PT11 audio dropouts when recording BFD3 and other virtual instruments

[yeloop]

Hi guys

I would love some advice... I am a long-term (since 1995) Logic Pro user, and have recently moved over to Pro Tools 11, based on the great performance and track count the new AAE can offer, at low latencies.

Here's an overview of my setup:
iMac 3.5Ghz i7 with 24GB RAM (late 2013)
OSX Mavericks
RME UFX with latest drivers
Pro Tools 11 native

When I set up PT, we had a jam to test multi-track recording at low latencies. We recorded several synths, a guitar, and also tracked BFD3. All tracks were recorded simultaneously with a buffer of 64 samples (more on my audio settings in a moment).

Everything worked perfectly - BFD3 ran without a glitch (although glitches were noticed when we went down to 32 samples), and the audio tracks all recorded perfectly as well, some of them running through effects such as guitar rig in real time.

The next day, I went back to the session and decided to re-record the BFD3 drum parts. I started recording, and noticed that BFD3's audio was breaking up at reasonably regular intervals. This had not happened in the previous session when we recorded all the tracks at once.

My "playback engine" settings in PT11 are as follows:
Playback engine: Fireface UFX
H/W buffer size: 64 samples
Host engine: [TICKED] ignore Errors during playback/recording
[NOT TICKED] Minimise Additional I/O latency
[TICKED] Dynamic plug-in processing
Video engine: [NOT TICKED] Enable

The only other change to the session was an additional track was added, running newly installed OMNISPHERE (current version). This track was not enabled for recording, and did not have any recorded data on it.

My concerns are that I had expected that at 64 samples, I would get artifact-free audio from plug-in instruments as well as audio tracks. The first simultaneously-recorded multitrack session seemed to point towards great performance in this way.

My previous DAW, Logic Pro (most recently X), is performing well at 64 or even 32 samples with heavy projects. Recent tests on this forum have suggested that PT11 can deliver a higher track count with the same plug-ins, when compared to Logic Pro.

I would love some advice on what I should try next. Are my audio engine settings (above) the best for this situation? Are there other settings I should change to improve low-latency realtime recording of AAX instruments?

Any advice would be gratefully received!

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by yeloop

Host engine: [TICKED] ignore Errors during playback/recording

Untick it, then play back. Do you get error messages?

Disable Omnisphere (right-click and choose "disable"). Play back. Same behavior? If it runs fine, enable omnisphere. Play back. Does Pro Tools stop the transport and display an error message "DAE -6301" or something like that, claiming you're running out of CPU power?

Your system should perform flawlessly, even with multiple hungry VI's and a low buffer size. You've updated Pro Tools to 11.1, right?

[yeloop]

Originally Posted by mesaone

Untick it, then play back. Do you get error messages?

Disable Omnisphere (right-click and choose "disable"). Play back. Same behavior? If it runs fine, enable omnisphere. Play back. Does Pro Tools stop the transport and display an error message "DAE -6301" or something like that, claiming you're running out of CPU power?

Your system should perform flawlessly, even with multiple hungry VI's and a low buffer size. You've updated Pro Tools to 11.1, right?

Thanks for the quick reply!

I will try some of these additional troubleshooting steps - I had definitely expected PT to run perfectly on this new system, especially when the test project was actually very small and should not have put any significant demand on the CPU.

I haven't updated to 11.1 yet (I am away at the moment, returning home in two days), but will update as soon as I get back before trying any further troubleshooting.

Thanks again,
Mike

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by yeloop

I haven't updated to 11.1 yet (I am away at the moment, returning home in two days), but will update as soon as I get back before trying any further troubleshooting.

Mike, as long as you're currently using 11.0.3 then you should not update BEFORE troubleshooting. The reason is that 11.0.3 is qualified for mavericks, and should be working as you expect it to.

Since your previously-stable system started having problems, you should try to isolate the problem before introducing another variable. I would suggest that you test with your current installation of Pro Tools.

Load an Omnisphere insert and follow these steps:

1. Un-tick "Ignore Errors during playback/recording"
2. Play session, observe
3. Errors? Proceed. No errors? Go to step 6.
4. Reduce voice count on your patch. then follow steps 2, 3, and look for errors. If errors occur, go to step 5.
5. Update omnisphere (if not using latest version) and start over. Do steps 2-4.
6. Update Pro Tools.
7. Restart your computer and test again.

This will help you isolate the problem.