Avid Pro Audio Community

endofjulia · #1 11-10-2008, 08:39 PM

Ok so i've been recording for years now thru windows and Sonar with no problems. But with windows completely falling apart ive moved over to mac and decided to give pro tools a go. So now im running ptle 7.4.2 with a digi 002 rack on mac book pro 2.4 GHZ with 2 gigs of ram.. and im getting all sorts of issues like stuttering with minimal use and the dreaed please increase hardware buffer size (which ive done!!) Im only using this for a Demo writing CPU so i have one track of amplitube one track of battery 3 with drum samples. and it goes crazy when im laying down just kick and snare thru my axiom 25. Can anyone tell me whats going on here i know it cant be maxing out with that little of a workload.. Im stumped.

OddsAre · #2 11-10-2008, 08:43 PM

Guarantee it has to do with how things are setup. You are not coming even close to maxing that computer out. Was the Pro Tools install a fresh install of 7.4? Or did you upgrade from a previous version? Are you 100000000% sure that all the plugins are 7.4 compatible? Are you recording to your internal hard drive? or an external. What version of OSX? These are the first things Digi Tech support will ask you on here. You will need to be very specific about your setup, giving even the smallest of details.

sonicland · #3 11-11-2008, 04:52 AM

I hope you don't mind me jumping on your thread, I'm having the exact same problem with completely different gear. I used Cubase and various interfaces for years with no problem. Now I have M-Powered with an M-Audio Firewire 410. I've followed all the tips from Digi that I can find. I have many sessions with just 2 tracks, very few plugs, and the cpu meter will be at about 5% and bang! I get the dreaded "CPU low, please increase buffer size" when I try to continue on. This is on a G5 Dual 2.0GHz machine w/10.5 and this happens so often, at least once a day. I've done clean installs and nothing has helped. I've been thinking it may be the M-Audio drivers but reading this thread has me wondering. I'm considering getting an Mbox 2 w/PT LE to see if it is indeed the M-Audio stuff but that would be an expensive experiment.

Phil Ogden · #4 11-11-2008, 04:57 AM

There are certainly issues with Native Instruments software and how it interfaces with PT.

http://www.native-instruments.com/in...id=leopard&L=1

http://www.myspace.com/philogg

Dj A-Ron · #5 11-11-2008, 06:47 AM

I'm more of a PC guy but I've worked on many Mac PT setups. MAKE SURE your wireless network drivers are disabled. I have this problem somtimes when I forget to disconnect them. Good Luck.

Slim Shady · #6 11-11-2008, 09:23 AM

As Phil said, the culprit here is the Native Instruments plugs. They just don't work with 10.5 and PTLE 7.4.2 yet, the errors the OP is getting is what the NI plugs do if you try and use them. NI has promised an update to Kontakt (their sampler) in December, with updates for the rest of their sample-based instruments soon to follow (which would include Battery).

sonicland · #7 11-11-2008, 10:23 AM

I also use lots of NI plugs but I've had these problems long before 10.5 and it has and does happen when I don't use any NI plugs. My system has been doing this as long as I've had it which is why I suspect the M-Audio drivers, but endofjulia uses different drivers and hardware, yet we seem to be having the same issues. I'm not so quick to blame M-Audio after seeing his post. My issues sound exactly like his so I think we both have the same problem and that surprises me since our rigs are not that similar. I have been thinking of possible solutions and have one that may be inexpensive and successful. I think I may buy an inexpensive external FW drive and load a fresh 10.5 OS on it, then install only PT and the M-Audio driver and see if it works properly. If it does then I can continue to install stuff (UAD card, NI Komplete, Strike, BIAS Peak, etc.) until it shows these symtoms again. My only question is whether there are any problems with running the OS and PT on an external drive (my reason for doing this on an external drive is that I can't have my computer down for the time it would take to rebuild my internal OS drive).

barstool719 · #8 11-11-2008, 10:45 AM

if a renegade plugin is installed at all it cause problems in a session, even if it's not actually instantiated in that session.

try moving all the non-digirack plugins to the 'unused plugins folder' and load PT. quit PT. move 1 plugin back to the active folder, load PT, test, quit, repeat for every plugin.

this can be really time consuming if you have a ton of plugs, but worth it.

as others have mentioned - the NI stuff is a real pain with Leopard. there's not much that can be done about it until NI gets an update out.