AAE 9073 error - sound cutting out and freezing on multitrack

[ahughes3]

Hi All,

New user to Pro Tools, I used to use Cakewalk. I was using Pro Tools Intro for a little while to get used to it. I'm not a techy, a recording engineer or familiar with Pro Tools. I'm a singer songwriter who can't afford studio time so I'm trying to produce myself.

The Problem
Everything seemed to be going fine when I just had five tracks (rythmn guitar, 2 x lead guitar, main vocal, midi drums). I then started using EQs, Compressors etc and the sound in playback started to cutout and then cut back in every so often. The further I progress with mixdowns, it seems worse and I get the AAE 9073 error.

Error Message
AAE can't get audio from the drive(s) fast enough. Your drive may be too slow or fragmented, or a firewire drive could be having trouble due to the extra firewire bandwidth or CPU load - (AAE - 9073)

I have no idea what firewire is but I'm sure I don't have it.


What have I tried?
The usual several restarts.
Checked my drivers are up to date
Done a defrag
I tried bouncing the tracks down to a mix and just playing the mix and it's still the same.
I tried copying the mixdown to my C drive and just playing it through audio player and it still cuts out like the mix itself has been recorded with the cutouts in it.
I haven't yet tried a different track as the other tracks were recorded in Cakewalk so I need to import them yet. But I will try that over the weekend.
I deleted almost all unnecessary software on my PC to keep it as clean and free as poss.

My Setup
I am using a desktop PC, SANDRA report is below.
My Pro Tools plugins, session files, loops etc are all stored on an external hard drive (the hitachi drive below). I use an Alesis q49 midi keyboard, but I don't think that's the problem as I'm not really using it while mixing etc.
My behringer mixer is not connected as I'm not recording yet and I have a brand new set of Presonus speakers attached to the PC.

Other than that I'm not sure what else to tell you. I'm not an IT person so the thought of playing around with BIOS and registry fills me with dread to be honest.

I'm suspecting that it's either my c drive is too full, or my hitachi drive is too old, or a combination of both. I'd like to think it's not my PC itself as I recorded my last album just fine using Cakewalk on my old PC which was older and slower.

What am I asking for?
Would really like a non-invasive guidance to resolve things as I don't want to mess with the bios/registry etc.

Thank you in advance.
Andy

SiSoftware Sandra

ID
Host Name : DESKTOP-23T4DLC
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Computer
Model : CCL Computers Customised AMDF PC
Serial Number : 935****
Chassis : OEM Desktop
Mainboard : GigaByte A320M-S2H-CF
Serial Number : Default*******
BIOS : AMI (OEM) F2 11/03/2020

System Memory
Total Memory : 16GB DDR4

Processors
Processor : AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor (2M 6C 12T 4.19GHz, 1.6GHz IMC, 6x 512kB L2, 2x 16MB L3)
Socket/Slot : AM4 (PGA1331)

Chipset
Memory Controller : AMD F19 (Ryzen3/TR3 Matisse) Host Bridge 16x 100MHz (1.6GHz), 2x 8GB DDR4 3.2GHz 128-bit

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Lexar LD4AU008G-H3200GST 8GB DIMM DDR4 1Rx8 PC4-25600U DDR4-3490 (22-22-22-51 4-73-24-4)
Memory Module : Lexar LD4AU008G-H3200GST 8GB DIMM DDR4 1Rx8 PC4-25600U DDR4-3490 (22-22-22-51 4-73-24-4)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : BNQ BenQ GL2780
(1920x1080, 27.2")
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (1408S 11C SM5.2 1.53GHz/1.83GHz, 1.5MB L2, 5.9GB 8GHz 192-bit, PCIe 3.0 x16)

Graphics Processor
CUDA : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (1408S 22C SM7.5 1.53GHz/1.83GHz, 1.5MB L2, 6GB 8GHz/8GHz 192-bit)
OpenCL : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (1408S 22C SM1.2 1.53GHz/1.83GHz, 1.5MB L2, 6GB 8GHz/8GHz 192-bit)
D3D 11 : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (1408S 11C SM11.5 1.53GHz/1.83GHz, 1.5MB L2, 5.9GB 8GHz/8GHz 192-bit)
OpenGL : NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 1660/PCIe/SSE2 (6GB)

Storage Devices
Disk : ADATA SU630 (480.1GB, SATA600, 2.5", SSD, 8MB Cache)
Disk : HGST Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 (1TB, USB2/SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 32MB Cache)

