The Operating System held of Interrupts for TOO LONG Message - Please Help

[Obsidian Dragon]

Just a correction. The firewire adapter cable for firewire 800 to firewire 400 is NOT a gender changer. It actually is an adapter cable that allows firewire 800 ports to be connected to firewire 400 devices (same gender if your wondering).

You're having enough problems so I wanted to let you know now that you should not mix firewire 800 and firewire 400 devices on the same firewire buss (all the built-in firewire ports on any Mac are on the same buss). If you want another firewire buss, you need to get an approved firewire card to install in one of the slots. For your purposes, only connect the Digi002 or Digi003 (I've forgotten which you have now) to the firewire adapter cable (no external firewire hard drive). And for that matter, let's hold off on the Liquid Mix as that just adds another firewire device into the buss and possible problems (Let's get your system working first before adding all these other factors). Good luck (I mean that in a positive way)

[protoolsuserman]

Yes you're right.

Cheers, I'll let you know how I get on.

Rob

[protoolsuserman]

Hi

Right I have a result

Basically I have installed PT 7.4.2 on MAC OS X 10.5.4

I had no problems at all untill i started installing plugins.

Melodyne was the first I installed then got a running out of processing power error message.

Also under the system monitor thing application it says that the core audio driver had crashed and was non responsive after the rtas cpu meter goes way in to the red.

Is this the probelm? Core Audio Driver? if so how can I stop it frombeing a problem and don't I need core audio drive in order for PT to function properly?


Cheers

Rob

[Obsidian Dragon]

It seems like we are now getting somewhere. At least we know PT 7.4.2 on OSX 10.5.4 is working fine with your hardware right?

Let's start with Core Audio Driver. It is installed along with Protools. The purpose is to allow other applications work with the Digidesign hardware interface. Left alone, it should not be a problem. Are you trying to route any audio through it? (itunes, system sounds, logic, garage band, etc.) I'm not sure if you can unload by itself but it sounds like a possiblity. Many people have the core audio driver installed and it is not causing problems (problems are usually with the 3rd party application). If I am correct (I may be mixing this up with the windows wav driver), the core audio drive is a single client driver. This means that only one program can be using it at any time. If (itunes for example) uses it, it may not release it upon exiting itunes and therefore prevent any other program (including Protools) to use the interface.

I don't use Melodyne so I don't have a specific knowledge about the impact it has to your CPU usage. I know you've probably done this 20 times already but check one more time to make sure you have the latest updates to this plugin (making sure that the version is not just for Protools 8.0) and verify with the Digidesign plugin compatibility chart. If this is still inconclusive, remove the Melodyne plugin and proceed to another plugin. You may have more than one plugin causing problems. Plugin compatibility is a highly suspect factor that may be causing your issues.

[Obsidian Dragon]

I see on another thread that some people are having a tough time with the Core Audio Driver. I therefore resind my statement that it works fine. If you can remove it (since you don't need it) it may be a good thing. I have it installed along with Protools but it has not cause me any headaches. Then again, I don't route any thing through it either.

[protoolsuserman]

YES my Melodyne installer is the latest version 1.0.4.2 I believe. (Later than the version recommended in the compatibility list by digidesign).

You just hit the nail on the head.

You dont route anything through it!

I have the sound driver preferences for the line out routed to 003 rack driver!

OK

It hasnt crashed since I took out the core audio driver from that directory and placed it on the desktop. Then restarted pro tools 7.4.2 with a session running melodyne.

I think if I put the core audio drive back and unset the output from 003 rack in the system audio preferences and try running pro tools again then see what happens?

The only problem is, I USE iTUNES A LOT! So I need the core audio driver to work and not deleted.

Is there an update for the driver? I think the driver is the problem.

Rob

[Obsidian Dragon]

One solution is to simply connect the audio out from your Mac Pro (or PC's) to the Aux In on the Digi002/003. When you want to hear itunes or other computer audio through your monitors, hit the Aux switch and "voila." Hit it again and you're back to Protools only through your monitors.

I actually use a Mackie Big Knob to combine these sources. Others use the Presonus Central Station (or their new little cousin) to do this. Others yet, simply leave the computer audio on regular computer powered speakers and only use the reference monitors for Protools. All these solutions don't need the core audio driver since that is possibly having problems on your setup.

I don't think there has been an update to the core audio drive for quite some time and obviously one is way overdue. In the meantime you might look at one of the solution I propose above to get around the core audio driver problem. Meodyne is working now, yes?

[protoolsuserman]

Hey Obsidian Dragon

Yes I believe Melodyne is working fine now.

The thing that gets me is that when I go to the activity monitor, it says that the core audio driver has become non responsive even when I haven't opened pro tools.

There is obviously something in the core audio driver which doesnt like MAC PRO 8 core processors?

I guess I will just have to use the built in speaker on the mac pro just to check that the audio i have dropped in to itunes is the right song to be burned to disc.

I know it's not ideal to use iTunes to burn a CD professionally, but I havent got any spare dosh to buy Toast yet which is a little bit overpriced for just my purpose of burning a cd. Though I think iTunes works ok at this but not brilliantly.

Does anyone else have the same set up as me with the core audio driver working properly? I just wonder...

Rob :)

[protoolsuserman]

Just when I thought it was all up and running again, it isn't

MY CPU meter is jumping all about the place again! WHat the hell is going on. This is the fith clean install I have done of Pro Tools v 8 CS3 with MAC OSX 10.5.7

Also it's worth mentioning that when the problem occurs, I get a series of random pops and clicks which are very loud. Infact it was just as well I turned my monitors down in time before they blew. Seriously something ain't right here.

It has to be one of my plugs surely or is it the mac?

[protoolsuserman]

I am pretty sure it's a plugin that's causing the problem because i just moved all my third party plugs to the unused plugins folder and restarted.

Then went back to pro tools and there was no crashing or error messages.

So the next thing I did was put amplitube 2 back in the plugins folder to see what happens with just that running in a session. I firstly restarted then opened the session up in PT 8.

After about 3 minutes I got a message saying "You are running out of CPU Power" e.t.c. and I knew there are problems with this plug with PT8, so I dropped the amount of processors in the Playback engine settings from 7 processors to 5 processors, and so far it seems to be ok with Amplitube 2.

This plugin is current and up to date as with all my other plugins.

I am not gonna try adding in Izotope ozone 3 and see what happens there!

I'll report back as soon as possible

Rob