Pro Tools 2021.3 released

[xrekcor]

Installed without issue and seems to run fine so far..... although the initial crash when I play the first session after starting PT I was getting a couple of updates back seems to have reappeared.

Like this dark mode a lot better.... prolly could still use some work but heaps better than the last attempt.

[Carl Lie]

Seems to be working fine on High Sierra for me.

C

[Wilfriedd]

Originally Posted by etl17

2020.12 was running ok on my Windows 10H2.
However, 2021.3 is a no-go. It complains that there is not enough memory available. I am running on 24GB and there is more than 15GB of free memory available when Pro Tools throws that error.

Is there any way to revert back to the 2020.12 version till the Windows issues are resolved? On the Avid site only the 2021.3 download seems to be available...

I dont know what's goin on ....

I have a powerful computer , dedicated to Pro tools only with internet . No others program , and i'm running 32G with 1 Tb SSD .

My Rme Babyface ( 1st version) is up to date . I can only go up to 1024 samples in buffer size , not allowed to go 2048 samples for example , unlike my pro tools 10 on Win 7 x64 .

All the plugins are the same , and even when using only Native plugins , the Cpu spikes randomly from 10% to 100% in total . That is so strange since all my 16 threads ( when activating hyperthreading) or my 8 cores
are all below 5% .

I was able with my old computer to load up to 20 plugins before hitting 75% CPU , and this one was 50x less powerful than my newest one .

They said to wait for compatibility with 20h2 , here we go and got the same problems. Trashing prefs , redoing clean install of pro tools doesnt change the game . It's the same with Pro tools 12 aswell.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by Wilfriedd

I dont know what's goin on ....

I have a powerful computer , dedicated to Pro tools only with internet . No others program , and i'm running 32G with 1 Tb SSD .

My Rme Babyface ( 1st version) is up to date . I can only go up to 1024 samples in buffer size , not allowed to go 2048 samples for example , unlike my pro tools 10 on Win 7 x64 .

All the plugins are the same , and even when using only Native plugins , the Cpu spikes randomly from 10% to 100% in total . That is so strange since all my 16 threads ( when activating hyperthreading) or my 8 cores
are all below 5% .

I was able with my old computer to load up to 20 plugins before hitting 75% CPU , and this one was 50x less powerful than my newest one .

They said to wait for compatibility with 20h2 , here we go and got the same problems. Trashing prefs , redoing clean install of pro tools doesnt change the game . It's the same with Pro tools 12 aswell.

So, from what I'm reading here, it seems that for Protools 2021.3, the Apple Mac folks are getting compatibility with the latest macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 while the Microsoft Windows folks are not getting the compatibility as advertised in the release notes (specifically with Windows 10 20H20), regardless how much memory and storage space is available. Is that a correct assessment?

[Wilfriedd]

Originally Posted by Obsidian Dragon

So, from what I'm reading here, it seems that for Protools 2021.3, the Apple Mac folks are getting compatibility with the latest macOS Big Sur 11.2.3 while the Microsoft Windows folks are not getting the compatibility as advertised in the release notes (specifically with Windows 10 20H20), regardless how much memory and storage space is available. Is that a correct assessment?

That's just me , and a some users (on random forums) but yes .

Since the Protools 2021.3 release , they talking a lot about macOS Big Sur and the major improvement that came with this release . You can see it , it covers about almost 90% of the release notes .

They just mentionned about 20h2 as new compatibility , but that's all , just a line .

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by Wilfriedd

My post is correct .

i downloaded and installed this new version that was released yesterday .

Avid said that my problem was because it was still pro tools 2020.12 So i was waiting , because they don't seem to find a solution to that issue . Now , with this new version , i tested it and i have exactly the same problems !!

