looking for Dynamics III for Pro Tools LE 6.4

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visianti

New member
I'm on Mac OS 10.3.2

Dynamics III (compressor) doesn't seem to be available on avid's web site. If anyone knows where I can download it for my old PT LE 6.4, it would REALLY help me.

PT's built-in compressor is giving me little pops, so it is unusable. My only options right now are re-amping or exporting to Final Cut and compressing and exporting back to PT. Both those options are time-consuming and get in the way of the workflow.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Hi there,
As far as I know Protools build in compressor is dynIII.

As far as the clicks and pops though, what is your buffer size set to?
Maybe you could try increasing it a bit?
 
Hi, thanks for the response.

DynIII maybe comes with later versions of PT, but it didn't even exist when PT 6.4 came out.

I've been using the default buffer sizes ("H/W Buffer Size: 512 Samples" and "DAE Playback Buffer Size: Level 2"). Reading your post, I just went in and tried various combinations, and now I'm really perplexed because making a change can affect the pops but it's not consistent, whether I go big or small I get pops, in different places. In fact I can take a clip with pops, copy and past it later in the same track, and it has no pops. Then play the previous clip, and come back and play the new clip and now the new clip has pops, but they're in different places. And then sometimes I can come back to it and no pops. And all of this is done soloing the track. So maybe the compressor isn't the problem, but then I think I've only experienced this problem with compressed clips. I don't think any of my originally recorded clips have pops.
 
Oh, I didn't realise that about dyn3.

I think the pops you're experiencing are unrelated to the compressor. Is your session fairly heavy? Lots of plugins? Virtual instruments especially….

It's pretty common to get clicks/pops/artefacts during playback but the main thing to note is that they aren't consistent.
Ie. If you bounce the audio file out there will be no clicks/pops.

They occur on playback when the playback buffer struggles to keep up and craps out.
There is and option to ignore clicks and pops, which assume you have selected. Were you to disable that option, protools would probably keep crashing out with a DAE playback error.

Setting the playback buffer setting to the absolute highest should help, but if it doesn't completely eradicate the issue then you're probably just asking too much of your computer.

If that's not the case, I'd suggest trashing PT preferences and making sure you've followed their basic guidelines.
Things like making sure you're recording to a separate drive etc.
 
Thanks for your help. Read your post and played around, and it's been interesting.

I don't think the session was very heavy, only maybe five minutes long and sixteen tracks or so. No virtual instruments, not many plugins beyond the factory ones, no "live" plugins on the tracks, no virtual instruments.

Not long ago I followed some instructions off a forum for optimizing a system for PT. Deleted the preference files, I'm using a separate drive.

I played a clip, noted where the pops were, bounced it and the pops were there, I'm sorry to report, in the same exact places.

But finally I happened upon one thing. It seems that the pops only occur when you are on a new track in a playlist. If you use the original track, you won't get pops. Even an originally recorded clip will get pops on a playlist track. Only minimally tested this but it seems to be the issue.

I haven't experienced this before. Although my project is kind of simple, it's kind of an "evolved" project, where I filled it up, deleted a bunch of tracks, filled it up, etc. So maybe working that way is not a good idea?

Anyway, I will remember what you said about the highest buffer size. My computer is old and slow though and I have to play a video file in my project, but I'll try. I've looked through the settings an preferences to see the option for ignoring clicks and pops but can't find it. Maybe they didn't have that on 6.4.

I would still be interested in DynIII just because I've read good things, and I did manage to get EQIII and I love it.

I really appreciate your help and advice. I was lost but you've given me a better understanding of things. Thank you!!!
 
visianti said:
I played a clip, noted where the pops were, bounced it and the pops were there…


Anyway, I will remember what you said about the highest buffer size. My computer is old and slow though and I have to play a video file in my project, but I'll try. I've looked through the settings an preferences to see the option for ignoring clicks and pops but can't find it. Maybe they didn't have that on 6.4.
Click to expand...

Ah, that's a shame. If the pops are committed during bounce then it's not a buffer/playback issue.
Hmm. It's interesting that you found a link with your playlist tracks. I wonder is there any automation or anything like that which is hidden from view?
Maybe it's just 'one of those things' :p

I know you're on a very old version of PT, but are you on the most up-to-date version of it?
Drivers too?
 
I wish I could, but there doesn't seem to be any way to turn off the video track. The video doesn't play while bouncing though, and still there are the clicks.
 
Well I don't know how it works on later versions of PT, but on 6.4 it plays back while it bounces, so you're bouncing in real time, so I'm not too surprised the clicks remain.

It can't be automation, I've been keeping an eye on that, plus the clicks appear in different places sometimes, even though the clip hasn't moved. The playlist thing does seem to be the issue so far.

I think I downloaded an update for my version about six months ago but didn't install it because people were saying plugins stopped working or something. I'll go back and look into that again.

