ChuckC
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Buffer size, Latency, and Cpu power question
I am wondering which factor I need to adjust to ease the strain on my daw during mixing....
I am not getting dropouts or crashes but I have noticed as I am getting more involved and ending up with larger projects my Cpu meter is jumping upwards of 30-35% :
1 instance of EZ drummer
3-4 vocal tracks
in many cases 8-10 guitar tracks
1 bass track
7-8 buses
On many of the tracks I have 2-3 plugs running, some have nothing other than the sonitus EQ... I just don't want to beat my computer up.
Because I am not sure what info you may need to know....
I am running 44.1 Khz, 24 bit . I had my latency set to it's lowest point at 128 and then adjusted up to 256 which didn't seem to make it any easier on the cpu? In the Audio dialog box it also said buffer in playback Queue:2 (I am not sure what that exactly means). My comp/gear info is in my signature.
Thanks for any help yo maybe able to offer!
ADK Built DAW, W7, Sonar Platinum, Studio One Pro,Yamaha HS8's & HS8S Presonus Studio/Live 24.4.2, A few decent mic pre's, lots of mics, 57's,58 betas, Sm7b, LD Condensors, Small condensors, Senn 421's, DI's, Sans Amp, A few guitar amps etc. Guitars : Gib. LP, Epi. Lp, Dillion Tele, Ibanez beater, Ibanez Ergodyne 4 String bass, Mapex Mars series 6 pc. studio kit, cymbals and other sh*t. http://www.everythingiam.net/ http://www.stormroomstudios.com Some of my productions: http://soundcloud.com/stormroomstudios
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Beagle
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Re:Buffer size, Latency, and Cpu power question
2011/11/28 16:26:38
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☄ Helpful
you don't need low latency for mixing, Chuck. in fact you only need low latency if you're trying to record and monitor softsynths or FX.
but especially during mixing - increase your latency buffers and that will allow you to have lower CPU during mixing.
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ChuckC
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Re:Buffer size, Latency, and Cpu power question
2011/11/28 18:04:57
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ADK Built DAW, W7, Sonar Platinum, Studio One Pro,Yamaha HS8's & HS8S Presonus Studio/Live 24.4.2, A few decent mic pre's, lots of mics, 57's,58 betas, Sm7b, LD Condensors, Small condensors, Senn 421's, DI's, Sans Amp, A few guitar amps etc. Guitars : Gib. LP, Epi. Lp, Dillion Tele, Ibanez beater, Ibanez Ergodyne 4 String bass, Mapex Mars series 6 pc. studio kit, cymbals and other sh*t. http://www.everythingiam.net/ http://www.stormroomstudios.com Some of my productions: http://soundcloud.com/stormroomstudios
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Ron Vogel
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Re:Buffer size, Latency, and Cpu power question
2011/11/29 10:19:47
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I rarely need to increase latency until track counts get higher than 40ish with 2 or more softsynths...at that point I freeze tracks to go higher and still retain low latency. I'm only running an older AMD quad, I would think you should be A OK.
Currently I am still tracking vox on a project that has reached about 110ish tracks with Kontakt (SSD Drums), and real pianos going. All but about 10 or so tracks are frozen and it's around 50ish%...but I save often because it's getting a little sluggish.
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Treefight
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Re:Buffer size, Latency, and Cpu power question
2011/11/29 11:48:51
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Chuck - a lot of folks have two basic buffer settings, one for recording (64 or 128 or whatever) and another for mixing (512, 1024, 2048).
Beagle is spot on, in other words.
You can also try the playback and recording buffers in audio preferences (i.e., not the interface's buffers). Higher or lower may work better (depends on whether PC is needing more processor or RAM at any given time) in a given project.
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AT
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Re:Buffer size, Latency, and Cpu power question
2011/11/29 12:27:20
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Yea, two different settings - of course it can get confusing if you are going in and tweaking a performance.
Like Ron I religiously freeze and archive tracks to make mixing easier as well as overdubbing. The other thing to watch out for is convolution reverb, which does suck up CPUs. If a song starts stuttering, disable CR and use a CPU-lite algo reverb to replace it until everything else is finished.
@
https://soundcloud.com/a-pleasure-dome
http://www.bnoir-film.com/ there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
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Ron Vogel
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Re:Buffer size, Latency, and Cpu power question
2011/11/29 12:57:59
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AT
Yea, two different settings - of course it can get confusing if you are going in and tweaking a performance.
Like Ron I religiously freeze and archive tracks to make mixing easier as well as overdubbing. The other thing to watch out for is convolution reverb, which does suck up CPUs. If a song starts stuttering, disable CR and use a CPU-lite algo reverb to replace it until everything else is finished.
@
Also, it gets really tempting to start messing with plugs in a project while tracking. It's much more efficient to use sends, and generally better sounding in the context of a mix. During the past year I try to go w/o plugs on anything I can...I can usually run multiple mics on a single source and use the room mic in favor of reverb (even in a bad room). Track counts go up A LOT doing it that way, but with most modern CPU's that's really not much of an issue if you are keeping it in the box.
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