Who has an 003 mixer and can test something on OS X?

[drguitar]

Sorry to hear about your crash, Marcel. Report back if you're able to get up and running again. Wishing you well.
For the other people who posted, the CPU percentages you're reporting -- are they from Activity Monitor? To be clear I was not talking about Pro Tool's own CPU meter but rather the kernel tasks that show up in Activity Monitor which is in Applications/Utilities.
I'm purchasing an 003 tomorrow to replace my 002 and really hope that I'm making the right decision. Would be a shame to realize the 003 has the same issue that the 002 does.
My 002 has been connected to my iMac 27 Quad i7 late 2012 and I'm running 10.8.5.
Just turning the 002 ON while using the latest 003 driver causes a huge kernel task to get created and my fans in the iMac rev up by a good 400-700 rpms MORE than they do when the 002 is off.
Tonight I'm testing the 002 with my 2014 MacBook Pro which has Mavericks 10.9.5 and I'm finding things a litttttle different but not entirely. Just turning the 002 on doesn't cause a problem, but when it's the PT engine for PT 10 or 11 it sure uses a lot of CPU and the fans definitely kick up.
I don't know if my iMac will be better for the used 003 I'm buying where it is on 10.8.5 or if for some reason things work better on 10.9.5. I haven't wanted to upgrade the iMac to Mavericks for a number of reason I won't get into now.
I just hope I don't find the 003 behavior the same -- it is what is supported now and NOT the 002 so I was hoping that the 003 won't have such CPU issues.

[Marcel Risberg]

Originally Posted by drguitar

Sorry to hear about your crash, Marcel. Report back if you're able to get up and running again. Wishing you well.
...
Just turning the 002 on doesn't cause a problem, but when it's the PT engine for PT 10 or 11 it sure uses a lot of CPU and the fans definitely kick up.

Thanks.

I have done the tests. I even have screen grabs for you. Just haven't put them up yet.

What I can tell you is that my 003 behaves in the same manner. As soon as there's an app wanting to use my 003, such as Pro Tools or itunes, and the latest driver series is installed (11.x) my CPU is taxed heavily - just by hooking the 003 with the desired software. No need to press play to tax the CPU. It just happens as an app starts and connects to the 003.

This was never the case with the 10.x series of the driver.

I have read somewhere that this behavior is due to the 003 being som kind of 32-bit unit that needs live translation from the 64-bit drivers which are current now.

If you're going to use PT10, stay with the older 32-bit driver. If PT11 is needed I'm afraid this excessive CPU usage is a necessity to translate. The driver calls it 'streaming'. My guess is, that is what's causing your heavy CPU load.

[drguitar]

Marcel, I'm so glad you replied and thank you so much.
That is what I was afraid of! And this is quite different than the other responses in this thread.
I might need to re-think this purchase tomorrow.....that is really disappointing as I had high hopes that the 003 would not have this CPU problem that the 002 does. :-(
I really appreciate you posting This. You might have just saved me a bunch of money tomorrow.
I use both PT 10 and 11 so I may just finally have to use a much more modern interface.
Thanks again very much.

[drguitar]

The guy I was going to buy the 003 system from was kind enough to do the test for me without me coming over.
He, too, confirmed that using the v11.1.3 driver, the 003 causes a huge CPU spike (that can be seen as a kernel task using Activity Monitor) and that after a couple of minutes of a playing a medium PT session, the fans in his mac were at full blast and loud.
I'm so glad Marcel reported his findings to me just in time.

[Marcel Risberg]

Here are some screens indicating the peculiarity of 003 nowadays.
Specs of the test:
003 driver is 11.1.3.
OS X is 10.10.1. (fresh install made specifically for this test)
Pro Tools 11.3 (83829)
Computer: MacBookPro5,5


Above: The 003-app is started but the 003 is turned off.


Above: The 003-app is started and the 003 is turned on from about half of the time of the histograph. If you look closely you can see a slight raise/bump in CPU activity.


Above: The 003-app is started but no host software is connected or controlling it.


Above: The 003-app is started and so is Pro Tools 11.3. PT is idling in a 32-bit / 48kHz blank session.


Above: … and these are the results. Sadly.
But, still, the 003 is working while other Avid / Digidesign hardware is not.


My spare time went out the Window and this post was delayed.

The 003 is still quite usable. Not sure why it works at all in a sensitive environment as a recording studio / Pro Tools rig with, what it seems like, one CPU continuously loaded to the max. Maybe the CPU activity we're seeing is just a bunch of assembly "nop"s. :)

[Deng]

I haven't had any issues running the 003/PT combination and have never ever had any of the fans triggered on the iMac or Mac mini.

Here's a screenshot

[drguitar]

Hey Deng. See that kernel task in your screenshot that's at 82.9%? If you set your playback engine to the internal sound card and turn off the 003, you'll see it drop DRAMATICALLY.
Very glad to hear that you don't hear the mac mini's fans kick up. I guarantee it's doing MUCH more work, though. Some models of Apple computers will kick up more than others, but the iMac I'm using is extremely loud. And I've now tested it on around a half dozen other computers which all exhibit the same exact behavior.
Even the guy who I was going to purchase the 003 from did the test for me and confirmed that his laptop's fans were blowing like a jet engine using the v11.1.3 driver.

[drguitar]

Marcel, and if you click at the top of the "% CPU" column so that the highest usage sorts at the top, you'd see that kernel task show up too.
I once found an older Mac Pro that didn't kick up its fans too much, but that unfortunately is not my setup.
And my 002 still works so there is no point in buying a used 003 if the behavior is exactly the same as the 002.