MAC STUDIO ULTRA with PT 2022.6 - ⌘+S trouble!!

[Yves Jaget]

I bought a MAC STUDIO ULTRA to replace my TRASH CAN 12 CORE, I installed PROTOOLS ULTIMATE, all the plugins listed compatible, including mine (EVO CHANEL FLUX), and in addition to restarts without any reason except that of a KERNEL PANIC, I have a hard time keeping a session without seeing PROTOOLS freeze, specifically during a backup. I also had to disable the AUTO SAVE, because to manage to save safely, you have to keep an eye on the processor load (SYSTEM USAGE) and wait for the moment when the machine is the least stressed, and proceed to ⌘+S !! Which is more than embarrassing when working on big projects, which is my case, Live Show recorded in 96K, 78 tracks + video...
If someone has an idea, or the same problem, I would appreciate information so that I can still live from my work!!
Thank you,
Yves JAGET


My configuration:

PT HD NATIVE
HD IO 16x16 ANALOG
2 x ICY BOX External Box 4 Bays for 2.5" USB 3.1 (Type-C, Gen 2)
8 x SSD HD SAMSUNG EVO 860 1To
MSI Optix MAG321CURV

[Darryl Ramm]

Are you getting a kernel panic or not? Deal with that first. What does the panic say?

Usual approach there is to unplug every periperal you can (which unloads all the corresponding drivers) and see if it's stable and then add stuff back if it is. If not take the issue up with Apple support.

---

Otherwise for Pro Tools problems you will need to run the standard troubleshooting approach described under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Trashing prefs, test starting with a new empty session, moving all plugins out of the plugin directory, creating a new admin account testing from that, etc. etc.

Always suspect plugins (claims of compatibility is nice, but not enough, you have to test for faulty plugins), and high CPU usage may be is a clue that's a problem. Problems saving to disk is also possibly a plugin problem.

What drive and file system type are you recording to? That external enclosure have hardware RAID? You operating as JBOD or RAID? Try dragging a copy of a session to your Mac Studio internal SSD and opening it there.

Running Pro Tools during a backup? You mean during an autosave? If you mean a filesystem backup... you should not be doing that, bad practice and there are known problems.

[LDS]

Personally, I would be contacting Icy Box. They have had a bunch of issues with their own chipsets working properly with Apple Silicon. The errors you are getting seem to suggest Pro Tools is having difficulties accessing your external drives.

[Yves Jaget]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Are you getting a kernel panic or not? Deal with that first. What does the panic say?

Usual approach there is to unplug every periperal you can (which unloads all the corresponding drivers) and see if it's stable and then add stuff back if it is. If not take the issue up with Apple support.

---

Otherwise for Pro Tools problems you will need to run the standard troubleshooting approach described under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Trashing prefs, test starting with a new empty session, moving all plugins out of the plugin directory, creating a new admin account testing from that, etc. etc.

Always suspect plugins (claims of compatibility is nice, but not enough, you have to test for faulty plugins), and high CPU usage may be is a clue that's a problem. Problems saving to disk is also possibly a plugin problem.

What drive and file system type are you recording to? That external enclosure have hardware RAID? You operating as JBOD or RAID? Try dragging a copy of a session to your Mac Studio internal SSD and opening it there.

Running Pro Tools during a backup? You mean during an autosave? If you mean a filesystem backup... you should not be doing that, bad practice and there are known problems.

Hi Darryl,
Thank you for your message.
I run on SSD drives in JBOD, I do not use RAID configuration. My drives are SAMSUNG 860 EVO. The file format I use is in WAV/24B/96K. The session being 400GB, I have no room to move it on my internal disk...
I destroyed the preferences, but after doing it and restarting my Mac, the reconstruction of the file "InstalledAAXPlugIns" stopped several times at the same place "Sound Replacer", I can’t believe that it is an Avid plugins that does not pass. I didn’t have time to create a new admin account, or move the plugins to do a test with a blank session. I have to do mixes every day. I’ll do these tests tonight.
Thank you,
Yves J

[Yves Jaget]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Are you getting a kernel panic or not? Deal with that first. What does the panic say?