Logical Storage Devices
System Reserved : 50MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ ADATA SU630 (480.1GB, SATA600, 2.5", SSD, 8MB Cache)
HITACHI (D:) : 932GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ HGST Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 (1TB, USB2/SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 32MB Cache)
Hard Disk (C:) : 447GB (NTFS, 4kB) @ ADATA SU630 (480.1GB, SATA600, 2.5", SSD, 8MB Cache)
Hard Disk : 507MB (NTFS, 4kB) @ ADATA SU630 (480.1GB, SATA600, 2.5", SSD, 8MB Cache)
Google Drive (G:) : 100GB (FAT32, 512bytes)

Storage System
Storage Pool : Primordial (1.35TB)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller : Gigabyte FCH LPC Bridge
LPC Hub Controller : ITE IT8686E
Audio Device : MSI TU116 High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : nVidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX
Audio Device : Gigabyte F17/19 (Ryzen2/3, TR/2) HD Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi High Definition Audio
Disk Controller : ASMedia Standard SATA AHCI Controller
Disk Controller : Gigabyte FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
Disk Controller : Gigabyte FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
USB Controller : ASMedia AMD USB 3.10 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.10 (Microsoft)
USB Controller : MSI TU116 USB 3.1 Host Controller
USB Controller : Gigabyte F19 (Ryzen3/TR3 Starship) USB 3.0 Host Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller : AMD SB900 SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft Software Printer Driver (300x300, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer v4 (600x600, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft Print To PDF (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer : Epson ESC/P-R V4 Class Driver (360x360, Colour)

Biometrics
Voice : Analog NUI Voice Virtual Sensor (Voice)

Peripherals
Media Player : Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 (931.51GB)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller (Ethernet)
Wireless Adapter : Realtek 8812BU Wireless LAN 802.11ac USB NIC (Wifi5 (802.11ac/VHT), AES-CCMP, 173.3Mbps)

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 10 Personal 10.0.19045
Platform Compliance : x64

Performance Enhancing Tips
Warning 2513 : TPM not detected. Some security features are unavailable.
Tip 3 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.

[Darryl Ramm]

Hi Welcome to DUC. Lots of info there, but the most important stuff is unfortunately missing.

What is your audio interface/Playback Engine set to?

What HW Buffer size are you running at? That is the primary tool to help mitigate CPU errors... increase it and see if the errors decrease

And then what sample rate are you running at? Just work at 44.1 or 48kHz for now.

But, and this has been covered in literally hundreds of threads on DUC,... if you are running ASIO4ALL or WASAPI just give up. If you want to run any Pro Tools products you should have an ASIO compatible interface with an ASIO driver supplied by the interface vendor. I don't care what others might get running, or that Avid says other stuff might work. You need to set stuff up so you have an expectation that it *will* work reliably under load, and with Pro Tools on Windows PCs that's means you need an ASIO interface.

And did you optimize the computer? (see instructions under "Help us Help You" up the top of each DUC web page).

The usual several restarts.
Checked my drivers are up to date

Drivers for what? The only one likely to matter is the ASIO interface which you are apparently not using. Very rarely GPU drivers might matter.

Done a defrag
I tried bouncing the tracks down to a mix and just playing the mix and it's still the same.
I tried copying the mixdown to my C drive and just playing it through audio player and it still cuts out like the mix itself has been recorded with the cutouts in it.
I haven't yet tried a different track as the other tracks were recorded in Cakewalk so I need to import them yet. But I will try that over the weekend.
I deleted almost all unnecessary software on my PC to keep it as clean and free as poss.

I love all the great detail in your email, but unfortunately nearly all that you tried is likely a waste of time. You should start with the standard troubleshooting steps under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Always start troubleshooting by trashing prefs. Which you have not done? And then after trying with an ASIO interface and larger H/W Buffer size if needed. If you still have problems you should be looking at plugins (*always* suspect plugins with CPU errrors), starting with removing all .aaxplugin files from the plugin folder and seeing if Pro Tools runs reliably after that. All standard stuff to try before even posting here. And if you have Cakewalk installed and have installed third party plugins for it I'll bet good money they have also dropped AAX plugins into Pro Tools.

As you troubleshoot make sure "ignore errors" is not checked, you want even minor errors to cause a failure.

Nothing here is likely due to the drive, but in general get rid of the HDD, no reason to be using a HDD in this day and age, or SATA... I suspect your motherboard has M.2 PCIe 3 slots, so you should be using M.2 drives in those and running Windows, sessions, samples all from that one M.2 drive (or multiple M.2 drives if you need the space). That will make everything seem faster on that PC.

[ahughes3]

Firstly, a huge thank you for taking the time to reply. I know I'm every audio engineer and techies worst nightmare. I just can't afford to do it properly in a studio (plus I like learning ). I've replied to most of what you've highlighted, not necessarily with all the right answers I suspect. But sincerely thank you.

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

What is your audio interface/Playback Engine set to?

