New UAD Thunderbolt Satellite = MUCH, much better Pro Tools performance

[Cutlerbri]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Google is your friend.... http://www.uaudio.com/uad-plug-ins.html

So no a UAD Satellite is an outboard (i.e. non internal PCIe card) USD DSP processor it is not an interface. The UAD Apollo Twin, Apollo and Apollo 16 are interfaces that also happen to internally combine the same capability (and more via plugins hosted in the UAD Console) of a UAD Satellite. UAD have very good info on their web site, all your questions should be answered there. And UAD Satellite is not to be confused with Avid Video Satellite.

Thanks, Darryl.

[amazingrugs318]

Super interested in your post Mark. I was using the same Firewire satellite and always running into 9172's and 9173's at low buffer settings. When trying to add an overdub near the end of a session, I would have to put all the UAD plugs in inactive mode to get by.

So I upgraded to a UAD-2 Octo PCIe card, hoping I could work in lower buffer settings more consistently in case I had overdubs to do in a mixed session, but am still running into the errors. Not all the time, but they do happen. As you can see in my sig, I have an external Thunderbolt box that houses both the HD Native and UAD card, so I'm wondering if that could be the problem.

I've tried doing some testing as well, keeping an eye on the total system delay (in Setup->Session) to see if there is a limit I can reach before I start getting the errors. In my heaviest sessions I can be at 9000 samples of delay with UAD plugins, so I can get errors then, but even when I'm at around 3 to 4000 samples of delay it can still happen.

I definitely understand the UAD plugins add a ton of latency, so I'm not looking to do initial tracking with them and work at low buffers all the time, but I was hoping with the PCIe card I could get a little better performance. Its most frustrating when my CPU is at 12 percent, am using 30% of the UAD card, and still getting errors.

Mark, if you could share a little more details of your CPU usage, total system delay, etc and still able to work at these low buffers with no errors would be super helpful for me! Been looking for a post just like yours.

[tekis]

Originally Posted by amazingrugs318

I definitely understand the UAD plugins add a ton of latency, so I'm not looking to do initial tracking with them and work at low buffers all the time, but I was hoping with the PCIe card I could get a little better performance. Its most frustrating when my CPU is at 12 percent, am using 30% of the UAD card, and still getting errors.

Hello: I used to be in the same boat--12% cpu and 35% on my Octo Pcie. But, I am using Pro Tools HD Native 10.3.9. The cure was meticulously going thru the optimization steps and then trashing prefs at the end. From then on there have been no problems overdubbing with a buffer of "32" or mixing with a "1024" buffer. Hope that helps.

[Matt Hepworth]

Originally Posted by tekis

Hello: I used to be in the same boat--12% cpu and 35% on my Octo Pcie. But, I am using Pro Tools HD Native 10.3.9. The cure was meticulously going thru the optimization steps and then trashing prefs at the end. From then on there have been no problems overdubbing with a buffer of "32" or mixing with a "1024" buffer. Hope that helps.

Are you talking about the Mavericks optimization guide?

[tekis]

Originally Posted by Matt Hepworth

Are you talking about the Mavericks optimization guide?

No, Mountain Lion.

[Touchwood Studios]

HDX with 12 Core 2013 MP 64 GB RAM Mavericks, 2 X Quad Satellite Firewire zero issues here.

[Matt Hepworth]

Originally Posted by tekis

No, Mountain Lion.

Can you post a link please? I've only seen the Mavericks guide.

[tekis]

Originally Posted by Matt Hepworth

Can you post a link please? I've only seen the Mavericks guide.

Okay: This thread is about "9173" errors, so I'll post this link (I'm hoping it's similar to 9073):

http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/...e-9073-errors/

And here's the Mountain Lion optimization guide:

http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/...mountain-lion/

And Mavericks:

http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/...0-9-mavericks/

And trashing preferences:

http://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/...s-preferences/

I had the same problems as the OP: My cpu was always peaking out, many times turning red. My cpu ran constantly in the 60-80% area. I always had to render tracks with plugins. I could barely record anything without problems. If I even opened the gui on certain plugins, I'd get big problems. I even considered getting an HDX card thinking that might help.

But about 5 weeks ago, I meticulously followed the 10.8 optimization guide. It turned out that I'd missed a couple of small things. Then, I trashed my prefs. BOOM! It was like I got a new computer. It's been running great ever since! And now, I'm using more tracks and plugins than ever with no problems--even at 88.2khz with the buffer@32! I also "repair permissions" on my system drive once a week and use Disk Warrior on all my drives once a month. But the big payoff was following the optimization carefully then trashing prefs. Good luck!