Eleven Rack playback issue in ProTools LE 8

[Tony-N]

Hello,

I'm having trouble with the playback in ProTools LE 8 with my Eleven Rack.
I have constant pops and clipping during playback and I know that Samuel7 had the same issue with his ER and he solved it by switching the USB cable from a 2.0/1.1 port to a 3.0/2.0 port.

Unfornately, I dont have a 3.0/2.0 port on my system. Am I out of luck on this one?

Hope someone can help me with this.

Thx
Tony

[mikefont]

Try updating your USB 2.0 drivers. That solved my similar problem a long time ago....


.

[Random Dude]

Make sure that you're on a 2.0 port, not all of them are in a lot of cases, there is a mix of 2.0 and 1.1 on a lot of systems out there.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Tony-N

Hello,

I'm having trouble with the playback in ProTools LE 8 with my Eleven Rack.
I have constant pops and clipping during playback and I know that Samuel7 had the same issue with his ER and he solved it by switching the USB cable from a 2.0/1.1 port to a 3.0/2.0 port.

Unfornately, I dont have a 3.0/2.0 port on my system. Am I out of luck on this one?

Hope someone can help me with this.

Thx
Tony

Well Tony if you really want help and not just guesses scroll yer little web browser to the top of the page and click on the "Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!" link. Please read what is there and see if you can provide as much of the info as asked for.

Especially - are you on a PC or Mac? Windows XP? Vista? 7? What exact version of the OS. What exact model computer. What exact processor type and speed. How much memory?

If on Windows a Sandra report would likely be useful (then you don't need to tell us all the other systems details). Exactly how to do this is described in that link.

Are you recording/playing back from the system hard drive or are your sessions recorded to a separate hard drive? What are the drive specs (rotation speed, interface type (USB/FireWire/SATA/eSATA etc.) and version, drive brand/model. Again a Sandra report will help us there. Are there any USB hubs involved in connecting either the Eleven Rack or any USB drives to your computer?

Is any other software running on the computer? Can you check. Is disk indexing/search software turned off on the audio disk?

In Pro Tools Settings>PlaybackEngine:

Do you have "ignore errors during playback and record" checked? What are the HW Buffer size and other parameters set to?


Darryl

[Tony-N]

mikefont-
There are no drivers to update on my USB ports since the USB driver is supported in the SP2 installation...or am I remebering things wrong here? Long time ago since I installed a fresh OS...

Random Dude-
I have tried moving it to another port with the same results but I am going to try the others as well, thing is, I don't have any more ports to spare so there has to be something that has to go...

Darryl-
You're absolutely right, I should have looked around more carefully and done it correct the first time...

So, here comes my Sandra report, but first some additional info:
- I record to a separate harddrive (internal)
- Indexing services turned OFF
- H/W Buffer size in PT is 512 samples and Ignore Errors During Playback UNchecked and as far as I can remember I haven't changed anything in PT
- Prior to installing the Expansion Pack I installed SP3
- I have a USB EMU 0202 soundcard installed to the system as well
- During the first installation of ER I got a message that said that the hardware installation failed and that the hardware might not work correctly. The same thing happened during the Expansion Pack installation.

Thank you all for taking the time!

Sandra Report
Computer
Model : Gigabyte P35-DS3
Workgroup : MSHOME
Host Name : internet
User : Tony

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E4500 @ 2.20GHz
Speed : 2.2GHz
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Dual-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 2x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size
L2 Cache : 2MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing

Computer
Mainboard : Gigabyte P35-DS3
BIOS : Award (OEM) F6 09/06/2007
Bus(es) : X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 2GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3

Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte P35/G33/G31 Processor to I/O Controller
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 200MHz (800MHz)
Total Memory : 2GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3
Channels : 2
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 400MHz (800MHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Crucial 1GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-8000U DDR2-1000 (5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3)
Memory Module : Crucial 1GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-8000U DDR2-1000 (5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3)

Video System
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 (336 SP 1.43GHz, 1GB, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
OpenCL Processor : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 (336SP 7C 1.43GHz, 1GB)

Storage Devices
SAMSUNG HD161HJ (160GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 8MB Cache) : 149GB (C:)
Seagate ST3200820AS (200GB, SATA300, 3.5", 8MB Cache) : 186GB (H:)
WDC WD5000AAKS-00YGA0 (500.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (E:)
_NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG (SCSI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW) : N/A (D:)
GT1940E IZR070B (SCSI, SCSI-2, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R, 512kB Cache) : N/A (G:)
GT1940E IZR070B (SCSI, SCSI-2, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R, 512kB Cache) : N/A (F:)
GT1940E IZR070B (SCSI, SCSI-2, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R, 512kB Cache) : N/A (I:)
GT1940E IZR070B (SCSI, SCSI-2, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R, 512kB Cache) : N/A (J:)
Disk : N/A (K:)

Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C:) : 128GB (NTFS) @ SAMSUNG HD161HJ (160GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 8MB Cache)
500 GB (E:) : 466GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD5000AAKS-00YGA0 (500.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache)
Seagate 200 (H:) : 186GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST3200820AS (200GB, SATA300, 3.5", 8MB Cache)
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ _NEC DVD_RW ND-3500AG (SCSI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Optical Drive (G:) : N/A @ GT1940E IZR070B (SCSI, SCSI-2, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R, 512kB Cache)
Optical Drive (F:) : N/A @ GT1940E IZR070B (SCSI, SCSI-2, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R, 512kB Cache)
Optical Drive (I:) : N/A @ GT1940E IZR070B (SCSI, SCSI-2, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R, 512kB Cache)
Optical Drive (J:) : N/A @ GT1940E IZR070B (SCSI, SCSI-2, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R, 512kB Cache)
Optical Drive (K:) : N/A @ Disk