Windows Audio Device and my buffer is at 1024, highest it will go. I do have ASIO4ALL installed but when I try to use it, there seems to be no playback.

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

And then what sample rate are you running at? Just work at 44.1 or 48kHz for now.

48kHz, 24bit

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

But, and this has been covered in literally hundreds of threads on DUC,... if you are running ASIO4ALL or WASAPI just give up. If you want to run any Pro Tools products you should have an ASIO compatible interface with an ASIO driver supplied by the interface vendor. I don't care what others might get running, or that Avid says other stuff might work. You need to set stuff up so you have an expectation that it *will* work reliably under load, and with Pro Tools on Windows PCs that's means you need an ASIO interface.

I was using a behringer UMC202HD audio interface. Not sure what driver it runs as it doesn't seem to say on their website. I also have a Behringer QX1222USB mixer which I was hoping to use as it has a built in compressor. Again not sure what driver it uses, but I'll look into it.

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

And did you optimize the computer? (see instructions under "Help us Help You" up the top of each DUC web page).

I did take a look at the optimisation guide, but the mention of BIOS and Registry put the fear of god into me. I'm fearful that I'll just wreck the PC. I'm not IT Techy at all.

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Drivers for what? The only one likely to matter is the ASIO interface which you are apparently not using. Very rarely GPU drivers might matter.

As I've put above, I have ASIO4ALL but you're saying that's no good right?

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

I love all the great detail in your email, but unfortunately nearly all that you tried is likely a waste of time. You should start with the standard troubleshooting steps under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Always start troubleshooting by trashing prefs. Which you have not done? And then after trying with an ASIO interface and larger H/W Buffer size if needed. If you still have problems you should be looking at plugins (*always* suspect plugins with CPU errrors), starting with removing all .aaxplugin files from the plugin folder and seeing if Pro Tools runs reliably after that. All standard stuff to try before even posting here. And if you have Cakewalk installed and have installed third party plugins for it I'll bet good money they have also dropped AAX plugins into Pro Tools.

I did say I was non techy but I hear you. I'll take a look again at the optimization guide, but it felt way too tech for me. Are you saying remove the plugins from the track, or from the PC altogether?

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

As you troubleshoot make sure "ignore errors" is not checked, you want even minor errors to cause a failure.

Got that set already.

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Nothing here is likely due to the drive, but in general get rid of the HDD, no reason to be using a HDD in this day and age, or SATA... I suspect your motherboard has M.2 PCIe 3 slots, so you should be using M.2 drives in those and running Windows, sessions, samples all from that one M.2 drive (or multiple M.2 drives if you need the space). That will make everything seem faster on that PC.

My system drive is SSD I think (I'm sure I specified that when I bought it). The HDD drive is old but it's been faithful to me and I really didn't think it would make that much of a difference. Which clearly is not the case. I'll take a look at the M.2 drive thing.

[ahughes3]

Just a thought.....

If the music is already on my PC and I'm not yet recording anything new through a mixer/audio interface..........does the audio driver still make a big difference?

i.e. do I still need top notch ASIO driver if I'm not using the audio interface?

[ahughes3]

**** Update from OP ****

Here's what I've tried today:

• I went through all of the "Help us to help you" optimization stuff and, where applicable sorted them.
• I also removed all the plugins from the offending track other than the Pro Tools ones.
• I tried a fresh imported vocal track from a previous project with no effects or processing.

There is a slight improvement in so much as I don't seem to get the sound cutting in and out, but I do get the exact same error. This time around 3/4 of the way through the track, it just stops and the error pops up.

So, questions:

• Do you think installing a different ASIO driver will make any difference? Any recommendations?
  
• Could it be the hard drive is HDD/SATA and therefore not allowing the transfer of audio data fast enough?
  
• Could it be that I only have 16Gb of RAM and I should upgrade to 32Gb?

Any or all of the above?

Again, any guidance and support is much appreciated.

Thanks
Andy

[Darryl Ramm]

I am carefully pointing out what you need to do. And pointing you at documentation you need to follow. So focus on just doing exactly that.

You need to get off ASIO4ALL or WASAPI (sounds like you might be using WASAPI/Windows Audio) onto a proper ASIO interface. Yes even if only playing back content. If this was not super important I would not have mentioned it.

If a vendor does not clearly describe the driver for their interface as supporting ASIO it likely does not. If they talk about using ASIO4ALL or include ASIO4ALL software it definitely does not.

If your current interfaces do not support ASIO you need to get an interface that does and you install the driver that the vendor supplies with the interface.

The standard troubleshooting instructions I pointed you at describe exactly what to do with plugin troubleshooting. You move all .aaxplugin files out of the Pro Tools plugin folder. It says nothing about removing plugins from tracks. Even plugins not being used in a session can and frequently do cause CPU errors. Again focus on fully following the instructions.

