Help with performance issues

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thewindingghost
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August 21, 07 9:19 AM (permalink)

Help with performance issues

Hi guys. I need some help with poor system performance. I will try to give a lot of detail.

Bacially I want to use Sonar for mixing purposes only. All my tracking is done on a Korg D32XD machine. At 24bit, (which I always record at) it's maximum is 16 tracks but I need 24 in most cases. My goal is to be able to get around this by mixing the songs in Sonar.

I have a Dell Pentium 4 3.06Ghz Laptop with Hyperthreading, 2GB Ram, 100GB 7200RPM HDD, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Sound Card, Nvidia GeForce FX Go5200 64MB Video Card.

The hard drive has two partitions each containing their own operating system so I can choose on boot up. One is for normal use..games, internet, work, whatever else and the other solely dedicated to music production. Only the nescesary drivers have been installed on this drive. It has been tuned using the tips on musicxp.net and the only application installed is Sonar 6.2 Producer Edition. Everything that is not needed has been disabled.

I started experiencing fairly eratic performance so I brought a 320GB Firewire HDD which contains all the audio tracks. This has not made much if any difference.

So far I have tested a couple of projects which contain 14 tracks. I have used a combination of EQ's and plugins on these tracks (about 20 in total). When I hit play, the computer is seemingly cruising, the hard drive never goes over about 5% and the processor gets to about 14% at the very most. From nowhere it jumps to 100% causing the music to stutter severeley. Playback will never get through more than about 30 seconds before this happens. I have tried every combination of latency and buffer settings, tried turning off the multiprocessing engine, tried disabling Hyperthreading in the BIOS, tried messing with sound and video card settings etc.

I also thought it may be just one plugin causing the problem so I did an experiment and used a range of completely different plug ins only to have the same issues.

What are optimal settings for mixing in your opinion? Are my problems most likely Hyperthreading related? I have no idea.

I am becoming very frustrated because I know other people are getting alot more out of Sonar with machines that have half the specs of mine.

Am I being realistic to think I can get a minmum of 24 tracks with about 24 processes going on my machine or should I just wait a LONG time til I can afford a kick ass desktop?

I know I can freeze tracks etc but I would like to think I can push the machine a lot more before I have to start doing that.

I'm really loving how Sonar is set out and how easy it is the use but this is pissing me off no end.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!
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6 Replies Related Threads

    mudgel
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    RE: Help with performance issues August 21, 07 9:35 AM (permalink)
    I think for your setup its your audio card that's the problem. You're pushing your system and the Audigy just can't keep up. It is a gaming card after all. Not intended for serious Audio recording.

    It is not your computer as you said many are getting good results with similar or lesser spec'd systems.

    Mike V. (MUDGEL)

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    #2
    hellogoodbye
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    RE: Help with performance issues August 21, 07 10:25 AM (permalink)
    Even though the Audigy isn't the best card for this, you should be able to mix with it. Recording with low latency might become a big problem, but since you only want to mix I wonder at what latency you work now. Do you use WDM or ASIO? For mixing a latency of 40-80 is good enough: everything is already there and recorder so low latency itself isn't really necessary anymore. If you have latency very low right now (below 10, if that's possible on the Audigy) try setting it to 40 and seee what happens. Go higher until it works. If you have to go TOO high (like up to 90-100) something else is causing problems or the Audigy just isn't up to it.

    You might also want to set the Buffer Size on the Audio General tab higher (in steps of 128): default is 128, so set it to 256 or 512.
    post edited by hellogoodbye - August 21, 07 10:39 AM
    #3
    CJaysMusic
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    RE: Help with performance issues August 21, 07 1:32 PM (permalink)
    Even though he's only mixing with the audigy card, you would still get better performance with a better card with better drivers.

    I didnt see if you mentioned that you optimized your pc for audio recording. Like, getting rid of spyware and getting rid of anti virus programs and giving priority for backround services and so on. There some good info on doing this on the net or even in here someware. I think if you optimize your pc, you might not need to get another soundcard, but i would still keep the idea of getting one in the back of your head.
    Cj

    www.audio-mastering-mixing.com - A Professional Worldwide Audio Mixing & Mastering Studio, Providing Online And Attended Sessions. We also do TV commercials, Radio spots & spoken word books
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    #4
    thewindingghost
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    RE: Help with performance issues August 21, 07 7:29 PM (permalink)
    hmmm. I'm thinking it may well be the audigy after reading your replies. I pretty much have to use a latency of about 80-100 to get anything to get decent play back for a short length of time. Can you guys reccomend any good firewire interfaces that work well with Sonar?
    #5
    CJaysMusic
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    RE: Help with performance issues August 21, 07 7:32 PM (permalink)
    Yes i can. Edirol FA-66. Its great, It rocks, I get 2ms latency with it, and it has Hi-z for guitars, midi, and digital I/O's
    $279 is what i cost
    Cj

    www.audio-mastering-mixing.com - A Professional Worldwide Audio Mixing & Mastering Studio, Providing Online And Attended Sessions. We also do TV commercials, Radio spots & spoken word books
    Audio Blog
    #6
    Mooch4056
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    RE: Help with performance issues August 22, 07 2:00 AM (permalink)
    who wants to go out dancin' tonight!

    I am buying!!!

    From Now On Call Me Conquistador! 
     
    Donate to the cure Bapu Foundation
    Email: mooch4056@gmail.com for more info




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