PT11 pinwheel at session load

[reed_safehaven]

Hey all,

I switched from a Windows PC to Mac. I'm now on a late 2014 MacMini running OSX 10.10.1 w/ 16gb RAM & an i7 cpu, working in Pro Tools 11.

I installed all my software & tried loading up a session i was working on when i had the pc. The session SEEMED to load up (edit & mix windows open, tracks & plugs load up), but the moment it's loaded, Pro Tools pinwheels for about 30 minutes. I'm still able to do everything else on the Mac, so the computer isn't frozen.

The session is not all that intensive. I've got Kontakt loaded with about a dozen instruments, I've got SSD4, I've got Trilian, I've got about 40 other random plugins going on in the session. Buffer size is set to 1024. Here's an image of my Activity Monitor during the pinwheeling:



As you can see, nothing is being particularly taxed... though you can see that PT11 is listed as "not responding". The Pro Tools Quicktime Server is also "not responding," but I had already killed that... but that QT Server shouldn't even be running, since the PT Video Engine is disabled, but whatever.

Things I've already tried:

- Opened a new session & imported old session (in case the session was corrupt). Didn't work.

- Batch re-saving my Kontakt library. Didn't work.

- Rolled PT11 back to 11.1.3 (since I had read that Kontakt 5 doesn't play well with PT11.2.2). Didn't work.

- Rolled the OS back to Mavericks (since PT11 isn't technically approved for Yosemite yet). Didn't work.

- Wipe & clean install of EVERYTHING. Didn't work.

- Putting the instrument libraries, session folders & OS on separate drives. Didn't work.

This is ridiculous. The MacMini has 16gb RAM & a 3GHz i7 cpu. I don't know what else to try. What am I missing?!

[reed_safehaven]

Bump #1. It's gotten to the point where PT is completely useless for me. I'm now teaching myself Logic Pro X just so that I can get back to working on this project. Please, fellow Pro Tools users, save me from the chaos that is LPX!

[wpawley]

I'm not a Mac user but it sounds like you are having a conflict with memory usage. Could that be a problem on a Mac? Pro Tools is a HUGE program that does a lot of things at one time.

[studioj11]

This is a known bug between Avid and Native Instruments and is driving me mad as well. They are working on it. Hopefully.

although 30 minutes seems harsh. Mine usually run around 4-7 minutes. And it is because there is a video file in the session. Note that the video engine can be off but if there is a video file in your session this can happen. Although if there is NO video file in your clips list, perhaps you are experiencing something different?

My recommendation would be to whittle the session down to as few tracks as possible while still getting the SWOD... that is how I discovered the video - kontakt conflict. Let me know how it goes!!

One workaround I have done is to load the session without plugins by double clicking the session file while holding shift. Then enable each insert by cntrl-option-cmnnd clicking on the insert to activate each slot for the entire session. should only take a minute or two.

[Bill Denton]

Originally Posted by reed_safehaven

Hey all,

I switched from a Windows PC to Mac. I'm now on a late 2014 MacMini running OSX 10.10.1 w/ 16gb RAM & an i7 cpu, working in Pro Tools 11.

I installed all my software & tried loading up a session i was working on when i had the pc. The session SEEMED to load up (edit & mix windows open, tracks & plugs load up), but the moment it's loaded, Pro Tools pinwheels for about 30 minutes. I'm still able to do everything else on the Mac, so the computer isn't frozen.

The session is not all that intensive. I've got Kontakt loaded with about a dozen instruments, I've got SSD4, I've got Trilian, I've got about 40 other random plugins going on in the session. Buffer size is set to 1024. Here's an image of my Activity Monitor during the pinwheeling:



As you can see, nothing is being particularly taxed... though you can see that PT11 is listed as "not responding". The Pro Tools Quicktime Server is also "not responding," but I had already killed that... but that QT Server shouldn't even be running, since the PT Video Engine is disabled, but whatever.

Things I've already tried:

- Opened a new session & imported old session (in case the session was corrupt). Didn't work.

- Batch re-saving my Kontakt library. Didn't work.

- Rolled PT11 back to 11.1.3 (since I had read that Kontakt 5 doesn't play well with PT11.2.2). Didn't work.

- Rolled the OS back to Mavericks (since PT11 isn't technically approved for Yosemite yet). Didn't work.

- Wipe & clean install of EVERYTHING. Didn't work.

- Putting the instrument libraries, session folders & OS on separate drives. Didn't work.

This is ridiculous. The MacMini has 16gb RAM & a 3GHz i7 cpu. I don't know what else to try. What am I missing?!

Do not have anything else running when you're using Pro Tools and you may find your problems going away...

[reed_safehaven]

My recommendation would be to whittle the session down to as few tracks as possible while still getting the SWOD...

I tried that. There doesn't seem to be any consistency. I could have everything BUT Kontakt inactive, and the session works fine. The session just doesn't seem to want to have all 3 VI plugins (Kontakt, SSD4 & Trilian) working at the same time.

Do not have anything else running when you're using Pro Tools and you may find your problems going away...

I tried that. I had no other apps running. Unless there's some OS-related stuff that I should turn off as well...

BTW, I've recreated the session in Logic Pro X. No problems whatsoever. So the problem is definitely within the confinements of Pro Tools... but Logic Pro X is a pain in the neck to work in... so I'd much rather fix my Pro Tools problem...

[studioj11]

You didn't mention specifically if you have a video clip in your session bin... do you or is the session completely video free? I don't mean a video on a video track, I mean a video clip sitting in the clips list.