Did you trash prefs?

You need to optimize the system, the instructions for doing that have been followed by many people of vastly varying technical skill. If you don't understand some instruction try googling for more info, or if still lost ask a question here. You do need to be able to do this stuff, the way to learn and become comfortable is by doing it.

No this will not be a drive problem... as I already mentioned.

This is unlikely to be a memory problem, as long as you are not running a pile of other programs? Just close all other apps (including web browsers) to be sure.

[Darryl Ramm]

A quick Google shows that your UMC202HD supports ASIO. You should uninstall ASIO4ALL from the computer and run the latest installer for windows drivers for the UMC202HD that you download from the Beringer website. Then connect that interface, and select it in the Playback Engine dialog panel in Pro Tools. Make sure Windows audio/sounds and all other apps are *not* set to use the UMC202HD, just Pro Tools. Even if this does not fix the immediate problem, leave it as the audio interface and continue with other troubleshooting.

And since the QX1222USB comes with ASIO4ALL software it clearly does not support ASIO natively. This is cheap crap from Beringer who know ASIO is superior, but they do this with some of their low end products. But this mixer, like many low end digital mixers only provides stereo out/in to the DAW, you don't get to record the inputs or drive outputs directly like you do on standard DAW interfaces, or higher end digital live mixers. And the mixer does not act as a control surface for any DAWs via say HUI. Because of all that it's maybe not the best choice for working with a DAW. These small live mixers can be great for band practice and live events, including where you want to play stereo backing music from the computer, or capture a stereo main mix of the live performance.

[The Weed]

Great advice from Darryl, as always.

Some of the Behringer lower tier interfaces only use ASIO4All as a driver.

Yes, you really do need a proper interface with a real ASIO driver. Here are two to consider, especially as they have Loopback, which would be good to have if you need to be remote directed. [SonoBus is great (www.sonobus.net) if you want to collaborate remotely.]

Audient EVO 4

MOTU M2

And, while not intended to steer you away from Pro Tools - I've been using it for over 21 years and not going to use anything else - if you don't need Pro Tools, look at www.reaper.fm. It is more forgiving about computer specifications and optimizations.

That said, for any DAW, you really should do all the optimizations AND use a proper interface with an ASIO driver.

Do note, on Windows, do not use the interface for Windows sounds and audio, use it strictly for your DAW. In Control Panel>Sound in the Playback and Recording Tabs, disable any instance of your interface - and check it is still disabled after any Windows update as some updates will default the sound settings.

[ahughes3]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

I am carefully pointing out what you need to do. And pointing you at documentation you need to follow. So focus on just doing exactly that.

I'm trying, really I am

You need to get off ASIO4ALL or WASAPI (sounds like you might be using WASAPI/Windows Audio) onto a proper ASIO interface. Yes even if only playing back content. If this was not super important I would not have mentioned it.

I've uninstalled ASIO4ALL but I don't have an alternative at the moment. I still can't work out from Behringer if my UMC202HD is an ASIO based interface. It says they have their own dedicated driver but it doesn't say what it is. Are they all ASIO? They don't say to use ASIO4ALL so maybe it is their own version.

If your current interfaces do not support ASIO you need to get an interface that does and you install the driver that the vendor supplies with the interface.

Currently looking at Audient ID4 which looks to have it's own ASIO driver.

The standard troubleshooting instructions I pointed you at describe exactly what to do with plugin troubleshooting. You move all .aaxplugin files out of the Pro Tools plugin folder. It says nothing about removing plugins from tracks. Even plugins not being used in a session can and frequently do cause CPU errors. Again focus on fully following the instructions.

Be default I installed all plugins into a separate folder to Pro Tools, just in case I needed to delete any. I also trashed the preferences too, like you said.

You need to optimize the system, the instructions for doing that have been followed by many people of vastly varying technical skill. If you don't understand some instruction try googling for more info, or if still lost ask a question here. You do need to be able to do this stuff, the way to learn and become comfortable is by doing it.

I've done all the optimisation stuff now. Well everything that applied to my system.

So with the ASIO4ALL driver gone, it defaults back to Windows Audio and surprisingly the cutouts have disappeared. That would definitely seem to hint at ASIO4ALL being a big part of the problem. Until I get a new AI, I'm stuck with WASAPI. But at least it's functioning so I can mix.

Thanks for all your help, genuinely. I will give another update once I've sorted an interface.

Thanks again

[Bubbalou88]

You stated working with Bios or Registry scares you. Know this, When working with the Registry on a Windows PC you should export a copy of the Registry (from drop down menu) before you proceed. Then if you make a mistake or do not like what you have done you can import the Registry file you saved. (I generally name it Regbak or whatever)