Tearing my heair out with Avid Support

[adamford76]

I'm on a one month trial currently, and trying to get any help out of Avid support is like pulling teeth, so thought I'd try here.

I've got a Mac Pro 5.1 with 16GB RAM and Digi003. I've had the Digi working with my trial version of PT 2018.12 on El Capitan, but whatever I try the latency is deathly. Whereas garageband can handle things fine. So I think this PT version is maxing out my system and I want to try rolling back to PT11 or 12 (which should also allow me to update the Digi firmware). I will look at beefing up the Mac also. I've tried all buffer sizes in PT and nothing seems to get rid of the latency.

BUT here's the problem, ALL the downloads on the Avid site that are supposed to be PT12 are actually PT 2018.12 - is this some sort of stuff up or am I going insane? Is there any point trying to get Avid support to fix it?

And PT11 will run on El Capitan even though it is not supposed to, but logging in to iLok claims I have no licenses. Am i supposed to be able to use PT11 on the new subscription plans or not?

And if no, how do I go about getting a workable license for PT11, and am I going to have the same problem if I can ever manage to find a download for PT12?

[Darryl Ramm]

Slow down, focus. Explain *clearly* what you are doing and get help. You are all over the place with wanting to try different Pro Tools versions. The 003 working with large latency should be solvable. Focus there.

"maxing out" a system does not directly cause latency.

Has this 003 ever worked for you OK with acceptable latency? If so what changed? Or is this something you purchased used and am just getting going?=

What *exact* latency? (you've got a precision DAW in front of you... work out how to measure the latency you are seeing or hearing, e.g. pipe the output back into a line-input and record that along with the input audio on the same track (mute while recording to stop feedback). That number of samples of latency is often a clue)

You are doing/recording exactly what? You hear the latency when recording? Do you hear a single or double echo type latency?

What else is connected in the signal chain? Connected to the 003?

What 003 driver version do you have installed?

What exactly is the playback engine set to (want to see 003 not aggregate IO or anything else).

What is the Setup>Playback Engine>IO Buffer set to? The IO buffer directly contributes to much of latency. If you are changing that and not hearing any change in latency something else is messed up here. Describe the whole signal flow for what you are doing. Disconnect outboard boxes/hardware inserts, etc. from the 003.

Start with an empty session, at 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz, not from a template and with no plugins at all...what is the smallest you can set the IO Buffer to and have Pro Tools run reliably? Do *not* check ignore errors (bad practice and it adds latency). Make sure the computer is *fully* optimized, do every last thing. See under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Leave the IO buffer set to this size while you troubleshoot any other latency causes.

If you are hearing latency when monitoring How are you monitoring? Are you using Pro Tools LLM? (try that and try pure software monitoring without LLM) What else is connected to the 003 or Mac Pro? Disconnect everything you can.

If you are trying to record/track with plugins enabled on the recorded tracks or on a bus or master fader? What exact plugins? Is delay compensation enabled? What does Pro Tools show for the delay compensation numbers for each track in the mix window? That match what you expect from the plugins? (high latency plugins should include those specs from their manufacturer). But either ways start with a totally empty session with no plugins and get that working OK first.

Anything above does not make sense you likely can search for in the Pro Tools Reference Guide PDF or online with Google.

El Capitan was maybe not the best macOS release for DAW use, including for USB audio issues which won't affect you, had some not great graphics issues which might affect you (but that does not cause latency). Have you got a Metal capable GPU in that cheesegrater? It's possible to run up to Mojave (10.14) on the 5,1 and the 003 (which is now six years past it's end of support date) driver support up to 10.12, so you could be on a more recent macOS version like 10.12 and be running Pro Tools 2019.10 at least, based on official compatibility info, and maybe able to squeeze more out there. Given the 003 is end of life I'd be looking to get everything on the last well supported software and leave it there until you toss this gear out.

You would typically get old licenses to Pro Tools 11 or 12 by buying a used license, some used perpetual licenses for 20xx will authorize Pro Tools 10, 11 and 12, but you really need to know what you are doing/what you are buying. Buying a current subscription or the demo license you have will *not* authorize those old versions. What actual Pro Tools licenses do you own?

[Southsidemusic]

In your Avid account you can access.downkoad center and downkoad PT 11 or PT 12 from there.

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...ter&popup=true

If you decide to roll back and download center gives you issues pm me and i will look into an installer for you if your ilok license allowes it.