ProTools LE 8 on MacBook 2.4 Questions and Experience

[rocknpop]

I am a proud new MacBook 2.4, 2gb owner since Thursday!

I have some questions and a summary of my experience so far.

Questions
- Anyone else here with the MB403LL/A and PTLE 8?
- What kind of errors have you had? How did you solve them?

Experience
My set up is very simple:
- 320GB, 7200rpm, FW400 OWC HD
- MBox 2 Mini, PTLE 8

Performance
I was was running at 46% usage (54% free) when I had Boom, 4 audio tracks, and one more Virtual Instrument. RAM was 1.83 of 2GB. I will try more combinations and let you guys know how it does.

Problems
I have only test driven it for a couple of days but I had some initial troubles:
1) "Not Enough Resources to Allocate" message
I solved it by restarting the computer because I did not think it made sense to run out of CPU or RAM with only 2 audio tracks, BFD... hope it does not happen again. But I am getting 4GB this week ($40 with rebate)
2) Could not recognize the FW HD to save
For some odd reason it could not save a session, but I'm not sure if it was because the cable connection came loose or it was an internal error
3) Mbox 2 Mini Phantom Power Mic Level too Hot
I had to restart the system with the level at the middle so it calibrates itself.

 

[WinterMute]

The virtual instruments you are using will eat processor cycles, Protools is not particularly efficient with it's VI's. Once your happy with whatever the instrument is doing you should bounce the output into audio and remove the instrument, (but not the MIDI track) after saving the settings, this frees up the cycles and allows you to edit the instrument later if you need to.

The extra RAM will help.

The HD may have been set to Playback volume or Transfer volume, and needs to be set to Record volume, this is done in Hardware set-up or disc allocation, I forget which.

Never seen a 48v "too hot" error message.

 

[rocknpop]

The virtual instruments you are using will eat processor cycles, Protools is not particularly efficient with it's VI's. Once your happy with whatever the instrument is doing you should bounce the output into audio and remove the instrument, (but not the MIDI track) after saving the settings, this frees up the cycles and allows you to edit the instrument later if you need to.

The extra RAM will help.

The HD may have been set to Playback volume or Transfer volume, and needs to be set to Record volume, this is done in Hardware set-up or disc allocation, I forget which.

Never seen a 48v "too hot" error message.

How much more CPU does having a USB interface consume vs Firewire? I have the external HD FW which I believe is more important and my only option since my HD is only 5400rpm. The external is FW400 at 7200rpm. Unless there is a dual FW400 adaptor and it does not affect anything I can move up to the Mbox 2 Pro.

I might have misinterpreted what happened to me... I didn't get a "too hot" message, what happened was that I could not turn the levels down low enough for the signal to not clip on the phantom power, so I had to restart.

I was fine using more VI's using my Pentium 4 1.8GHz with 2RAM... I really think that I should be ok with at least 5 VI's... otherwise I'll have to do as you say and bounce the tracks...

 

[Drumjim85]

Playback engine settings will drastically change how protools runs.
What are you settings?

And like Wintermute said, if you couldn't save to a FW drive, it's probably cause protools isn't seeing it as a record volume. and you can change this in Window / Workspace. Your drive should have a R next to it, not a T or P.

 

[rocknpop]

Playback engine settings will drastically change how protools runs.
What are you settings?

And like Wintermute said, if you couldn't save to a FW drive, it's probably cause protools isn't seeing it as a record volume. and you can change this in Window / Workspace. Your drive should have a R next to it, not a T or P.

Agreed... I cannot remember what I have them set up as but I have not changed them since I installed the app. So I think they are set at medium or the middle setting (not too low or high).

Where do you see the R/T/P? In ProTools or in Leopard? I feel the USB and FW400 connections are not too strong?

 

[Drumjim85]

Agreed... I cannot remember what I have them set up as but I have not changed them since I installed the app. So I think they are set at medium or the middle setting (not too low or high).

Where do you see the R/T/P? In ProTools or in Leopard? I feel the USB and FW400 connections are not too strong?

well, a hardware buffer size 128 will eat up your CPU pretty easily, but will be the least amount of latency, on the other hand, something like 1024 will allow bfd to work better (that's a beast of a plugin) but will have lots of latency.

When recording i try to have it at 128, but i also don't have many (if any) plugins on. When mixing i usually start off with it at 512, but boost it up when necessary.

And you change the disk settings (R, T, P) in protools.

 

[rocknpop]

well, a hardware buffer size 128 will eat up your CPU pretty easily, but will be the least amount of latency, on the other hand, something like 1024 will allow bfd to work better (that's a beast of a plugin) but will have lots of latency.

When recording i try to have it at 128, but i also don't have many (if any) plugins on. When mixing i usually start off with it at 512, but boost it up when necessary.

And you change the disk settings (R, T, P) in protools.

Thanks Jim. That's my logic too... increase buffer on playback and mixing and reduce it when tracking. I did notice that BFD is ridiculously resource hungry... WHY!? not even Reason 4 uses that much (other than when you open up Thor *thooooooor*)

Thanks for the tip on the drives I will look at it when I get home.

 

[Drumjim85]

Thanks Jim. That's my logic too... increase buffer on playback and mixing and reduce it when tracking. I did notice that BFD is ridiculously resource hungry... WHY!? not even Reason 4 uses that much (other than when you open up Thor *thooooooor*)

Thanks for the tip on the drives I will look at it when I get home.

ya, i couldn't tell you why. But you're welcome, (and my name isn't jim )