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  #1  
Old 02-19-2013, 02:03 PM
Stoozy Stoozy is offline
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Location: Scotland, Glenrothes
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Exclamation Horrible Distortion of any audio played or recorded in Pro tools 10

Hey, this is my first post and I am wondering if anyone could shed some light on this problem I am having with protools 10.

The problem is when I play audio within Protools 10 using plug-ins or recording audio with a microphone via the back of my mbox 2. The audio sounds bit crushed and distorted. The only way the problem stops is if i change the buffer size but it only lasts a few seconds then the distortion comes back. I have tried changing CPU usage, buffer size, updating divers, re installing protools and installed protools on to an external hard drive. No luck.

I did think it was the m box 2 but i have tried my friends identical one and had the same problem. Just to be clear, Protools 10 starts up and runs fine, its just the audio that is the problem. Sorry if this was long winded but really looking for a solution as my college work relies on working from home.

Thanks
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  #2  
Old 02-19-2013, 02:11 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Re: Horrible Distortion of any audio played or recorded in Pro tools 10

Take a look at the "Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!" link on this page.

Start by posting a Sandra report as described there. Run this report with all disk drives you use connected and powered on. See many other posts here on DUC for what the correct Sandra report output looks like.

You are using a separate disk drive for you audio files/sessions correct? That drive meets the Pro Tools audio drive specs? (for Windows: 7200 rpm or faster, or SSD, SATA or USB2 or USB3).

You should not be installing Pro Tools on an external disk drive, it has to always be installed on the boo/system (normally C:) drive. Your audio/session files need to go on their own dedicated system drive (not the C: drive).

What are all the settings in your Setup>Playback Engine dialog panel in Pro Tools?

What happens if you create a new blank session and try recording something and playing it back, with no plugins.

The "Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!" link also has links to standard optimizations steps.. what ones of those have you applied? You need to go thought and make sure you have done them all, and check they are still applied to your system. There are also a bunch of standard trouble shooting steps you can try.

Darryl
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Old 02-19-2013, 03:09 PM
Stoozy Stoozy is offline
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Default Re: Horrible Distortion of any audio played or recorded in Pro tools 10

Thanks for taking the time to reply
Here is the sandra report

Computer
Model : Acer Aspire 5755G
Serial Number : NXRVCEK0032***********
Chassis : Acer Notebook
Mainboard : Acer JV51_HR
Serial Number : Base Board S************
BIOS : Acer V1.19 02/17/2012
Total Memory : 7.86GB DDR3 SO-DIMM

Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz (4C 8T 3GHz, 3GHz IMC, 4x 256kB L2, 6MB L3)
Socket/Slot : FC PGA988

Chipset
Memory Controller : Acer Core (Sandy Bridge) Mobile DRAM Controller 100MHz, 2x 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM 1.33GHz 128-bit, Integrated Graphics

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Hynix (Hyundai) HMT351S6CFR8C-H9 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-10700S DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Hynix (Hyundai) HMT351S6CFR8C-H9 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-10700S DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : LGD Generic PnP Monitor (1600x1200, LP156WH4-TLA1, 15.3")
Video Adapter : Intel(R) HD Graphics Family (12CU 12SP SM5.0 650MHz/1.1GHz, 2GB DDR3 1.33GHz/2.13GHz 128-bit, Integrated Graphics)

Graphics Processor
OpenCL GP Processor : NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M (96SP 2C 1.34GHz, 2GB 1.6GHz)
Compute Shader Processor : Intel(R) HD Graphics Family (12SP 650MHz/1.1GHz, 128MB DDR3 1.33GHz/2.13GHz 128-bit, Integrated Graphics)

Storage Devices
TOSHIBA MK1059GSMP (1TB, SATA300, 2.5", 5400rpm, 8MB Cache) : 932GB (C:)
WDC WD10TMVW-11ZSMS4 (1TB, USB3/SATA300, 5200rpm, 8MB Cache) : 932GB (F:)
MAT[bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]ABD-CMB UJ141AJ (SATA150, BD-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D:)

