CPU Overloads During Playback In Pro Tools

[NBarnes21]

Hi all,

I'm having issues where Pro Tools will frequently stop playback saying a CPU overload occurred. However, my CPU in the system usage window hovers around only 10%, maybe up to 15% or 20% max. In addition, Activity Monitor only reads 15-20% active by user, 5 or 6% system, with 80% inactive. I have my H/W Buffer size set to 512 samples, and max CPU usage to 95%. I also switched down to 3 cores for Pro Tools, then 2, same problem both times.

Using a 15" MacBook Pro with a 2.8 GHZ Quad Core i7 processor and 4 GB RAM- I expected better performance out of a comp like this. Only running apps like Safari and Mail, maybe iTunes in addition to Pro Tools.

Any idea what could be happening here or how to improve performance? Any help is much appreciated, thanks.

[jeffling]

Which version of Pro Tools and which OS version are you running?

[NBarnes21]

Originally Posted by jeffling

Which version of Pro Tools and which OS version are you running?

10.0.1 and the latest Lion

[Connor]

Are you using any samples?? This is the biggest PT problem IMO.

When I am running a small session with some samples in kontakt, it complains about CPU errors and yet my Activity monitor says im only using 20% of my cpu.

[NBarnes21]

Originally Posted by Connor

Are you using any samples?? This is the biggest PT problem IMO.

When I am running a small session with some samples in kontakt, it complains about CPU errors and yet my Activity monitor says im only using 20% of my cpu.

I'm using XPand, the AIR Organ, and EZ Drummer in this particular session, but I've gotten in on larger sessions with a fair amount of plugins but without virtual instruments as well

[Connor]

Originally Posted by NBarnes21

I'm using XPand, the AIR Organ, and EZ Drummer in this particular session, but I've gotten in on larger sessions with a fair amount of plugins but without virtual instruments as well

Ya. I was working on some Post Production.. just using plugs and audio suite. I had around 80 stereo audio tracks. PT system monitor said I was using 80% and my Mac Activity Monitor said 80% as well. WHICH IS GOOD!! Pro Tools can handle audio.

It's just a simple fact that Pro Tools sucks with VI's.

Apparently Vienna Ensemble Pro 5 helps... but I don't feel like paying more money to buy another piece of software to fix Pro Tools' inefficient resource management.

Im thinking I may as well switch to Cubase..

[BGMusic]

Supposedly AAX will fix this.