Cannot Bounce To Disk

[Hugen]

Hello. I haven't changed anything in my system or installed or updated anything. Suddenly today, I cannot Bounce To Disk. Settings are Level 2, 1024 samples, QuickPunch is turned off, and otherwise, everything is operating smoothly. There are almost no plugins on any of the tracks, I am taxing RTAS at only 8%, the CPU is not even close to being taxed, and am bouncing to an audio drive, not the system drive. IOW, I'm doing everything the same as would be typically advised.

When I go to Bounce To Disk, the system locks up and makes an odd grinding noise for approximately ten seconds, and then crashes Pro Tools. It did this five times in a row. I must confess, in my haste to get radio show I am working on mixed by deadline, I forgot to restart the computer to see if that would solve the problem. My workaround is to record everything to another track, and I am doing this right now. However, for quick bounces, I would like to be able to fix this. Any suggestions? As always, thank you very much!!!!


Pre-Intel G5 Mac tower
Pro Tools 8 / Digi002 (this is updated as far as I can go with OS 10.5.8)
OS 10.5.8
2 400GHz internal HDs

[Dism]

Originally Posted by Hugen

Hello. I haven't changed anything in my system or installed or updated anything. Suddenly today, I cannot Bounce To Disk. Settings are Level 2, 1024 samples, QuickPunch is turned off, and otherwise, everything is operating smoothly. There are almost no plugins on any of the tracks, I am taxing RTAS at only 8%, the CPU is not even close to being taxed, and am bouncing to an audio drive, not the system drive. IOW, I'm doing everything the same as would be typically advised.

When I go to Bounce To Disk, the system locks up and makes an odd grinding noise for approximately ten seconds, and then crashes Pro Tools. It did this five times in a row. I must confess, in my haste to get radio show I am working on mixed by deadline, I forgot to restart the computer to see if that would solve the problem. My workaround is to record everything to another track, and I am doing this right now. However, for quick bounces, I would like to be able to fix this. Any suggestions? As always, thank you very much!!!!


Pre-Intel G5 Mac tower (cannot upgrade the processor)
Pro Tools 8 / Digi002 (this is updated as far as I can go with OS 10.5.8)
OS 10.5.8
2 400GHz internal HDs

Your workaround is actually the way most of us create bounces. It's slightly more efficient, as you can make adjustments on the fly, and you don't have to finish the bounce to do anything. Easier to export multiple file types as well, without having to do a full real-time bounce again. I would think for doing "quick" bounces, this workflow would be a lot easier for you once you get the hang of it.

That being said...

Is this problem session specific, or does it happen with other sessions, too? If it's just the one session, try Import Session Data to a new session and see what happens.

The "grinding" noise could be indicative of a failing drive. This would be a good time to make sure everything is backed up. Run Verify Disk to see if OSX can pick up on any potential issues... but if the issue persists, I would try a Pro Tools reinstall. If that doesn't work, might just be time to replace the system drive.

Of course... if you haven't tried a reboot yet... that might do it, too.

[Hugen]

I know, I shoulda rebooted. :facepalm:

And yes, in fact, this "workaround" is how I've been bouncing down too. But this is a radio show that is going to be eventually converted to a mono 128kbps file, so for "down and dirty" stuff like this, sometimes if I am in a hurry, I Bounce To Disk. Or to put it another way, I was being lazy.

But still...it does concern me when something ain't workin' right.

The audio drive is actually a Glyph external drive. If I hear a sort of "grinding noise" coming through the monitors, which basically sounds like a continually stuttering sound through the monitors, that could still be indicative of a failing drive? I guess I'm pretty lucky, but so far in fifteen years of recording on a computer, I've never had an audio drive fail on me (an external back-up drive, yes; audio drive, so far never!).

Thanks for your quick response.

[formfunction]

Originally Posted by Hugen

I know, I shoulda rebooted. :facepalm:

And yes, in fact, this "workaround" is how I've been bouncing down too. But this is a radio show that is going to be eventually converted to a mono 128kbps file, so for "down and dirty" stuff like this, sometimes if I am in a hurry, I Bounce To Disk. Or to put it another way, I was being lazy.

But still...it does concern me when something ain't workin' right.

The audio drive is actually a Glyph external drive. If I hear a sort of "grinding noise" coming through the monitors, which basically sounds like a continually stuttering sound through the monitors, that could still be indicative of a failing drive? I guess I'm pretty lucky, but so far in fifteen years of recording on a computer, I've never had an audio drive fail on me (an external back-up drive, yes; audio drive, so far never!).

