Upgraded mac mini SerHd & still having issues

[lucidlife]

I upgraded my mac mini with a 1tb SSd, for the Session Drive, and upgraded my memory to 16GB crucial cards, and guess what.....it's like I didn't even upgrade.

I'm still running into CPU errors. WTF

IDK what to do now.

I'm running my session off my external Porsche drive which should help, but it doesn't.

what's going on?

Am I missing something here?

I'm at a complete loss.

I'm running pt 2018 on Yosemite

I have 2 drives. A server drive, and my SSD Session Drive, which I boot out of.

and I pout all my sessions on an external drive.

I'd really appreciate any tips or advice.

Thank you guys for your expertise.

Cheers!

[Darryl Ramm]

OH MY GOD I UPGRADED SOMETHING AND IT'S NOT HELPING... BUT I'M NOT GOING TO TELL ANY OF YOU WHAT I'VE DONE. YOU ALL JUST GUESS AND HELP ME...

OK if you actually want help...

How about you tell us the exact make and model SSD. Connected exactly how (USB2? USB3.0? Thunderbolt 2????). What *exact* model Mac Mini (date name or even better the EMC code on the case). Things like "Porsche drive" does not help.

But more importantly why did you think upgrading the drive would help with CPU errors... it can occasionally but usually not.

Yosemite. you mean the OS that is one of worst OS X releases for DAWs ever. Why are you persisting on that crap?

What exact version of Pro Tools. 2018.WOT?

What exact CPU errors? At what IO buffer size and sample rate.

What plugins in the session cause this? Or can you run with no plugins instantiated and still get that error?

Do you have disk cache enabled (set to a size not "normal").

Is your computer fully optimized, every last thing done? Have you done all the basic troubleshooting, especially trashing prefs, removing all plugin files, starting with a new empty session, testing with Built-In Output as the playback engine, creating a new admin user account and testing from there. .. and trying all those things cumulatively (trashing prefs several times as you change stuff). etc.

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I have 2 drives. A server drive, and my SSD Session Drive, which I boot out of and I pout all my sessions on an external drive.

Not a single thing there makes *any* sense. You actually have three drives total? What is "a server drive". Describe each drive make/model, how exactly its it attached, what the filesystem is used on it, and what the drive is used for (boot, session, samples, backup etc.).

And what the hell is a "SerHd"???

Your profile says Mac Book Pro... is that out of date?

[Southsidemusic]

I think the Lacie Porsche drives are all 5400 rpm which will be your issue. Or have you got a new model with an SSD inside? What model number and link to that please.

When we got a few rubber Lacie drives for on the road work I think we looked at Porsche drives and sent an email to Lacie with the question what isninside and it was a slow drive which wont work as a session drive for PT so look into that and pls post the specs of the Porsche design drive.

Also those design drives have a auto sleep type mode engaged as default so make sure thats not enabled on that drive or any sleepmode on the computer. What happens if you run your sessions off of the internal SSD drive? Have you tried that?

[Darryl Ramm]

Lacie marketing really messed up with the Porsche branding :-(

(And yes Christopher and I will both know it’s Porsche Design not really the car company. I wish Porsche the car company would stop them doing this.)

But, but, but... this might cause problems as Christopher pointed out... you will only know what is causing *your* problems when you go through systemic careful optimization and troubleshooting of your setup.

[lucidlife]

Mac mini Server (Mid 2011)
2 GHz Intel Core i7 processor
6 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory

I'm using an external 1 tb Lacie Porsche Drive. USB 3.0 to run my sessions from.

My boot drive is a 1TB 6G SSD by OWC.

I'm using PT 2018.10


My buffer size is at 1024, and my cache size is set to 1gb.

I'm running sessions with a a good amount of plugins, so what I'm doing is bouncing some tracks down, and making inactive those tracks to save CPU.

I've gotten rid of my duplicate files using magician.

I'm not sure how to trash my preferences. The reason for this post is so I can know how to fully optimize my mac so I will take any advise on how to do that.

Thanks for your reply,

Cheers

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

OH MY GOD I UPGRADED SOMETHING AND IT'S NOT HELPING... BUT I'M NOT GOING TO TELL ANY OF YOU WHAT I'VE DONE. YOU ALL JUST GUESS AND HELP ME...

OK if you actually want help...

How about you tell us the exact make and model SSD. Connected exactly how (USB2? USB3.0? Thunderbolt 2????). What *exact* model Mac Mini (date name or even better the EMC code on the case). Things like "Porsche drive" does not help.

But more importantly why did you think upgrading the drive would help with CPU errors... it can occasionally but usually not.

Yosemite. you mean the OS that is one of worst OS X releases for DAWs ever. Why are you persisting on that crap?

What exact version of Pro Tools. 2018.WOT?

What exact CPU errors? At what IO buffer size and sample rate.

What plugins in the session cause this? Or can you run with no plugins instantiated and still get that error?

Do you have disk cache enabled (set to a size not "normal").

Is your computer fully optimized, every last thing done? Have you done all the basic troubleshooting, especially trashing prefs, removing all plugin files, starting with a new empty session, testing with Built-In Output as the playback engine, creating a new admin user account and testing from there. .. and trying all those things cumulatively (trashing prefs several times as you change stuff). etc.

---



Not a single thing there makes *any* sense. You actually have three drives total? What is "a server drive". Describe each drive make/model, how exactly its it attached, what the filesystem is used on it, and what the drive is used for (boot, session, samples, backup etc.).

And what the hell is a "SerHd"???

Your profile says Mac Book Pro... is that out of date?

