Hi everyone * * * * * First of all, sorry if this is hard to read - and please forgive the asteriks between the sentences - I don't know why my text all came out with no paragraphs or line breaks. * * * * *
Ok, this is my first time posting on this forum. I'm having a problem and I sure hope someone can help me. First off, here are the specs of my system: * * * * *
Imac Quadcore, 3.4 GHz, i7 processor - 16 GB Ram - OS X 10.6.8 * * * * *
Apogee Rosetta 800/96 audio interface (via firewire) * * * * *
Pro Tools 9 Native * * * * *
VEPro 5 * * * * *
Kontakt 5 * * * * *
Triton Classic + Nanokontrol2 (MIDI controllers) * * * * *
2 separate Firewire drives (1 for sound libraries - and the other for Pro Tools audio drive) * * * * * * * * * *
Ok, now for my problem. I'm running LASS strings in Kontakt 5. What I've been doing is opening up Pro Tools 9 (Native), putting an instance of VE Pro on an instrument track - putting 1 or more instances of Kontakt in that instance of VE Pro - bringing up multiple patches of LASS (different string articulations). By the way, I usually change my Pro Tools buffer setting between 256 and 1024, depending on how much latency I can handle. * * * * *
What's been happening is that when I try to record a MIDI track in Pro Tools, everything gets sluggish. The audio has clicks and pops. My CPU (RTAS) meter in Pro Tools starts to dance around and spike. Sometimes, Pro Tools just flat out stops and I get an error message saying the following: * * * * *
"A CPU Overload error occured. Try increasing the H/W Buffer size or removing some plugins." * * * * *
So I end up increasing the buffer to 1024 in that case. The problem lessens a bit, but it becomes impossible to play a decent performance because of the latency at this setting. * * * * *
I should also mention that when I have my strings template up and running in Pro Tools (and VE Pro), even when my Pro Tools transport is stopped (nothing playing), my CPU reading (activity monitor) is hovering around 10% - But I constantly see spikes every couple of seconds. Is this normal? * * * * *
Sometimes, the problem is so bad (sluggish) that I hit STOP in Pro Tools, and it won't stop. It keeps playing for up to 20 seconds, before is finally stops. It seems like my system is completely overloaded, for some reason. I thought that having 16 GB of RAM (which is the maximum I can put it in my imac) would be plenty for this kind of task... so maybe the problem is a wrong setting somewhere? * * * * *
Basically, since I'm new to VE Pro, LASS and Kontakt, I was hoping someone could let me know if there are some optimum settings I need to have in order for this to work smoothly (settings in VE Pro, Kontakt and Pro Tools 9). * * * * *
I do have some screen shots that I could share with you (of my Kontakt settings, Pro Tools settings, etc), but I don’t know how to attach them to this post – so I’ve typed out some of the settings here below: * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Pro Tools Playback Engine: * * * * *
-H/W Buffer size: 256 (but I change it to 512 or 1024) * * * * *
-Host Processors: 7 processors * * * * *
-CPU usage limit: 85% * * * * *
-Host Engine: “Ignore Errors during playback/record (may cause clicks and pops)”: BOX CHECKED * * * * *
-Minimize Additional I/O Latency: BOX NOT CHECKED * * * * *
-DAE Playback Buffer (disk buffer): * * * * *
-Size: Level 2 * * * * *
-Cache size: Normal * * * * *
-Plug-in Streaming Buffer: * * * * *
-Size: Level 2 * * * * *
-Optimize for streaming content on audio drives (requires more system memory): BOX NOT CHECKED * * * * * * * * * *
Kontakt settings: * * * * *
KMS: BOX NOT CHECKED * * * * *
Instrument preload buffer size: BOX NOT CHECKED (but value set at 60 kB) * * * * *
CPU overload protection (by killing voices): DISABLED * * * * *
Multi-processor support (AU – Plugin): 8 cores * * * * * * * * *
MAC SETTINGS: * * * * *
System Memory: (during playback of Pro Tools session) * * * * *
Free: 1.19 GB * * * * *
Wired: 6.01 GB * * * * *
Active: 3.21 GB * * * * *
Inactive: 5.59 GB * * * * *
Used: 14.80 GB * * * * *
VM size: 157.87 GB * * * * *
Page ins: 1,010.5 MB * * * * * * * * * *
P.S. I have not yet tried decoupling in VE Pro. Would that make any difference performance-wise? Or does that only affect the saving of sessions data? * * * * *
I'm not sure what other settings I would need to share with you in order to help you solve my problem. * * * * *
I would appreciate any help/suggestions you can offer. Thanks! * * * * *
Regards, * * * * *
Michael (Rockman123)
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Please help! - Sluggish performance, clicks and pops - Pro Tools 9, Ve Pro 5, Kontakt 5
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Thanks Cyril. Err, could you tell me exactly where and how I do that? Is that a feature in VE Pro 5? (I don't have Vienna Instruments, since I use LASS strings). Thanks again. Anyone else have any suggestions? Thanks!
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Hi Rockman123,
I also replied to your support request by email:
First of all, please completely disable Multiprocessor Support in Kontakt when instantiated in VE Pro 5 - multiprocessing is taken care of by VE Pro.
If this does not already fix the issue, please increase CPU Usage Limit to 90% in Pro Tools/Set up/Playback Engine and perhaps set the amount of Host (RTAS) Processors to 6.
Please let us know wether this solved your problem!
Best, Marnix
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I have been having virtually the same symptoms with a similar setup, but was able to greatly improve the stability and eliminate the error messages altogether. I am on a Mac Pro quadcore, 10 GIG ram, with Pro Tools 9 with HD2 and VE Pro 5. I am working right now on a project with 3 Kontakt Player 4.2.4 plug-ins and Superior Drummer 2 in the VE Pro 5. I have 2 Digi instrument plugs running, with about 16 acoustic tracks in Pro Tools with lots of processing.
What helped me the most was balancing the number of processor settings in Pro Tools and VE Pro 5 to where each gets half the processors in my system. I have 4, so I told Pro Tools in the setup>playback engine page to use 2 “host processors” and told VE Pro 5 in its preferences>instances page to use 2 “threads.” I have read other posts referring to this and others say if you are on an 8 core system then go 4 and 4, etc.
On the VE Pro 5 instances page, set the audio outputs, inputs & midi settings to the amount you are actually using or plan to use.
In Pro Tools on the playback engine page, I did reset the “CPU usage limit” from 85% to 95% and the “Host Engine-ignore errors during playback” is checked. I also have the “optimize for streaming content. . .” checked with level 2 selected. In the “DAE Playback Buffer” I have it set to “level 2” and the “cache size” set to large. I was able to decrease the H/W buffer size from 512 to 256 samples.
In Pro Tools, “window>system usage” tool, the “cpu (rtas)” display was spiking to 100 routinely and now is running in the 25 to 55% range. On the VE Pro 5 interface the cpu usage was going to 100% and is now playing back in the 40 to 75% range and idling in the 13 to 20% range, which I understand to still be high, but the system at least is now stable and usable.
Another thing that has helped is to use the “Purge” feature on the Kontakt Player. I will load the full instrument to write the parts, then after I have the parts written, follow their procedure to reload only the samples I need. The same with Superior Drummer 2’s “cache” feature.
I know there are other tweaks that are needed in my setup and I welcome any suggestions. Try these tweaks and see if they work for you.
