Pro Tools 11.0.3 / Mavericks

[David Whittaker]

Hello Pro Tools 11 / Mavericks Users,

I have been on Pro Tools 7 for years, my G5 is now dead so I upgraded to iMac 3.5 with 32G RAM and a 3T Fusion Drive. After reading about PT 11, I decided to upgrade everything.

Updated Mavericks 10.9
Loaded PT 11.0.3
Optimized everything for Mavericks and PT11
Added a Lacie 3T Thunderbolt Drive for Audio and ext. instruments
Updated my Waves Gold to AAX

Opened an old session and got a -6101 right away at buffer 128. Bringing it up to 512 it ran for a bit. This whole time the system usage was only 10 to 15%. This use to run smooth on my G5 and PT7 at 128

I started a session from scratch, 8 Audio w/waves EQ on each, 8 Sub mixs, 6FX sends with Reverbs ..... basic setup. I was going to import Audio and Midi into it, but figured I would test it first, before the import. It ran for 5 - 15 seconds and got the -6101 playback engine at 128 again, this time the system usage is 1 to 2%.

Even if I run a small older mix only a few tracks it doesn't sound right.

Makes no sense 1-10% system usage and 6101's

Optimized everything for Mavericks and PT11 in many combinations including playback engine, buffer size and check marks. Opt, comm, P&R. Power Off for 10seconds, unplug 15 seconds, power up.

I have read many forums about the -6101 and tried the fixes but no good.

Any input would be appreciated.

They said late 2013 iMacs were OK and Mavericks / PT11 were OK BUT I think this machine might be too new, maybe the 3.5 or the fusion drive is not supported yet????? seems like a conflict.

[JFreak]

I suspect your problems are caused by that fusion drive. Try installing OSX on that external and see if the trouble goes away or stays the same. However, this is just a hunch...

[JFreak]

I moved this to PT11

[Craig F]

a) what interface are you using
b) I would move everything but basic plugs out of the active folder > test > add some back > test > add some more back

[mesaone]

Maybe caused by an un-optimized virtual instrument? Maschine used to cause this error.

Also may be related to your graphics card, as indicated by this knowledgebase article (although I doubt that's the issue)

Are you using a firewire interface? Check here

Using McAfee? Dump it.

[PMF Media]

I'd say the Fusion Drive. As suggested by JFreak, try running the system from external (7200rpm) drive, simply clone the system you have running on the FD using carbon copy cloner, then re-start from the external drive and see if the error follows or not - I'm guessing not.

If the problem turns out to be the FD, you can "split" the virtual FD into it's separate component drives and just use the SSD for your system (you'll be able to find how to instructions on the US Macworld site or just Google), if your system works well from the external clone, you can use this and re-clone it to the SSD.

it's a bit of stuffing around but sadly the Apple Fusion drive has been proving problematic for a good many iMac users simply because of the way the MacOS handles/decides system storage (what apps live on which portion of the virtual drive).

Good Luck.

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by PMF Media

If the problem turns out to be the FD, you can "split" the virtual FD into it's separate component drives and just use the SSD for your system (you'll be able to find how to instructions on the US Macworld site or just Google)

Whoa. I didn't know this could be done, that's very cool.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by David Whittaker

Added a Lacie 3T Thunderbolt Drive for Audio and ext. instruments

To clarify, you have Audio/session files and "ext. instruments" (you mean virtual instrument samples?) on that external Lacie Thunderbolt drive?

What exact model Lacie Thunderbolt drive?

Hopefully if it is a RAID drive you undid the any default RAID 0 config and are operating it as two separate drives/JBOD (just a bunch of disks).

Are there any other VI samples on the system Fusion drive?

[Darryl Ramm]

I'm guessing from the "3T" you mean this 3TB Lacie D2 Thunderbolt drive. http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10600 Is that correct?

If so that is a single 7,200 rpm drive. Its great for audio/session work or VI samples but you should never have samples and audio/session file sharing a drive. 6101 errors can be a common result of doing that.

And don't think that all the crazy interface performance specs apply here, this is just a garden variety single SATA 7,200 rpm drive, and will deliver that same performance as if connected internally in your Mac via SATA (which while impressive is still just a single spinning disk).

There is no guarantee this is definitely causing your problem, or whether their may be more than one thing going on here, but if your samples are on this drive you should find another drive for them. You could look for a Thunderbolt drive with two ports so you can chain this D2 drive off that (chaining won't affect performance). You could also try putting them on the boot/system Fusion drive at least for a quick test.

----

On other comments about Fusion, yep Fusion is nothing but a lot of marketing and a little bit of virtual disk/cache volume manager software from Apple that mushes together an SSD and a standard hard drive. The worst part of Apple's confusing marketing is that folks ordering fusion drives in low-end Macs often think they are buying a high end option when what they are getting is an SSD backed by a 4,800 rpm HDD and that is likely to run into lots more performance problems than an SSD backed by a 7,200 rpm HDD. I believe his 27" iMac will at least have the 7,200 rpm HDD. The good news is that SSD pricing is falling fast enough that SSD systems will just keep just replacing HDD use.

[David Whittaker]

Thank you all very very much,

To date tried removing Virtual Instruments, Waves then all plug-ins no good, still got the 6101. Whats really strange is I removed the plugins to a folder on the desk top, trashed the plugins in the Avid folder emptied the trash, restarted and upon start up of PT11 most were automatically put back in the Avid/Audio/plugins folder.

Tried using a Fast Track C400, No interface, same result 6101. Just ordered a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 - USB 2.0 (suggested by Sweetwater)

The Lacie is a d2 USB 3.0 / Thunderbolt. I erased the drive reformatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Next I will try your idea Carbon Copy Clone to another drive.

Thanks Dave