Usual approach there is to unplug every periperal you can (which unloads all the corresponding drivers) and see if it's stable and then add stuff back if it is. If not take the issue up with Apple support.

---

Otherwise for Pro Tools problems you will need to run the standard troubleshooting approach described under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Trashing prefs, test starting with a new empty session, moving all plugins out of the plugin directory, creating a new admin account testing from that, etc. etc.

Always suspect plugins (claims of compatibility is nice, but not enough, you have to test for faulty plugins), and high CPU usage may be is a clue that's a problem. Problems saving to disk is also possibly a plugin problem.

What drive and file system type are you recording to? That external enclosure have hardware RAID? You operating as JBOD or RAID? Try dragging a copy of a session to your Mac Studio internal SSD and opening it there.

Running Pro Tools during a backup? You mean during an autosave? If you mean a filesystem backup... you should not be doing that, bad practice and there are known problems.

Hi Darryl,
Thank you for your message.
I run on SSD drives in JBOD, I do not use RAID configuration. My drives are SAMSUNG 860 EVO. The file format I use is in WAV/24B/96K. The session being 400GB, I have no room to move it on my internal disk...
I destroyed the preferences, but after doing it and restarting my Mac, the reconstruction of the file "InstalledAAXPlugIns" stopped several times at the same place "Sound Replacer", I can’t believe that it is an Avid plugins that does not pass the test. I didn’t have time to create a new admin account, or move the plugins to do a test with a blank session. I have to do mixes every day. I’ll do these tests tonight.
Thank you,
Yves J

[Yves Jaget]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Are you getting a kernel panic or not? Deal with that first. What does the panic say?

Usual approach there is to unplug every periperal you can (which unloads all the corresponding drivers) and see if it's stable and then add stuff back if it is. If not take the issue up with Apple support.

---

Otherwise for Pro Tools problems you will need to run the standard troubleshooting approach described under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Trashing prefs, test starting with a new empty session, moving all plugins out of the plugin directory, creating a new admin account testing from that, etc. etc.

Always suspect plugins (claims of compatibility is nice, but not enough, you have to test for faulty plugins), and high CPU usage may be is a clue that's a problem. Problems saving to disk is also possibly a plugin problem.

What drive and file system type are you recording to? That external enclosure have hardware RAID? You operating as JBOD or RAID? Try dragging a copy of a session to your Mac Studio internal SSD and opening it there.

Running Pro Tools during a backup? You mean during an autosave? If you mean a filesystem backup... you should not be doing that, bad practice and there are known problems.

Hi Darryl,
Thank you for your message.
I run on SSD drives in JBOD, I do not use RAID configuration. My drives are SAMSUNG 860 EVO. The file format I use is in WAV/24B/96K. The session being 400GB, I have no room to move it on my internal disk...
I destroyed the preferences, but after doing it and restarting my Mac, the reconstruction of the file "InstalledAAXPlugIns" stopped several times at the same place "Sound Replacer", I can’t believe that it is an Avid plugins that does not pass. I didn’t have time to create a new admin account, or move the plugins to do a test with a blank session. I have to do mixes every day. I’ll do these tests tonight.
Thank you,
Yves J

[sidelinerecords]

Having the same Issue. Went through all of the standard troubleshooting methods. Removed plugins, replaced them in batches by company, reinstalled protools, trashed the prefs, updated plugins... etc
When I hit ⌘+S (or ^+⌘+s) it immediately freeze, machine gun sounding loop of audio repeatedly until I force quit Protools.

Freezes when I try to bounce audio as well.

No kernel panic, or message when it happens



Mac Studio
Mac13,2
Apple M1 Ultra
20 Cores (16 performance and 4 efficiency)
64 GB
Pro Tools Studio 2022.6

[Eric Lambert]

I have to echo LDS's thought that it's related to external drives.

What if the session and all assets were on the internal drive?

