Debilitating Stutter Freeze

[MSCHAAF]

Hi,

I have a iMac OS 10.9.5 and pro tools 11.3.1 and a focusrite clarett8 pre. From what I remember this problem began to manifest as I upgraded PT throughout the years so I'm reluctant to think that PT 12 will be any different. I used to go 8+ hour sessions at a time and no crashes with my mbox2 pro and PT 7. I've done pretty much everything I've read on here and directly from AVID, all the recommended optimizations, checked compatibilities, etc.

I get this frozen stutter, and I know this is a specific glitch, so I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this before and knows why it might be happening. I cannot force quit PT once this happens, it really seems entirely random, and I have to hold the power button on my mac to shut down and restart. That's the only way out...

I cannot go 15 minutes of editing without this stuttering crash, and it makes me hate working on music as I can no longer dive in deep with 8+ hour sessions like I used to.

Here's a quick video of what the freeze stutter looks like.

https://youtu.be/6GqyWzCig1A

If you've personally experienced this too, I'd owe you my life for a stable fix.

Thank you.

[BScout]

Try your in-built audio.

Pretty sure your audio issue is due to the focusrite drivers.

Also, if you are sticking with 11, you should really upgrade your macOS to Yosemite (10.10.5) and the last 11 (11.3.2). They were very stable together. Much better than Mavericks.

[MSCHAAF]

Thanks for the ideas, I'll try 10.10.5 w/ 10.3.2 but and working with built-in audio.. would I just us an aggregate audio device w/ the focusrite interface?

[BScout]

Originally Posted by MSCHAAF

Thanks for the ideas, I'll try 10.10.5 w/ 10.3.2 but and working with built-in audio.. would I just us an aggregate audio device w/ the focusrite interface?

11.3.2 (first off) for Pro Tools if you are on 11 (I'm assuming that was a typo)

No. No focusrite at all. No aggregate audio at all. You can assign Pro Tools to use the audio output of the iMac (you have digital and analogue options for audio out.) Set it to the analogue and sound will come out the built in speakers (or headphones if you plug them in.) Try it and see if you have issues.

[Southsidemusic]

Good advice.

Start PT with the N key held down until you get a popup window where you choose internal soundcard or built in audio whatever it is called and let PT load up.

[MSCHAAF]

crossing my fingers but switching to built in audio seems to have done the trick... thank you so so much for that suggestion

now i need a new interface, what would be the most stable for mac os apart from HD gear... RME?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by MSCHAAF

crossing my fingers but switching to built in audio seems to have done the trick... thank you so so much for that suggestion

now i need a new interface, what would be the most stable for mac os apart from HD gear... RME?

Depends on how much I/O you need and how much money. And also what you have in the way of ports on your computer. Generally RME is considered excellent with stable drivers but not cheap. Somewhat cheaper are variuous MOTU interfaces. If you have FW800 and want some dsp help there's the UAD Apollo silverface unit.

[MSCHAAF]

Right, I feel ya. I am only concerned with stability at this point. I'd much rather have to find a creative work around to less IO than deal with tech malfunctions.

[BScout]

Originally Posted by MSCHAAF

crossing my fingers but switching to built in audio seems to have done the trick... thank you so so much for that suggestion

now i need a new interface, what would be the most stable for mac os apart from HD gear... RME?

RME easily (though they've reported -- and other manufacturers -- that Apple made changes to CoreAudio in High Sierra that is creating some problems; so stay off of High Sierra).

But I'd check that you have all your firmware/drivers up-to-date on the Focusrite. They've had a lot of issues with their USB audio interfaces but reports are they are now fixed. Just make sure you first wipe out anything to do with the Focusrite drivers from your system, reboot, and then pull the latest drivers/firmware from Focusrite's website and see if it fixes it.

[Chief Technician]

This sounds similar to an issue a friend of mine had with a Grace interface, which is to say that you may want to avoid their interfaces in this particular configuration.