[lucidlife]

https://www.lacie.com/products/porsc...ive-mac/#specs

I was told that my this drive is very fast, so I figured it'd be good to use. I test and run my session of my Server HD, and then run on my OWC SSD drive, and see of there's a performance difference.

[lucidlife]

I was wondering the same. Maybe Porsche and Lacie are in collaboration with this product.

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Lacie marketing really messed up with the Porsche branding :-(

(And yes Christopher and I will both know it’s Porsche Design not really the car company. I wish Porsche the car company would stop them doing this.)

But, but, but... this might cause problems as Christopher pointed out... you will only know what is causing *your* problems when you go through systemic careful optimization and troubleshooting of your setup.

[Darryl Ramm]

Great info, thanks.

But is 6GB a typo? You mean 16GB? If 6GB we really need to talk.

So there is a lot going on here and I'm going to try to get you pointed in the right direction on some stuff and map out some ideas to look at.

We throw around standard troubleshooting or optimization stuff on DUC... all that basic stuff is described under the "Help Us Help You" link up top of every DUC web page. The optimization instructions are also in the Pro Tools Installation Guide. Take your time and read all that stuff carefully.

While troubleshooting do the full systems optimization. Just get it all done, every last damn annoying thing and leaver them all done even if they don't show an immediate improvement why you try other things. That means disable WiFi, Bluetooth (try a wired keyboard and mouse) etc. Just plow though doing all those and then try out Pro Tools.

Trashing prefs is described on the troubleshooting notes but make it easier for yourself and download and install Pete Gates's tool and just use that. http://petegates.com/pg-pt-prefs.html Just about any troubleshooting with Pro Tools should start with trashing prefs, and maybe doing it multiple times as you try different troubleshooting things out.

When troubleshooting CPU errors make sure to try the following (as well as other things)....

0. Always start with trashing prefs.
1. Make sure ignore errors is not enabled (you want pro Tools to tell you about problems).
2. Disable "dynamic plugin processing" and leave it off forever. It really does not help and only causes problems.
3. Test starting with a new empty session, not a copy, not from a template.
4. Move all plugins out of the plugin folder, Start Pro Tools it will magically put back just the standard plugins, test with those. (Many CPU problems are caused by plugins... *always* suspect plugins. They can cause problems just by being installed, not even used in your session).
6. Test with built-in output as the playback engine (that test if your interface driver is buggy, some are)
7. Create a new admin account and test from there... with a new empty session, plugins removed, prefs trashed etc.
8. Look out for denormalization issues with certain plugins (like DVerb, Sansamp) that can cause run away or spikey CPU use. Or you see the CPU meters run away when the transport is stopped. Only happens if the plugins are in a sessions with the plugins getting very low signal levels, remove those plugins to test, or stick a dither plugin in front of them.

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It would still be useful to know what exact Porsche Design drive you have. You should look at the model number/find it online and try to verify what the RPM specs are. If you can't find a statement that it's 7,200 RPM then assume it's 4800 RPM as Christopher mentioned. In which case you should not be using it anyhow for an audio drive. Disk cache can hide lots of sins but you should still not be using a 4,800 RPM drive.

Your Mac has a Thunderbolt port, a FireWire 800 port and multiple USB 2.0 ports. USB 2.0 is pretty slow. The likely best option is to just install two SATA SSD inside the Mac Mini. One for OS, one for an audio/session drive. If you have samples put them on the OS drive. Adding a Samsung 860 Evo would be my choice.

If you really had to go external look for a Thunderbolt 1 compatible external SSD, this one is an option... https://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Rugged-.../dp/B071FWB8L2

Oh my bad before... Yosemite was not a huge problem release, that was El Capitan (El Crapitan). But if you try other troubleshooting and it does not work then try a full clean new OS install. And if you are getting another internal SSD drive for sessions I would take that opportunity to install a new clean macOS image on it, install just the bare minim you need, like ILM and Pro Tools and test that with Build-In output, no third party plugin installed, nothing extra. You can put the sessions on the other SSD you have now while you test with the system booted from that new install. If that works fine you can install everything else you need. Do not use system migration utility to move application or drivers across macOS install, install all software fresh using the correct installers.

You need to check and work out what the latest macOS version is that your computer supports and what versions of Pro Tools is compatible with that.... OK I'll do that for you... https://everymac.com/systems/apple/m...ver-specs.html Looks like High Sierra, which was a nice release for me on my MBP, and that gets you official support for Pro tools 2018.10. And High Sierra gets you APFS filesystems support, which I'd use for the new SSDs and maybe upgrade the old one to even though it's not officially supported.

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When troubleshooting stuff try to be systematic, take notes or work form a printed list checking off stuff as you go.


If you need more help let us know exactly what troubleshooting you have done, and exactly what error messages you are getting.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by lucidlife

https://www.lacie.com/products/porsc...ive-mac/#specs

I was told that my this drive is very fast, so I figured it'd be good to use. I test and run my session of my Server HD, and then run on my OWC SSD drive, and see of there's a performance difference.

Unless you understand how to measure raw disk (uncached) latency you will not measure what is the cause of problems. Most standard disk performance testing utilities will not help you. Spend your time finding the drive specs for the exact model drive you have. Ask Lacie support if needed.

Somebody telling you the drive is "very fast" means nothing.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by lucidlife

I was wondering the same. Maybe Porsche and Lacie are in collaboration with this product.

? Lacie pay Porsche Design (a different company that Porsche AG the car manufacturer) to design the box the drive comes in. Like they pay other designers to design other boxes. Part of their style/design driven marketing, their actual technology behind that is generally OK, but not in all cases.

Buying a 4800 rpm Lacie Porsche drive would means you are a victim of marketing.