Why exactly IS protools PC so fussy?

[vsukpadman]

Hi all

Firstly let me say I have been a Protools user from before it WAS protools.. of course all on Macs.
I have beta tested, and demonstrated for Digi, and have a PT HD3 in my studio which I use all the time (on a mac! )
I wanted a mobile rig, and own a VERY new fast laptop..dell XPS M1710
Intel® CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T7600 (2.33GHz, 4M L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
3 Gigs of Dual Channel 667MHz DDR2 memory
512MB NVIDIATM GeForceTM Go 7900 GTX Graphics Card
100GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive

By all accounts a Very high spec machine..

So tell me why after 4 DAYS of installing, tweaking, chsnging, reading and applying fixes suggested here can I not get this machine to play TWO or THREE midi tracks without buffer errors on an MBOX 2 PRO?

Audio is marginally better , but it will not get the whole way thru the demo session for example..
What EXACTLY is the problem?

I know Digi have compatibility lists, but we all know they are sometimes way off beam, missing out lots of computers that run PT just fine.

I KNOW that this laptop is not on that list.
I loaded Cubase sx and Sonar on the SAME laptop for comparison..NO problems at all using the same system ! with either midi or audio-using the same Mbox 2 pro

I would just be curious to know , why PT requires SO many hoops to be jumped through that most people would give up and use another program.

As I said before , i am BIG protools user on MAC and BIG fan of the syetem, but this seems to be the most fussy program I have EVER seen on a pc (and I operate 6 of those! )

any thoughts appreciated
cheer

Bill p

[red tape]

Do you have the XP Dual-Core hotfix installed?

[Holly73]

I would also be interested in this

During the last days I was messing around with PTLE and UAD cards. All runs fine together with Cubase and Cubase itself doesn't care about buffers etc.
Now I got it running, but still from time to time PT complains about too high or low buffers or tells me I'm running out of CPU power (but the meter is at 20%).

The biggest problem is, it stops all the time to tell you these messages, which is very annoying. Cubase from time to time crackles a little or has a little hickup, but the show goes on...

Btw, your post looks like it is only picky on Windows machines, but I also see some messages every now and then on my Mac.

They really should work on this... ...and on full Plugin Delay Compensation

[daeron80]

In my opinion, also as a long PT user on both platforms, the reason is that it is a truly Pro set of Tools, and the only one in its price range. In order to be as reliable as it is, it has to jump through a lot of hoops to make sure that it's doing what it's supposed to.

Remember how on pre-X Mac, every time you upgraded PT software, you had to either upgrade your machine or your system, or else you had to upgrade or ditch some other software you were using to make all the extensions compatible? Same reason, I suspect. The hardware and software of generic PCs make it incredibly difficult to get a heavy audio stream to flow through a complex network of software and hardware in a way that is reliable and conisistent. I can't believe it works as well as it does.

[vsukpadman]

Holly 73...dual hotfix plus EVERY other tip available.. interestingly, every time I have reinstalle dand patched with dual hotfix, the reg entry is already there...odd..
I know pc's pretty well , and this one is as stripped down and sorted as it gets

Daeron

"PCs make it incredibly difficult to get a heavy audio stream"

agreed..so why does PTLE fall over with 2 tracks of MIDI!..audio is WAY better but not perfect.
and lets not forget..Cubase and Sonar on the same machine have no issues at all .
I use lots of pro apps on pc's and none come even close to PTLE for being difficult.
Im actually surprised that anyone bothers , unless you HAPPEN to have one of the FEW qualified machines.

I still cant see what exactly is making PT so much more demanding than other software....
let me again re state I am a BIG user of PT on Macs.. I never believed in my wildest dreams that with this powerful a laptop, ai would waste so much time trying to get 2 tracks of midi working without falling over!

cheers

Bill P

[vsukpadman]

Holly 73...dual hotfix plus EVERY other tip available.. interestingly, every time I have reinstalle dand patched with dual hotfix, the reg entry is already there...odd..
I know pc's pretty well , and this one is as stripped down and sorted as it gets

Daeron

"PCs make it incredibly difficult to get a heavy audio stream"

agreed..so why does PTLE fall over with 2 tracks of MIDI!..audio is WAY better but not perfect.
and lets not forget..Cubase and Sonar on the same machine have no issues at all .
I use lots of pro apps on pc's and none come even close to PTLE for being difficult.
Im actually surprised that anyone bothers , unless you HAPPEN to have one of the FEW qualified machines.

I still cant see what exactly is making PT so much more demanding than other software....
let me again re state I am a BIG user of PT on Macs.. I never believed in my wildest dreams that with this powerful a laptop, ai would waste so much time trying to get 2 tracks of midi working without falling over!

cheers

Bill P

[JMS40]

the reason is that it is a truly Pro set of Tools, and the only one in its price range.

In the interest of fairness, that's simply not true. Digi has quite a few worthy competitors these days. Ironicaly, some perform more efficiently with Digi hardware than PTLE. In fact, even though Digidesign stopped porting software to the 001 3+ versions ago, one can use the newest releases of many competitors with the 001 hardware/ASIO driver pretty much out of the box, and I think you'd be surprised at the difference in performance. I was at least.

Understand, I'm not bashing PTLE here. It's a wonderful, inovative tool set. But it IS fussy and there ARE other players on the field. PTLE is, in my experience, the "heaviest" audio application I've ever run across.

YMMV...

[jjhuntfox]

I have a 001 and a 002R. I prefer my 001. It is more stable and it will run below 512 buffer. I'd be happy with less features and more stability. If I didn't need mobility I wouldn't have a 002R. So I don't get it either, why is PT so fussy?

[vsukpadman]

Spent yet another day fiddling...no go

PTLE buffer errors on THREE midi tracks..nothing else...
I have now started learning sonar 6 (pretty good btw ! )

This runs flawlessly on the same laptop with the same digi hardware..
This is insane...

why is PT doing this , when other "pro" sequencers have no problems at all

Its a sad day.. I REALLY want to use protools on my laptop , give that I use PT HTDM every day in my studio on the mac, but it seems that is going to be impossible..even with the most expensive laptop Dell make!

I have tried everything... I give up!

Lost for words actually!

VERY perplexed indeed!

Bill P

[DigiTechSupt]

The Dell website doesn't provide enough information on this system to determine if it's compatible with Pro Tools or not. Have you verified compatibility, as that certainly could be a cause for the problems. There are known issues with some Dell laptops not having a compatible firewire controller. You can get more info on compatibility on this page:

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...5&itemid=23650

Also, have you tried all the steps in the Win XP/ Pro Tools 6.x/7.x General Troubleshooting thread yet? If you've gone through everything there, you should post the specific errors you're getting as well as your Sandra report, as indicated in that thread.

One other thing - is it possible you have incompatible plug-ins installed?