15th May 2012
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#1 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,021
Thread Starter  | HD Native, 8 Core 2.66, Uad-2 - WTF?
Boy, I have having serious problems with the above setup (2009 8 core nehalem 2.66 with 12 gigs o' ram - OS 10.6.8) with audio playback (either stalling out and getting the "increase buffer setting" pop-up or getting the digital cracklies if I tell the playback engine to ignore such problems).
I run my sessions at 96k and certainly have plenty of tracks (sometimes up to 40). I use a combination of Waves plugins and UAD plug ins (I have a quad and a duo card installed).
I'm using Slate VCC on every channel and have other plugins sprinkled around. max 3 on a channel (including slate) and plenty of tracks with only Slate VCC. I've bounced all my VIs to audio so there's no samples being accessed.
Thing is, according to my system usage monitor in PT (oh yeah, PT HD 10.0.1), I'm only the native CPU at 23% tops. I'm using 23 out of 128 voices and Disk Cache and Timeline Cached is at 100% (I have 6 or 12 gigs or Ram allocated to Ram caching. It would appear that I have plenty of headroom yet the sessions won't play.
I've set everything to the highest possible in the playback engine (tried buffer settings of both 1024 and 2048, delay compensation on short, cores used on 15 (also tried 16) and CPU usage limit at 99% so basically I have nowhere else to go.
I feel like these problems got worse when I started using the UAD plugs I have 6 cores on 2 cards and the max is hitting 33% usage) but it's hard to say.
This particular session was running OK until I added the slate to test the sound.
Anyone else having these issues and can suggest a work around or upgrade? Seems silly to upgrade hardware unless the PT system usage monitor is lying to me.
Is there a trick to where in line you should put UAD plugs vs native plugs (kind of like mixing RTAS and TDM plugs on a TDM system)?
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated - have my album nearing completion and can't get any of the songs to play straight through!
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15th May 2012
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#2 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,021
Thread Starter |
Just checked Mac's Activity Monitor. Seems like hard drive I/O is spiking. I'll try putting half the files on another drive and see if that helps (although the whole session is Ram Cached so it wouldn't seem like that would matter).
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15th May 2012
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#3 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 1,774
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I had problems with HD and UAD but found out the the UAD likes a buffer of 512 with HD and I can't remember but there was some setting in the UAD control panel specific to PT that I had to click on.
How long have you had the issue? Have your ran any memory test?
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15th May 2012
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#4 | | 70% Coffee, 30% Beer
Joined: Dec 2006 Location: Quincy, MA
Posts: 9,206
| Quote:
Originally Posted by AllBread  2009 8 core nehalem 2.66 with 12 gigs o' ram - OS 10.6.8)
Thing is, according to my system usage monitor in PT (oh yeah, PT HD 10.0.1), I'm only the native CPU at 23% tops. I'm using 23 out of 128 voices and Disk Cache and Timeline Cached is at 100% (I have 6 or 12 gigs or Ram allocated to Ram caching. It would appear that I have plenty of headroom yet the sessions won't play.
I've set everything to the highest possible in the playback engine (tried buffer settings of both 1024 and 2048, delay compensation on short, cores used on 15 (also tried 16) and CPU usage limit at 99% so basically I have nowhere else to go. | I would suggest cutting the core's down to half of what you see available, [maybe move up one or two to find the sweet spot] and setting the CPU usage to 99%. I have the same exact machine as you, and I found 7 cores to be the sweet spot. Full on Cores gives me the buggeyes
__________________ Adam Brass adam@dspdoctor.com  DSPdoctor.com "Where High End is Still King" 
__________________ "Any opinions above are worth exactly what you paid for them." Anonymous "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. Thomas Edison
RTFM
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15th May 2012
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#5 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,021
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by Doc Mixwell I would suggest cutting the core's down to half of what you see available, [maybe move up one or two to find the sweet spot] and setting the CPU usage to 99%. I have the same exact machine as you, and I found 7 cores to be the sweet spot. Full on Cores gives me the buggeyes | Holy crap, that worked! Switched to 7 cores and it played back with no problem - moved back to 15 and stalled right away. Kind of counter-intuitive but whatever works.
Thanks so much for the solution, I was pulling my hair out and starting to look at 12 core refurbished Macs on their site. You just saved me a lot of frustration and potentially cash - if ever I'm in you're area beer is on me!
So glad it's working because this Slate VCC sound great on every track!
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15th May 2012
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#6 | | 70% Coffee, 30% Beer
Joined: Dec 2006 Location: Quincy, MA
Posts: 9,206
| Quote:
Originally Posted by AllBread Holy crap, that worked! Switched to 7 cores and it played back with no problem - moved back to 15 and stalled right away. Kind of counter-intuitive but whatever works.
Thanks so much for the solution, I was pulling my hair out and starting to look at 12 core refurbished Macs on their site. You just saved me a lot of frustration and potentially cash - if ever I'm in you're area beer is on me!
So glad it's working because this Slate VCC sound great on every track! | Your most welcome!
Glad to hear the advice nailed the problem, hopefully it stays on the path of the righteous, from here on out.
If you're ever in Quincy, Massachusetts [just outside of Boston] feel free to hit me up, because a pint of Guinness will be mighty fine compensation :P
let us know, if the HAL box gets all buggery again....
we're watching
doc_out!
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15th May 2012
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#7 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,021
Thread Starter |
Shoot - just put UAD's Studer 800 on every track and it's still running without a hitch. I feel like I did just swap computers!
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15th May 2012
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#8 | | 3 + infractions, forum membership suspended.
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 2,987
| Quote:
Originally Posted by AllBread Holy crap, that worked! Switched to 7 cores and it played back with no problem - moved back to 15 and stalled right away. Kind of counter-intuitive but whatever works.
Thanks so much for the solution, I was pulling my hair out and starting to look at 12 core refurbished Macs on their site. You just saved me a lot of frustration and potentially cash - if ever I'm in you're area beer is on me!
So glad it's working because this Slate VCC sound great on every track! | Is this a option in protools,that allow you to choose how many cores to use?
Sent from my PC36100 using Gearslutz App
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15th May 2012
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#9 | | Gear Head
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 48
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Excuse me my noobness, but how can I limit the used cores? Or is that a Protools feature only?
Edit - just saw that FLYINGJAY was faster....
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15th May 2012
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#10 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,021
Thread Starter |
Yep, in the Pro Tools Playback Engine box.
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15th May 2012
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#12 | | Gear Head
Joined: Oct 2011 Location: Tempe, AZ
Posts: 45
| Quote:
Originally Posted by FLYINGJAY Is this a option in protools,that allow you to choose how many cores to use?
Sent from my PC36100 using Gearslutz App | Yeah in Pro Tools you can set the number of cores that pro tools uses on your computer as well as the % of the core's memory it uses. One of the cool things that Pro Tools offers.
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15th May 2012
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#13 | | Gear Head
Joined: Oct 2011 Location: Tempe, AZ
Posts: 45
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I had the same problem when I first started using pro tools on my mac pro, I always had it set to use all 4 cores and 99% of them and I always had issues with playback problems, then I read that you don't want to use your whole computers memory with pro tools, always leave at least 1 core available for normal computer operations. Now I have it set to 3 cores and 90% usage and I never have playback problems even when I'm tracking drums with plugins on. I thought it was crazy too but it made all the difference
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21st May 2012
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#14 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jun 2007 Location: berlin |
Guys,
do you know how much RAM and in what configuration Pro Tools likes?
3x4GB, 6x8GB etc
thanks, jeremy
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by CorkyTart Cool. More fights about music equipment. | | |
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