Pro Tools is so slow that it is barely fucntional...

BeyondQuantum

New member
Just a few weeks ago I bought a brand new scarlett 2i2 audio interface. Of course, it came with Pro Tools First (like everything does) and for the first week or so of our relationship, things were going great. Tracks were recorded. Good times were had by all. I was so happy with what I had, that I decided to get a paid monthly subscription to Pro Tools. Then, once my money was spent, a flaming arrow of death seemed to strike my computer and things have gone down hill quickly.

As of now, I have uninstalled Pro Tools First and all the wonderful plugins that I suspected caused the aforementioned problems. A lot of people suggested (in other forums like this one) that the plugins were the problem. It made sense. The installation process was bungled by me and I realized that Pro Tools First is its own version of Pro tools. After a mighty facepalming, I installed Pro Tools 2019.6 with no plugins, hoping the latency and ungodly lagginess would cease.

They didn't.

Well, I still can't speak for the latency issues because the program is running so brokenly slow that I can't even record anything to test for latency issues. It seriously takes about 5-10 seconds after clicking on anything or moving the cursor even to respond! I'm assuming this is something a lot of people deal with?

My computer isn't a beast machine, but it's a solid one. It's a Dell Optiplex 790 with 16 gb of DDR3 ram, a 1 tb hard drive and an I5 processor. The graphics card is stock, so it's crap. But, I'm wondering if there's a possible solution to this problem that doesn't involve dropping another $300 or so on a graphics card and some more RAM? I kept getting the "Pro tools ran out of memory" error for a while so I think that it really might be as simple as upgrading my hardware. The system requirements reccommend 32 gb of ram and an i7, so I wouldn't be surprised.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be very grateful. I'm new to this site and created an account to ask this specific question. This question has probably been asked already. Thank you in advance!
 
I suppose the obvious thing to say is have you contacted Avid? They have great customer support I have found that more useful than advice from forums.
Protools is hungry but should run on an I5 with 16GB ram so I doubt it's that, more likely a configuration issue.
Also the plug in library s great, it should have no impact unless you are running loads at the same time.
What does the system usage window tell you?
What have you set the sample rate and buffer size to?
Cheers
Bruce
 
Hi there and welcome!

+1 to all of that ^^.
Also, what operating system are you running? It looks like they're only supporting Windows 10.
Now Avid tend to publish a list of supported hardware+operating systems but that necessarily doesn't mean it won't work on anything else; It just means they didn't test/wont support anything else.
It's a gamble, I suppose.

I run PT 12 on MacOS Mojave which is not a supported combination and, once in a while it interrupts me to point out that I'm running out of memory even though I have something like 16gb free.
In terms of raw power, though, I can't see your machine having a problem. Plenty of people run Protools on laptops with on-board GPUs.

Since you had a previous install of PT First it might be worth trashing all PT preferences? Long shot, but it's a good thing to rule out.
There's a free app for it out there, somewhere.
 
I haven't contacted Avid yet, actually. That's always a last resort for me lol I'm glad their customer service has a good reputation though. I think I'll give that a shot if I can't get it fixed in the next few days. I'm glad to know that it's probably not a spec limitation issue. I just dropped a lot of money on the home studio so I really don't want to spend anymore lol Thanks so much for your kind, helpful and quick response, Bruce!
 
I am running on Windows 10 and I just asked a guy in a music shop today and he told me the same thing. It's most likely not a hardware issue. Though he did mention that if my hard drive isn't running at 7200 rmp, pro tools won't function. I didn't even consider that. I think if I tool around some more I will figure it out. I appreciate your help, man!
 
What is worth trying is downloading one of the free DAWs e.g. Audacity, and seeing whether you get the same problems.

I'd suggest also downloading Reaper. It's a very small download, the installation is dead simple, and it has a free uncrippled trial period. After that you just get a nag screen.
 
That's the direction I was heading anyway lol Especially since I've only paid for a single month's worth of Pro Tools. I've never even heard of Reaper. Is it fairly new? I was wondering what reputation Cool Edit has? I know it's really bare bones and doesn't have all the MIDI capabilities but I used it back in high school (over 10 years ago at this point, though).
 
I am running on Windows 10 and I just asked a guy in a music shop today and he told me the same thing. It's most likely not a hardware issue. Though he did mention that if my hard drive isn't running at 7200 rmp, pro tools won't function. I didn't even consider that. I think if I tool around some more I will figure it out. I appreciate your help, man!

HDD speed is a consideration and I recommended SSDs where I can but, just for balance, ProTools should run just fine on a 7200 or 5400 RPM disc.
The limit of how much you can play back at once will be lower but the entire program shouldn't crap itself.

There's something else going on here, I think.
 
Yeah...so do I. I've spent all day troubleshooting this problem. The program doesn't actually crash, though. I just can't move the mouse for 10 seconds between clicks...which is just as bad. And it freezes during the first 5-10 seconds of recording. It will eventually snap back and start recording.It seems to have the most trouble with my electric guitar which I'm feeding directly through the interface. I've uninstalled the entire program probably 3-4 times total, deleted all files (except avid link), all drivers and codecs and reinstalled them.

Same issue.

I followed the configuration guidelines in the link that Bruce suggested to a T and even disabled a few extra windows visual effects for good measure.

Each time I reinstall Pro Tools, I get this weird "code 1935" error message. I followed the suggestion mentioned on that page and that didn't work either. The program still installs but it's still painfully slow. Maybe that's just how it's going to run on my pc?

Oddly enough, I downloaded audacity (which worked marvelously on my wife's laptop instantly) but I got an error message that crashed the program as soon as I pressed record.

After hours of fruitless work, I'm pretty exasperated. I think I'm gonna throw in the towel for today. Thanks again for all your help guys.
 
