pt 6.9.2 sluggish...any help?

Musicfuelzgood · 31st October 2005

hey guys, i was wondering if you could help me with a pro tools question. i recently updated to 6.9.2 and sessions that opened up fine in 6.4 are really slow or won't play in 6.9.2. im using fxpansion vst wrapper on some plugs, but barely ever, so i dont think that could be it. regardless...the sessions that opened up in 6.4 won't play correctly and it says DAE can't get audio fast enough or something is too slow. last piece of info is that im not using a battery, and my powerbook is running off the adapter as of current, because i need to buy a new battery...(it won't charge....any ideas with that too?) any help is appreciated!

-b

Musicfuelzgood · 1st November 2005

bump....anyone? it's really aggravating not being able to work on tracks i need to get done. some tracks open fine, but others are choking where they didn't on 6.4. pleease help...)=

gsharp · 1st November 2005

Did you have a higher hardware buffer or DAE buffer set before and maybe forgot to up them when you went to 6.9?

Musicfuelzgood · 1st November 2005

no thats all set already. any other ideas?

jeff deff · 2nd November 2005

I've been recording using Protools 6.9.2 on a Mac G5 1.8ghz machine running OS 10.4.2 for the past few months. Previously, I was working on a G4 with Protools 6.4. My first impression of 6.9.2 on the G5 was it was not faster and perhaps even slower. After about a month I started getting DAE errors saying that my drive was too fragmented. When I would begin recording tracks, after about 2-10 seconds, the recording would stop and I'd get an error message. This of course was my worst nightmare during sessions. I would completely erase my harddrive to be sure there was no fragmentation and still get the same errors.

Finally, after just about losing my mind, I went and searched the digidesign answer base and solved the problem. In Mac OS 10.4 there is the feature called "spotlight" which is a new search engine. There is something called "spotlight indexing" which, as I understand it, creates some reference for every file created so spotlight can find it. When recording audio files apparently, this can be disasterous and halt recording or slow down the system a bunch. The solution I found was to download a disc utility program called "spotless 1.0.3" that disables this indexing feature for your hard drive. It is shareware and available from:
http://www.fixamacsoftware.com/
in the downloads section.

After deactivating the spotlight indexing, I have not had a single DAE error. The computer runs way better. I believe disabling this feature is vital to recording in Protools and I wish I had learned of this sooner. It was a dramatic improvement in performance. I am a much happier person now.

Now I am just hoping that Protools version 7 helps with RTAS plugins so I can use more plugins and get less Hardware buffer errors.

Musicfuelzgood · 4th November 2005

thank you for the suggestion about the spotlight tool. i downloaded it....but still the same errors. sessions that opened fine in 6.4 are dying in 6.9.2. some even say they lost communication with the 002. crazy. im about ready to lose it over here because i need to get so much work done and this is killing me. the error has been that the drives are too slow or fragmented...but i dont know what happened in two days...the drive was fine before. please tell me someone else has a solution for this....)=

-b

max cooper · 4th November 2005

First of all, that wrapper sucks CPU cycles. Secondly, I noticed that 6.9.2 is taxing the system more than 6.4 was, but it seems to me it's Tiger, not PTLE.

I think it's really important to keep the drives clean; I'd suggest backing up and doing a clean install of the system drive and offloading all the stuff on the record-to drive.

I start each session with my record-to drive empty, and it helps more than anything else.

Consider that the record-to drive and the interface (if it's an 002. I don't recall that you mentioned what it is...) are on the same firewire bus. So give the system a break, and make sure the drive is clean.

Make sure there's not a CD or DVD in the drawer, too.

make sure Airport is off.

All that Digi stuff about optimizing your system; sleep: never, spin down the drives: no, etc.

Check and see if your drives have journaling enabled on them; if they do, you can no longer un-journal them with Tiger; but you can download a freeware app called Cocktail that will allow you to un-journal them.

Cocktail will also allow you to do stuff like turn off the shadow in the dock, etc.

But, yeah, I think Tiger increased functionality, not performance. The PTLE 7 upgrade might help.

And really, that fxpansion VST/RTAS wrapper is like a CPU boat anchor. Fine if you can run it, but if your having problems, it's the first thing I'd ditch.

joaquin · 5th March 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeff deff

I've been recording using Protools 6.9.2 on a Mac G5 1.8ghz machine running OS 10.4.2 for the past few months. Previously, I was working on a G4 with Protools 6.4. My first impression of 6.9.2 on the G5 was it was not faster and perhaps even slower. After about a month I started getting DAE errors saying that my drive was too fragmented. When I would begin recording tracks, after about 2-10 seconds, the recording would stop and I'd get an error message. This of course was my worst nightmare during sessions. I would completely erase my harddrive to be sure there was no fragmentation and still get the same errors.

Finally, after just about losing my mind, I went and searched the digidesign answer base and solved the problem. In Mac OS 10.4 there is the feature called "spotlight" which is a new search engine. There is something called "spotlight indexing" which, as I understand it, creates some reference for every file created so spotlight can find it. When recording audio files apparently, this can be disasterous and halt recording or slow down the system a bunch. The solution I found was to download a disc utility program called "spotless 1.0.3" that disables this indexing feature for your hard drive. It is shareware and available from:
http://www.fixamacsoftware.com/
in the downloads section.

