How to Optimize PT for CPU.

[aylavid]

Hello Pro Tools experts,

We have CPU overload problems often. Sure we keep watching System usage which usually shows 30 to 40 % average. However, it goes up sometimes and even not going up, still we get a message of overload, and it says remove Native plugs.
We use Quad core right now and considering to move on to 6 core Mac.
However, we have been wondering about CPU usage of PT that it is not evenly using cores. If this way is expected by Pro Tools usage of CPU, it is not worth using 6 core machine.
Is there any experts knows how to Optimize PT to use CPU evenly 8 cores (including hyperthreading) ?

Appreciate your help,

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by aylavid

Is there any experts knows how to Optimize PT to use CPU evenly 8 cores (including hyperthreading) ?

Not on Mac OS X. I don't know all of the low level specifics. I can tell you that OS X's thread scheduler cannot be bypassed or overridden by Avid. While Avid has done some work with the 64-bit Avid Audio Engine (AAE) in Pro Tools v11 and later to address this, they are still at the mercy of OS X.

Windows is a bit more flexible in this regard, though I don't know the specifics. I'm a Mac, not a PC, and using Pro Tools on Windows was not my idea.

[aylavid]

Dear Chief Technician Jonathan S. Abrams,

Thank you very much for answering.
So that is your CPU behave the same way as ours?

If the OS X's thread scheduler cannot be bypassed or overridden by Avid, even 6 core machine won't help much according to our system usage? or 6 cores help our CPU overload solution? or Should look for some other solution than switching to 6 core machine? (of cause our playback buffer size is always 2048 )

Do you know how the CPU behave between PT12 and new OSX 10.11: "El Capitan"?


Please give us your opinion on this.
Thank you again,

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by aylavid

If the OS X's thread scheduler cannot be bypassed or overridden by Avid, even 6 core machine won't help much according to our system usage?

That depends. Avid is doing some work on their own with the AAE and CPU usage. What is supposed to happen is that each core will have its usage increase as the demands of the session (active tracks, plug-ins, etc.) changes.

Originally Posted by aylavid

or 6 cores help our CPU overload solution? or Should look for some other solution than switching to 6 core machine? (of cause our playback buffer size is always 2048 )

If your buffer size is always 2048, then I suspect the buffer is being emptied faster than it can be filled. The question is why.

Originally Posted by aylavid

Do you know how the CPU behave between PT12 and new OSX 10.11: "El Capitan"?

I do not. I have not tested that combination.

Your screen shot shows a -9173. The -917x series errors are related to audio timing. I forget the specifics of each one (-9171, -9172, -9173). The general problem with all of them is that audio was needed somewhere and it wasn't present at the moment it was needed. You can try to work around this problem by turning on ES (aka Error Suppression) in Setup-->Playback Engine… Ignore Errors During Playback/Record. This may results in you hearing some pops/hits/clicks, though the system may continue to play. If the cause of the -9173 is too great for ES to compensate for, you will eventually see that error message anyway.

Do you have plug-ins in these sessions? If so, which ones? It has been my experience that using Native Instruments Komplete 10 Ultimate and has been a Komplete and Ultimate disaster when it comes to these types of errors.

As for whether or not a newer computer will solve your problem, the only way to find out is to try it. The facility I work at has 9 HDX systems. When I upgraded 2 of these systems to v11, their respective operators were running into various error messages and, as they put it, "lag". This was with a 2009 Mac Pro (aka Nehalem) 2x Quad-Core 2.93 GHz. I swapped out those computers for MacPro5,1 (2010 or 2012) 2x 6-Core 2.66 GHz computers, and their complaints went away.

You may find this post about Turbo Boost and the New Mac Pro’s CPUs to be useful. Depending on your budget and how many test and exchange cycles you want to go through, you could start with the 4-core and work your way up to the 8-core.

I can't discuss this in greater detail without knowing more about the sessions you are working with.

[The_Skywalker]

I'm not to sure if I can answer your specific question or if I can be of much help but the best form of reducing cpu overload (its happened to me a couple times) instead of running multiple plug ins on one audio track routing multiple audio tracks to one Aux w the CPU usage.

[aylavid]

Dear Chief Technician Jonathan S. Abrams,

Thank you for your reply.
It is interesting that our CPU threads have always been active from the middle, and as you see 4th is most active(additional screenshots since the end of last year) Is this common in PT?
However, according to your explanation(each core will have its usage increase as the demands of the session), probably each project will be the different way of CPU behave. So that, our concern of "6 cores + hyper threads = 12 cores won't help for our usage according to our system usage" is not necessary. Could be helpful.

We have been working on Mix of several tracks of acoustic music in high sampling rate 96k&32bit float. We only use a few plugins. Keep it simple and they are all UAD. As you know, UAD uses only DSP like PT HDX system.

Regarding audio timing following -917x message, we once enabled "Ignore Errors During Playback/Record." It was ok at the beginning, gave us normal playback. But then, overload message popped up again when I was working with EQ, then after that playback sound became distorted. So disenable the "Ignore Errors.."
We have no idea about this Audio timing. However, it is often message pops up when tweaking the EQ. So maybe changing frequency during playback, PT loses some timing and as a result of 917x, and PT thinks it is CPU overload.

It was very helpful that you wrote us an example of your facility.
Probably 6 or 8 cores help for high sampling Mix. or if it is only timing error, it does not matter the number of cores.
I wish PT could speak to us saying "give me more cores!" or something.

Thank you again,

[aylavid]

Dear Skywalker,

Thank you for your tip. We most of the time use plugs minimum as we can. So that we only insert plugs to submix track (Aux) and Master track.
What do you think?

Thank you,

[The_Skywalker]

I've received this error on my mac book pro but it was mainly due to insufficient power (battery life) I doubt this error is due to that. Have you tried running this same session in another computer? Possibly a less or more powerful one? Could it be that your session is corrupted? Or does this error appear with every session?

[albee1952]

Most Mac users I know have better luck if they assign 1 less core to Pro Tools than the system(so an 8 core system would have 7 cores allotted to PT)

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by aylavid

We only use a few plugins. Keep it simple and they are all UAD. As you know, UAD uses only DSP like PT HDX system.

This is only partially true. When using HDX, the Avid Audio Engine (AAE) has direct hooks into the HDX card. All of the audio stays in one domain (DSP) until you instantiate a native plug-in.

When using UAD plug-ins, Pro Tools thinks you are using native plug-ins. Even though the UAD plug-ins will be running on UAD DSP, they will still be subject to all of the issues associated with running native plug-ins in Pro Tools.

How much RAM is installed in your computer, and if you are running Mavericks or later, do you see any red in Activity Monitor's (/Applications/Utilities) Memory Pressure graph?