Logical Storage Devices
SYSTEM RESERVED : 100MB (NTFS)
External HD (F:) : 932GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10TMVW-11ZSMS4 (1TB, USB3/SATA300, 5200rpm, 8MB Cache)
Acer (C:) : 916GB (NTFS) @ TOSHIBA MK1059GSMP (1TB, SATA300, 2.5", 5400rpm, 8MB Cache)
PQSERVICE : 15GB (NTFS)
Hard Disk (Q:) : N/A
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ MAT[bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]ABD-CMB UJ141AJ (SATA150, BD-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Acer HM65 LPC Controller
Audio Device : Acer Cougar Point High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi High Definition Audio
Disk Controller : Acer Cougar Point Mobile 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
Disk Controller : Acer NetXtreme BCM57765 Memory Card Reader
USB Controller 1 : Acer Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2
USB Controller 2 : Acer Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1
USB Controller 3 : Acer Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Broadcom NetLink (TM) Gigabit Ethernet (Ethernet)
Wireless Adapter : Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter (802.11g (ERP), TKIP, 54Mbps)

Power Management
Battery No 1 : SONY Li_Ion_4000mA 47.52Wh/3.92Ah

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7601 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 5.3



To answer your questions -

The driver I was using to store audio and session files was 5200rpm USB3 but have since stopped using it as it was only a test to see if it would help the problem. Also i made a mistake in saying in installed Protools 10 to the external drive, apologies. I was meant to say had it so the audio and session files where on the external drive and protools was still installed on the main drive.

Setting for "playback engine Dialog box"

H/W buffer size - 512 samples
Host Processors - 8 Processors
CPU usage limit - 85%
Host Engine - Unchecked
Delay compensation - Maximum
Plug in streaming buffer - Level 2 (default)
The box underneath this is - unchecked

If a new session is created and I open an audio track and hit record enable with a microphone plugged in the recording is distorted and so is the playback. This goes for anything for example using a plugin such a Xpand2 and pressing down a key results in any other the patched producing the same horrible distortion/ bit crushed noise.

Looking through the optimization links i had done the whole list, updating drivers, run as admin etc.

For the trouble shooting options on the same link, I have tried all the relevant ones to my problem but not all as most seem to be DAE error related.

Thanks, hope this helps. The problem has been bugging me.
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  #4  
Old 02-19-2013, 05:06 PM
Darryl Ramm Darryl Ramm is offline
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Default Re: Horrible Distortion of any audio played or recorded in Pro tools 10

Yikes, two 5,400 rpm drives. None of your disk drives are close to meeting the spec for an audio drive. And that is very likely causing this problem. I suspect the drive in the WDC external enclosure is a ultra-cheap and nasty WDC Caviar Green, which are just toxic for Pro Tools, or any other application where IO performance matters.

You need to record to a separate 7,200 rpm or faster (or SSD) drive. For Windows -- SATA preferred or USB 2 or USB3 if external.

All your tests of recording to that horribly under-spec external drive are irrelevant. You need to get an external drive that meets the specs and try again.

Personally I only use SSD drive now. I highly recommend the Samsung 840 pro (the "Pro" is important). You could potentially install one of these SSD drives to replace the optical drive in the laptop (would need a mount kit), or you could install in an external USB2 or USB3 caddy. Spinning boat anchors are for backup only. With a singe fast SSD drive you *might* get away with running the sessions on the boot/system drive but this is still not recommended.

You should go back and review the systems requirements for Pro Tools. Good that you tied all those optimizations.

Your imporper disk is likely the issue here, you just have to fix that. But after you do that....

Not that you are probably pegging the CPU yet (and therefore not running out of CPU power), but you should not have CPU=8, that never would make sense. You computer really only have 4 physical cores and 4 virtual hyperthreading cores. Until things are stable set CPU=3 (one less than physical) and 99% and see how things go, you can try increasing # CPU later if you run out of CPU processing power.



Darryl
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  #5  
Old 02-20-2013, 03:22 PM
Stoozy Stoozy is offline
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Default Re: Horrible Distortion of any audio played or recorded in Pro tools 10

Thanks lots, when buying this laptop I was told the internal drive was 7200, I never noticed this before as i have not had the laptop long, the Sandra report pointed this out. Thanks again. I shall work on fixing this with what u have suggested. :)
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