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8718F
Audio Device : Giga-Byte GF104 High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : nVidia 0012h
Audio Codec : nVidia 0012h
Audio Codec : nVidia 0012h
Serial Port(s) : 1
Parallel Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte (ICH9) 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte (ICH9) 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte JMB36X PCIE-to-SATAII/IDE RAID Controller
USB Controller 1 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 3 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 4 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Controller 5 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 6 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 7 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 8 : Giga-Byte (ICH9) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Send To Microsoft OneNote Driver (300x300, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Printer : Canon i865 (USB, Colour)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC - Miniport för paketschemaläggning (Ethernet, 100Mbps)

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 3)
Platform Compliance : x86

[Darryl Ramm]

Tony

Thanks for all the details and the Sandra report. That excludes some things. And from Sandra you don't have WiFi or Bluetooth so no point suggesting you disable those.

Just to be clear...

This problem has always been there? It has not occurred after some change?

You are just recording and playing back a single track right? No virtual instruments, beats, etc. on other tracks? Setup>Playback Engine has Host CPUs set to 1 (should not be the problem but want to check anyhow).

Please double check your session is really on one of the non-system drives (its easy to make that mistake) and if nothing else works you might want to try a new session on the other non-system drive.

The Eleven Rack sounds fine stand alone when you play a guitar. Right?

If you play a sample track (not recorded by you) e.g. from the installer samples or ripped from a CD etc. do you hear clicks or pops.

When you are recording do you hear clicks and other problems through your monitors?

Use Windows tools look at the CPU utilization. Nothing is using significant CPU besides Pro Tools right?

What is the session sample rate (see Under Setup>Hardware Setup) If its not 48kHz try another session at 48kHz and see if you have this problem.

Try creating a brand new session and record a single track.

Does Task Manager show any other running applications or processes besides Pro Tools ones consuming significant CPU?

Do you have interestign looking warning/errors in Windows Computer Management>SystemTools logs?

That's it, I'm about tapped out and I don't work on the PC as a serious platform so I'll let the Windows folks here suggest more.

Darryl

[Tony-N]

Darryl - here comes the answers

This problem has always been there? It has not occurred after some change?
Yes, it has always been there, on the other hand I have only had the unit a week now.

You are just recording and playing back a single track right? No virtual instruments, beats, etc. on other tracks? Setup>Playback Engine has Host CPUs set to 1 (should not be the problem but want to check anyhow).
I have tried that before but it didn't change anything.

Please double check your session is really on one of the non-system drives (its easy to make that mistake) and if nothing else works you might want to try a new session on the other non-system drive.
Tried it and that didn't work either.

The Eleven Rack sounds fine stand alone when you play a guitar. Right?
Yes.

If you play a sample track (not recorded by you) e.g. from the installer samples or ripped from a CD etc. do you hear clicks or pops.
If I play the demo that came with ProTools I get the same kind of distorted, strange clicking, popping sound.

When you are recording do you hear clicks and other problems through your monitors?
The guitar sounds fine, but the click is popping with distorsion. On playback though, the guitar sounds crappy again.

Use Windows tools look at the CPU utilization. Nothing is using significant CPU besides Pro Tools right?

Nope, everything looks alright there.

What is the session sample rate (see Under Setup>Hardware Setup) If its not 48kHz try another session at 48kHz and see if you have this problem.
48 kHz is my default, but I have tried most of the others with no luck.

Try creating a brand new session and record a single track.
No luck there either.

Does Task Manager show any other running applications or processes besides Pro Tools ones consuming significant CPU?
Nope.

Do you have interestign looking warning/errors in Windows Computer Management>SystemTools logs?
Nothing that I can link to ProTools.

That's it, I'm about tapped out and I don't work on the PC as a serious platform so I'll let the Windows folks here suggest more.

Well, thank you very much for taking the time, I appreciate it.

During the weekend I will try every other USB port on the computer just to see if it makes any difference.

Maybe I even make a fresh OS install, its been over 3 years since the last one so it's due time anyway.

I'm not giving up yet!

Tony

[Darryl Ramm]

Tony

Definitely try some other USB ports.

Uh one important question I had forgot - Do you have an anti-virus package running? If so turn it off or better uninstall it and see if that improves things. (I suspect not since you've been thorough on other stuff).

And I'd disconnect the USB EMU 0202 and reboot and try with just the Eleven Rack connected. Just be really aggressive about making sure nothing else is running, your session is on the fastest non-system disk you have. etc.


Darryl

[zedhed]

What version of PT8 are you using?

What 11R Firmware version do you have?

I would suggest that if you haven't done so already, update to PT8.05
http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/self...3=1450&Hilite=

& Firmware version 1.03
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=279504

& Latest 11R Drivers (Scroll down to 'Pro Tools USB Device Drivers')
http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/self...3=1450&Hilite=

Don't forget to read the PDF files that come with the downloads for instructions.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by zedhed

What version of PT8 are you using?

What 11R Firmware version do you have?

/snip/

& Firmware version 1.03
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=279504

/snip/

He has already mentioned he upgraded to the expansion pack so he definitely should *not* install 1.0.3 firmware. Although it would be good to confirm the Eleven Rack thinks it is running 2.0.1. (in the user options menu scroll down and select firmware version).

Darryl