Matchbox V1.5.19 Crashing Pro Tools 2023.9 and 2023.6 during reconform

Matchbox
#10

Ha ha ha…okay, this is fun. I am the co-super on the same film as Dustin. We’re in the process of another re-conform and while PT isn’t crashing on me, it is running extraordinarily slowly on a super session Fx reconform, even though I am only conforming 1 premix at a time (12 monos, 12 stereos per premix).

There are about 426 changes across the film. This current conform has been going for about 2 hours and has only just started cleaning automation cuts. A marker pass is still to come.

I’m in the middle of that conform right now so I don’t want to stop it to try your published tips (deactivating tracks, reducing undo levels, etc.) but I will do that on my next premix.

What I am wondering is this (in relation to Dustin’s question above): I have folders in the session…some are closed BUT those folders are not amongst the tracks selected to be conformed. Is that part of the known issue with folders?

Many thanks Justin (and, Dustin…dialogue session is done…I’ll work on cleaning it up tomorrow morning) :rofl:

~Barden

1 Like
#11

Hey. The PT bug discussed above is caused by making edit operations on a closed folder - so you can ignore that in your case.

We have heard recently about the latest versions of PT performing appallingly badly when track markers are being used. Like… unusably slow for certain operations if even 1 track marker is present anywhere.

Could that be the problem?

#12

Hi!

Yes there are track markers.

I will first delete those before attacking my next premix and report back with any changes to performance (before changing any other settings).

Thanks, Justin.

Barden

#13

FWIW I did a reconform of all of our ADR to date, plus all of the Edicue Tracks (session total 65 tracks), 2 folders, neither of them closed, no picture files in session, no markers… and It also took a very long time (hour-ish?) but I was also set to ‘very careful’ so maybe that is normal? and I was using the Pro Tools Scripting API option. I’ll need to conform some more ADR tomorrow so I’ll try something faster than ‘very careful’ and see what happens.
Dustin

#14

Oh, you shouldn’t need the “very Careful” option at all. The fastest setting should be reliable… but we include the others just as a fallback in case some unexpected Pro Tools sluggishness is introduced one day.

And hours sounds way too long.

#15

Perhaps it’s just our film!

Some additional info from me:

  • 426 changes took 142+ minutes (with 13 redos)
  • I was mistaken…there were no track markers, but lots of Marker Ruler markers (that were included in the conform). There used to be track markers but they must’ve been removed on the stage.
  • MB was set to “Careful” on the last pass
  • on my next pass (again, just one 24trk premix) I will NOT conform any markers and I will turn off Drop Cut Markers
  • I will also turn off Eucon (I just realized that it was still active on the session and I’m wondering if the constant communication with my surfaces was hindering things)

If things are still really slow, I’ll move to your other published recommendations.

~Barden

#16

old-skool markers should be no trouble. That is a lot of changes but 142 minutes seems too long.
Did you deactivate all tracks and thin automation before running it?
also, region groups are a KILLER! I know they’re really practical but also super inefficient in Pro Tools.

#17

Region groups? (cries in EdiCue scene descriptions and ADR cues) :sob::sob::sob:

#18

Yeeeeaaaahhhh that’s too bad about Region Groups causing issues. We use them for everything, everywhere, and all of the time…. Yikes.

#19

I think the issues in PT have been around region groups encapsulating large amounts of stuff. And nested inside other large groups.

PT is just really inefficient in handling them so if you perform 425 edits on massive nested region groups, then you should expect it to take a while.

#20

I completely respect the complexity that comes with Region Groups.

Our use of them is often utilitarian rather than actually grouping a lot of audio with fades and automation, etc. By this I mean we’re using it for ADR scripts (as Dustin mentioned, using EdiCue), leaving notes or reminders in tracks, creating scene description tracks, etc.

#21

I haven’t tried your published recommendations yet…that will be next and I’ll let it run while I catch some sleep.

(I’m a bit nervous about thinning automation…im reconforming stage sessions from a temp dub that we’re doing again next week. Automation matching stems is critical for us to be able to quickly punch in on existing stems.)

Again, I’ll report back!

~Barden

#22

64+ min for the last pass but there were definitely less Region Groups in this last pass. Eucon was turned off as well. No markers dropped in this pass but automation cuts were healed.

Next pass I’ll deactivate all groups, reduce undo levels and set the MB speed to “Normal”. I’m going to hold off on thinning automation for now.

~Barden

#23

Hmph…just made all of those changes that I mentioned in my last post and clicked on “Run It”…

I received this error message (hadn’t changed anything to do with frame rates in either PT or MB and the Helper plugin was open in PT):

Screenshot 2023-12-05 at 12.48.58 AM
Screenshot 2023-12-05 at 12.48.58 AM1022×300 24.3 KB

#24

Thinning automation is pretty safe these days and dense, pointless automation breakpoints is one of the worst contributors to poor performance in Pro Tools.

Take copy of your session, thin automation and then check out the session file size. Crazy right?

#26

Argh…it seems I have broken everything by making those changes that I described. I have now relaunched MB and PT and have also tried restarting my machine and I still get the frame rate error. Again, I didn’t change anything in either program regarding frame rate. I guess it’s a sign to go to bed.

#27

I can’t work in “Normal” speed. If I change it to “Normal” I get the above error message, regardless of other settings. Switch it back to “Careful” or “Very Careful”, everything runs.

That said, at “Careful”, it’s giving me an ETA of 140+ minutes right now.

Sooooo…I’m going to bed. lol

Thanks again for everything Justin.

P.S. Definitely set to “playlist” in the Helper plug in window

#28

It would be very strange if this was the issue but…
In an audiosuite plugin people sometimes change Playlist to Clip List.
This spoils the Matchbox Helper workflow.
It must be set to Playlist.

image

#29

207+ min on the last pass; 73 redos. Obv. still running at “Careful” speed because it wouldn’t start at any other setting. All tracks deactivated.

Forgot to mention…I am running on a reasonably speedy machine: M1 Ultra (128GB RAM) under Ventura 13.4.1.

~Barden

#30

73 redos is bad.
Something is wrong. Did you thin auto?