CPU maxes out when a session is idle

[Williard]

Anyhelp here is appreciated.
I've got a Dell 4700 3gHz with 2gig ram and a M-audio Delta 1010 card.

Here's a senerio for you:
I'm running a moderate session with not a huge amount of plugins and for the most part it is fine. HOWEVER, say I'm getting ready to record a couple tracks. Pro Tools is idle and the CPU is just maxing out. I hit play, the audio is all garbled during the count in and then fine when all the tracks start playing. This will also happen it seems when I start editing tracks a bit. Protools just starts eating up cpu. And finally...sometimes I'll be bouncing out a session and it's fine up till the last second when all the tracks have stopped and then I get the annoying CPU disable some RTAS plugins etc...error.

I have maybe 20 tracks and am using mainly only EQ and compressors (foucusrite d2/d3) and sending some busses to a reverb on an aux track.

I've disabled just about everything. None of my Sony apps have any problems with cpu..just Protools.

Any clues out there??

THANKS in advance
-w

[spkguitar]

Sounds like you are experiencing "denormalization". More details here (read all 3 pages)

Short answer: insert a dither in front of the reverb (or possibly one of the other plugs)

[Williard]

Dude.....THANKS! I saw skimmed over that denormalization stuff in here before and didn't think it applied to my situation...But that seems to have fixed it. A thousand thank yous to yous!

[Williard]

Post deleted by Williard

[spkguitar]

I don't know whether to be insulted, or not...

If you're looking to talk to digidesign staff, you're in the wrong place. This is the User's conference; for people who actually use the product and have been trough experiences like yours before (and fixed them). Digi staff only pops in from time to time when they aren't busy taking support calls. If you're looking for direct technical support from Digi, the Tech support page would be the place to go.

Following all the steps in the General Troubleshooting thread may help, and if not, the last step about posting your full system specs will help other users help you. Posting details about the session you are having problems with (sample rate, but rate, track count, specific plugin usage, etc) will also help.

[Williard]

Hey man......Didn't mean any disrespect by that. I was in a moment of severe frustration and was venting a bit there. I do appreciate your help. I'm dancing around and dealing with the issue right now. I'll post more details when I get time. But I did all the streamlining according to that doc. that I could. Anyhoo more later

[Williard]

I'm still having problems with CPU spikes mainly when Pro Tools is idle after playing through a session. I've gon through all the trouble shooting guides and disabled about everything I could think and started using that VST denormalizer plugin (with fx-xpansion wrapper) before all my plugins and it
has seemed to help while Pro Tools is playing the session. However as soon as all the audio stops or I stop it my CPU starts climbing and usually at the very end of the session I get the (-9128) error popup stating I'm running out of cpu power. Then when I try to play it again, it's sluggish and the audio sounds like its going through a bit masher effect or something. This will happen when I'm getting ready to record too, the CPU rate climbs and the audio gets all 4 bit sounding and grainy (this would be coool if I was doing some kickass glitch music or something..)
My workaround has been to just save, close the session and restart. When the session is fresh the cpu is fine and I can usally get through a pass before it spikes again. It's slowly driving me crazy. Look below for additional session data.

My computer specs are:
Dell 4700 P4 3 gHz 2 gigs Ram
L2 cache: 1,024 KB
M-Audio Delta 1010 sound card
Dual monitor setup
Video card: ASUS Extreme AX300SE/T 128MB

Session specs:
Audio is 48kHz 24bit
I'm using mainly focusrite d2/d3 for my EQ and compression. Sometimes I have some reverb and delay going, and will cause this problem to happen easier, but again I can run many effects and efeects sends and it will play through fine until the audio stops.
If I restart the session it will start out and play through using about 32 to 50 % of the CPU. After I stop it climbs to the lower 90s and the sound gets garbled and stuttery. If I point the cursor at the middle of the session where most everything is playing is will usually jump start it and begin playing fine AND the CPU usage goes WAY down. However if I try to jump start at the beginning before everything is playing I usually get the CPU LIMIT error.

ANY HELP WILL BE APRRECIATED!
THanks
-w




Number of tracks average from 12 to 24, but that doesn't seem to be the cause of this problem.