Sample Tank 3 causing CPU Spiking in Protools 11

[soundartsonline]

Hello Avid Forum!

UPDATE TO THIS POST: ISSUE NOT RESOLVED WITH SAMPLE TANK 3 CONTINUING TO SPIKE CPU. DOES ANYONE HAVE A FIX FOR THAT?

My computer: iMac, mid 2011, osx 10.8.5

REMEDY IS BELOW IF YOU DON"T WANT TO READ MY STORY FIRST

For the last 2 weeks I've been struggling with the out of control cpu spiking in my newly installed Protools 11. I also had spiking in Protools 10, I believe, although at that time I was not viewing system resources to confirm on that. Just got a lot of pops, no error messages though.

The real fun began when I installed Protools 11, thinking "This is gonna be great. Wow! 64 bit. I'm ready" I proceeded to purchase Sample Tank 3, and immediately encounter the cpu overload error message and spikes way over 100%.

After numerous, lengthy tech support calls with Sweetwater, and reinstall, move sample library over to external drive, take as much off of my computer as possible including iPhoto's library, the problem persisted.

It was actually at that point noted to me (however late) by my husband that cpu spiking has NOTHING TO DO WITH how much you have on your hard drive!!! No matter, it was overdue for me to move a bunch of stuff off.

I kept searching online for fixes, remedies, solutions. Even saw a forum post about the GUI (graphic interface) causing issues. I did find that when I shrunk down the interface window for Protools or minimized the window the CPU% went down significantly. But, I'm thinking, what's the point of having to do that? Am I supposed to work in Protools without seeing what I'm doing?

Well, I'm happy to report that the GUI was not the ultimate culprit.

I had the brainiac idea to remove all effects from large samples such as Natural Grand Piano. Mind you I only had 2 samples running anyway.
Sorry to say, spikes still occurred, though less, and again I'm thinking: why did I pay so much for a plugin who's effects I can't use. What???

On to the remedy:

Finally, I contact Apple Support. It's a free call (Unlike Avid. A-hum, no comment….) After 2 support calls same night, within about an hour or so the problem was solved.

It was actually the 2nd support call that did the trick.

Here's what happened.

I was instructed to go into SAFE MODE, which took a while for boot up. Protools wouldn't open.

Next, I shut down computer.

Then was instructed that we would be CLEARING THE RAM.

To clear the ram on a mac, do the following:
Shut down
After shut down, press the on button and IMMEDIATELY AFTER press the following keys and keep them down until after the 2nd or 3 chime is heard:
Command, Option, R, P

Let the keys go.

Upon full boot up open Protools and see if the issue is resolved.

Worked for me!!!! I'm very thankful.

Apple Support: Highly recommended.

As an aside, it was recommended at the end of the call by the Apple support person that if I had any further issues I should call back and ask for a Senior Advisor. Just a tip in case you run into an issue and want extra help.
Here's the number for Apple Support: 1-800-275-2273
You'll need your apple serial number which you can find by
1)clicking on the apple icon, upper left hand corner,
2) click on version, click again on same place and you'll see your serial number/ you'll have to read this off during the voice prompts prior to getting support when calling the 800 number.
You can also go online an sign up for a support call there on Apple's site.

Thanks!

Lisa

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by soundartsonline

Then was instructed that we would be CLEARING THE RAM.

The procedure is more precisely known as "resetting NVRAM".
Apple's instructions:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

Otherwise, regarding CPU spikes, people have always been adviced that setting PT to use less than all processor cores in Hardware Setup helps. This always worked for me. But I'm still on PT v10, I think it's not applicable in 11 and 12.

[soundartsonline]

Thanks so much Ben. I will definitely try your suggestion as well.

Here's an UPDATE to my situation. Yes, I said that.

What I'm getting at is that the issue is NOT totally resolved. I was recording midi with 3 Sample Tank 3 samples, Natural piano, drums of some kind, and an Ah patch.

I removed ALL effects and while recording heard those sorry clicks and pops. Saw the CPU spike again within Protools, although my mac activity monitor should cpu% maybe climb to 50 or 60. Why the discrepancy, not sure, maybe it's because the Activity Monitor doesn't pick up the nuances as quickly as Protools does.

So then I resolved the issue by bouncing each midi track to audio, just to see if the spiking would cease, and it did. But I had to mute (which I guess in some way may deactivate the sample within Sample Tank 3 to the point where it's not draining resources).

Mind you, I had to bounce each one, one at a time, not all at once. Though a bit laborious, if it solves the issue, so be it.

I'll check how many processor cores I'm using and try reducing those.

What a long strange trip it's been!!!

Thanks again! Keep writing!!!!

Lisa:)

[soundartsonline]

At least when I have active midi tracks, 3 to be exact on one plugin (Sample Tank 3). This seems ridiculous since my system should be able to handle it.
Now I have to bus every track immediately to audio. This isn't the way I like to work and is very inconvenient.

What's up Protools?

Also, as I may end up having to pay for a tech call, can someone tell me why Protools 11 isn't listed as an option, only LE, standalone, and HD I believe.
What's up with that?

Very disheartened after being led to believe that Protools is the end all and be all of DAW.

On top of everything I'm stuck with Mountain Lion because protools will not work on El Capitain, the only available upgrade at present. Thanks a lot Avid.

Stuck in a Mountain Lion time warp of epic proportions and cpu spiking!

Anybody?

Lisa

[soundartsonline]

Hello all (once again),

I've got an iMac osx 10.8.5, running Protools 11.3.1 ,
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 16GB Memory Scarlett 2i4 interface

Ok. Looks like the issue with the cpu spiking that I've been posting about is really due to Sample Tank 3.

Does anyone have a solution for this issue with Protools 11?

I would sincerely appreciate any thoughts. I've tried everything.
As soon as I load SampleTank3 the spiking occurs to 100%. IK Multimedia was no help. All they did was ask me questions and never resolved the issue.

I've posted a new ticket with them.

Thank you.

Lisa

[soundartsonline]

You were right, you can't adjust the core processors in Protools 11.
Thanks Avid!

[soundartsonline]

You were right, you can't adjust the core processors in Protools 11.
Thanks Avid!

[Darryl Ramm]

There is a whole pile of standard troublee shooting steps you hopefully have already done... Did you do those? including trashing prefs, check all plugins are up to date, remove all third party plugins from the plugin folder, check the system is properly optimized, check starting with a new empty session, make sure "ignore errors" is not checked? Disable dynamic plugin processing, create a new admin account and test with a new empty session from there, check for plugin denomalization problems (search DUC if you don't know what that means), etc.

Start at the "Help us Help You" link up above on this web page and do everything you can there. Yes even if all this seemed to work OK before, you especially may have incompatible plugins.

[soundartsonline]

Thanks Darryl,

I will look over your list of suggestions. I know I've done most if not all, but will continue to try.

The culprit is the blood thirsty Sample Tank 3 I'm afraid. I'm still hoping I can get it to work. I really prefer that plugin over any others. So I'm willing to get rid of another if it conflicts.

I've added nothing to the plugins folder, if you're talking about the core folder, are you? I will check there any way. Can I ask you for the location of the plugins folder please? I did find it once, but now can't locate it.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Lisa

[soundartsonline]

Darryl,

Had a question about 3rd party plugins. I found 2 Plugin Folders.
There are 3rd party plugins in the DPM plug-ins folder. Can they stay there or no?
No 3rd party plugins are in the AAX plug-ins folder.

Thanks!

Lisa