Did a Reboot help? In the time you took to post you could have, and I bet it was fixed, no?

[Hugen]

Yeah, booting up worked. I'm definitely feeling like a maroooon here. Recording to another track worked fine. Afterwards, I rebooted, testing the Bounce To Disk function on several different sessions, located on two separate audio drives including the Glyph drive. No problems, worked perfectly fine.

Sigh.

And to think that I'm always the one saying, "Oh, hey, got a problem? Try booting up again!!!"

Jeeeez.

Well, at least it's working.

[paul_g]

Originally Posted by Dism

Your workaround is actually the way most of us create bounces.

Not me. I use Bounce to disk exclusively. Both wav and mp3, never had any issues.

I used to use that method when I was new to PT, but after I learned the wonderful world of 'automation' it's how I roll now.

Remember, most computer issues are resolved with a reboot.

p

[youngas75]

Originally Posted by paul_g

Not me. I use Bounce to disk exclusively. Both wav and mp3, never had any issues.

I used to use that method when I was new to PT, but after I learned the wonderful world of 'automation' it's how I roll now.

Remember, most computer issues are resolved with a reboot.

p

Not wanting to scare anyone but when using bounce to disk, as the bounce is happening the file is written to the system RAM, not the disk until the bounce is completed. Whilst this is not a problem most of the time, if you have a lot going on in an LE session you RAM can get filled up pretty quickly. Unfortunately what happens next is the bounce procedure will begin to drop "Non essential' processes from the bounce without any warning. Can you guess what it will drop first? Thats right, automation data. Worst part is unless it's a big sweeping fader or pan move you might miss it until it's too late! I only found this out recently and now will exclusively use the record to new track method. Just a heads up but these days computers have so much RAM it's unlikely to ever be an issue. Would hate it to bite you in the ass though that one time when you had 0 minutes left to do another pass!

[Dism]

Originally Posted by youngas75

Not wanting to scare anyone but when using bounce to disk, as the bounce is happening the file is written to the system RAM, not the disk until the bounce is completed. Whilst this is not a problem most of the time, if you have a lot going on in an LE session you RAM can get filled up pretty quickly. Unfortunately what happens next is the bounce procedure will begin to drop "Non essential' processes from the bounce without any warning. Can you guess what it will drop first? Thats right, automation data. Worst part is unless it's a big sweeping fader or pan move you might miss it until it's too late! I only found this out recently and now will exclusively use the record to new track method. Just a heads up but these days computers have so much RAM it's unlikely to ever be an issue. Would hate it to bite you in the ass though that one time when you had 0 minutes left to do another pass!

You got it.

My Pro Tools 101 instructor explained how Bounce to Track is more reliable because everything is done in real time to the disk, rather than trying to cram everything into memory first. Plus, you can guarantee no variation in bounces when you need to create different formats, since it needn't bounce again.

Also, it saves a lot of time in longer mixes because you can stop it, fix a problem area, and continue recording again. All you'll need to do is consolidate the region afterward.

[paul_g]

Originally Posted by Dism

You got it.

My Pro Tools 101 instructor explained how Bounce to Track is more reliable because everything is done in real time to the disk, rather than trying to cram everything into memory first. Plus, you can guarantee no variation in bounces when you need to create different formats, since it needn't bounce again.

Also, it saves a lot of time in longer mixes because you can stop it, fix a problem area, and continue recording again. All you'll need to do is consolidate the region afterward.

How do you handle the routing? What about complex mixes (say 48 audio + another 30 busses), some are "summed" busses, and effects busses plus a Master Track.
What about all the summed tracks if using ATA to handle Delay Compensation?

How would you set up all that to go to a Stereo Pair or Two Mono Audio Track for bounce?

[Dism]

Originally Posted by paul_g

How do you handle the routing? What about complex mixes (say 48 audio + another 30 busses), some are "summed" busses, and effects busses plus a Master Track.
What about all the summed tracks if using ATA to handle Delay Compensation?

How would you set up all that to go to a Stereo Pair or Two Mono Audio Track for bounce?

Group all tracks routed to your main outs. Select the output to a new stereo track.

Hit record.

Pro Tools 9 actually makes this a LOT easier, as you can create a new track that already has desired outputs bussed.