Maybe it's time to get a G5? Sitll using G4 anyone

[guitar012001]

I'm in the middle of some important projects and it appears that I've pushed my G4 Quicksilver Dual 1gig to its limits! I currently have a 94 track mix running with a ton of plugins and I'm getting clicks, pop, and snaps all through it. I was using 10,000rpm scsi's connected to an Atto UL3D in my 7 Slot Magma chassis along with two 400gig ATA drives connected to Sonnet ATA 133 card. I also had my HD Core, Accel, Process, Process, Process, cards in the first 5 slots. My problems started when I would get about 48 tracks on my scsi drive. I would get long delays while trying to arm and disarm tracks for recording. After looking in the Digi User Conference for answers I discovered that some people are working great with PT 7.1 HD and Quicksilver Dual 1gigs with UL3D Scsi. However, upon talking to Digi's tech support and some research, they recommended that I remove the UL3D Scsi and Sonnet ATA 133 cards and installl them in my cpu while only leaving the HD cards in the expansion chassis. I did this but now it appears that the clicks and pops are worse while playing back on a new 200gig ATA Segate Barracuda thats connected to ATA 133 card. I've tried increasing the DAE playback buffer, changing the Voice and DSP settings for the HD cards, reallocating the audio on 3 different IDE drives Seagate 400gig, Segate 200gig, and a Segate 120 gig and the clicks and pops are still worse than my scsi playbacks. Also, I started getting the PCI 6042 errors. I read here where someone was using a G5 with a 96 track song and was having similiar problems so he reallocated his files across two drives and it solved his problems. I've read where Digi said that 24 tracks per IDE drive is the limit. So, I would appreciate any counsel on hard drive setups and any other advice that anyone may suggest.
My setup is as follows:
Quicksilver Dual 1gig, 1gig Ram, 80gig system, 120gig storage, Sonnet ATA 133 card with a 200gig IDE Audio drive on Channel 1 two 400gig IDE sample and backup drives on Channel 2, PT 7.1cs4, 7 SLot Magma Chassis with HD Core, HD Accel, and 3 HD Process cards, HD 192 I/O, Dual Viewsonic 22 inch VGA monitors, Ramsa DA7 setup as a HUI, and a slew of compatable registered plugins.
PLEASE HELP!! I can't afford a new G5 at the moment.
Thanks,
Randy

[Tweakhead]

Are you using RTAS or other plugins that use CPU resouces? What does the CPU usage look like when running the mix?

[Armando]

I'm getting clicks, pop, and snaps all through it.

That sounds more like a "clocking" issue.

My setup is as follows:
Ramsa DA7 setup as a HUI

Just curious, is the DA7 clocked to PT in any way??

[guitar012001]

No, I'm not using any RTAS plugins at all. Only TDM plugs. I forgot to mention that I'm using OS 10.4.4 too.
Thanks for you response,
Randy

[guitar012001]

Thanks Armando,
I forgot that I was experimenting with sending synths into my 192 digially and forgot to disconnect it when I realized that I didn't have the "digital in" option in my 192 some time ago. I'm going to disconnect it and post my results here in a few minutes.
Thanks,
Randy

[Andre Knecht]

Anytime I see 1GB of RAM on a system running OSX, alarm bells go off. I know you mentioned that you’re not making use of V.I.s or RTAS plugs, but OSX by itself is such a RAM hog that I’d look there first.

When I acquired my latest G5 (dual 2.5), it came with 1GB of RAM also. I had ordered an additional 2GB, but proceeded with installation and initial shakedown while waiting for the extra RAM. When it showed up, I was shocked by how much more responsive the Mac itself became, and I’ll leave you to imagine how much PT benefitted from it. Think sluggish-to-snappy.

In addition to the suggestions already made by others, see if lowering the video workload helps things on your Quicksilver. For example, defeat auto-scrolling and fader movements, as well as Sends meters during playback.

IHTH.
.

[guitar012001]

Thanks to Armando, Tweakhead, Andre,
It appears that my obnoxious snap, crackle, pops are completely gone! It turned out that I had done a dumb thing that I totally forgot about. I connected an AES/EBU Out of my DA7 to 192 I/O and I had an ADAT Optical cable going back into the DA7! I remember as I stated before, that I was trying to play some hardware synths into the digital(AES/EBU) in of the 192 and also monitor it back through the ADAT card and I never got it to work and never disconnected the cables. I also had a wordclock cable conneted too. I tried all this around the same time that I started working on these large track sessions. So, thanks Armondo!! Good lookin' out on the clocking issue with the DA7!! Also, I was mistaken earlier about the 94 tracks. I only have 61 tracks in this particular session I'm working on now.

I have my Playback Engine set as follows now.
Hardware Buffer Size=512
RTAS Processors=2
CPU Usage Limit=85%
Number of Voices=96 Voices (3 DSPs)
Delay Compensation Engine=Short (1023 Samples Per Channel)
168 TDM Plugins such as eq's, comps, compressors, limiters, reverbs, and delays,
No RTAS or Virtual Instruments at this point

And I'm snap, crackle, pop, free for now!! However, I may still make the G5 upgrade so if anybody is interested in buying a Quicksilver Dual 1gig, 1.5gig Ram, 80gig System, 120gig storage, upgraded 52X x 8X DVD/CDRW internal, 100mb internal Zip, and 56k modem all with original box and packaging. Contact me via email if interested.

Thanks again for all t he help everyone!
Randy

[AVGuru1]

As a side note, my aging G4 Single Proc 733 came back to life after $600 investment to Sonnet Tech yielded a processor upgrade to a Dual 1.8. I now am back cutting features on 1 timeline with many many plugs and doing nicely.

[CLee]

I'm running 3 hour sessions with 144 tracks, quite a few plug-ins and automation. Using a 1.25GIG G4 and HD3. It chugs a little (the display with Plug in windows open), but for the most part works quite well. TDM is handled on the cards. Remember updating to a new g5 or intel means switching from PCI to PCIE

[gonzolagonda]

I'm running 3 hour sessions with 144 tracks, quite a few plug-ins and automation. Using a 1.25GIG G4 and HD3. It chugs a little (the display with Plug in windows open), but for the most part works quite well. TDM is handled on the cards. Remember updating to a new g5 or intel means switching from PCI to PCIE

...not to mention one less PCI slot!