Noise Blast in Pro Tools HD 12.7.1

[Kris75]

This is probably plug in related. I ran into this as well with a plug in, and when I notified the plug in manufacturer, they fixed it right away.

Can you narrow down the plug ins in your session?

[unkJE]

Originally Posted by mr xy

to protect against this i use this (free) plugin on my master:

http://www.cerberusaudio.com/Software/Products/Ice9/

hosted in bluecat audio patchwork.

i thought those dark dark days were gone though. i swear the noise blast has probably taken a year or two off my live, mixing in fear...

Just what I was looking for - thank you!

[melloj]

Could Avid not be held responsible for any damage?

[midnightrambler]

It might be an out of date plug-in - as far as I know all my plugs are up to date, but it's something I'll have a look at. I'll also check out the auto-mute plug, thanks for the link.

It's just not something that any DAW software should allow to happen though really is it. I had a client in with me at the time and he looked as shellshocked as I felt.

[DJ Hellfire]

Hard to believe a plugin is actually the root cause. I've never had this happen in any of my other software that uses plugins. The software should have some method of preventing this. The audio meter clearly shows +736dB peak. Channels should not even be able to output audio at this level. There should be some mechanism in place or something that if audio surpasses a certain dB level on a channel, like maybe +20dB the audio should be disabled. Even if it is a plugin causing this, Pro Tools should not allow this. This could quickly ruin a recording session if this were to happen in a performers headphones.

[unkJE]

Originally Posted by DJ Hellfire

.... The software should have some method of preventing this. The audio meter clearly shows +736dB peak. Channels should not even be able to output audio at this level. There should be some mechanism in place or something that if audio surpasses a certain dB level on a channel, like maybe +20dB the audio should be disabled. Even if it is a plugin causing this, Pro Tools should not allow this. This could quickly ruin a recording session if this were to happen in a performers headphones.

+1 on an endless loop ....

.... from a "Duty of Care" perspective, or from any other angle you can think of, ruining a recording session is an infinitesimal cost, compared with ruining a performer’s hearing.

[propower]

Update please... has a cause been found?

[TheNeil]

Hi all,

This isn't intended to be an alternative to tracking down & fixing the bug (which is clearly needed), but I've submitted an Ideascale entry for an app-wide failsafe against dangerous output volumes: http://protools.ideascale.com/a/dtd/...ts/266672-3779

The idea being that we can greatly reduce the bug's impact this way (and make the thought of future resurgences less frightening) whilst Avid fix the individual causes.

Would appreciate if anyone in support of this idea can give it a vote, just in case Avid happen to pay the site any attention.

More context available here:
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=390024&page=2

[propower]

Voted on it FWIW. Yes the software should just not allow a > x jump in level in any output level in less than y amount of time. The max rate of change for a 20kHz signal is well known. Pretty much anything above that is a warning and more than a few samples in a row that exceed that rate of change (or a single sample at let's say 2X that rate of change) should result in an error stoppage or mute event. Simple math really. Using this method one could monitor at - 20dBFS and be well protected long before the output reaches 0dBFS. Protecting me at -1dBFS is not really protection. -1dBFS of pure noise is just as damaging. Any chance the company will implement anything like this though?

[TheNeil]

Originally Posted by propower

Voted on it FWIW. Yes the software should just not allow a > x jump in level in less than y amount of time. The max rate of change for a 20kHz signal is well known. Pretty much anything above that is a warning and more than 4 samples at that exceed that rate of change should result in an error stoppage or mute event. Simple math really...

Vastly superior to anything I could have suggested, but that's why I kept the idea high-level. Thanks for the support! Ideascale's very from a guarantee of inclusion, but it's worth a shot.