AAE Error -6101

[Kroc]

Hiya all.

I'm running Pro Tools 2018 that I installed fresh a few months back on a new iMac Pro that I got for my studio (3.2Ghz/32GB RAM/Pro Vega 56 8GB). Running with a UA Apollo 8, Apollo Twin MKII and satellite (chained). Every so often when I'm in a session, playback abruptly stops, and I get an error message that says, "A CPU overload error occurred. If this happens often, try increasing the "H/W Buffer Size" in the Playback Engine Dialog, or removing some plug-ins. (AAE -6101)"

The trouble is, the CPU is obviously not overloaded. The iMac Pro laughs at this stuff - in the biggest session in the project I'm working on (96k/24 bit), which has tonnes of tracks and active plugins, the CPU usage is only at about 10%. This is happening right now in a 96k session where all the (ten) tracks are frozen (there are no active plugins in the session), and the CPU is under 1% load. I usually run sessions with a 2056 buffer size (as Universal Audio recommends, even when tracking with an Apollo).

I've done all the suggested optimizations, including turning off WiFi (and running a cable from my router instead), but it still happens. I mostly use UAD and Fabfilter plugins.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Dan

[SoundByLaura]

Could be a plugin in your plugins folder that loads at open even though you don't have any instantiated in the session.

Could be an application phoning home. I recommend Little Snitch for stopping apps from using the interwebs in the background.

Could be a driver such as SoundFlower, if you have that.

And, of course, increase your buffer size.

[kmusic]

If you have a second daw to test,try that. If it’s smooth without issue, pro tools is to blame. Could be that time of month for pro tools if you know what I mean

[SoundByLaura]

Originally Posted by kmusic

If you have a second daw to test,try that. If it’s smooth without issue, pro tools is to blame. Could be that time of month for pro tools if you know what I mean

What do you mean?

[kmusic]

Originally Posted by SoundByLaura

What do you mean?

Pro tools is very moody lol. One day works really well and the next day it causes all types of problems.

[Darryl Ramm]

To expand on the help Laura was giving before being interrupted...

The CPU error is caused by latency. Pro Tools does not actually care what percentage of the CPU is busy or not (and CPU meters can lie a lot anyhow). Something is going on where it's taking too long internally for Pro Tools to get processing done. Tiny little micro-hiccups that can't show up on a meter.

A common cause of this is a faulty plugin, so always worth carefully excluding those (and if you exclude them *then* shout at Avid).

And plugins once loaded into Pro Tools are just "there" and not protected from the rest of Pro Tools, and capable of causing all sorts of bad things even if you don't instantiate them in your session.

So you should be jumping in and checking plugins very early here. As always just try trashing prefs first. And then from a new empty session in case it's a session corruption bug. Then move all .aaxplugin files out of the plugin directory, trash prefs and restart Pro Tools, it will put back the standard plugins automagically, and then see what happens with that same session with frozen tracks. If it's OK now keep putting back/removing the remaining plugin files in batches until you find a problem. Get onto that plugin vendor support if you do fid a problem.

If you've done all that, then it's time to complain about Pro Tools.

---

Remember other standard troubleshooting: check drivers are up to date/compatible, disk cache enabled (i.e. set to a size... few GB) , dynamic plugin processing is turned off, ignore errors is *off* (at least why doing all troubleshooting), test with Built-In Output, repeat tests from a new admin user account, trash prefs periodically as you try stuff.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by kmusic

If you have a second daw to test,try that. If it’s smooth without issue, pro tools is to blame. Could be that time of month for pro tools if you know what I mean

And I wonder why more women don't work in the professional audio industry.

[kmusic]

Darryl you know pro tools is moody. Be honest and I love pro tools.

[kmusic]

If he/she tries a different daw with the same session and no problems, I think he/she found the problem

[Darryl Ramm]

Your childish comments are not adding any value here.