Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

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blameshifter
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Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by blameshifter » Wed Jul 02, 2003 10:02 am

Im midway into a mixing session. everything is running smoothly. im just about to bounce the track when suddenly i get the dreaded prompt: Low CPU Power, eliminate some Plug Ins.

Is there a way around this? Ive messed around in the hardware settings, messed with the buffer and what not, but it still gives me problems. I have a Pentium 4, a 20 gig program software drive and an 80 gig audio drive. I defrag often. I keep it clean, and have no viruses. What can i possibly do? Thanks.

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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by ottokbre » Wed Jul 02, 2003 11:46 am

what operating system are you running?

are you running anything else besides PT?

your hard-drive performance is not going to affect the CPU.
plug-in's, and reverb in paticular, are the biggest CPU hogs.
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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by @?,*???&? » Thu Jul 03, 2003 9:39 am

There have already been many posts on this site about this topic-

Realize the 001/LE works like this: Audio is recorded onto your 2nd internal hard drive (minimum 7200 RPM for best performance). As audio records and plays back, it has to be retrieved from that hard drive. Two hard drives for audio of the 10,000 RPM or 15,000 RPM variety will speed up that process. Those drives would be used in addition to the main drive where the program runs from. Every other aspect of dealing with the audio is done in 'real time' every time you press the space bar. All edit information, crossfades and plugins are processed as if it were the first time those functions were being performed when you press the spacebar. How fast those calculations happen is based upon how fast your processor speed is. There are a finite number of calculations the computer can do at any one time. Each plugin loads the processor. Some plugins like the Realverb or the Sansamp are the most cumbersome.

With the LE software, bouncing tracks with plugin processing helps conserve that all important CPU power. Be sure to archive the original sound and remove it from the session should you ever need to reference it again. I actually pull the original sound out of the main drive folder once I've bounced it.

If you spend the $13,000 to get the TDM system, all of the processing of plugins have dedicated cards. Doing the math, I think the workaround on the 001 is a better way to go.

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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by blameshifter » Sat Jul 05, 2003 7:49 pm

thanks for the info. i am aware that my processor is taking on a lot at once, and i know if i went TDM i would avoid much of that. but that isnt going to happen anytime soon. does anyone know if running dual P4s would help? by the way, im running XP pro. thanks again...

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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by dubphaser » Sat Jul 05, 2003 9:10 pm

Hey blameshifter - Check the digidesign users group. Lotsa great info about all versions of ProTools ---> http://duc.digidesign.com
Make sure you don't have alot of stuff running in the back ground. Good Luck!

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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by PT » Wed Jul 09, 2003 1:47 pm

I always hear that reverb is the biggest CPU-hogging offender. I'm thinking of getting an outboard reverb unit so I don't have to use a plug-in for the main reverb in the mix.

Does this seem worthwhile from a price/performance standpoint? I guess it comes down to the cost of the reverb vs. the cost of a fast computer (which I don't currently have).

Anyone use consistently a particular piece of outboard gear to save CPU power?

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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by @?,*???&? » Wed Jul 09, 2003 9:18 pm

You'll be accepting the inherent delay involved with D-to-A and A-to-D ing the reverb going back into the Pro Tools unit. Simple enough to fix though, just print the reverb in the current session and slip it for the desired predelay effect...find a used Lexicon PCM70.

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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by PT » Thu Jul 10, 2003 10:39 am

Jeff Robinson wrote:You'll be accepting the inherent delay involved with D-to-A and A-to-D ing the reverb going back into the Pro Tools unit. Simple enough to fix though, just print the reverb in the current session and slip it for the desired predelay effect...find a used Lexicon PCM70.
What about using a newer reverb box with a SPIDIF connection? Does that keep everything digital and therefore less delay?

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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by DeafinONEear » Thu Jul 10, 2003 11:13 am

oh, man! now you're opening a new can of worms!!!!
If you disable SPDIF mirroring in 5.3.1 (which I believe you have because it's the only PT vesion for the 001 that is compatible with XP) then you might suffer a major system loss because of this particular bug in the software that has everyone in the forum up in arms.... it's happened to me a couple of times, I'm lucky I haven't had to format! If you plan on doing this, pleasepleaseplease back up your system first. I would check the DUC to see about the S/PDIF Mirroring problem first too.
But yeah, I actually use that trick sometimes to make it a 10 track-- sending the verb channel to a DAT and then from there to the board.

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Re: Low CPU power in PT LE 5.1

Post by PT » Thu Jul 10, 2003 11:20 am

DeafinONEear wrote:oh, man! now you're opening a new can of worms!!!!
If you disable SPDIF mirroring in 5.3.1 (which I believe you have because it's the only PT vesion for the 001 that is compatible with XP) then you might suffer a major system loss because of this particular bug in the software that has everyone in the forum up in arms.... it's happened to me a couple of times, I'm lucky I haven't had to format! If you plan on doing this, pleasepleaseplease back up your system first. I would check the DUC to see about the S/PDIF Mirroring problem first too.
But yeah, I actually use that trick sometimes to make it a 10 track-- sending the verb channel to a DAT and then from there to the board.
Jesus! This is crazy shit! I'm new to ProTools and all I want to do is have reverb without my computer crashing. For the record, I'm on a Mac.

What is this "mirroring" you speak of? Why can't I just hook up a reverb and have it work?

The misery!

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