HD Nightmare !!

[Allan Speers]

I just started work on my first session with HD hardware. I am running an HD-6 system on a dual 1-gig G4. OS 9.2.2

All system-folder settings as recommended.

600 meg allocated to Protools.
Default DAE settings.

I have the 192 DIGITAL I-O (192 analog has not yet been shipped) with my Apogee AD8000se as the converter and clock.

Two observations.

1: It sounds REALLY bad. i mean, I'm literally almost puking because if I can't figure out what's going on I won't have a viable product for my client come Monday morning. It sounds THAT bad. Very muddy, flubby. "Burlap-over the speakers" bad.

2: My UI has crawled almost to a stop. Volume faders are jerky to the point that I can't set them accurately. It feels as if I have ten direct-connect synths running, yet I have none.

========

Besides asking for any help I can get, I have a question:

Can any of this be caused by a large number of demo plugins in the DAE folder?

I am running demos of all the DUY and Aphex stuff, and I need these until I can get my HD authorizations.

I'm going to start clearing out my Plugins folder right now, but thought I'd post here first. I'm afctually physically shaking a bit as I type this, I'm so worried that I made a mistake going to HD.

I figure, though, that there must be SOMETHING not right with my particular system. If others were experiencing this, we surely would have heard about it long ago.

PLEASE, any ideas at all?

[daryl bowden]

Well, I use PTLE, but I know that you should always allocate more memory to DAE than PT, especially if you're putting 600mb to PT. I find that 250 to DAE and 200 to PT is about optimum for me. That would explain why it's so jerky I imagine. Also, what is the total system memory, maybe your OS is lacking memory as well.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

Daryl

For HD - DAE is part of the PT app.. so memory allocation is combined for both apps.

speer - have you tried running a minumum setup without an expansion chassis.. and see if that's okay, then build the system up slowly from there.

Rail

[Disco_Doctor]

Burlap over the ears? Do you mean attenuated top end?

Is the de-emphasis turned on on the AD8000? There's a dip switch for that. If you have de-emphasis activated on the AD8000, it obviously rolls off the top end on everything and sounds eff'd up. I made this mistake once...so...check it out...

Overall though, it sounds like a clock problem of some sort...

Do you have that ApplePCI expansion chassis extension installed? Check on Digi's downloads section - it's supposed to improve compatibility with dual-processor Mac's and expansion chassis running HD.

And ditto to what Rail suggested...start with one HD card in the Mac. Try a DAT player through the 192Digital I/O to rule out an AD8000 problem, etc...

Good luck!

[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Allan Speers]

"Overall though, it sounds like a clock problem of some sort..."

Yes, it surely does. The only difference between this system and my old one is that now, the Apogee's clock must pass through the Digital-192's PLL.

I've seen graphical read-outs showing that the Digi PLL makes external clocks WORSE, not better. It was an extremely minor change, so I wasn't too worried about it. I'm praying that this is not what I'm hearing. If it is, then I have an HD system for sale.

"Do you have that ApplePCI expansion chassis extension installed? Check on Digi's downloads
section - it's supposed to improve compatibility with dual-processor Mac's and expansion chassis running HD"

WOW. maybe that's it. I never heard of this. Where was the info posted?

I'll try it now.

====================
for clarification, this is the same Mac, expansion-chassis, drive system, etc etc that I was using for my mix-system, so I think that extention is my only hope so far.

Running from within the G4 is a good idea, but really not an option right now. even if that worked, I wouldn't be able to complete my project (I don't think.) When I have time, and less pressure, I may have to do that just to see if it's my chassis that's causing the problem.

Thanks to you both for the suggestions. I actually came back onto the DUC just now to post yet ANOTHER emergency question, but regarding soft-samplecell. Please see that seperate thread if you possibly can help. (what a week....) [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

THANKS AGAIN.

[Allan Speers]

UPDATE:

Disco,

I found and downloaded that extention. It probably won't HURT, but I doubt it will help, either. digi's description is as follows:

"Users with multiprocessor systems may experience -6042 errors unless they remove the Multiprocessor folder from their extensions
folder, thus disabling the second processor."

I haven't been getting those errors, and I have already removed the MP folder.

still, you never know.....

I'm REALLY worried about this PLL thing, as I intend to use a DB-Tech converter (at 88.2K) for my main work. Time will tell, I just have to make it through the weekend.

[Lee Blaske]

for clarification, this is the same Mac, expansion-chassis, drive system, etc etc that I was using for my mix-system, so I think that extention is my only hope so far.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Check the compatibility documents. Not all of the expansion chassis that were approved for Mix are approved for HD, and with a 6 card system, you're really pushing things.

Lee Blaske

[tvent]

Sorry I can't recall the exact name of patch or service release #, but Didn't digi release a patch for dual processor systems that allows you to leave multi-processing enabled with HD and 5.3.1 about a month ago? It may or may not help the problem you are describing but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

[shadowbox]

Definitely something wrong with your system-- this is not typical. I just upgraded to HD and although I haven't done enough sessions to do a complete evaluation, it sounds at least as good as my MixPlus system with AD8000. I am using the 192 I/O though, no AD8000 in new system. Have you tried using the system's internal clock yet, and syncing the AD8000 to that?

[doug_hti]

speerchucker, when I got my hd3, everytime i put in audio (mostly A/D conversions though(but it wasn't the 192)), It was mildly distorted and just sounded bad, it wasn't like a typical overdriven clip distortion either....it was just bad cheap sounding audio.

I ended up having a bad core card. Are you passing all your digitests?

But HD sounds great, so don't be discouraged by your problems (except for the consequences of monday).