Hi All.
I have a three PC (all Win 7, 32 Gig RAM, SSD, etc etc) system. One is running Pro Tools 11 and the other two are slaves.
Generally this system is all running quite well with VE PRO 5.
However, I am really pushing the system hard with low buffer sizes (64 samples) on the Pro Tools 11 system. Partly because apart from the load of VI instruments I have, I am also using a load of hardware synths - so trying to mimimse latency on them. I know there are already some workarounds to this (e.g. print the external synths to audio after direct monitoring etc etc).
However, I am playing with my set up to see how well I can get it to cope with a low audio buffer. And here is the basic question.
I have created a test here: https://soundcloud.com/mark-stuart-ramsay/further-test-latency
This is hard work for the three PCs (loads of samples and long sustains). Now I am getting some pops and clicks. They seem to come from the two slaves:
1) They are random
2) They do not appear at the same point upon each playback
3) Looking at the meters on VE PRO server (both PC's), I can see visually where the drop / pop takes place (they dip)
I can stop this happening by upping the buffer in Pro Tools 11.
However, what I do not understand really is WHAT is the buffer actually doing in Pro Tools to STOP the pops (at higher buffer sizes). The drops clearly seem to be from the slaves ...... so ...
... does this give me / you a clue that I should be optimsing the slaves (e.g. disc, network adaptor etc)... rather than anything specific on the main Pro Tools PC?
MArk