Buffer Error AAE-6101 during Session

[JazzKnight]

Hello everyone, I am having trouble figuring out why I am getting a buffer error during a recording session I just ran.

Here are my laptop specs:

Late 2011- Macbook Pro
2.4ghz Intel Core i5
Upgraded to 16gb Ram
OSX Yosemite (10.10.5)

I use a second log on for recording and the laptop has been optimized as per AVID recommended specs and settings.

I am running Pro Tools 12.4.0

The audio hardware setup is as follows:

Pro Tools Aggregate with a 003 Rack connected via firewire, Behringer ADA8200 for ADAT Channels, MOTU 896HD mk3 connected via USB, 500gb Lacie Rugged External drive and iLok are connected to a USB hub.

I was recording a session using 21 channels (a jazz big band).

I did notice I would get the error almost soon after there was some clipping in the tracks but even when we recorded a ballod, I got through the first take and the error popped up halfway through the second take.

Hardware buffer is maxed out to 1024


I'm praying running the aggregate setup might be the main cause as initially the MOTU 896 is my main workhorse but I did not buy and additional ADAT expansion (it supports two ADAT in and outs for a total of 16 channels via ADAT) so I had to get creative with the setup.

I just hope I don't need to invest in a new computer as well. I do have a Mid-2010 Mac Pro Tower I could try and use for the next one but I want to see if I've overlooked anything.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

[john1192]

you are using a 003 Rack via Firewire with the Avid Drivers AND a Motu 896HD via USB at the Same Time ??? unless you have done this before and it has worked flawlessly i would say this is your issue ..

if you have already come to this conclusion then please just disregard this ..

[JazzKnight]

I'm thinking (Hoping) that's the issue. I'm ordering a MOTU 8Pre and trying the session with just the MOTU. I won't know for two weeks till we record again.

[JazzKnight]

UPDATE:

Okay, so I got the MOTU 8PRE and that worked out fine setup wise but I'm still getting the 6101 error during playback.

I did a clean install of Yosemite and Pro Tools 12.4, optimized the system based on AVID's specs and STILL got the error during playback. I set the Hardware Buffer Size is 1024 Samples, Disk Cache is 1gb. All boxes unchecked... Still get the error.

I'm reading the session from the external drive I recorded too.

The session has 24 tracks (Full Big Band in 22 tracks: 4 trumpets, 5 saxes, 4 trombones, bass, guitar, stereo piano mix, with drums going into a stereo mix from a board and two tracks for a stereo room mix.)

Here are my computer specs again:

13" MacBook Pro (Late 2011), 2.4GHZ Intel Core i5, 16gb Ram, 512gb Samsung ProM SSD, OSX 10.10.5. Pro Tools 12.4

Any help would be appreciated.

[JuanPC]

Install 10.8.5
Install PT 12.4
Or 12.3.1
Or 12.2
...

Or...
Install 10.9.5
Install PT12.5
.

But many people say PT does not like i5, or i5 does not like PT.
Increase buffer size to 2048.
Activate Dynamic Plugin Processing. "Artificial Intelligence."
Disable ignore Errors,
Disable Low Latency.

If have lots of tracks increase Ram Disk Cache to 50% or more.
If have lot's of VI's sample based, decrease RAM Disk Cache to 25% or less.

Test Memory for errors:
http://memtestosx.org/
Test temperatures:
http://www.crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control
Test SSD/HDD:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/black...25264550?mt=12
Test CPU:
http://www.maxon.net/products/cinebench/overview.html

Ilok USB @ wifi adapter are not friends, disable/disconnect Wifi adapters.
Use different cables.
...

[Darryl Ramm]

What exactly is your playback engine set to?

Get aggregateIO completely out of the picture, I am not sure how you ever got that to work.

Oh God why did you upgrade this old MacBook Pro to El Capitan?

What exact model disk is your audio/session drive? "USB Lacie" is not useful.

With USB2 and external audio/session drive is not going to provide great performance. If this was my laptop it would have the optical drive replaced by a SATA SSD used for audio/session files. Yes slow IO can help cause 6101 errors as well. Make sure disk cache is enabled (set to 1GB is good, "normal" == off).

This MacBook only has a dual core i5 it is not particularly powerful and may not be enough for heavy sessions. Hard to guess if you have any VIs or what plugins you are using.

Many 6101 errors are caused by buggy plugins. You need to do standard troubleshooting to exclude third party plugins. And as always start by trashing prefs, also be sure you are not chasing corrupt sessions--does this happen in a new emoty test session if you import media/content into it?. Start at the "Help us help you" link up top of this web page. The can be done fairly quickly just to see if the base system with no third party plugins runs much better. Given you have disk cache enabled I would focus on plugins. I would likely still go back later and install a SSD session drive.

If none of these things help then what Juan suggests with full installs may be the way to go. But do that in a new drive or seperate partition, install only OS X, Pro Tools and the bare minimum drivers and test, if that works add third party plugins, testing as you go.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JuanPC

Activate Dynamic Plugin Processing. "Artificial Intelligence."
Disable ignore Errors

Ah no. Try disabling dynamic plugun processing. As Avid's own developers have said in the past this probably should not have been enabled by default.

