Processing meter looks fine, playback spiking

For seeking technical help with Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS.

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This forum is for seeking solutions to technical problems involving Digital Performer and/or plug-ins on MacOS, as well as feature requests, criticisms, comparison to other DAWs.
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chlorinedream
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:25 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Processing meter looks fine, playback spiking

Post by chlorinedream »

Hi I've got a Mac Pro 5,1 running DP 9.12 and am noticing playback meter spikes even with a new song (with 2-3 tracks!). The processing meter is fine - never even gets to an 1/8 of capacity on my densest songs. But something spikes the playback with just a few tracks. Occasionally the MOTU Audio will also turn off. Any idea what could be causing the bottleneck? I've turned off the overload alerts now, but would like to know how to improve this if possible. My buffer is set to 1024.

My details:

Mac Pro: 3.2GHz with 24 gigs Ram, 1TB SSD, running OS 10.12.1
Audio Interface: 828mk3
__________________________________________________________________________________
iMac 27" (20,1 2020), 3.6 GHz Core i9, 64GB Ram, OS 12.6.1, MOTU 828es, 2TB SSD, DP v11.21+92248
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Robert Randolph
Posts: 877
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2014 6:50 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: St. Petersburg, Florida

Re: Processing meter looks fine, playback spiking

Post by Robert Randolph »

chlorinedream wrote:Hi I've got a Mac Pro 5,1 running DP 9.12 and am noticing playback meter spikes even with a new song (with 2-3 tracks!). The processing meter is fine - never even gets to an 1/8 of capacity on my densest songs. But something spikes the playback with just a few tracks. Occasionally the MOTU Audio will also turn off. Any idea what could be causing the bottleneck? I've turned off the overload alerts now, but would like to know how to improve this if possible. My buffer is set to 1024.

My details:

Mac Pro: 3.2GHz with 24 gigs Ram, 1TB SSD, running OS 10.12.1
Audio Interface: 828mk3
Are these audio tracks or VI? If it's audio tracks then this is known about. I would suggest emailing motu a sample project though.

If it's VI only... that's new to me! I'd love to know more about your setup.
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chlorinedream
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:25 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Processing meter looks fine, playback spiking

Post by chlorinedream »

Yes all audio tracks. Good to know it's a known issue.
__________________________________________________________________________________
iMac 27" (20,1 2020), 3.6 GHz Core i9, 64GB Ram, OS 12.6.1, MOTU 828es, 2TB SSD, DP v11.21+92248
taka
Posts: 102
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:01 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: London

Re: Processing meter looks fine, playback spiking

Post by taka »

The latest MOTU Audio driver update (November 1st) *seems* to have calmed down the CPU/playback spiking/overloading issues I was having with 9.12...

I've only updated the driver few days ago so haven't tested it out extensively across different projects new and old, but if you haven't updated the MOTU Audio driver yet, maybe it's worth a try....?

Taka
DP11.3, OS 13.6.3, Mac Mini 2018 6 core 3.2GHz i7 32GB RAM
Slate, Waves, Soundtoys, GRM Tools, Audio Ease etc etc..
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chlorinedream
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:25 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Processing meter looks fine, playback spiking

Post by chlorinedream »

Yeah I've installed that new version. If anything it might have made things a bit worse for me.
__________________________________________________________________________________
iMac 27" (20,1 2020), 3.6 GHz Core i9, 64GB Ram, OS 12.6.1, MOTU 828es, 2TB SSD, DP v11.21+92248
jb11
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2016 1:29 am
Primary DAW OS: MacOS

Re: Processing meter looks fine, playback spiking

Post by jb11 »

Hi chlorinedream,

Did you get this issue resolved? I am experiencing the same thing. When I playback it slowly spikes into full red on the Processing/Playback meter with only a few tracks. It's an issue that just started for me yesterday. No problems for weeks, it just happened suddenly. I have both DP 8.07 & 9.02 & it happens on both. My Processor is a 2 x 3.33GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon with 64GB 1333MHz DDR3 memory.

Any advice?

Thanks!
Jason
User avatar
chlorinedream
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Oct 07, 2006 11:25 pm
Primary DAW OS: MacOS
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Processing meter looks fine, playback spiking

Post by chlorinedream »

Hi - no I haven't found a fix yet. During my last session, the MOTU Audio System completely shut down with just two tracks in the entire song. It actually took quite a bit of time to bring it back online since I didn't want to restart the machine. Not great.

Only thing I can think of is that I am currently recording to the same single SSD that I'm using for applications. Maybe I'll go back to using a separate SATA drive for recording and see if it helps.
__________________________________________________________________________________
iMac 27" (20,1 2020), 3.6 GHz Core i9, 64GB Ram, OS 12.6.1, MOTU 828es, 2TB SSD, DP v11.21+92248
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