Digi 002 rack driver with Pro Tools 12?

[fearofbirds]

Hi,

I'm attempting to use Pro Tools 12 with a Digi 002 rack but keep getting AAE -6101 error. I realise the driver is untested for 12, but it's still available so I hoped it might work.

So - I don't know whether it's a driver issue (given that apart from these crashes every hour or so it works fine) or another issue.

I'm also using a Macbook Pro 15" a couple of years old and this is occurring in sessions with no plugins and just a couple of audio tracks with barely any audio. So - it seems odd that it's struggling buffer wise.

Hope someone can offer some insight into why this is happening and how I might fix it!

Thanks.

[Sparky1]

What Mac OS are you using?

Sparky

[Park Seward]

I don't believe the 002 is supported any longer.

002 has a $500 rebate from Avid:

Have you outgrown your old legacy Pro Tools | HD hardware, 002, 003 or Mbox Pro interface? You’re in luck. For a limited time, you can step up to the sound and power of Pro Tools | HD Native and save big.

http://www.avid.com/en/special-offers/mbox-to-hd-native

[AlexLakis]

I'm running an 002 console on a mid-2012 15" Macbook Pro with Pro Tools 12.1 on OSX 10.8.5 with zero issues. Latest drivers, lotsa plugins. It can be done.

What OSX version are you running? Are you running the latest versions of your plugins (they can screw with your sessions even when there are no instances loaded)?

[fearofbirds]

Thanks for the replies all. I've now tested and this issue happens with my other audio interface AND with no interface at all. So I guess that just leaves the OS (El Capitan latest release) or plugins. I've had the error come up even in sessions where no tracks have inputs at all - no plugins. So unless the problem could occur even just because there are bad plugins installed... I'm lost.

Any other thoughts would be appreciated!

[VRW]

Originally Posted by fearofbirds

Thanks for the replies all. I've now tested and this issue happens with my other audio interface AND with no interface at all. So I guess that just leaves the OS (El Capitan latest release) or plugins. I've had the error come up even in sessions where no tracks have inputs at all - no plugins. So unless the problem could occur even just because there are bad plugins installed... I'm lost.

Any other thoughts would be appreciated!

Your guess may be right. The guy in the previous posting saying he is using the 002 with PT12 successfully is one of the few lucky ones AND he is running it with Mac OSX 10.8.5 Mountain Lion which does make the crucial difference finally.
Besides the hardware issues of 002/003s with some current Macbooksk the main problem/the key is the version of Mac OSX.

Fact is there were tons of issue reports from 002/003 users using OSX Yosemite already, even with the official Avid driver then. Even if I hate to say that but those interfaces are simply legacy for the use with all the latest systems. They were made for completely different generations of Mac OSX and Pro Tools many years ago.
So if you really want to stay with your 002, the best you can do is to run it with a still supported, older version of Mac OSX and an older hardware/Mac (preferably still with FW ports etc.) like AlexLakis above does. That's clever and the only chance to have a trouble free experience.
As long as it is possible to use PT12 with OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.5 or Mavericks 10.9.x, you still can use Pro Tools 12. That's cool.
However you better leave the latest versions of OSX like El Capitan and even Yosemite alone if you decide to stay with your 002.

Or you decide to replace the 002 with a more current interface?

Further I would recommend to restore your system from a backup or even better, make a completely new, clean install of your system. Do not forget to set up all the Pro Tools optimizations
https://www.google.at/search?q=pro+t...&client=safari
and then just install Pro Tools itself, the AIR Effects and Instruments and the XPand at first. Just the basic Pro Tools installation and the driver for your interface.
Then go and check out if this system is running as it is supposed to. If yes, make a backup of it and start to install your 3rd party plugins/VIs just one at a time and always check out if it is still working properly.

If you do not want to set up a new system (which in many cases is the only way to solve such issues though), you may remove all 3rd party plugins and VIs from your Pro Tools plugins folder. Just move it to the -Unused Plugins- folder or to another drive, whatever.
Now check out if the issue still is occurring? If not, put back every single plugin/VI into the Pro Tools plugins folder separately one at a time and find out if/which plugin/VI is causing you troubles.

But again, be aware of that one major problem using a 002/003 nowadays is the version of Mac OSX. Avoid the latest versions like OSX El Capitan and even Yosemite, stay with OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.5 (supported up to PT12.4) or Mavericks 10.9.x and you have a good chance to get a properly working Pro Tools system again.

The best of success to you!

[fearofbirds]

Thanks for that reply - comprehensive to say the least!

I guess I will first try to run Pro Tools on my system using Snow Leopard, but am just not sure how I can do that. Am now investigating whether it's possible to maintain El Capitan for everything else and use Snow Leopard for Pro Tools. I am not sure that it works like this, but have seen mentions of 'dual boots' etc on other forums. Never understood what that means, but now might be the time to figure it out.

Thanks again - and if you know anything about the above i'd love to hear it.

[VRW]

Many people do this, running two systems on the same computer, one system for music applications, another one for daily applications.
Basically you have 2 options. First one is to partition your OSX drive and to install each system on one of the partitions. It's the most convenient way probably and it does work for people but Pro Tools does not like it a lot to run from a partitioned drive in general. Second option is to run the second OSX from another internal or an external drive.

