CPU Overload, I think. How to solve it?

AshX

AshX

New member
I've been experiencing what I think is a CPU Overload problem with my Pro Tools 10 system. Often times while recording or playing back, I'll hear digital beeps and skips and if it gets bad enough, the session will stop playing or recording and give me an array of error messages along the line of 'CPU Overload: Error etc.' This tends to happen even if I have two Guitar Rig programs running. I know it's a pretty intense program, but I'm surprised that my computer can't seem to handle it. I've resorted to bouncing the tones down and removing GR5, keeping the DI track as well in case of future reamping, but it is a pain especially when I'm trying to blend tones from multiple GR instances.

Is this something I can fix? I upgraded from PT 10.0 to 10.3.7 (Holding off on 11 until more plugins become compatible) hoping that may solve the problem, but it didn't.

I'm using PT 10.3.7 and my specs are as follows:

Apogee Duet 2 Interface
Yamaha HS50 speakers
21.5-inch, mid-2011 iMac
2.5GHz Intel Core i5 processor
4GB 1333 Mhz DDR3 memory
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512 MB graphics
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5
244.62 GB free out of 499.25 GB

Thanks guys.
 
You need to go to Setup>Playback Engine>
and turn up the setting for h/w buffer size.

If you don't know, a big buffer means protools always has an extra second of audio playback in memory so if the demand on the cpu spikes momentarily it can 'take up the slack'.

A low buffer means those spikes of demand get through and you hear them as glitches.

The drawback to a high buffer setting is that you hear everything a second late, for example, which means real time monitoring is out of the question.

When it's an issue most people record with low buffer settings and mix with high buffer settings.
Protools 11 has independent buffers for input and output, I believe, so you get the best of both worlds.


You're on an i5 mac though so really this shouldn't be happening.
1: Trash Protools preferences (google if you don't know what that is).
2: Move your session to an external drive
3: Close unnecessary programs. You don't have to go buck-daft turning off wireless/bluetooth, but don't have a movie playing in the background or whatever.
 
Steenamaroo said:
You need to go to Setup>Playback Engine>
and turn up the setting for h/w buffer size.

If you don't know, a big buffer means protools always has an extra second of audio playback in memory so if the demand on the cpu spikes momentarily it can 'take up the slack'.

A low buffer means those spikes of demand get through and you hear them as glitches.

The drawback to a high buffer setting is that you hear everything a second late, for example, which means real time monitoring is out of the question.

When it's an issue most people record with low buffer settings and mix with high buffer settings.
Protools 11 has independent buffers for input and output, I believe, so you get the best of both worlds.


You're on an i5 mac though so really this shouldn't be happening.
1: Trash Protools preferences (google if you don't know what that is).
2: Move your session to an external drive
3: Close unnecessary programs. You don't have to go buck-daft turning off wireless/bluetooth, but don't have a movie playing in the background or whatever.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I have the buffer set to 128 as specified in the manual. I wasn't aware that 11 has independent buffers…I may have to suck it up and upgrade.

I'll try trashing the preferences now. I've been meaning to host my session files on an external drive, but I only have one that I just use to back up everything, but plan to get an addition two and look into cloud storage as a failsafe as well. I'm out of USB slots, though…I've seen extensions online before…can you recommend any?
 
What was it set at before? I'd consider 128 pretty low so if it works at that setting there probably isn't a real problem.
You shouldn't have audible latency issues at 128.

I wouldn't expect guitar rig to play well at 32/64.
 
Steenamaroo said:
What was it set at before? I'd consider 128 pretty low so if it works at that setting there probably isn't a real problem.
You shouldn't have audible latency issues at 128.

I wouldn't expect guitar rig to play well at 32/64.
Click to expand...

I would say, if 128 is giving him problems, that value can go up to 512 and latency is still tolerable.
 
Agreed.
I generally record at 128 although I'm sure it'd go lower.
Nine times out of ten it'll stay there until the mix is done, but If I am track/effect/vst heavy it might get bumped up to 512.

OP, if that's not what you're finding too, I'd say there's a little more going on.
 
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