Problems with PT9 and VEPro (Vienna Ensemble Pro)

[blizzard]

Thanks Daryl! I'm not at the studio right now but I will check it tonight when I'm there. I'm also going to do a "throughput" test to check what kind of transfer I'm getting on the network.

Andrew

[carlone]

Hey FWIW

How long are your Ethernet cables?
I've been using VEPro for about a year. It works great and like you I'm using a gigabit router to connect all my computers.

At one point I wanted to try to use my computer in the garage with VEPro on it and stream sounds from there to my pro tools computer in the studio. Major clicks and pops and totally unusable. The only change was that I was running through a 50 foot Ethernet cable.

Put it back in the studio and the standard 10 foot cable and all has been work well for the last 11 months.

[blizzard]

@Carlone - Both of the Cat6 cables connecting the computers to the switch are only 10ft.

What are your settings in PT and VEPro?
Are you running a lot of VI's in VEPro?

[Marsdy]

Andrew

It seems a little odd that the clicks and pops went away at a higher buffer setting. If you had a major network issue I would have thought you'd still be getting clicks and pops regardless of the buffer setting? In other words, it just wouldn't work period!

Also, have you done a google search of the DUC?
http://www.google.com/search?domains...h=duc.avid.com

There has been talk of network issues and VE Pro before. Try a search for "VE PRo switch" or "VE Pro network"

[blizzard]

@Marsdy - I am going to test the network some more when I get to the studio tonight. I have a feeling that the problem is not network related but possibly something that is amiss within Protools/VEPro.

I had previously google searched the duc but I didn't find a solution. I will try again - perhaps I missed something.

Cheers,
Andrew

[blizzard]

Alright I finally got a chance to test both computers for dropouts...

MASTER - http://img218.imageshack.us/i/dpclatencymaximus.jpg/
SLAVE - http://img832.imageshack.us/i/dpclatencyp5q.jpg/

I'm no expert but that doesn't look so bad.

Hmmm, back at it...
A

[blizzard]

Okay I did some basic settings tests. Here is what I did.

Throughput Test

Result was an average of 914 Mbits/sec between the computers. I verified this 3 times. AFAIK this is only uni-directional but still, should be good for audio over LAN.

PT Buffer / VEPro Buffer Tests

I tried different settings with Protools Buffer, Host Processors and VEPro buffer settings. I got generally got clicks and pops when PT had a low buffer (256) and VEPro Buffer was also low (none).

The best results I was getting were at PT 512 Buffer / VEPro Buffer 1 and 4 Processors in PT.

This was with 8 midi tracks all connected to the VEPro Slave through 1 instance. There was around 40 voices playing back.

Once I get into around 40 midi tracks playing back through 3 instances of RTAS VEPro plugs I am getting -9128 errors (cpu usage) but the Protools System Usage only shows around 45%. I am also getting frequent clicks.

I know that the PT System Usage can sometimes be incorrect - Windows System Resources shows even less CPU usage, around 30%.

I'm going to keep scraping the forum trying to find something more to try - perhaps in another VEPro thread. In the interim, any more ideas would be great!

Thanks for all your help everyone!
Andrew

[carlone]

I can usually run at 256 (nothing less than that).
I find that for my setup it's best to only use 1 instance of the VEPro plugin. Of course I will route each part from VEPro into it's own instrument track on it's own input.

I hit the limit depending on what I'm loading in VEPro. Typically kontact with full strings sections, Drum kits and various other parts. I can get 1 more vi like stylus rmx but that's about it. About 16 outputs from VEPro into PT.

I also found that for my setup I get a little better performance with the 32 bit instance of VEPro - but I could be wrong. I don't like to change it when it's working :)

[blizzard]

Originally Posted by carlone

I find that for my setup it's best to only use 1 instance of the VEPro plugin.

Originally Posted by carlone

I also found that for my setup I get a little better performance with the 32 bit instance of VEPro - but I could be wrong. I don't like to change it when it's working :)

You basically are doing exactly what I was going to try next - that is using only 1 VEPro RTAS and use the 32bit server instead of 64bit. When it comes down to trying different things it feels like there isn't much more to try.

Originally Posted by carlone

I hit the limit depending on what I'm loading in VEPro.

Where are you finding that the limit is reached? Is it in Protools or VEPro? CPU or RAM?

Originally Posted by carlone

About 16 outputs from VEPro into PT.

If those are stereo outputs you are getting, then I wouldn't need more than that for now. If I do some premixing in VEPro then that should actually suit me quite well.

Every time we do an upgrade to our computers/studio there is always something in the process that is "hair pulling out" frustrating that needs to be figured out hey? I guess this is the one on this upgrade!!

I thought there would be enough time between gigs to do this one...good thing I didn't sell my lightpipe audio card yet...just in case!

[John_Toolbox]

Originally Posted by blizzard

Okay I did some basic settings tests. Here is what I did.

Throughput Test

Result was an average of 914 Mbits/sec between the computers. I verified this 3 times. AFAIK this is only uni-directional but still, should be good for audio over LAN.

PT Buffer / VEPro Buffer Tests

I tried different settings with Protools Buffer, Host Processors and VEPro buffer settings. I got generally got clicks and pops when PT had a low buffer (256) and VEPro Buffer was also low (none).

The best results I was getting were at PT 512 Buffer / VEPro Buffer 1 and 4 Processors in PT.

This was with 8 midi tracks all connected to the VEPro Slave through 1 instance. There was around 40 voices playing back.

Once I get into around 40 midi tracks playing back through 3 instances of RTAS VEPro plugs I am getting -9128 errors (cpu usage) but the Protools System Usage only shows around 45%. I am also getting frequent clicks.

I know that the PT System Usage can sometimes be incorrect - Windows System Resources shows even less CPU usage, around 30%.

I'm going to keep scraping the forum trying to find something more to try - perhaps in another VEPro thread. In the interim, any more ideas would be great!

Thanks for all your help everyone!
Andrew

Those network stats are fine. if I remember right, my network use with 32 channels of 24/48k audio was around 12MB/s (144Mbits/second).

Your DPC spike checker test results were also better than mine, so you are good there too.

My guess is there is some process running in the background that is interfering with it.

Only other thing I'm curious about, are you streaming samples from the hard disk or loading them exclusively in RAM? Regardless of which way you're doing it, I'm surprised that there are better results using VEpro 32 bit server.