Pro Tools 10 Error - DAE can't get audio from the drive fast enough

[Druvin Base]

After recording or playing my session for about 30-50 seconds I'll get this message:

"DAE can't get audio from drive fast enough. Drive may be too slow or fragmented, or a firewire drive could be having trouble due to extra firewire bandwith or CPU upload"

I used to run everything off my computer's drive, as opposed to an external drive, but then Pro Tools started to lag (for both playback and recording). I then realized I should probably be using an external drive.

That's what I'm doing right now, and the lag has stopped but my sessions keep getting interrupted by this error message so I can't record a full song.

If you need more details from me, let me know, but I'd really appreciate the help right now. I'm desperate to record my music, and this is killing me.

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by Druvin Base

If you need more details from me, let me know, but I'd really appreciate the help right now.

Hi, gonna need more info about your system. Make sure you do all the Optimizations and post a SANDRA as described here:

Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!

[jasonthurley]

A few things...

1. Are you using an external drive for your PT sessions and audio files? Meanning not using your OS drive and If so is it a 7200 RPM drive? Is it firewire? USB?
2. What is your playback buffer set to (Have you tried increasing this to 1024?), how many cores are you using (or how many is selected in that window)? Go up to SETUP>Playback Engine

You arent using PT HD software so you cant use disk cache to speed up loading the data into RAM so your options are to fine tune your system and Pro Tools to get the best results.

[mikeyman]

defrag your drive see if that helps.i got that message too but i defraged the drive and it started working again

[cwsand]

Originally Posted by jasonthurley

Are you using an external drive for your PT sessions and audio files? Meanning not using your OS drive and If so is it a 7200 RPM drive? Is it firewire? USB?.

SANDRA report will let us know...

[sw rec]

Who's taking bets? Bet he's trying to record to the system drive.
Incidentally, if there's already PT sessions on the drive, defragging it will make a mess of everything.

[Druvin Base]

I'm not recording to my system drive. I said that in my OP.

I WAS recording to a 750GB external drive. Now I'm using a 16GB USB and I haven't gotten that error message so I'm pretty sure it's the external drive that's [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]ed up.

I did try defragging it, but it didn't work.

Also, what's a SANDRA?

[Druvin Base]

Oh and thanks for all the replies, I can't believe how helpful this community is. I really appreciate it.

[Druvin Base]

Originally Posted by cwsand

Hi, gonna need more info about your system. Make sure you do all the Optimizations and post a SANDRA as described here:

Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!

Okay, just noticed your link. I will download this and report back when I have a SANDRA completed.

[Druvin Base]

Originally Posted by jasonthurley

A few things...

1. Are you using an external drive for your PT sessions and audio files? Meanning not using your OS drive and If so is it a 7200 RPM drive? Is it firewire? USB?
2. What is your playback buffer set to (Have you tried increasing this to 1024?), how many cores are you using (or how many is selected in that window)? Go up to SETUP>Playback Engine

You arent using PT HD software so you cant use disk cache to speed up loading the data into RAM so your options are to fine tune your system and Pro Tools to get the best results.