Thanks. :)
 
visianti said:
Well I don't know how it works on later versions of PT, but on 6.4 it plays back while it bounces, so you're bouncing in real time, so I'm not too surprised the clicks remain.
Click to expand...

I know we've established that it's not the case here, but yes, Protools X through to 8 bounce in real time, and clicks/pops generated as a result of low resources/high demand do not bounce.

There's clearly more to it in your case though since the noises are bouncing out.
 
  • Connect your interface directly to the computer - No hubs.
  • Remove any uneccesary devices which share the interface bus - printers, dongles etc.
  • Copy the session to your system drive and run it from there temporarily - Rules out corruption.
  • Trash all preferences.
  • Run a memory testing utility.
  • What interface are you using? Check your clock settings.
  • Update all audio related drivers and Protools to 6.8.1 / 6.9, depending on interface.
  • Update your OS to the latest stable version - 10.3.9


See if that does anything for you.
 
Ok. Well, turns out the playlist thing is not always the answer. This machine is thirteen years old, maybe it's time to move on.
 
check
check
Will do.
I did trash prefs recently but will try it again.
Will do.
Original Mbox.
I'm not sure this is possible but I'll see.
I hesitate to update the OS, because this is my video editing system and it works and if I screw that up I'm screwed, but I'll look into it.

Thanks, will try out the ideas.
 
visianti said:
check
check
Will do.
I did trash prefs recently but will try it again.
Will do.
Original Mbox.
I'm not sure this is possible but I'll see.
I hesitate to update the OS, because this is my video editing system and it works and if I screw that up I'm screwed, but I'll look into it.

Thanks, will try out the ideas.
Click to expand...

At that age the hardware side of things is worth a look.
On the plus side it's cheap as chips to replace ram/Hdd if necessary.

I can understand your concern about OS updates…We're all in that boat.
If you're savvy you might be able to make a clone of your current setup as a fallback.
If not, just leave that one till the last. ;)
 
Well I'm still researching updating PT, found a 6.4cs9 update, for which the readme starts out saying it "fixes intermittant pops or incorrect audio when playing a session", haven't installed it yet because they say I need the code in my manual or whatever and I can't find it.

But... I did copy the session from the external firewire drive to an internal IDE drive, and so far no pops, I've been trying to coax them out but they haven't appeared. So until I manage to get PT updated, maybe sticking to the internal drive will do the trick. Although I think a few months ago the whole reason I moved from the internal to the external was I was getting a weird error message, and going external fixed that. We'll see though.

I didn't find anything about Mbox clock settings except for a choice between Internal and S/PIDF, of which Internal is chosen.

I will definitely save the OS update for last.

Hopefully I'll be okay using the internal drive. And once this project is done I'm definitely moving on to a new system. :)

Thank you for the help!
 
Ok, that's some promising news, but there might be bad news in there too.
If you can be certain that the move to internal drive has solved the problem, I'd strongly suggest backing up everything from your FW drive.

You could just have some random bad-luck corrupt data or something, but equally your external drive could be on it's way out.
Alternatively, this could be the exact issue that the 6.4cs9 update addresses, and the drive is fine.

Is this is a setup that has worked well for you in the past? If so, I'd be worrying about the HDD.
You could try disk utility to verify the drive.
 
visianti said:
I wish I could, but there doesn't seem to be any way to turn off the video track. The video doesn't play while bouncing though, and still there are the clicks.
Click to expand...

Save the session with a new name on the external drive and delete the video track or however it works in PT. This is just to see if the video is taking up too much of the Firewire bandwidth.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Ok, that's some promising news, but there might be bad news in there too.
If you can be certain that the move to internal drive has solved the problem, I'd strongly suggest backing up everything from your FW drive.

You could just have some random bad-luck corrupt data or something, but equally your external drive could be on it's way out.
Alternatively, this could be the exact issue that the 6.4cs9 update addresses, and the drive is fine.

Is this is a setup that has worked well for you in the past? If so, I'd be worrying about the HDD.
You could try disk utility to verify the drive.
Click to expand...

It is kind of an old drive, and I do back up regularly. I just ran the verify check on disk utility on it and it said everything was good. I've been using this type of setup over the years and have not had a problem, but really haven't been doing it alot, this is the first full time use my PT has gotten, and I've never paid this much attention to the quality of the sound before either, so I can't say if it's never happened before, maybe I never noticed. It doesn't seem to occur on a fresh project, if I import a poppy clip from the poppy project into a fresh project I don't hear any pops.

And now the problem the seems to have gone away for the moment, I can't get the pops even on the project that was doing them. And I haven't changed anything since last I heard them.

These intermittent problems can drive a man nuts.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Save the session with a new name on the external drive and delete the video track or however it works in PT. This is just to see if the video is taking up too much of the Firewire bandwidth.
Click to expand...

Thanks I tried this and no pops, but then opened the original project again an no pops, so the pop issue seems to be taking a break. As soon as I hear them again I will try your suggestion again...
 
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