Slowness with 4 Aux Tracks

[siin82]

I've been recording with Pro Tools for over 5 years now (50 + tracks) and came across something new recently. I always use an Aux track for all my bass tracks for plugin consolidation, meaning I route the different bass parts of the song to an Aux track. I don't do it for all guitar tracks (my tracks typically have 3 guitar parts). With my latest recording I did route all three guitar parts to Aux tracks and so I had 4 Aux tracks - 1 for bass and 3 for guitar. The bass Aux had two plugins (EQand MB compressor), the guitar Aux tracks just had an EQ plugin.

With 4 aux tracks, Pro Tools became very laggy, to the point where it was difficult to make any volume adjustments. Even changing windows (from Edit to Mix) or scrolling in the song was laggy. I tried removing the plugins and that did not solve the problem. The only thing that did solve the problem was to remove one of the Aux tracks - didn't matter which one - I tried all of them (one at a time, obviously).

So, my conclusion is that Pro Tools 12.5, which I'm using, can handle 3 Aux tracks, but not 4.

Has anyone else seen this or can anyone provide a logic explanation?

Btw, please refrain from suggestions about my computer (RAM, hard disk, etc) - I'm using the same PC I used for the other 50+ tracks and this is the only one that has every caused this problem and there have been no changes whatsoever to my computer. The significant detail here is the Aux tracks.

 

[Joseph Hanna]

I've been recording with Pro Tools for over 5 years now (50 + tracks) and came across something new recently. I always use an Aux track for all my bass tracks for plugin consolidation, meaning I route the different bass parts of the song to an Aux track. I don't do it for all guitar tracks (my tracks typically have 3 guitar parts). With my latest recording I did route all three guitar parts to Aux tracks and so I had 4 Aux tracks - 1 for bass and 3 for guitar. The bass Aux had two plugins (EQand MB compressor), the guitar Aux tracks just had an EQ plugin.

With 4 aux tracks, Pro Tools became very laggy, to the point where it was difficult to make any volume adjustments. Even changing windows (from Edit to Mix) or scrolling in the song was laggy. I tried removing the plugins and that did not solve the problem. The only thing that did solve the problem was to remove one of the Aux tracks - didn't matter which one - I tried all of them (one at a time, obviously).

So, my conclusion is that Pro Tools 12.5, which I'm using, can handle 3 Aux tracks, but not 4.

Has anyone else seen this or can anyone provide a logic explanation?

Btw, please refrain from suggestions about my computer (RAM, hard disk, etc) - I'm using the same PC I used for the other 50+ tracks and this is the only one that has every caused this problem and there have been no changes whatsoever to my computer. The significant detail here is the Aux tracks.

When I tech-supported for Digidesign there was a saying among the ranks that almost everyone who developed a Pro Tools problem would ultimately look under the wrong rock for the solution. The client inevitably would respond that our suggestions weren't valid because it wasn't behaving that way yesterday; therefore, that couldn't be the problem. 90% of the time, it was the problem. Burying your head in the sand as to possible solutions because it's worked in the past is looking under the wrong rock, plain and simple. Here is what I can suggest first off. Multiple aux tracks, in and of themselves, will never affect performance, at least not to a significant degree. Even with a decent load on aux tracks themselves, it's not likely to send the software into fits.

I would try a few things right outta the gate. 1) Pitch all Pro Tools preferences. 2) Copy the session to another drive and check performance from there. 3) Check your system performance meter. 4) Check that all plug-ins are up to date, as yes, out-of-date plug-ins can rear their ugly heads outta the blue and not necessarily as a result of a recent update. 5) If you are using templates, create a new session from scratch and try that. 6) Lastly, it's easy enough to install a fresh copy of Pro Tools when all else fails.

As per usual, there are no certainties when troubleshooting; however, the one certainty I can guarantee is the problem is definitively not that Pro Tools can't handle 4 Aux tracks.

 

[siin82]

When I tech-supported for Digidesign there was a saying among the ranks that almost everyone who developed a Pro Tools problem would ultimately look under the wrong rock for the solution. The client inevitably would respond that our suggestions weren't valid because it wasn't behaving that way yesterday; therefore, that couldn't be the problem. 90% of the time, it was the problem. Burying your head in the sand as to possible solutions because it's worked in the past is looking under the wrong rock, plain and simple. Here is what I can suggest first off. Multiple aux tracks, in and of themselves, will never affect performance, at least not to a significant degree. Even with a decent load on aux tracks themselves, it's not likely to send the software into fits.

I would try a few things right outta the gate. 1) Pitch all Pro Tools preferences. 2) Copy the session to another drive and check performance from there. 3) Check your system performance meter. 4) Check that all plug-ins are up to date, as yes, out-of-date plug-ins can rear their ugly heads outta the blue and not necessarily as a result of a recent update. 5) If you are using templates, create a new session from scratch and try that. 6) Lastly, it's easy enough to install a fresh copy of Pro Tools when all else fails.

As per usual, there are no certainties when troubleshooting; however, the one certainty I can guarantee is the problem is definitively not that Pro Tools can't handle 4 Aux tracks.

Thanks for the reply. Your advice looks good. I basically wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on the Aux tracks. I'll try out some of your suggestions if this happens again (I've completed the work on the track that had issues).

 

[Steenamaroo]

Might be worth making sure the OS you're on is listed as compatible with the specific version of ProTools you're using and, if you're on 12.5, maybe update to 12.5.2 which, I think, was the last incremental update of V12.
12.5.1 and 12.5.2 both include multiple bug fixes.

Unconventional, perhaps, but you might even consider reverting to a slightly older version, even if only to rule something out.
Wouldn't be the first time I've stayed on X.X.4 because X.X.5 introduced some bug that ruined things for me.