-9173 Errors due to Native plugins

[DJ Hellfire]

So I've been saying to you guys for the longest time that these -9173 errors are due to something on YOUR computer not playing right with Pro Tools. My system (Mac Pro in my sig) has been extremely stable in all versions of 12, but I have been using 80-90% UAD plugins.

Recently, I purchased the iZotope Music Production bundle and have been trying out Ozone 7 in place of my trusty Sonnox Limiter (because I found Ozone has vastly superior Inter-sample Peak prevention).

I found that when using the IRC III algorithm in the limiter, it causes massive CPU spikes and -9173 errors almost every 40 seconds. As soon as you select IRC I or II it stables back out.

So while I believe my theory is still true, that some software or hardware configuration on your system causes instability, I don't know if in my case the plugin is actually at fault or if Pro Tools has a problem processing plugins that use such high CPU.

One thing is for sure, when the plugin is taken away, Pro Tools is stable. And none of the other native plugins I own cause this instability. I haven't tried the plugin with any other DAW. What do you guys think?

[deanrichard]

These problems didn't exist in PT11. Obviously the code changed such that they broke things that were working before. While the short-term solution is to remove all plugins that exhibit the problem, the long-term solution is for Avid's engineers to fix the problem, and get it right this time.

Originally Posted by DJ Hellfire

So I've been saying to you guys for the longest time that these -9173 errors are due to something on YOUR computer not playing right with Pro Tools. My system (Mac Pro in my sig) has been extremely stable in all versions of 12, but I have been using 80-90% UAD plugins.

Recently, I purchased the iZotope Music Production bundle and have been trying out Ozone 7 in place of my trusty Sonnox Limiter (because I found Ozone has vastly superior Inter-sample Peak prevention).

I found that when using the IRC III algorithm in the limiter, it causes massive CPU spikes and -9173 errors almost every 40 seconds. As soon as you select IRC I or II it stables back out.

So while I believe my theory is still true, that some software or hardware configuration on your system causes instability, I don't know if in my case the plugin is actually at fault or if Pro Tools has a problem processing plugins that use such high CPU.

One thing is for sure, when the plugin is taken away, Pro Tools is stable. And none of the other native plugins I own cause this instability. I haven't tried the plugin with any other DAW. What do you guys think?

[Southsidemusic]

While I agree completely that more issues have been added since HD9 for us it isn't Avids job to optimize iZotopes badly implemented plugin code. Sorry to say but we have seen quite a few plugins ported to AAX64 That has been done poorly and that was working great in Live or Logic.

[Ben Jenssen]

FWIW, I've demoed several Izotope products over the years, and there were often stability and cpu usage issues, and that has kept me away.

[john1192]

contact Izotope and let them know .... probably them not an Avid issue .. but you won't know unless you get this to the right folks ..

[deanrichard]

It worked before, it doesn't work now. That is not Izotope's "badly implemented plugin code", it's Avid's.

When you break a whole slew of plugins what were formerly working, someone at Avid screwed up, and they screwed up bad. Find the bug and fix it.

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

While I agree completely that more issues have been added since HD9 for us it isn't Avids job to optimize iZotopes badly implemented plugin code. Sorry to say but we have seen quite a few plugins ported to AAX64 That has been done poorly and that was working great in Live or Logic.

[Marsdy]

The cause of errant -9173 errors is ALL down to Avid.... PERIOD.

If it isn't then AAX is a deeply flawed plug-in format.

Let's not let Avid off the hook here.

It happens to me maybe three or four times a day. Not a deal breaker thankfully. But to get an error inducing CPU spike on a virtually empty session? Tiresome.

[Southsidemusic]

Originally Posted by Marsdy

The cause of errant -9173 errors is ALL down to Avid.... PERIOD.

If it isn't then AAX is a deeply flawed plug-in format.

Let's not let Avid off the hook here.

It happens to me maybe three or four times a day. Not a deal breaker thankfully. But to get an error inducing CPU spike on a virtually empty session? Tiresome.

I agree and we had atleast 5-6 -9173 and -6101 errors a day on Mac Pro Trashcan 12.6 and 12.6.1 with only SSD drives and fully optimized machines. We do live off selling and producing A-list artists so it is a flaw and should of course be fixed.

We have some intermittant errors now aswell on 12.7.1 and it does point to some VI newly ported to AAX whoch did not throw errors when we used the VST versions on MB7-2 so somehow I still think these errors have to do with coding plugins and VI.

We took one of our pretty successful song from last year and redid that for kicks where we swapped all plugins to ONLY Avid (no 3rd party plugins) and only the VI that comes with PT12 HD (yes it made the song sound like it was made using a GM Midi Keyboard) however, not a single issue, we really tried to force error messages but no errors came along ..

Can't say if this is down to 3rd party developer coding of AAX64 bit plugin porting or not but somehow a DAW 2017 as expensive as HD12 *should* not have these issues.

Buying HD12 outright here in Sweden is over $2800 and thats twice what we paid for Ableton LIVE Suite 9 with Push2 and that is running 100% ..
We use Ableton Live Suite 9 with Push2 for programming Midi and that DAW never even puffs with the same VI which we use heavily and same plugins so something is up for sure in PT. I think Avid needs to work much closer with 3rd party devs and have some sort of plugin security tests when developers comes out with stuff we all love and use everyday.

Synthmaster ONE is coming out soon in AAX64 which we used for a while now on MB-7 as VST and it runs like a dream. As soon as we load up Synthmaster2 in AAX64 we get errors if we use more than 3 instances.

A few VI that never annoys are Nexus2/Sylenth1/Phalanx/Spire/Avenger etc but as soon as we start a few NI kontakt and Massive for ex we start getting errors even though we have only super fast SSD/Flash drives and 64GB RAM on 6Core nMP's with Sierra and PT12.

However after using 12.4 HD on one of the nMP we have managed to avoid most errors and now we have one of the nMP on 12.7.1 and Sierra 10.12.4 and there like on 12.4 we have a much better situation so ... all this is IMHO of course and only apply to our workflow but with 12.7.1 we have a much more stable setup just like we have on 12.4 HD. HD or non HD should work exactly the same. I just wrote what we use for specific information.

[melloj]

Have to agree with others here. It's bad coding on Avid's side. My machine is 5 years old and not changed the original processor. In v11 I did a feature film with an absolute mass of plugins. I've had the same waves plugins for 8 years and it was great. Recently I was able to run RX5 via the connect plugin with plugs on inserts no problem. The occasional CPU error while a pain is workable.

Recently I've inadvertently done something that's broke my system and I can't get it right. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling like crazy, like crazy. The only thing left to do is reinstall windows and hope I get my system back how it was.

The reason people think it is plugin issue is because it seems that when you remove all the plugs the session run ssmooth as silk. But I currently have a session with a reasonable amount of plugs and is totally unplayable, I removed all plugs and now runs fine. But this is not a CPU issue it's an Avid one because I was nearing the end of the project after weeks of work without any issues in v12.4. So it all worked great until a few weeks ago.

[deanrichard]

Avid is the right company to contact. It's 99.99% that the problem is theirs, not Izotope's. When a new version of the software breaks plugins that formerly worked it is ludicrous to blame the plugin company, particularly when a whole slew of other plugins break at the same time.

Originally Posted by john1192

contact Izotope and let them know .... probably them not an Avid issue .. but you won't know unless you get this to the right folks ..