Thats what i'm saying

That's what I figured, It just was not clear (to me). I just didn't want it to sound like someone was trying to get Protools 2020 to work with Windows 20H2 as you've stated does not work. Try what Daryl Ramm suggested by removing the plugins and see if it works. If so, start putting one plugin back in at a time and test until you come across the plugin that may be causing the problem. This seems to always be an effective troubleshooting technique, especially when using a new OS version that cause compatibility problems with some plugins.

[Wilfriedd]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

So have you tried removing the .aaxplugin files and seeing what happens? Standard plugin troubleshooting for what sound like very typical plugin induced problems. Plugin versions that worked before might not be problem free with new versions of Pro Tools. Nobody knows if plugins are the cause here, but
when you have symptoms like these you *have* to troubleshoot plugins.

And is the system fully optimized? Every last thing done? Tried the Windows CPU affinity and priority optimizations? (google those with site: duc.avid.com qualifier in Google search).

Pro Tools 12 is expected to have more issues than recent releases with plugin CPU processing optimization, but that still won't stop plugins causing problems.

Looking at CPU meters rarely tells much useful, well except low CPU use and CPU errors is usually symptomatic of plugin issues.

You should also be checking disk cache is set to a size, and look at the disk cache meter to go green to show the session is fully cached before trying stuff out.

See attached below

Will try to respond with my words ( since i'm speaking french )

I removed all my .AAX plugins from the Avid / audio / plugins and also , i deleted the "unused folders" to avoid any conflicts .

Onlu the AIR plugins and one other stayed . Tried with these , with a small session , and the CPU SPIKES randomly from 10 or 15 to 100 %

While you can see that all my cores are below 10 ( some of them below 5).

For CPU AFFINITY and PRIORITY , this doesn't work , i think it's worse .

For example , i was able to take a screenshot of my CPU METER in pro tools
See attached .

You see all my 16 threads ( from 1 to 16). You can notice that Core 7 , 8 , 9 are below 20% , but these are the ones which use the most CPU .

What i did , i went to CPU AFFINITY and tried to deselect the most hungry cores .

Since with windows , it's named from 0 to 15 then i made some correlations.

Core 1 in Pro tools is maybe Core 0 from windows
So i deactivated Core 7,8,9 from Pro tools ( 6,7,8) on Windows. No Luck

Tried the thing with deactivating with odd numbers ...Same .

If i only try with AIR PLUGINS , the problem still remains randomly . If i open a folder on my hdd , or if i open internet , or do something outside Pro tools area , then it can go from 10% to 80 or 100% and playback stops.

I can make a video , but i don't know if i'm allowed to do this here .

Also making the CPU priority to HIGH doesn't change nothing

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by Wilfriedd

That's just me , and a some users (on random forums) but yes .

Since the Protools 2021.3 release , they talking a lot about macOS Big Sur and the major improvement that came with this release . You can see it , it covers about almost 90% of the release notes .

They just mentionned about 20h2 as new compatibility , but that's all , just a line .

I'll be the first to admit that Avid (and Digidesign before) definitely seems to have a Mac leaning. I was a diehard Windows guy years ago and frustrated by the Mac-centric ecosystem on the Audio/Music industry. When Apple adopted Intel processors, I decided to give a Mac a try. It cost more but things just worked without much technical effort. I'm a technical guy with decades of PC and networking experience so was not afraid of the technology, but eventually I accepted that Apple did things under the hood so I didn't have to futz with it. I'm not getting into a PC vs. Mac war here as I still use both. If it is just the for audio, I use Mac. As you've noticed, 90% of the release notes are about Big Sur compatibility while a one-liner mentions Windows 20H2. It is telling about their priorities whether I agree or not.

[Wilfriedd]

Thanks Darryl and Dragon for your replies

Also i forgot to sent you a screen from my disk cache also .

See the attached

[Dizzi45Z]

Originally Posted by originalscottyg

Let's hope Hybrid mode for HDX isn't too far off. That should breathe some new life into the HDX cards. Still, I really don't think it should be a paid option after they basically announced and promised the voice increase for HDX, then never delivered.

Agreed!