To be clear, do not check "ignore errors" for now you want to find what is causing the problems not ignore problems, and possibly end up with glitches/ruined takes that you may not notice until later.

All the other stuff about temperatures is a total waste of time.

[JazzKnight]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

What exactly is your playback engine set to?

Get aggregateIO completely out of the picture, I am not sure how you ever got that to work.

Oh God why did you upgrade this old MacBook Pro to El Capitan?

What exact model disk is your audio/session drive? "USB Lacie" is not useful.

With USB2 and external audio/session drive is not going to provide great performance. If this was my laptop it would have the optical drive replaced by a SATA SSD used for audio/session files. Yes slow IO can help cause 6101 errors as well. Make sure disk cache is enabled (set to 1GB is good, "normal" == off).

This MacBook only has a dual core i5 it is not particularly powerful and may not be enough for heavy sessions. Hard to guess if you have any VIs or what plugins you are using.

Many 6101 errors are caused by buggy plugins. You need to do standard troubleshooting to exclude third party plugins. And as always start by trashing prefs, also be sure you are not chasing corrupt sessions--does this happen in a new emoty test session if you import media/content into it?. Start at the "Help us help you" link up top of this web page. The can be done fairly quickly just to see if the base system with no third party plugins runs much better. Given you have disk cache enabled I would focus on plugins. I would likely still go back later and install a SSD session drive.

If none of these things help then what Juan suggests with full installs may be the way to go. But do that in a new drive or seperate partition, install only OS X, Pro Tools and the bare minimum drivers and test, if that works add third party plugins, testing as you go.

I have 10.10.5 Yosemite installed in this Macbook, I did not want to upgrade to El Capitan. I thought about installing Mavericks. I also cannot find old Pro Tools installs in my AVID account either.

I'm using a Lacie Rugged Triple. 7200RPM drive via USB as the Firewire port is occupied by my MOTU rig during sessions.

My OS is installed on a 512GB Samsung ProM SSD. Should I try writing to an external SSD as well?

The aggregate was a bit difficult to make work but that was only out of necessity. My current setup is run exclusively from a MOTU 896k3 with a MOTU 8Pre and Behringer ADA8200 slaved via ADAT to the 896k3.

I'm recording RAW audio, not using any plugins. I have a 2010 6-Core Mac Pro Tower where I would add any effects post recording. From what little audio recording techniques I've studied, I've learned if the raw audio itself is not recorded properly, anything you add to it can be pretty much useless.

But it's sounding like my MacBook is just out of date.... Unless I roll back to PT11.

[JazzKnight]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Ah no. Try disabling dynamic plugun processing. As Avid's own developers have said in the past this probably should not have been enabled by default.

To be clear, do not check "ignore errors" for now you want to find what is causing the problems not ignore problems, and possibly end up with glitches/ruined takes that you may not notice until later.

All the other stuff about temperatures is a total waste of time.

As I mentioned, I did increase the buffer size 1024 samples and I set the drive cache to 1gb

I unchecked everything as I saw most users saw success with no dynamic processing.

I'm not using any plugins as it is.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JazzKnight

As I mentioned, I did increase the buffer size 1024 samples and I set the drive cache to 1gb

I unchecked everything as I saw most users saw success with no dynamic processing.

I'm not using any plugins as it is.

Great! And yes sorry I had reread your post and realized I had bits wrong and had already edited part of my reply. And I still got it wrong with 10.10 vs. 10.11. Yosemite should be fine. I have more worries on El Capitan.

Ah yes you really ought to try writing to a separate drive. A shared boot/audio SSD and disk cache can help here but may not be enough. On really fast PCIe SSDs you can usually combine everything on one drive. But with SATA, even a SATA SSD you may need a separate audio/session drive.

I'm not sure what a Samsung ProM SSD is, the popular SATA "Pro" SSDs from Samsung have been the 840 Pro and 850 Pro. How full is that drive? I want the exact drive model, there were write performance firmware bugs with some Samsung Evo SSD drives. Eitherway it is a good idea to check that the drive firmware is up to date. And a good idea to enable TRIM (http://www.macrumors.com/2015/07/01/os-x-trim-ssd/). Only futz with the drive after making a full image backup first, like with Carbon Copy Cloner.

What exact external drive do you have now and what is that used for? Even though it's only USB2 it may be worth trying to run the session from that... even better if you can connect it to Firewire800 and disconnect your interface (use built-in output for a test). Again just as a sanity test.

Also worth checking if you select built-in output as the playback engine do you still get these errors?

Not instantiating any plugins does not mean an errant plugin is not causing a problem. They can potentially do lots of bad things once they are loaded at startup. But neither do I suspect this must be the cause. But it's quick to exclude so worth doing before you do more drastic things. Carefully trash prefs. Grab all .aaxplugin files in the plugin folder, drag them elsewhere, restart Pro Tools, it puts back all the default plugins, what happens then?

All that done, then it's try a full clean reinstall time. You can try Pro Tools itself, but then try a new whole OS X install. And that's a good time to add a second internal Samsung SSD.

If you really don't want to run with many plugins then the i5 dual core can probably get you by. If you want to add lots of plugins in future then don't spend too much money on this laptop vs. upgrading to say a MBP quad core i7 Retina.