When you pick back up troubleshooting tomorrow or whenever, open up task manager and see what it tells you. Maybe some other process is hogging up all of your CPU or memory? Maybe it's a failing disk? Some rogue process? I'd uninstall Focusrite drivers, reboot, reinstall as a troubleshooting step as well.

I'm curious to see how Reaper behaves once you get it installed and set up for your interface's ASIO drivers.
 
You should not be having problems with a reasonably sized session. First thing is make sure you have nothing in cd/dvd drive as on windows this will cause PT to hang and only on windows is this a problem. Second reseat all your ram-this is another point where windows machines will only show ram problems when using ProTools. Third, shut off wi-fi and disable or deinstall avid link-unless you are using cloud "Projects" instead of sessions, having link on will just slow protools down. The next trouble shooting steps involve moving all plugins from the folder found at local disk>program files>common files>avid>audio>plugins to the unused plugins folder that should already be there. Create a new test session and import a few audio files and test how Protools responds. If it is working properly then quit and reinstall plugins 10 at a time and restart until the problem recurs. Once it does remove the lase ten and add them back one at a time until the problem recurs. Note:if you find a plugin causing an issue it may just be corrupted which can be repaired by completely uninstalling the plugin and reinstalling. more things to try if you have more info
 
Good idea! I hadn't thought about uninstalling the focusrite software yet since it's just the drivers. Focusrite control is a very simple UI that just functions as a basic monitor. That would explain why Audacity isn't working. I've been pointing my finger at pro tools the whole time. Your turn, focusrite! lol
 
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Great suggestion! This whole time I've suspected the plugins were what started this mess. I bungled the installation the first time. I didn't even realize the plugins were included with my student subscription at first so I boneheadedly paid for monthly plugin bundle and double installed them. I was so excited to Use pro tools that I was just flying through dialog boxes clicking "Yes!" as quickly as possible...heh. I'm using all of this software for the first time as well so I'm still climbing the learning curve.

Thank all of you so much for your help. If and when I ever finally finish this album, I'm going to have to put HomeRecording in the liner notes or something!
 
You should not be having problems with a reasonably sized session. First thing is make sure you have nothing in cd/dvd drive as on windows this will cause PT to hang and only on windows is this a problem. Second reseat all your ram-this is another point where windows machines will only show ram problems when using ProTools. Third, shut off wi-fi and disable or deinstall avid link-unless you are using cloud "Projects" instead of sessions, having link on will just slow protools down. The next trouble shooting steps involve moving all plugins from the folder found at local disk>program files>common files>avid>audio>plugins to the unused plugins folder that should already be there. Create a new test session and import a few audio files and test how Protools responds. If it is working properly then quit and reinstall plugins 10 at a time and restart until the problem recurs. Once it does remove the lase ten and add them back one at a time until the problem recurs. Note:if you find a plugin causing an issue it may just be corrupted which can be repaired by completely uninstalling the plugin and reinstalling. more things to try if you have more info

Great suggestion! This whole time I've suspected the plugins were what started this mess. I bungled the installation the first time. I didn't even realize the plugins were included with my student subscription at first so I boneheadedly paid for monthly plugin bundle and double installed them. I was so excited to Use pro tools that I was just flying through dialog boxes clicking "Yes!" as quickly as possible...heh. I'm using all of this software for the first time as well so I'm still climbing the learning curve.

Thank all of you so much for your help.
 
You should not be having problems with a reasonably sized session. First thing is make sure you have nothing in cd/dvd drive as on windows this will cause PT to hang and only on windows is this a problem. Second reseat all your ram-this is another point where windows machines will only show ram problems when using ProTools. Third, shut off wi-fi and disable or deinstall avid link-unless you are using cloud "Projects" instead of sessions, having link on will just slow protools down. The next trouble shooting steps involve moving all plugins from the folder found at local disk>program files>common files>avid>audio>plugins to the unused plugins folder that should already be there. Create a new test session and import a few audio files and test how Protools responds. If it is working properly then quit and reinstall plugins 10 at a time and restart until the problem recurs. Once it does remove the lase ten and add them back one at a time until the problem recurs. Note:if you find a plugin causing an issue it may just be corrupted which can be repaired by completely uninstalling the plugin and reinstalling. more things to try if you have more info

Also, all my sessions are very small. I've got one almost finished song that has aboout 15 tracks I think.
 
Yeah...so do I. I've spent all day troubleshooting this problem. The program doesn't actually crash, though. I just can't move the mouse for 10 seconds between clicks...which is just as bad. And it freezes during the first 5-10 seconds of recording. It will eventually snap back and start recording.It seems to have the most trouble with my electric guitar which I'm feeding directly through the interface. I've uninstalled the entire program probably 3-4 times total, deleted all files (except avid link), all drivers and codecs and reinstalled them.

Same issue.

I followed the configuration guidelines in the link that Bruce suggested to a T and even disabled a few extra windows visual effects for good measure.

Each time I reinstall Pro Tools, I get this weird "code 1935" error message. I followed the suggestion mentioned on that page and that didn't work either. The program still installs but it's still painfully slow. Maybe that's just how it's going to run on my pc?

Oddly enough, I downloaded audacity (which worked marvelously on my wife's laptop instantly) but I got an error message that crashed the program as soon as I pressed record.

After hours of fruitless work, I'm pretty exasperated. I think I'm gonna throw in the towel for today. Thanks again for all your help guys.

One of the things I do to my interface (Apogee Symphony running Thunderbolt) is crank up the buffers as high as it goes for Mixing i.e. 2048 samples. For tracking, I do the opposite, crank it down to the lowest buffers I can get without cracking plus disable all plugins. I will sometimes disable WiFi, Antivirus and/or other unnecessary background processes. Just a thought

cheers
B!
 
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