Pro Tools 10 CPU error (-6101 error)

AshX

AshX

New member
I've been getting this CPU overload/error (-6101 error) for about two months now. It first occurred in May when I got Guitar Rig 5 and Absynth and worked on a new song. I was running quite a few instances of the plugins: 3 or 4 of Guitar Rig, and maybe 10 of Absynth at the most and once completed the session ran at about 50 tracks. When playing, recording, or bouncing I would often get the 6101 error and as of the final mix with 50 tracks, while bouncing (it usually takes a few tries to get it to bounce) you actually hear an audible glitch on the bounce (sounds like some weird computer bleeping/screeching) and sometimes that will lead to the error popping up. I'm sure the problem is I'm running too many instances of the plugin and I should just print the guitar rig and absynth effects (which I have, in some instances) but in many cases some of the guitar rig instances are just placeholders for when the signal is re-amped and I don't want to print some of the absynth tracks in case there are some arrangement changes and I need to modify the midi. I haven't wanted to record vocals with headphones for fear of this blasting at me while tracking, but I suppose I could bounce the current mix and then open a new session and record the vocals there, then drop the vocal .wav files into the full session and that would be avoided.

I've noticed when I turn off my wifi, it seems to help a bit (not much) to reduce the frequency of these issues. I have no issues when I don't have those two particular plugins running. Other than the obvious tedious workarounds, is there any way to somehow prevent the CPU from being overloaded? Should I delete every other program other than Safari and my audio programs on this computer (I don't use it for anything other than audio and video stuff)? Or is it just the fault of my iMac?

Specs:

Pro Tools 10 (Ver 10.0.0)
2011 Apple iMac 21 inch 4GB Memory (OSX Lion 10.7.5)
Apogee Duet 2 Audio Interface
Yamaha HS50 Speakers

I haven't noticed this issue on Logic (although I haven't tested it with the same amount of tracks). Pro Tools seems to do this with about 10 or so tracks and two instances of Guitar Rig.

P.S. I do have an external hard drive, but it's just using time machine to back everything up. I guess one option is to partition it or only run my sessions off the drive?
 
AshX said:
I might try that, then. I haven't updated to 11 yet...would rather wait for all the bugs to be worked out.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd leave well alone.
No RTAS support, many manufacturers haven't moved to AAX yet, and you need an ilok2.
I got the free upgrade but I'm not touching it yet. ;)

Another handy tip; If your problems are inexplicable or all of a sudden, find the protools preference and database trasher app,
or google how to do it manually.

I keep that little app on hand. It's sorted out no end of issues.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Yeah, I'd leave well alone.
No RTAS support, many manufacturers haven't moved to AAX yet, and you need an ilok2.
I got the free upgrade but I'm not touching it yet. ;)

Another handy tip; If your problems are inexplicable or all of a sudden, find the protools preference and database trasher app,
or google how to do it manually.

I keep that little app on hand. It's sorted out no end of issues.
Click to expand...

I'll check that out. Yeah, I'm not sure how much an iMac can handle track wise. Prior to that I didn't have Guitar Rig so I can't really say the problem came out of nowhere...I had never worked on a song with that many tracks. I checked my CPU meter and it was reading 96%. Is there anyway to improve it? More RAM? External HD? Etc? Or do you just need a Mac Pro to handle tons of tracks?...
 
Hmm. From your description, it sounds like you've just found the limits of your mac.
Guitar rig is pretty intensive.

Maybe some plugin management will help? Bus eq/comp/reverb instead of 10 instances of each, for example?

Sometimes Protools error messages are misleading. It can say cpu this and that and the real bottleneck or issue is elsewhere.
I would definitely run my sessions from an external hard drive, if that's an option.

You shouldn't need to partition your TM drive. Just go ahead and copy your session to it.
I'd avoid letting the computer do intensive tasks while you're mixing. Time machine is is one thing I'd turn off if I was having problems.



You definitely don't need to delete programs etc. They don't make any difference at all unless you are seriously running out of disk space, or the programs are actually running.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Hmm. From your description, it sounds like you've just found the limits of your mac.
Guitar rig is pretty intensive.

Maybe some plugin management will help? Bus eq/comp/reverb instead of 10 instances of each, for example?

Sometimes Protools error messages are misleading. It can say cpu this and that and the real bottleneck or issue is elsewhere.
I would definitely run my sessions from an external hard drive, if that's an option.

You shouldn't need to partition your TM drive. Just go ahead and copy your session to it.
I'd avoid letting the computer do intensive tasks while you're mixing. Time machine is is one thing I'd turn off if I was having problems.



You definitely don't need to delete programs etc. They don't make any difference at all unless you are seriously running out of disk space, or the programs are actually running.
Click to expand...

It seems like it. I guess I should commit to a sound more often than not, but I find myself overdubbing a lot of guitars with different Guitar Rig amps just to see how they affect the whole recording. I usually reamp one or two and then keep at least one or more with the guitar rig settings just to fill out the overdubs. Would more RAM help?

I'll give the time machine thing a try.
 
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