Crackling and popping sounds when playing back Instrument tracks

[tendashi]

I've been having this issue for quite a while now, but never seemed to be able to even come close to any solution.
So I recorded some melody on either the xpand2, the MiniGrand, the Massive AAX, the Vacuum... you name it.
Once I start playing it back I get those annoying crackling and popping sounds.
Everything seems fine as long as I'm just playing around in Input-mode or while tracking, but as soon as I playback (a previously tracked clip) it starts doing that.
Increasing Buffer-size doesn't do anything and System usage isn't even hitting the 16% mark in that particular session which contains 11 instrument tracks and 8 audio tracks. Also, I have not checked the 'Ignore Errors During Playback/Record'-box in case someone is wondering :)

Could someone please help out?
Thanks a lot!


PT 12.5.0
OS X 10.10.5
iMac Intel Core i7 3,4 GHz (2011) 16 GB ram 695 GB SATA
RME HDSPe Madi
MacbookPro Intel Core i5 2,3 GHz (2011) 4 GB ram 389 GB HDD
Fast Track Solo

[Southsidemusic]

Hey which computer are you seeing this on?

You have two different Macs in your signature.

[tendashi]

Thanks Southsidemusic,

the problem occurs on either of them.

[Southsidemusic]

Do you record to a secondary hard drive as needed and what deives are in the macs now. Very important as that might be the issues here.

And the 4GB is 4GB too sparse as PT12 need atleast 8GB or 16 recommended.

So the Macbook might be used for other stuff as it is an older slower computer and i would spend my time getting the imac working for PT rather than buying more RAM and new hard drive for the OS on that one.

So, hard drives inside and hard drive for recording?

And the iMac, is it a fusion drive inside as OS drive and no recording drive then thats the problem. Fusion drives are hell for Pro Tools and if you dont use a secondary drive for recording on any of the macs it is another addon for problems.

[tendashi]

Thanks a lot for the info so far Southsidemusic!

Yeah, I always record to external hard drives.
However the one i was using for the particular session may not be the quickest though.
Plus I did record to the external hd plugged into the macbook.

I hooked it up to the imac by now that has a partitioned hard drive for tracking as well, but i'm only editing/mixing here - no tracking involved.
I test-opened the session on the partition too, and there's no difference.

So does that mean that once an instrument track is being recorded under non-ideal circumstances (unsufficient RAM, slow hd etc...) all of its downsides are literally being 'printed' onto the file?
I would have thought so with audio, but since this is sort of midi I thought it would adjust itself depending on the surroundings computer-wise.
Also, for instance when I loop one of the clips, those cracklings never occur in the same spot with the same intensity. They differ quite a bit time and time again but wouldn't disappear.

thanks again for your help.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by tendashi

Thanks a lot for the info so far Southsidemusic!

Yeah, I always record to external hard drives.
However the one i was using for the particular session may not be the quickest though.
Plus I did record to the external hd plugged into the macbook.

I hooked it up to the imac by now that has a partitioned hard drive for tracking as well, but i'm only editing/mixing here - no tracking involved.
I test-opened the session on the partition too, and there's no difference.

So does that mean that once an instrument track is being recorded under non-ideal circumstances (unsufficient RAM, slow hd etc...) all of its downsides are literally being 'printed' onto the file?
I would have thought so with audio, but since this is sort of midi I thought it would adjust itself depending on the surroundings computer-wise.
Also, for instance when I loop one of the clips, those cracklings never occur in the same spot with the same intensity. They differ quite a bit time and time again but wouldn't disappear.

thanks again for your help.

What kinds of vi's are you triggering by your MIDI? Samplers like Kontakt, Sampletank or Omnisphere or what I call computational synths like NI FM8, Vacuum or any of the Arturia stuff? If samplers are your samples stored to a separate drive from the system and recording drives? Also crackling and popping - is everything plugged into the same AC mains outlet?

[MusoPro]

Buy VSL Ensemble Pro and run your VI's thru there. Pro Tools just ain't up to the task of multiple VI's I switched and never looked back


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk