Audio stutter when browsing the web on Sonoma

[TurboD]

I recently updated my M1 Max Mac Studio to Sonoma while I had some downtime between projects. I now get massive stuttering in Pro Tools when I do something in a web browser in the background.

For example, if I click on a video in Chrome or Safari while Pro Tools is in play, the audio will begin to stutter horribly and will only stop when I close the browser down.

It never used to do this on Monterey which I came straight from. I'm on the latest version of Tools, latest versions of browsers, last version of Sonoma. It doesn't matter how intensive my Pro Tools session is - it'll do it even if I have a single stereo track playing with no plugins on.

Any thoughts? I've already tried lowering my disk cache in PT to no avail and I'm nowhere near maxing out my 32 GB integrated RAM.

[TurboD]

Bump...!

[_JJ_]

I'll give it a go. Maybe you didn't get many replies because of the question: You're asking why ProTools can't continue playing seamlessly while another app is trying to play audio? And that's something you used to be able to do in Monterey? Are the two apps competing for the same audio interface? That would seem like the most obvious cause.

It seems there have been some changes in the Mac OS recently with the appearance of the orange mic icon and how PT needs to be granted "Microphone" access regardless of the actual audio source. But if this particular functionality is important to you, try assigning the two sources to different output devices. PT to its own DA (isn't the S1 just a controller?) and the Mac OS to internal speakers. Just an idea.

[Ed Douglas]

How are you routing your system audio?

In my case, I have my system audio output set to the 6 chan PTAB and have an aux within my protools session set to that as an input - I monitor everything in 5.1 through my PT sessions. I had some clocking issues develop resulting it all sorts of stuttering and glitching until someone suggested incorporating the PTAB into an aggregate device with drift correction enabled.
That solved it for me.

Including this on the outside chance it may prove helpful.

[prspn]

Yes what kind of audio interface are you using?

RME for instance have done several recent driver updates to fix issues like this, both Apple Silicon and Sequoia/Sonoma related.

[TurboD]

Thanks for the replies everyone. To answer the questions:

Yes, I used to be able to do this before updating to Sonoma. My setup uses a Lynx Aurora and a Neve 1073 SPX-D aggregated, with the Lynx clocked to the Neve. The Neve is my main mix DAC, feeding an analogue in on my Crane Song Avocet, while my system audio and rough mixes etc go via AES from the Lynx to the Crane Song.

Being able to run a Chrome browser in the background playing YouTube/Dropbox/whatever audio allows me to A/B between my mix and other references from the artist on separate buttons on my Avocet, so I'm often jumping between my mix playing in PT and a Chrome window playing audio/video.

It has never been a problem before upgrading to Sonoma, but now playing media or even opening a photograph on Chrome while PT is open causes massive stuttering in Pro Tools (not the system audio though!) which is only rectified by closing down the browser window.

I'm on the very latest Lynx drivers which are for Sonoma.

[tope d]

I tried to reproduce this with and without an interface but was unable to.
Have you tried clearing your Pro Tools Cache? Is the same happening?

[TurboD]

Originally Posted by tope d

I tried to reproduce this with and without an interface but was unable to.
Have you tried clearing your Pro Tools Cache? Is the same happening?

Hey Tope, thanks. I've just cleared the PT Cache but no change.

What's odd is that it records into the audio, so it's not just the main output of Pro Tools. If I do a realtime commit of a track through a hardware insert, for example, the stuttering gets printed into the new audio.

[_JJ_]

Dumb question but - is your system audio and PT operating at the same sample rate or is your external gear is trying to leap from one to another? System audio details can be set in Applications >> Utilities >> Audio MIDI Setup.

[TurboD]

Originally Posted by _JJ_

Dumb question but - is your system audio and PT operating at the same sample rate or is your external gear is trying to leap from one to another? System audio details can be set in Applications >> Utilities >> Audio MIDI Setup.

Not a dumb question at all! But yes, all the same sample rate.