Pro Tools MP problem

[[email protected]]

I recently bought PTMP 7.3.1 and M-Audio Firewire 1814 to record live
rock concerts, using a Macbook, 2ghz, 2gb RAM, external USB2 7200 RPM
drive, OSX 10.4.8. This is pretty much the latest stuff, but after 20
minutes or so, the recording stops with a "CPU Overload" error message
and to check the playback settings or don't use plug-ins. Well, geez, I
don't record with any plug-ins. It doesn't matter if I'm recording two
tracks or four, it'll never record a full concert. I tried all the
playback settings: buffer, cpu percentage, etc., and PTMP simply won't
record long. I read that people use Pro Tools to record live, and it
must be LE or MP, so I know it can be done. In the meantime, I'm
recording into the latest Logic Pro, but some clients prefer Pro Tools,
which I can't offer right now. Why can't I run PT? The Macbook is max'd
out. Do I need a Macbook Pro? If Logic can run on my Macbook, Pro Tools
should! Any advice? Thanks.

[Nate Najar]

wrote:
> I recently bought PTMP 7.3.1 and M-Audio Firewire 1814 to record live
> rock concerts, using a Macbook, 2ghz, 2gb RAM, external USB2 7200 RPM
> drive, OSX 10.4.8. This is pretty much the latest stuff, but after 20
> minutes or so, the recording stops with a "CPU Overload" error message
> and to check the playback settings or don't use plug-ins. Well, geez, I
> don't record with any plug-ins. It doesn't matter if I'm recording two
> tracks or four, it'll never record a full concert. I tried all the
> playback settings: buffer, cpu percentage, etc., and PTMP simply won't
> record long. I read that people use Pro Tools to record live, and it
> must be LE or MP, so I know it can be done. In the meantime, I'm
> recording into the latest Logic Pro, but some clients prefer Pro Tools,
> which I can't offer right now. Why can't I run PT? The Macbook is max'd
> out. Do I need a Macbook Pro? If Logic can run on my Macbook, Pro Tools
> should! Any advice? Thanks.

That's odd- I'll think on it but don't know if I can offer a solution.
I will offer this: I have an ibook g4 1.2 ghz 1 gb ram osx10.4.8 and
an 1814 interface. i've recorded 8 tracks for 2 hours straight with no
glitch and no problem into mpowered PT 7.2. So your hardware should be
just fine.

Nate

[Laurence Payne]

On 21 Jan 2007 23:21:01 -0800, wrote:

>I recently bought PTMP 7.3.1 and M-Audio Firewire 1814 to record live
>rock concerts, using a Macbook, 2ghz, 2gb RAM, external USB2 7200 RPM
>drive, OSX 10.4.8. This is pretty much the latest stuff, but after 20
>minutes or so, the recording stops with a "CPU Overload" error message
>and to check the playback settings or don't use plug-ins. Well, geez, I
>don't record with any plug-ins. It doesn't matter if I'm recording two
>tracks or four, it'll never record a full concert. I tried all the
>playback settings: buffer, cpu percentage, etc., and PTMP simply won't
>record long. I read that people use Pro Tools to record live, and it
>must be LE or MP, so I know it can be done. In the meantime, I'm
>recording into the latest Logic Pro, but some clients prefer Pro Tools,
>which I can't offer right now. Why can't I run PT? The Macbook is max'd
>out. Do I need a Macbook Pro? If Logic can run on my Macbook, Pro Tools
>should! Any advice? Thanks.

I can't offer a solution. But I think I can reassure you that this is
a problem with your particular setup, not an inherent problem in your
choice of hardware and software.

[[email protected]]

Thanks for the responses. I'm going to check for any possible
applications running in the background or other activity that might be
using CPU resources. I remember earlier versions of Pro Tools were
sensitive about virus programs, so I'll investigate.

[kooz]

Laurence Payne wrote:
> On 21 Jan 2007 23:21:01 -0800, wrote:
>
> >I recently bought PTMP 7.3.1 and M-Audio Firewire 1814 to record live
> >rock concerts, using a Macbook, 2ghz, 2gb RAM, external USB2 7200 RPM
> >drive, OSX 10.4.8. This is pretty much the latest stuff, but after 20
> >minutes or so, the recording stops with a "CPU Overload" error message
> >and to check the playback settings or don't use plug-ins. Well, geez, I
> >don't record with any plug-ins. It doesn't matter if I'm recording two
> >tracks or four, it'll never record a full concert. I tried all the
> >playback settings: buffer, cpu percentage, etc., and PTMP simply won't
> >record long. I read that people use Pro Tools to record live, and it
> >must be LE or MP, so I know it can be done. In the meantime, I'm
> >recording into the latest Logic Pro, but some clients prefer Pro Tools,
> >which I can't offer right now. Why can't I run PT? The Macbook is max'd
> >out. Do I need a Macbook Pro? If Logic can run on my Macbook, Pro Tools
> >should! Any advice? Thanks.
>
> I can't offer a solution. But I think I can reassure you that this is
> a problem with your particular setup, not an inherent problem in your
> choice of hardware and software.

