Running out of DSP power? System limitations?

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by YYR123

No wonder you ran out of power, you need a new computer boss..... Get a Mac Pro 4.1, SSD OS X drive and 24gb of ram, and you will feel like your in heaven

And you need HD3 at least to do any real work.... My personal experience

OP might be able to swap in a more powerful cpu tray without too much trouble along with newer faster ram.

[Table Syrup Records]

There's no tray in the 1,1 - 2,1 or 3,1

But, the CPU's can still be swapped.

I did a few 1,1's with the Xeon X5365's. You can find em pretty dang cheap now... just need a specific step code... SLAEG if I remember correctly

Definitely would want to max out the RAM too... and could then use the 800MHz. The ram would probably cost more than the CPU's....

[MichelJ]

Thank you very much, that is very interesting! I will contact my supplier and ask for this.

[Table Syrup Records]

Sure. Just be smart about the move you make.

If you put money into the 1,1 - make sure it isn't much, and do it knowing you will STILL want to upgrade when you can

The 1,1 is not a true 64 bit machine. The 1,1 and 2,1 will not run Mavericks or newer natively, and you need to do some OS patching in order to make it work - which I would not recommend

If you are spending any more than 300 on upgrades, I'd say, take that 300, and sell your current machine, and you should be able to find a model 4,1 Quad (Hyperthreads for 8 cores). I see them around for 500 frequently.

The more I type, the more I would just urge you to sell your 1,1 and grab a 4,1. Even a base model is going to outperform the 1,1 - and is more 'future proof' and certainly more upgradable.

Here is a $510 OR BEST OFFER - FREE SHIPPING example. NOT MINE. Just an example of the current pricing on these.

[MichelJ]

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it. I think I will just do an upgrade on my 1,1. Add 24GB of RAM and HD3. Its only a temporary quick solution to finish 3 songs. I am looking at a big investment to start a studio from scratch later this year or maybe the next. That means Neve 88 RS and a huge new Protools set up etc etc. Or do you think I would really need it even if its just for three songs? I need to add tracks, busses and only a few plug-ins

[Table Syrup Records]

You might be better off finishing with a Native setup. Any native interface

Moving forward, I'd look at HD Native or Waves SoundGrid

Personally, I wouldn't recommend HDX. I know a few people who have gone that route, and were not happy. The sessions I did on HDX didn't stand out over HDN, at least not in a positive light... if anything I felt the lack of plugs more than anything else.

I'm selling a HD Native rig if you end up in that market. I also use SoundGrid, so if you have any questions there, I'm happy to help.

[MichelJ]

Okay thank you again! I will follow your advice.

[b mcgibney]

FWIW a 3,1 Mac in Native mode with Mountain Lion is still a pretty viable system. You need more Ram for sure

[MichelJ]

Thank you

[Farhoof]

Michel,
the DSP notification you get have nothing to do with your cpu, ram or any spec of your mac. It's a limitation of your TDM setup. Also the 96kHz is using twice the dsp power of your cards, effectively cutting your system in half. If you can work with 48kHz you'll have twice the dsp from the TDM cards.

Also, Protools 8 HD is a 32bit application. It cannot use more than about 2,5 GB of ram before the application will crash (theoretically it's more, but in practice it's not). Open the OSX Activity Monitor (applications > utilities) to check you current Protools memory usage. Adding 24GB of ram is useless until you run either PT 10 HD (still a 32bit app with the same limits, but it can load the audio into a 64bit side program), or run PT 11+ (native 64bit).

To deal with your current situation;
- Check you playback engine, set it to the max amount of voices.
- Check your busses. Make sure everything is stereo. When you open your system usage (a Protools window) there should be stereo mixers, no surround mixers (a single surround mixer needs a dedicated dsp, so it cannot be used by something stereo). I can't remember exactly, it might help to remove any 5.1 output if you don't need it.
- Check what stereo/surround mixers you are using. Either dithered or normal (dithered might be called HQ, I can't remember). It's best to close Protools, go to your plugin folder (Library/Application Support/Digidesign), and check which .dpm files are there. If you see something like 'stereo dithered mixer.dpm', drag it to your unused plugin folder. If needed drag the 'normal' stereo mixer.dpm to you plugin folder. The dithered mixer uses more dsp, but it isn't much of a deal.
- If you are using delay compensation, check if you can work without it, or maybe a shorter compensation might be just ok.
- If you still run into troubles, check your plugins. If you are using TDM plugins they'll be using up your dsp needed for the mixer. Try to convert track plugins to native/rtas. ALWAYS start with the first plugin(s). Avoid using rtas after a tdm plugin and avoid using rtas plugins on an aux (this will add extra delay). Beware though, using rtas will use your mac's cpu, this is the point where an upgrade might suite you, but not until you tried all of the above.

I've done tons of work on a simple HD rig on a Mac Pro 1.1 (G5 even), you should be ok for basic sessions.

If Protools is saying: "Protools ran out of CPU power", forget all of the above and buy a new mac