After deactivating the spotlight indexing, I have not had a single DAE error. The computer runs way better. I believe disabling this feature is vital to recording in Protools and I wish I had learned of this sooner. It was a dramatic improvement in performance. I am a much happier person now.

Now I am just hoping that Protools version 7 helps with RTAS plugins so I can use more plugins and get less Hardware buffer errors.

Thank you Jeff!! You make my day!!

31st October 2005	#1
Musicfuelzgood Gear nut Joined: Sep 2004 Location: Lake Hopatcong, NJ Posts: 98 Thread Starter	pt 6.9.2 sluggish...any help? hey guys, i was wondering if you could help me with a pro tools question. i recently updated to 6.9.2 and sessions that opened up fine in 6.4 are really slow or won't play in 6.9.2. im using fxpansion vst wrapper on some plugs, but barely ever, so i dont think that could be it. regardless...the sessions that opened up in 6.4 won't play correctly and it says DAE can't get audio fast enough or something is too slow. last piece of info is that im not using a battery, and my powerbook is running off the adapter as of current, because i need to buy a new battery...(it won't charge....any ideas with that too?) any help is appreciated! -b

4th November 2005	#6
Musicfuelzgood Gear nut Joined: Sep 2004 Location: Lake Hopatcong, NJ Posts: 98 Thread Starter	about ready to lose it thank you for the suggestion about the spotlight tool. i downloaded it....but still the same errors. sessions that opened fine in 6.4 are dying in 6.9.2. some even say they lost communication with the 002. crazy. im about ready to lose it over here because i need to get so much work done and this is killing me. the error has been that the drives are too slow or fragmented...but i dont know what happened in two days...the drive was fine before. please tell me someone else has a solution for this....)= -b

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1st November 2005	#2
Musicfuelzgood Gear nut Joined: Sep 2004 Location: Lake Hopatcong, NJ Posts: 98 Thread Starter	bump....anyone? it's really aggravating not being able to work on tracks i need to get done. some tracks open fine, but others are choking where they didn't on 6.4. pleease help...)=

1st November 2005	#3
gsharp Lives for gear Joined: Mar 2003 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 722	Did you have a higher hardware buffer or DAE buffer set before and maybe forgot to up them when you went to 6.9?

2nd November 2005	#5
jeff deff Gear nut Joined: Nov 2005 Location: Chicago, Ill. Posts: 130	I've been recording using Protools 6.9.2 on a Mac G5 1.8ghz machine running OS 10.4.2 for the past few months. Previously, I was working on a G4 with Protools 6.4. My first impression of 6.9.2 on the G5 was it was not faster and perhaps even slower. After about a month I started getting DAE errors saying that my drive was too fragmented. When I would begin recording tracks, after about 2-10 seconds, the recording would stop and I'd get an error message. This of course was my worst nightmare during sessions. I would completely erase my harddrive to be sure there was no fragmentation and still get the same errors. Finally, after just about losing my mind, I went and searched the digidesign answer base and solved the problem. In Mac OS 10.4 there is the feature called "spotlight" which is a new search engine. There is something called "spotlight indexing" which, as I understand it, creates some reference for every file created so spotlight can find it. When recording audio files apparently, this can be disasterous and halt recording or slow down the system a bunch. The solution I found was to download a disc utility program called "spotless 1.0.3" that disables this indexing feature for your hard drive. It is shareware and available from: http://www.fixamacsoftware.com/ in the downloads section. After deactivating the spotlight indexing, I have not had a single DAE error. The computer runs way better. I believe disabling this feature is vital to recording in Protools and I wish I had learned of this sooner. It was a dramatic improvement in performance. I am a much happier person now. Now I am just hoping that Protools version 7 helps with RTAS plugins so I can use more plugins and get less Hardware buffer errors.

4th November 2005	#7
max cooper Lives for gear Joined: Aug 2004 Location: tx Posts: 8,802	First of all, that wrapper sucks CPU cycles. Secondly, I noticed that 6.9.2 is taxing the system more than 6.4 was, but it seems to me it's Tiger, not PTLE. I think it's really important to keep the drives clean; I'd suggest backing up and doing a clean install of the system drive and offloading all the stuff on the record-to drive. I start each session with my record-to drive empty, and it helps more than anything else. Consider that the record-to drive and the interface (if it's an 002. I don't recall that you mentioned what it is...) are on the same firewire bus. So give the system a break, and make sure the drive is clean. Make sure there's not a CD or DVD in the drawer, too. make sure Airport is off. All that Digi stuff about optimizing your system; sleep: never, spin down the drives: no, etc. Check and see if your drives have journaling enabled on them; if they do, you can no longer un-journal them with Tiger; but you can download a freeware app called Cocktail that will allow you to un-journal them. Cocktail will also allow you to do stuff like turn off the shadow in the dock, etc. But, yeah, I think Tiger increased functionality, not performance. The PTLE 7 upgrade might help. And really, that fxpansion VST/RTAS wrapper is like a CPU boat anchor. Fine if you can run it, but if your having problems, it's the first thing I'd ditch.