Long loading times of a session.

[Carsi]

Opening a session sometimes takes a very long time for me. I noticed that it takes a long time when I use plugins that have iLok. I use the iLok Cloud. Would it be faster if I had an iLok USB stick?

Thanks for answers.

Carsi.

[Darryl Ramm]

Not sure about iLok cloud affecting plugin load, I've only used it a few times and like many people here I'd just never want to use it vs. reliability of a real iLok. But can you be clear what seems to be taking time. Plugins load when you open Pro Tools not when the session opens.

So is it Pro Tools open/plugins taking the time *or* sessions opening

If plugins are slow to load: The first time after trashing prefs Pro Tools rescans plugins and rebuilds the cache/index of plugins (~/Library/Preferences/Avid/Pro Tools/InstalledAAXPlugIns) so subsequent startups are faster. If for any reason that file is not built correctly subsequent plugin scans/loads will be slow. You can trash that file (or just trash all prefs) and then restart Pro Tools and you'll see how slow a new scan/rebuild is. Then exit Pro Tools and restart again, you should see the plugin load being much faster if that file was correctly built.

If sessions are slow to load: How large is the session .ptx file. Some plugins can cause session files to bloat hugely. Other reasons for slow loads are slow storage, on a modern Mac the best place to place session files and content is likely the internal fast PCIe/NVMe SSD. Don't put sessions on slow external HDD and make sure they are not accidentally running from, or have assets on, slow SSD/thumb drives. You can set the disk cache size large enough to cache the session content and watch the Pro Tools disk cache meter as the session starts up, you should see fairly smooth and fast loading of the cache, if it's jerky or hanging up there might be stuff to investigate. Sessions can also open slowly if you have VIs set to use memory/pre-load samples, ideally nowadays you are more using streaming samples.

Is you system just low on memory? How much memory is in your Mac Mini and what is Activity Monitor>Memory>Memory Pressure showing?

[Carsi]

Many thanks for the answer. My Mac is actually fast enough. Mac Mini 2018 with 16GB Ram. When tracking, I only use the channel strip and the sessions load very quickly. Slate's Virtual Mix Rack takes a long time.