Check the digi compato documents. I think you'll find that they don't
approve the use of USB drives, favouring Firewire drives. and on the
DigiUserConference, you'll find a forum to ask questions like this of
fellow users with similar or identical set-ups.
Good luck!

[Richard Kuschel]

wrote:
> I recently bought PTMP 7.3.1 and M-Audio Firewire 1814 to record live
> rock concerts, using a Macbook, 2ghz, 2gb RAM, external USB2 7200 RPM
> drive, OSX 10.4.8. This is pretty much the latest stuff, but after 20
> minutes or so, the recording stops with a "CPU Overload" error message
> and to check the playback settings or don't use plug-ins. Well, geez, I
> don't record with any plug-ins. It doesn't matter if I'm recording two
> tracks or four, it'll never record a full concert. I tried all the
> playback settings: buffer, cpu percentage, etc., and PTMP simply won't
> record long. I read that people use Pro Tools to record live, and it
> must be LE or MP, so I know it can be done. In the meantime, I'm
> recording into the latest Logic Pro, but some clients prefer Pro Tools,
> which I can't offer right now. Why can't I run PT? The Macbook is max'd
> out. Do I need a Macbook Pro? If Logic can run on my Macbook, Pro Tools
> should! Any advice? Thanks.

It's somewhere in your setup and I am sure that a call to Digi will
soon straighten out the problem. .

This is the precise reason that I do not use a computer for recording
live events. I use a dedicated recorder and transfer to PT for editing.

[Keith Stolte]

kooz wrote:
> Check the digi compato documents. I think you'll find that they don't
> approve the use of USB drives, favouring Firewire drives. and on the
> DigiUserConference, you'll find a forum to ask questions like this of
> fellow users with similar or identical set-ups.
> Good luck!

Pro Tools doesn't like USB drives, possibly because USB can only go one
way at a time while Firewire can go two ways at a time.

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=54&langid=100&itemid=23143

I would reserve the USB drives for back-ups.

[[email protected]]

On Jan 22, 2:21 am, wrote:
> I recently bought PTMP 7.3.1 and M-Audio Firewire 1814 to record live
> rock concerts, using a Macbook, 2ghz, 2gb RAM, external USB2 7200 RPM
> drive, OSX 10.4.8.


Two things that kill USB for recording multitrack: It's relies on the
CPU for dataflow, which Firewire doesn't, and the USB spec lets data
get there wherever it can, whereas FW was designed with video and audio
data in mind, where it has to get it there on time. So USB can work
for simple recording tasks but it gives up the ghost sooner than you
would think if you're used to comparing how fast it copies files to FW.

Sounds like that's cause of the (not very specific) CPU alert. Grab a
FW drive, Oxford chip only, and test again.

[Tonehenge]

I've been using USB2 external drives for quite some time, sometimes in
critical live situations (16 tracks 24/44.1) and they have performed
reliably...although I agree, FW is a better interface. The problem is,
don't use hard drive and audio interface on the same FW bus...it will jam
up. Install a separate FW card for the HD...
> wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> On Jan 22, 2:21 am, wrote:
>> I recently bought PTMP 7.3.1 and M-Audio Firewire 1814 to record live
>> rock concerts, using a Macbook, 2ghz, 2gb RAM, external USB2 7200 RPM
>> drive, OSX 10.4.8.
>
>
> Two things that kill USB for recording multitrack: It's relies on the
> CPU for dataflow, which Firewire doesn't, and the USB spec lets data
> get there wherever it can, whereas FW was designed with video and audio
> data in mind, where it has to get it there on time. So USB can work
> for simple recording tasks but it gives up the ghost sooner than you
> would think if you're used to comparing how fast it copies files to FW.
>
> Sounds like that's cause of the (not very specific) CPU alert. Grab a
> FW drive, Oxford chip only, and test again.
>

[[email protected]]

On Jan 27, 11:16 am, "Tonehenge" > wrote:
> I've been using USB2 external drives for quite some time, sometimes in
> critical live situations (16 tracks 24/44.1) and they have performed
> reliably...although I agree, FW is a better interface.


Yeah. I didn't mean to imply it wouldn't work. If that's the
interface available it can do the job. But it still makes me
nervous : )

R