AAE 9073 error - sound cutting out and freezing on multitrack

[albee1952]

Fingers crossed

[Ben Jenssen]

So now you're giving advice? Well...

I've been using Pro Tools since the late nineties, and other audio software before that, and I've never once heard of a "corrupted audio clip" causing a DAW to break down.

[its2loud]

Originally Posted by Ben Jenssen

So now you're giving advice? Well...

I've been using Pro Tools since the late nineties, and other audio software before that, and I've never once heard of a "corrupted audio clip" causing a DAW to break down.

I have. It happens all the time and has caused Pro Tools to crash on numerous occasions.

[Darryl Ramm]

Be careful here, I know it may look like a corrupted audio file. But it is very unlikely for this to happen. WAV files encoded in LPCM are stupidly simple, the tiny amount of code used to read and write those files has huge code coverage (meaning it's incredibly well tested). And if anything was wrong you would likely be seeing Pro Tools or other utilities throw errors about the file being corrupted, or crashing with other errors, not causing Pro Tools AAE CPU errors.

There are lots of complex things happening under the covers that can confuse troubleshooting here. To pick one possible example, plugins get to write data to the session file, sometimes quite a lot of stuff, corrupt/incompatible plugins could cause lots of issues and corrupt the session file. If you had some problem plugins installed before they might have done that. And you've had other DAWs installed on the computer so I'd suspect could have had potentially problematic plugins installed as well. To make conclusions about corrupt audio files I'd want to see those files imported into a session with no third party plugins installed on the system. And if you have a file that you think is a problem please share it... again WAV LCPM files are stupidly trivial, and there are lots of tools to inspect them with.

[ahughes3]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Be careful here, I know it may look like a corrupted audio file. But it is very unlikely for this to happen. WAV files encoded in LPCM are stupidly simple, the tiny amount of code used to read and write those files has huge code coverage (meaning tis incredibly well tested). And if anything was wrong you would likely be seeing Pro Tools or other utilities throw errors about the file being corrupted, or crashing with other errors, not causing Pro Tools AAE CPU errors.

There are lots of complex things happening under the covers that can confuse troubleshooting here. To pick one possible example, plugins get to write data to the session file, sometimes quite a lot of stuff, corrupt/incompatible plugins. If you had some problem plugins installed before they might have done that. And you've had other DAWs installed on the computer so I'd suspect potentially problematic plugins installed as well. To make conclusions about corrupt audio files I'd want to see those files imported into a session with no third party plugins installed on the system. And if you have a file that you think is a problem please share it... again WAV LCPM files are stupidly trivial, and there are lots of tools to inspect them with.

Ok, I hear you. So I took the track in question and imported it into a brand new test track with no plugins and only the mix bus in addition by default. I then imported the clip and played it and got the error AAE 9073 again.

So with the above in mind, do you still think it could be plugin related? Even when there are no actual plugins in the track?

I've tried sharing the file but I get an error from the forum saying something about me not having a security token and to contact the administrators. Is this cos I'm new to the forum and I don't have high enough clearance maybe?

[Darryl Ramm]

Again, (and I'm just picking on plugins as a potential cause/example) it's not just plugins you are using, it's plugins installed in Pro Tools. They are just C++ code and they get to run initialization code when installed, and that can be enough to potentially trip off problems. An errant plugin can do *anything* in Pro Tools, including potentially leading to corrupting the session file, just by being installed in that plugin folder, there is no effective protection/sandboxing, you don't need to be using a plugin for it to hurt you... but yes using plugins opens up more potential for them to cause problems. But again just picking that as an example of how hard stuff can be to be sure of.

DUC is not good for sharing stuff, if you have a suspect file you can post it on any cloud or file sharing service and post a link here.

[ahughes3]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Again, (and I'm just picking on plugins as a potential cause/example) it's not just plugins you are using, it's plugins installed in Pro Tools. They are just C++ code and they get to run initialization code when installed, and that can be enough to potentially trip off problems. An errant plugin can do *anything* in Pro Tools, including potentially leading to corrupting the session file, just by being installed in that plugin folder, there is no effective protection/sandboxing, you don't need to be using a plugin for it to hurt you... but yes using plugins opens up more potential for them to cause problems. But again just picking that as an example of how hard stuff can be to be sure of.

DUC is not good for sharing stuff, if you have a suspect file you can post it on any cloud or file sharing service and post a link here.

Ok so let me try and figure this plugin thing out once and for all. When I installed Pro Tools, I installed it on my system drive C:. I then setup a folder on my external Hitachi drive to store all session files and plugins. So everything 3rd party that I downloaded is installed in that external hard drive, not in Pro Tools.

Are you saying that even though my plugins aren't located inside Pro Tools, they might have installed something inside of PT that might be causing a problem? If so, do you know where, because I've looked in Program Files, Program Files X86, My Documents and AppData Roaming and Local. I can't see anything that shows me a 3rd Party plugin. Yet I guess something must be telling Pro Tools I have the plugins, because the still show up in the "Inserts" menu on tracks.

Am I looking in the wrong place or do I need to delete some preferences again?

[ahughes3]

I have now uploaded the suspect wav file to my dropbox and shared the link below.

Feel free to test it out and see if it works fine for you.

Also @DarrylRamm, can you help me find where to see the 3rd party plugins might have installed to and how I can remove them please?

As I mentioned, I don't install any plugins inside Pro Tools so I don't know where else to look to check.

Thanks folks
Andy

Suspect file link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/45avfb0nlp..._main.wav?dl=0

[dominicperry]

Originally Posted by ahughes3

Ok so let me try and figure this plugin thing out once and for all. When I installed Pro Tools, I installed it on my system drive C:. I then setup a folder on my external Hitachi drive to store all session files and plugins. So everything 3rd party that I downloaded is installed in that external hard drive, not in Pro Tools.

Are you saying that even though my plugins aren't located inside Pro Tools, they might have installed something inside of PT that might be causing a problem? If so, do you know where, because I've looked in Program Files, Program Files X86, My Documents and AppData Roaming and Local. I can't see anything that shows me a 3rd Party plugin. Yet I guess something must be telling Pro Tools I have the plugins, because the still show up in the "Inserts" menu on tracks.

Am I looking in the wrong place or do I need to delete some preferences again?

EDIT: Following statement is incorrect, but left here for completeness:
One of the (many) reasons that PT takes so long to load when you start it up is that it is caching all the plugins. So yes, it doesn't matter where you install the plugins, it will cache them.

EDIT: This bit is still true...except that it appears that you can't anyway.
Except, you REALLY shouldn't be installing plugins on an external drive. As in DON'T.

Dominic

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by ahughes3

I have now uploaded the suspect wav file to my dropbox and shared the link below.
Feel free to test it out and see if it works fine for you.

I saw that the file was 44.1/32, created a blank PT session at 44.1/32 and put the file on a track without any conversion, and listened to "Gipsy Heart" vocal, all 3.30 min of it, and had no trouble at all with it.

I also opened the file in Amadeus Pro and played thru it without a hitch.