Why Conduct Performance Tests ?
Geek Warning!
What We Can Measure
In the past, we have always used the D-Verb test that came from the DUC and I believe started by Allen Hallada. Over the years a few things were tweaked on the test, chorus was added to the D-verb in PT8 further confusing things. A common complaint of the D-verb test is that nobody is using 150 D-verb’s in their session. I wanted to put forth a way for users to have some comparisons.
I am most concerned about testing the system in worst case scenario. So, a 64 HW Buffer is my normal buffer size to test as its where I track. This is simulating closer to a punch in scenario where the session has lots of plugins and I need to punch in a take on something. This is also when the system is most volatile. Problems will show pretty quick this way. DPC latency from bad drivers, running background processes or software, etc. will all greatly affect the performance. I know a system will perform best at 1024, so it is a bit less important IMO, except to see the “top end” of the system for the best-case scenario. Pro Tools is not quite as bad as it was years ago, about huge differences in performance between 64 and 1024, but it is still present. Pro Tools changing the buffer handling internally to only affect the input greatly changed how it worked previous to version 11.
Inadequacies in the driver of your audio interface is another topic. Not all drivers are built the same. Test results can fluctuate on the same system when using different drivers or interfaces. Then you have differences in operating systems such as Windows 7 to 10 or Yosemite to El Capitan that can affect the performance. Also, changes within Pro Tools itself can fluctuate the results. It is not going to be Apples to Apples when comparing say the most recent release 12.7.1 with version 11.3.2, or even 12.4 in that case.
On With The Testing
First, here is a breakdown of the D-verb test. The ultimate goal of this is to continually push the CPU of your system until the audio starts distorting or it errors out within a 5-minute time frame. The errors are typically either a -9073 or “AAE can’t get audio from the drives fast enough” errors. My issue with the D-verb test is having to listen to a 1k sine wave for the distorting and breaking up!
D-Verb Test
- Turn your interface audio DOWN
- Create a 24/48k session
- Set your playback buffer to 64
- Make sure “Ignore errors” is not checked
- Open the system usage window (which is under “Windows”)
- Create a mono audio track.
- Set the output to buss 1. Set the input to “none”
- Print a 5 minute, 1k sine wave on a new mono audio track (Do this by selecting 5+ minutes inside the mono audio track).
- Go to the Audiosuite menu and select the signal generator and hit “process”
- Create a mono audio track
- Set the input to buss 1, output to your interface output.
- Instantiate 5 mono D-Verbs on that track.
- Duplicate this track roughly 50 times to begin with.
- Record arm the tracks and “OK” through the warnings. (make sure the main source track is not record armed)
- Turn up your audio interface a tiny bit to allow you to hear the playback and listen for pops and clicks.
From here the goal is to record the sine wave on as many tracks as possible for 10+ minutes while monitoring the stereo track. If you hear any crackling or distorting in the audio or receive any warning popup windows such as -9073 errors, Stop the session and remove a few tracks and try again.
The goal here is to achieve perfect playback without errors or distortion for a 10 minute period.
An Alternative Test
Performance 2 Test
- Turn your interface audio DOWN
- Create a 24/48k session
- Set your playback buffer to 64
- Make sure “Ignore errors” is not checked
- Open the system usage window which is under “Windows”
- Create a Stereo audio track,
a) Set the input to None, output to your main interface outputs,
b) Setup a send to Buss 1-2,
c) Hit the “Pre” button on the send to make it pre-fader,
d) Set the volume of the send to 0,
e) Drag in 10+ minutes of various audio (Clean audio is preferred. Stay away from tracks with distorted instruments). - Create another stereo audio track.
a)Set the input to Buss 1-2, output to the main interface outputs.
b)Turn the volume on the track all the way down (-inf)
c)Instantiate a long set of plugins in inserts A-J
A-E. Dither/BF-76/D-Verb/Channel Strip/AIR Kill EQ
F-J. ModDelay 3/EQ3 7band/PSA-1(Sansamp)/Maxim/MasterMeterd)In the edit Window on the track, select the volume view
e)Select the pencil and set it to random. Draw random volume automation for 10+ minutes. - Duplicate this track about 20 times to start.
- Record arm these tracks and “OK” through the warnings. (make sure the main source track is not armed)
You should be monitoring the original source track while the tracks being recorded are turned down and not being monitored. Once the system hits its breaking point, the source track being monitored will crack and distort or you will start receiving system errors such as 9073.
In Closing
Sign up to our email list, Follow us on Social Media and leave us your thoughts and comments below.