[Yves Jaget]

I have worked hard to try to identify the problem(s):

Are you getting a kernel panic or not? Deal with that first. What does the panic say?
I have a Kernel Panic about twice a day, completely randomly, and independently of whether Protools is launched or not.

Usual approach there is to unplug every periperal you can (which unloads all the corresponding drivers) and see if it's stable and then add stuff back if it is. If not take the issue up with Apple support.
Even the machine alone without any device can make me a Kernel Panic...

Otherwise for Pro Tools problems you will need to run the standard troubleshooting approach described under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page. Trashing prefs, test starting with a new empty session, moving all plugins out of the plugin directory, creating a new admin account testing from that, etc. etc.
Here is all what I have doing, with no more positive result:
- I trashed the Protools preferences , and before I moved all the plugins into the unused plugins folder. I put them back in the plugins folder manufacturing by manufacturer, relaunching each time Protools so that the list of plugins is correctly updated, and that all works in one session.
- I removed all my hard drives from "SPOTLIGHT/PRIVACY because I had several of them declared so that SPOTLIGHT would avoid doing research on them...
- In addition, I also made sure that Pro Tools has all the necessary permissions in read & Write mode for all users.
- then I checked the disk and accessibility permissions.
System Preferences > Security and Privacy
- I have added Pro Tools under the following headings: Microphone, Accessibility, Full Disk Access
- for sure i also used all the optimization tools suggested by AVID: Energy Saver/Dsiable Firevault/etc etc...

And the problem is still there...

Let’s not forget that my session lasts 204 minutes in 96K, and I have 100 channels used in the console with 210 instantiated plugins.
Many problems occur when working at this sampling frequency, and finally, only few people work in 96K and that's the reason why we discover some problems!

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Yves Jaget

I have worked hard to try to identify the problem(s):

Are you getting a kernel panic or not? Deal with that first. What does the panic say?
I have a Kernel Panic about twice a day, completely randomly, and independently of whether Protools is launched or not.

You *have* to deal with this first. The panic message often gives a good clue for technical folks. Lots of help is on the Web about how to find macOS panic messages and how to do additional troubleshooting of those (beyond removing devices, booting in safe more, maybe reinstalling macOS, etc.). Get Apple support involved if you are stuck and/or to set up reasons for a product return. Also a good time to look through the system log (Console.app) etc. for any other warnings/errors that are happening).

Otherwise look up what other users are going through with the same storage system you have... what LDS mentioned, sounds like they are having problems, and you should compare their panic messages with what you are getting.

Panicking multiple times per day... this computer is not good for any anything except fixing. If you need to work... work with your previous Mac Pro or rent another Mac in the short term. I sure as heck would not use it for anything. It would be sitting running some load tests/trying to reproduce a panic or I would have return it to Apple while still time to do that.

Usual approach there is to unplug every periperal you can (which unloads all the corresponding drivers) and see if it's stable and then add stuff back if it is. If not take the issue up with Apple support.
Even the machine alone without any device can make me a Kernel Panic...

You literally have the cables to the storage fully unplugged from the Mac? Next steps there need to be trying to boot in safe mode, maybe doing a clean macOS install if safe mode is stable and fully booting is not. Lots of stuff on the Web about that, nothing really Pro Tools specific.

Otherwise for Pro Tools problems you will need to run the standard troubleshooting approach described under "help us help you" up the top of each DUC web page.
<snip>
And the problem is still there...

Let’s not forget that my session lasts 204 minutes in 96K, and I have 100 channels used in the console with 210 instantiated plugins.
Many problems occur when working at this sampling frequency, and finally, only few people work in 96K and that's the reason why we discover some problems![/COLOR]

96 kHz is not that unusual. (FWIW it's the standard sample rate I work at). 100 channels for 204 minutes might be less usual.

You are troubleshooting a non-specific problem of Pro Tools freezing (you see a beachball?). In this case since you have kernel panics you need to be be solving that, quite likely doing anything else is just a waste of time... sorry, it was not clear to me from your original message you are having on going kernel panics.