Major instabilities with Pro Tools and UAD. -38 Errors and Pro Tools freezing.

[DJ Hellfire]

So I recently converted my UAD setup from FW on a 5,1 to TB3 on a 7,1. Now I've been having nothing but instability with using UAD plugins in Pro Tools. I've done all the usual troubleshooting; replaced TB3 cables, reset UAD hardware, reinstall all software, trash Pro Tools prefs, etc.

The problem is when I'm running high DSP loads (say above 50-60%), I start getting -38 errors and Pro Tools freezes with spinning beach ball. The errors usually come randomly during playback or when duplicating/loading a UAD plugin. When it happens, Pro Tools completely freezes.

When I reopen Pro Tools after power cycling the UAD hardware, the session and all plugins will load, but none of the UAD plugins actually work in the session. The music plays but the UAD plugins are not processing the audio and none of the meters on any of the UAD plugins works and delay compensation of the audio is out of alignment. Native plugins work fine. In order to fix this, I have to reboot the entire computer every time this happens.

For months I thought this was a UAD hardware defect. But recently I found out that when this problem happens, my other audio applications (Console, Luna, Akai MPC) work perfectly fine with UAD plugins without rebooting the computer while along side them, the plugins will not run again in Pro Tools until a reboot is done. So this leads me to now believe that Pro Tools is the actual root of the problem.

So the question I actually have is what could possibly be the process running on MacOS associated with Pro Tools that requires being reset before UAD plugins will work again? I'm looking for a process that I can kill in Activity Monitor instead of repeatedly rebooting my system.

Mac Pro 7,1
Big Sur 11.6.2
Apollo Silver w/TB3 option
Octo Satellite TB3
Octo PCIE
UAD 9.15.1
Pro Tools 2021.12
Apple Pro TB3 Cable from Apollo to Mac
Apple TB3 Cable from Satellite to Apollo

(SB: I had my 5,1 with Thunder Ridge running this same UAD setup and still had the same issues prior to purchasing the 7,1).

[s.d. finley]

Very strange issue you have there. I use a MBP 2020 11.6.2 UAD Arrow TB3 UAD 9.14.7 and I can switch between DSP Quattro running AU versions of UAD plug ins to PT 2021.7 without having to reboot because of non functioning UAD plug ins. I can even use UA LUNA and switch to the other 2 DAWs without issues. You do have a variety of UAD devices in your system. Is the firmware up to date with them all? I recently updated a Silver Apollo FW to use with TB2 and had to do a couple firmware updates to get it to work right. Normally UAD software will pop up a dialogue box for firmware but not always. Other than that, PT version and UAD Software versions are different. Maybe downgrade PT to 2021.7?

[climber]

that's strange... I have an Octo in a Sonnet housing running thru TB2 on my Trashcan running the latest Big Sur, and can load that sucker up with plugs and it has never done that.

[DJ Hellfire]

Originally Posted by s.d. finley

Very strange issue you have there. I use a MBP 2020 11.6.2 UAD Arrow TB3 UAD 9.14.7 and I can switch between DSP Quattro running AU versions of UAD plug ins to PT 2021.7 without having to reboot because of non functioning UAD plug ins. I can even use UA LUNA and switch to the other 2 DAWs without issues. You do have a variety of UAD devices in your system. Is the firmware up to date with them all? I recently updated a Silver Apollo FW to use with TB2 and had to do a couple firmware updates to get it to work right. Normally UAD software will pop up a dialogue box for firmware but not always. Other than that, PT version and UAD Software versions are different. Maybe downgrade PT to 2021.7?

Yeah, all firmware is up to date as far as I know. There's no dialogs saying any updates are available.

[BScout]

Have a 7,1 16-core running 2 Oct Satellites (chained on one thunderbolt.) Zero issues.

But we run 10.15.7 on that. No chance of moving that to Big Sur or Monterey since they both have significant issues with lots of things.

And we max out the DSP.

[SKI]

Disassemble your system to try and pinpoint the culprit.
Test your system with just the PCIe card.
Test your system with just the Satellite.
Test your system with just the Apollo.


If you can successfully stress the system in each of those configurations try testing them in the various combinations of 2 to see if anything shows.


Some have experienced problems with UA setups containing variations of products because of the power up order of the devices, so that's something else to look into.

[DJ Hellfire]

Originally Posted by SKI

Disassemble your system to try and pinpoint the culprit.
Test your system with just the PCIe card.
Test your system with just the Satellite.
Test your system with just the Apollo.


If you can successfully stress the system in each of those configurations try testing them in the various combinations of 2 to see if anything shows.


Some have experienced problems with UA setups containing variations of products because of the power up order of the devices, so that's something else to look into.

This is actually something I'm trying right now. I took the Satellite out of the equation and DSP maxed out with no issues so far. Sucks trying to do a mix with 8 less cores tho.

I heard about the power up issues with the satellite and Apollo and read that it's best to have the Satellite show up after the Apollo in the System Info pane. So I've been doing that. But I can't control where the PCIE card shows up in the order.

The strange part is when I had the FW Satellite in place of the TB Satellite, I didn't have these issues running with all 3 Satellite, PCIE, and Apollo. But something about the TB switch is causing the issues.

[abc1mce2]

Try removing the UAD2 PCI-e card and leaving all your other UA products attached and see if that helps. Sometimes particular PCI-e slots don't like to be populated with certain PCI-e cards. I had that problem with PT and a UAD2 card in slot # 4 on both the Windows and the Mac sides. It wasn't until November I Hackintoshed my mobo and I was still having issues (I had your issues before the Hack in Windows also). I removed the Quad PCI-e card in slot # 4 and PT has never run so smoothly in Windows before. To me PT runs a little better on macOS. Though now after removing that card from slot # 4 it's a close race and this is on the same computer...just different operating systems.

[DJ Hellfire]

Originally Posted by abc1mce2

Try removing the UAD2 PCI-e card and leaving all your other UA products attached and see if that helps. Sometimes particular PCI-e slots don't like to be populated with certain PCI-e cards. I had that problem with PT and a UAD2 card in slot # 4 on both the Windows and the Mac sides. It wasn't until November I Hackintoshed my mobo and I was still having issues (I had your issues before the Hack in Windows also). I removed the Quad PCI-e card in slot # 4 and PT has never run so smoothly in Windows before. To me PT runs a little better on macOS. Though now after removing that card from slot # 4 it's a close race and this is on the same computer...just different operating systems.

Thanks. I'll gave it a try. Maybe I'll order another Satellite to try out.

[abc1mce2]

Originally Posted by DJ Hellfire

Thanks. I'll gave it a try. Maybe I'll order another Satellite to try out.

I'm still using 1 of my UAD2 PCI-e cards. I just removed the one that was in slot # 4 on my mobo. Since you only have one UAD2 card, remove it first, and if PT functions correctly after some testing, try moving it to a different PCI-e slot.