To get a well working Pro Tools system I would strongly recommend to use the internal OS drive in your Macbook for your music recording system (OSX Snow Leopard for example, whichever) only and an external drive for your daily use OSX El Capitan.
You didn't leave us the specs of your Macbook so we don't know what's the fastest port you have got for an external drive but you might use this one to connect the external OSX to your computer.

If you could get a SSD in an external USB 3 enclosure (given your Macbook already offers USB 3 ports) this would be ideal for such an application.
Check Amazon for a 250GB Samsung 850 Evo and an USB 3 enclosure for example which should not cost a lot nowadays.
If your computer still has got no USB 3, Thunderbolt (preferred) or FW800 may do the job. USB 2 might be too slow probably which might become annoying for daily usage.

What may help a lot to ease the whole procedure may be to use this little app to duplicate/clone your existing El Capitan installation to the dedicated external drive (you can use it to clone the system to any drive or partition of course).
http://bombich.com/
It's called Carbon Copy Cloner and you can use it for free for 30 days. Download it, install it on your current system and clone the existing system to the external drive.

After that you could make a clean install of OSX Snow Leopard on your internal drive (important-wipe your drive before installing Snow Leopard, there should be no remainings of the El Capitan system!) and build up a fresh Pro Tools recording system on it.
Please, be aware of that Pro Tools 12 will not run on OSX Snow Leopard. You will have to use OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.5 (up to version PT12.4) or OSX Mavericks 10.9.x for PT12 at least.
If you should decide to use an older version of Pro Tools though, Snow Leopard will be a good and stable OSX for the use with an 002 indeed.

If you however should consider to make a fresh install of your OSX El Capitan as well, you can do it on your internal drive again and then clone it to the external like described above or you can install it on the external drive directly. If you would prefer to do it the second way, you will find a lot tutorials how to do that on the web. For example.
http://macosxbits.com/2015/09/how-to...xternal-drive/

Finally let me say that Pro Tools always wants a stable and reliable OSX to work as supposed to and therefor it's the recommended way to install it on the internal drive of your Macbook and run the daily use OSX El Capitan from the external. You can try it the other way round as well but this will be no stable music recording system at the end of the day. For daily usage El Capitan via an external drive should work though.

So I hope this will help you further in a way.

The very best of success to you!

[fearofbirds]

Thank you so much for that assistance! It's so helpful to have all of this advice - much more helpful than Avid support have provided for sure.

I will give the Carbon Copy Cloner a go. Otherwise i'm looking at some older Mac Pros or a Mac Mini to just use for Pro Tools. Looks like some Mac Pros from 2006 / 07 are going for about $AUD200, which seems OK. I guess something like this would work for Snow Leopard and Pro Tools?

[VRW]

Originally Posted by fearofbirds

Looks like some Mac Pros from 2006 / 07 are going for about $AUD200, which seems OK. I guess something like this would work for Snow Leopard and Pro Tools?

If you stay with Snow Leopard and assumingly PTLE7/8 such a Mac Pro will work for sure. Just make sure it has got 4GB Ram at least (anything more will be appreciated).
If you intend to use any OSX higher than Snow Leopard (starting with the next OSX Lion) in the future you probably will have to replace the original graphic card with a more
powerful one as I have heard from many users.
Theoretically these Mac Pros are officially qualified for Pro Tools by Avid even up to Pro Tools 10 (which still even works with OSX Snow Leopard from 10.6.7 upwards).
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...ility/en422311 ...Mac Pro "Woodcrest" two Dual-Core 2.0, 2.66, 3.0GHz
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...ility/en419171
The latest version of PT10, 10.3 will need Snow Leopard 10.6.8 obviously.
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...m-Requirements

You will have to check out which version of Pro Tools to use finally. Just make sure to have enough Ram (4GB minimum, 8GB Ram let the system work more easily from my
own personal experience back in the days, even if it only was a 32bit system) and check out the graphic card issue if going higher than Snow Leopard then.

What´s cool with those is that you can use several internal drives which still is the best working solution for a Pro Tools system. And it´s quite affordable if you stay with
mechanical 7200rpm drives (HDDs). Even if I personally love SSDs, such a desktop Mac allows you to run 3-4 separate large 7200rpm hard drives for relatively less money
which is cool. So you can spread out all your audio files and sample libraries to several drives which again helps to ease the system´s work and to improve it´s performance finally.
Maybe you know this anyway but Western Digital Black HDDs with 7200rpm are the recommended (and truly best) HDDs for the use with Pro Tools.
Something like this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Performa...+Black+7200rpm

Mac Minis are not that bad as well but there´s just one model of them really useable for serious Pro Tools work which is the 2012 i7 Quad Core 2,3GHz or 2,6GHz maxed out with
16GB Ram and 1-2 7200rpm HDDs at least (SSDs preferred).
I had one of these and put in 16GB Ram and 2 SSDs which made this Mini fly indeed. Anyway they ain´t affordable like those old Mac Pros I´m afraid and you will have to do a lot
replacement work by yourself to bring out it´s best possible performance.
If you would intend to use Pro Tools 11/12 later, such a Mini probably will be the better choice in the long run, if however you decide to stay with your 002 and former versions of
Pro Tools the 2006/7 1.1 Mac Pro will be the much more affordable and much easier to handle solution I think.

Wishing you again the best of success and lots of fun,

cheers, VRW