audio tracks and what plugins and how many instances, etc. Much more info needed...

Disable ignore errors.... what exact AAE error gets thrown if any?

Last edited by Darryl Ramm; 07-28-2017 at 06:27 PM.
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  #3  
Old 07-28-2017, 06:34 PM
Eric Westfall Eric Westfall is offline
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Default Re: Crackle, Loud Beeping before crash

Thank you for the reply. I gave all computer specs when registering, so sorry for not including that. It's a 12.5" mid-2010 iMac. 500 G hard drive, 12 Gig of Ram, running El Capitan. I was told 30.06 GHz, I assumed that was the clock rate. (Maybe I misheard.)

This has never happened before with 48k sessions, only these which are 96k. It doesn't happen at a specific place in a song, and it'll happen with any song. Usually plays fine for 10 or 20 minutes, sometimes less, and then starts crackling very loudly, followed by the beeps. The sessions play fine on the client's computer.

What is meant by trashing prefs?

I will try the things you suggested. Thanks for your help.
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  #4  
Old 07-28-2017, 07:06 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Crackle, Loud Beeping before crash

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Westfall View Post
Thank you for the reply. I gave all computer specs when registering, so sorry for not including that. It's a 12.5" mid-2010 iMac. 500 G hard drive, 12 Gig of Ram, running El Capitan. I was told 30.06 GHz, I assumed that was the clock rate. (Maybe I misheard.)



This has never happened before with 48k sessions, only these which are 96k. It doesn't happen at a specific place in a song, and it'll happen with any song. Usually plays fine for 10 or 20 minutes, sometimes less, and then starts crackling very loudly, followed by the beeps. The sessions play fine on the client's computer.



What is meant by trashing prefs?



I will try the things you suggested. Thanks for your help.

But what *exactly* happens?

No such thing as a 12.5" iMac (OK I get you mean 21.5) or a 30.06 GHz CPU. The OSX system information utility will tell you all about your system and you need to understand this if you are going to make progress.

What exact model/spec drive? List all your drives. Are you using a dedicated audio drive? Again, the system information utility tells you this... Google how to use it if you don't know.

Your system info says 12GB which implies a mismatched set of DIMMs. Not a good idea. Who upgraded the memory?

Trashing prefs is well described under the "Help us help you". As are optimization steps. Seems you have lots of reading to....

El Crapitan was one of the worse OS X releases in a long time. It may pay you to get off it. We are still lacking clear information to know if your system is suitable for running Pro Tools and what this sessions looks like.


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Last edited by Darryl Ramm; 07-28-2017 at 07:17 PM.
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  #5  
Old 07-28-2017, 08:15 PM
Eric Westfall Eric Westfall is offline
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Default Re: Crackle, Loud Beeping before crash

Thank you for the response. I'll downgrade my OS to Yosemite, read the 'Help us help you,' (presently busy putting out other fires) -- yes, it's a 21.5" iMac. Sorry for the typo. I don't have the computer in front of me, it's at my studio. The Pro Tools soft I am using is 12.4. I will beef up to 16 Gig Ram. I don't know what's meant by 'dedicated audio drive.' The sessions are on the desktop, and no external drives are involved, nor am I using any audio interface. Just the Mac Built-in output.

As for what *exactly* happens, while using Pro Tools, working on a mix of a song that was recorded at 96K, 5, 10 or 20 minutes go by, and suddenly I hear very loud static/crackling, and then, in addition, loud beeps, three in succession, then three more, then three more, as the computer freezes. (It's really loud!) I go for the option-command-delete keys, the computer shuts down and then restarts. No error messages.

Yes, I have a lot of reading to do.

Thank you, sincerely, for the input.
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  #6  
Old 07-28-2017, 09:06 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Crackle, Loud Beeping before crash

don't downgrade OS X yet.

When you are in front of the computer next get all the disk drive specs. a dedicated drive for audio/session... what you are supposed to have to run Pro Tools, not the boot/system drive like you are doing. With a HDD this can easily be an issue, with a modern SSD dedicated drives are no longer needed. Your old iMac won't have one of these super-fast PCIe SSD so you really should have a dedicated drive. And you are stuck the. With needling to find a FireWire 800 external drive. All this tells me you have not paid attention to systems requirements, likely have not properly optimized the computer, etc. Now what is causing this current problem.... ah who knows, but now you need to step back, get things set up properly and then systematically work through troubleshooting stuff. But post more clear details here, of the system and sessions you are trying to run, that will help people give you useful advice, including if it's worth spending more money on what you have or not. And I suspect you mean 3.06 GHz, which means a Core i3 processor (... again give clear info please), and that is easily underpowered for complex sessions.

If it is worth spending more money on this iMac, then I would replace all DIMMs with matched DIMMs, same exact vendor/model.


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  #7  
Old 07-28-2017, 09:23 PM
Eric Westfall Eric Westfall is offline
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Default Re: Crackle, Loud Beeping before crash

Sorry, I guess I'm stupid. (Actually, I'm not, I'm a very experienced audio engineer, but morphing from the analogue age to the digital age, I'm stumbling a bit).

Yes, 3.06 sounds right. But these are not complex sessions. Only about a dozen tracks, and the system-usage window displays almost no (10%?) usage.

What's a DIMM???
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