Pro Tools/Hard Drive playback issue

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Pro Tools/Hard Drive playback issue

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:04 am

Here’s a weird one I haven’t sorted out yet. I was on a session yesterday and everything was going well. We’d tracked a few beds and everything was sounding good. We decided to try a few more takes and suddenly the new takes wouldn’t play back as audio. They turn into blasts of static. I can see the waveforms and there were no issues during tracking (headphone and control room feed from pro tools were unaffected). The earlier takes still playback ok.
I’ve had isolated issues in the past where one track goes screwy and have had good luck fixing it with a program called wav repair. Basically the audio is there and fine but there’s something wrong in the meta data. I tried that on the new takes with no luck. Tried starting up a new session but now everything I record plays back as static. Rebooted the system a few times and still got the same result.
Finally I transferred the session to another drive and all the issues disappeared. The affected takes playback just fine and new takes are fine to. Weird.
So, the issue seems to be between pro tools (10) and my external Lacie drive. Anyone ever have this kind of issue? Any suggestions on a fix? Gotta try trashing prefs today.

kslight
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Re: Pro Tools/Hard Drive playback issue

Post by kslight » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:35 am

Is there a problem with your system’s (FireWire, usb?) port your hard drive is plugged into?

Also, what if you create a new session and then import all the session data?

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Pro Tools/Hard Drive playback issue

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:57 am

I tried importing the data into a new session with no luck. Did the same thing on a different computer with no luck. The problem resolved when I transferred to a new drive.

You may be onto something with the FireWire suggestion. I’ll have to try a different port/cable today.

kslight
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Re: Pro Tools/Hard Drive playback issue

Post by kslight » Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:18 am

It’s not unreasonable to assume that a FireWire port or its controlling logic could be on its way out. I take it that the computer itself must be getting old if it still has a FireWire port. Why my old Mac Pro has FireWire and USB cards installed...not because the ports are dead but I do notice issues if I have too many USB things going. I don’t use FireWire much these days, except for the odd old hard drive, but it can get weird with lots of drives and an interface. I also like the old triple interface lacie rugged drives...you can buy a used one for not too much and put in a new solid state disk, and then you’ve got troubleshooting options.

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Nick Sevilla
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Re: Pro Tools/Hard Drive playback issue

Post by Nick Sevilla » Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:09 am

One of three issues:

1. The hard drive is getting screwy. I have had this happen. The FW port can be going bad, or the drive itself.

2. The FW port on your computer is going bad. Also have had this happen.

3. Pro Tools 7.x and Pro Tools 8.x sometimes had this issue. However, I never saw this on Pro Tools 10. All TDM versions.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Pro Tools/Hard Drive playback issue

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:50 am

The thing that makes me feel like it's a pro tools issue more than a hard drive issue is that anything recorded before the issue arose plays back just fine. Anything recorded after the issue arose plays as static.
It's unlikely that it's the FW port on the computer because I've had the same issue with this drive on two different computers.
Might well be the drive.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Pro Tools/Hard Drive playback issue

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat Aug 10, 2019 10:09 am

It appears to be the drive after all. I trashed the pro tools prefs and deleted the digidesign database on the drive. Still get the same problem. Even weirder is that when I record new tracks (with no audio input, just dead air) and then play it back I get a heavily distorted garbled playback of audio from a totally different, unrelated session

Time to clear off this drive.

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