CPU Spikes, I've tried everything-what next?

[football2]

I have a Dual G5 2.7 running PT 7.1 (4.5 Gig Ram) .

When I do much with soft synths (mainly Ivory or Kontakt) I get these CPU spikes when the playback buffer is lower than 512. Oddly enough the processor is doing almost nothing when I monitor it (15-35% depending on buffer size).

I've tried everything Digi says to do. Any other unique ideas? By the way, I have three drives- the system drive, a "sounds drive" (internal) and also PT running off a firewire drive.

I'd love some fresh ideas.

Thank you

[CV]

the current PT LE is not very cpu efficient and has had major problems over the years with CPU spikes. As a company I'm sure they have limited resources and can't re-write the code for LE users. We're small peanuts to them.

I've been fighting this stuff for years.
You can either switch to DP or Logic. Pray that the Intel Macs will finally have an efficent version of LE.


LE is good for mixing and post situations. For composing with soft-synths and midi, you'll be banging your head into the wall pretty soon.

[randyT]

Can you clarify this......you say you have PT running on a firewire drive. Do you meant that the PT program is loaded on the firewire drive and running from there? PT should be loaded on the system drive and only the resulting session files should be on the firewire or other "sounds drive".

randy

[CV]

yeah...not to diminish other "issues" but yes I would start with installing the software on the computer running your operating system.
Is your OS booting off of an external FW???

[football2]

Sorry if I was not clear. PT is installed and running on the system drive with the operating system.

[tclash]

I have a dual 2.7 w/4.5 gigs of ram as well.

I've been having the same spiking problems as you when my buffer is below 512. It seems worst with wrapped VST plugs (UAD-1) and Native Instruments.

It's highly aggravating. I wish I could offer some advice, but I haven't found a solution.

One question, though: Do you get the spikes when you're just playing without doing anything else? Mine happen mostly when I'm tweaking parameters on any plug after I've introduced a wrapped/VI into the session.

[CV]

If you're using plug-ins not optomized for PT 7, they may be almost unusable at this point.

BFD lite with PT 7.1 on the quad is the worst. Kontakt / Native Instruments are pretty bad wil PT 7.

I don't know what to say at this point...I've been banging the drum on this for months....

If you need to run VI's switch to logic or DP I guess...


-CV

[football2]

I do get the spikes when I am just playing (don't have to be actually recording a take).

I am very seriously considering a switch to Logic but am not looking forward to learning a new program.

I have just about had it.

[football2]

I'll call Digi next week to find out if they feel this is curable or not.

Thank you for helping.

[CV]

Football:

Not to sound like a pessimist, but there's almost no point to "calling" digi. Chances are You'll get a different answer with every rep/tech and you might have to call 3 or 4 times to get the person who really knows what their talking about.
Even then they'll just be giving you the "company line."

The truth is Pro Tools is a great application, but PT LE is not all its cracked up to be. For using midi and soft synths, DP and Logic are the apps most composers use these days.

That's fine, but what bothers me is that PT LE is very much advertised as being able to run in all of these situations. Trust me, it's frustruation. I just spent like $8,000 (on a quad, 002, command 8, Midi I/O, Sony RTAS, etc.) only to find that PT 7 doesn't operate well with low buffer settings.
Its a bad time to have to buy a CPU with the intel code having to be written.
We might never get a usable version of PT 7 on our "old" G5's...

Kontakt 2 update has just been released, so hopefully its RTAS version will be more useable.