CPU OVERLOAD WITH MBOX AND MACBOOK PRO INTEL. PLEASE HELP

[dbbtexpress]

HI

SO I HAVE THE FIRST ROUND OF THE MACBOOK PRO INTEL. I HAVE AN MBOX 2 WITH PT 7.1. THE PROBLEM IS THIS:

THE COMPUTER SAYS THERE IS A CPU OVERLOAD IF MY BUFFER IS 512 OR LOWER. THIS IS WITH LIKE 3 TRACKS A OVERLAPPING FOR A 3 MIN SONG. NO PLUG INS AT ALL AND THIS HAPPENS. I WANT THE BUFFER LOW BECAUSE I AM RECORDING VOCALS AND TRYING NOT TO HAVE LATENCY!! RIGHT NOW THE LOWEST THE BUFFER CAN GO ON MY SET UP WITHOUT SAYING CPU OVERLOAD IS AT 1024. THUS I HEAR LATENCY. MY FRIEND WHO HAS THE EXACT SAME EQUIPMENT SAID THAT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO USE 512 OR 256 BUFFERSIZE TO AVOID LATENCY WITHOUT SAYING CPU OVERLOAD. HE SAID HE DOES THAT ALL THE TIME...

I CAN'T FIGURE OUT IF THE PROBLEM IS MY COMPUTER, THE MBOX, OR SOME SORT OF SETTING.

PLEASE HELP AS I AM RECORDING WITH THE WU TANG ON THE ROAD AND THIS IS KILLING ME. LOL.

THANKS!!!!

[ggmmss]

are you recording to the sytem drive on the macbook?

[dbbtexpress]

YES. I AM RECORDING DIRECTLY INTO THE MACBOOK HARDDRIVE. IN THE PROTOOLS FOLDER IN MY MUSIC SECTION...

[JChance]

First off, it would probably be better NOT to type in all caps, as this is considered "shouting."

There's lots of info on this forum about recording to your system drive with Pro Tools. DON'T DO IT!

Get an external hard drive, that's what your firewire port is for. The internal hard drive can't perform to it's full potential when having to run the software while simultaneously recording data.

You can also read all about this subject on the support section of the Digidesign website.

[Richard901]

Which USB port are you using on the MacBook Pro?
The right port is NOT recommended for connecting an audio interface.

Hope this helps.

Richard

[accession]

Get an external hard drive, that's what your firewire port is for. The internal hard drive can't perform to it's full potential when having to run the software while simultaneously recording data.

Which is faster:
- the system bus between the internal drive and the memory
- the FireWire bus?

Also, just how much use does the internal drive get once the application/plug-ins are loaded?

While I understand that recording audio to a single internal system drive can tax the system, I don't imagine the overheads to be that significant.

I remember reading several positive experiences with recording 18 inputs to a single internal Powerbook drive in the past.

Anyone looked at a drive activity monitor when everything's running full steam?

[dbbtexpress]

do you think that recording to the internal drive would cause the problem i am having with the cpu overload? i will record to a external from now on, just don't know if that will solve the problem. i'm going to try it right now actually. thanks...d

[OddsAre]

HI

SO I HAVE THE FIRST ROUND OF THE MACBOOK PRO INTEL. I HAVE AN MBOX 2 WITH PT 7.1. THE PROBLEM IS THIS:

THE COMPUTER SAYS THERE IS A CPU OVERLOAD IF MY BUFFER IS 512 OR LOWER. THIS IS WITH LIKE 3 TRACKS A OVERLAPPING FOR A 3 MIN SONG. NO PLUG INS AT ALL AND THIS HAPPENS. I WANT THE BUFFER LOW BECAUSE I AM RECORDING VOCALS AND TRYING NOT TO HAVE LATENCY!! RIGHT NOW THE LOWEST THE BUFFER CAN GO ON MY SET UP WITHOUT SAYING CPU OVERLOAD IS AT 1024. THUS I HEAR LATENCY. MY FRIEND WHO HAS THE EXACT SAME EQUIPMENT SAID THAT I SHOULD BE ABLE TO USE 512 OR 256 BUFFERSIZE TO AVOID LATENCY WITHOUT SAYING CPU OVERLOAD. HE SAID HE DOES THAT ALL THE TIME...

I CAN'T FIGURE OUT IF THE PROBLEM IS MY COMPUTER, THE MBOX, OR SOME SORT OF SETTING.

PLEASE HELP AS I AM RECORDING WITH THE WU TANG ON THE ROAD AND THIS IS KILLING ME. LOL.

THANKS!!!!

First of all you need AT LEAST (I'm shouting that, haha) PT 7.1.1 for and Intel Mac. Also are you sure all of you Plugins in the plugin folder are Intel/Universal plugins?

And ABSOLUTELY (shouting again) recording to the system drive will cause those issues!!!!! And alos even if you are not running plugins but there are still non Intel/Universal plugins loaded it will causw problems. Also when recording Live on location always set your buffer to 1024 samples, latency is a non issue in this case so keep that buffer as high as possible.

[dbbtexpress]

hi

and thank you all for your help!!! ok. i think the issue has been solved for right now. i think the issue was solved by not recording to the internal drive and instead recording directly thru the firewire to a external drive.



at a buffer size of 256 i still hear th slightest latency. or is it double monitoring thru the headphones? the recording sounds normal but when actually doing the recording, the headphones plugged into the mbox still sound either reverbish (made that adjective up lol) or like its double monitoring somehow.

THANKS

[yamlan]

First of all you need AT LEAST (I'm shouting that, haha) PT 7.1.1 for and Intel Mac. Also are you sure all of you Plugins in the plugin folder are Intel/Universal plugins?

Agreed. I mix small session on the go, with my Macbook (13'), mbox 2 pro and system drive, all the time.

Sounds like driver issues to me. Regardless of recording on the system drive, a CPU overload with 3 tracks w/o plugins sounds weird. I would make sure that your Macbook Pro, Mbox, and PT are all up to date with the latest/compatible drivers.

Your system drive could be full; I would check that too.

Do you have programs running in the background or is the internet active? Pro Tools can get picky about that sometimes.

When all is said and done, an external FW HD is the best route to go.