Projects start to glitch and overload 10 min in

[ski spiggy]

Hi all.

After the super fast response and success regarding a recent post I put on this forum, I thought I'd ask another question. Most of my projects are very big(in excess of 200 tracks at 96khz). I have a 2010 12core mac and although it's not the fastest one, it' not a total slug.
On start up with my projects, they run fine. Prob 60 to 85% CPU. But after 10 minutes or so, the playback meter starts to wind up and eventually audio is lost with pops and I have to shut down and start again. It then runs for another 10 minutes and problems start.
I am using SSD drives and I don't use any samples so RAM is not the issue.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Spigg

[David Polich]

Sounds like you have a drive at or near
capacity and you need to clear some space
from it. The behavior you describe isnt
something most users are experiencing.

Maybe its time to archive a lot of your
projects and then delete them from the drive
you use for recording.

[ski spiggy]

I wish that was the case David. But I work on projects one at a time on a separate SDD. ie I load the project on to it via a standard drive. While I am working on it, it's the only project on that drive, only filling maybe 15% of it.
I have stress tested the computer with geek bench and it ran fine for 50 minutes.

At the moment to keep working, I am re opening the project every 10-15 minutes. It's not ok.


Spigg

[Phil O]

Have you played with those settings that we all tend to forget about? - Prime Seconds, Max Work Percent, Work Quanta

(page 25, Getting Started manual)

[ski spiggy]

I haven't. But I did try to find a parameter that use to exist in older versions and I couldn't find it. Something like,"time it takes to load buffers after you bit play....?".
I will have a look at the prime seconds stuff. This is pretty ridiculous. A 12 core machine getting upset after 10 min.

[Phil O]

...This is pretty ridiculous. A 12 core machine getting upset after 10 min...

...Most of my projects are very big(in excess of 200 tracks at 96khz)...

I don't know. 200+ at 6K is pushing the limit IMO.
But do check those settings!

Phil

[ski spiggy]

Agreed. It is pushing the limit. But the system has been working "fine" for some time. This is a recent problem so something has changed. Also, to work fine for a period and then ramp up to eventually shut down does not make any sense. It can either cope or it can't. But hey, I don't have any answers either.

[HCMarkus]

The fact this is a newly-develped problem absolutely suggests something has changed.

Recent software changes? Consider reverting to older versions. If software has not been updated lately, consider running a RAM test. Check Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities) to see if you can identify the process causing the problem.

On a note related to your heavy usage, if you are pushing your Mac Pro, consider taking the advice I love to dole out around here: upgrade those 2.4 gHz hex CPUs to 3.33 or 3.46 hex X5680s or 90s, under $200 each on ebay. Ridiculously simple to do. Awesome cost/benefit ratio.

[ski spiggy]

With you on the upgrading of processors. But there is no point doing that until I have sorted out what is going wrong. Dodgy RAM is a good suggestion.
I do not use any samples, all hard disc recording. My understanding is that in this case,I don't use any RAM? Is that the case, or do I not understand what RAM is used for?

[ski spiggy]

Ok. Problem found but not resolved.
Every time I hit play, about .2 of a gig of (system memory) RAM gets used. This keeps happening until 10 gig of RAM is used at which point the computer starts to get unhappy as there are only 12 gig of RAM on board and it is maxing out. If I continue on of course, the RAM approaches max and the program crashes.
So what the hell is happening that every time I hit play, .2 gig of RAM gets used and stays used?
I would have thought the RAM gets cycled as it gets used.

Anyway, getting somewhere and very happy for it. I will be very happy for any suggestions.

[cuttime]

Anyway, getting somewhere and very happy for it. I will be very happy for any suggestions.

A shot in the dark- Are you willing to flush your Undo folder? Also, when the RAM gets used up, does the Activity Monitor show Page Outs?

[ski spiggy]

Getting rid of history doesn't help. And the page outs are 33.3mb and don't change.
But thanks for the suggestion.

[Shooshie]

Did you say what OS you're using? For that kind of capacity, you really need to be using a 64 bit system with DP running at 64 bits. The fact that you're using a 2010 Mac suggests that you may also be using an old operating system. For that kind of load, you probably need 64 bits.

I just rescanned the thread, and I don't think you mentioned the versions of anything you're using. Let us know what you've got.

Shoosh

[ski spiggy]

I'm using 6.8 and the latest DP and at 64 bit. A new discovery. It is only happening on three or four projects. All the others are fine.
If I can't resolve the problem, I will move all the audio files to a template taken from one of the projects which are working.

[David Polich]

I'm using 6.8 and the latest DP and at 64 bit. A new discovery. It is only happening on three or four projects. All the others are fine.
If I can't resolve the problem, I will move all the audio files to a template taken from one of the projects which are working.

If you really are using OSX 10.6.8, that is Snow Leopard - ancient history by now. You should move up to Yosemite (10.10.5) for starters. In fact I'd get Yosemite now before El Capitan is released and you can't get Yosemite anymore. Yes a major OS change is quite a step, but it sounds like you have something "major" to deal with anyway. You might as well eliminate all the variables, an outdated OS being one of them.

Also, you probably have versions of plugins that have been rewritten/optimized for newer Mac operating systems, and are bogging down your Mac because they now don't work as well with your older O.S. It's a good idea to have the very latest version of every plug-in or VI you own. But first, update your O.S.

The last thing I'd like to recommend is maxing out the RAM on your machine. If its 32GB maximum, get 32 GB. You can never have too much RAM, seriously.