Disk usage meter

It should stay around less then 10%. Something is up with your system. There is almost no load on you disk with 8-10 tracks. What are your file size, thats bit depths and sample rate?

Check to see if you don't need to defragment your drives.

Also, note that certain FX and soft synths can really crank up the disk usage and CPU indicators.

HTH,
Ed

My computer is hooked to the internet..would that make a difference..?

There are certain CPU intensive plugs that can chew up a lot of cycles. This list may also include sample playback based items. That's what I meant. I don't use soft synths myself, but I have heard others on this forum report similar experiences with them. Hope this clarifies,
Ed

There are certain CPU intensive plugs that can chew up a lot of cycles. This list may also include sample playback based items. That's what I meant. I don't use soft synths myself, but I have heard others on this forum report similar experiences with them. Hope this clarifies, Ed

I can't say I have heard this or have seen it in my setup. I do use soft synths and soft samplers. The most intensive FX plug ins I have show no impact on disk usage.

The statement was that it will do so. That is way too absolute. I would modify it with it may or could. I have seen no evidence that it will at least not to date. I could be very wrong but you seem way to sure about it. I suppose that ones own system would play a role in this. In other words ones mileage may vary.

"The statement was that it will do so. That is way too absolute."

John, re-read. I said CAN, not will. Twice. Cool?

I am currently working on a project (just over 4 minutes total length) that includes the following:

Soft-Synths

Session Drummer 2 (All Stereo Outputs)
Session Drummer 2 again (Cymbal rolls from a custom SFZ file)
TTS-1 (a simple piano rhythm, a few percussion SFX fills)
TTS-1.2 -- yes, I'm inserting more than one instance -- (Synth bass with a ton of mod wheel events)
Native Instruments Elektrik Piano
Kompakt (Various percussion fills)
Cakewalk's DreamStation DXi (Synth pads X 2)
Dimension LE (Experimental Synth pads that actually worked)

External Synths

3 MIDI-synched tracks to my Ensoniq ASR-10 (I really wish this unit was still globally supported)

Audio Tracks

4 Vocal
1 Bass
2 Acoustic Guitar
2 Electric Guitar
2 Mariachi Trumpets (don't even ask! )

My CPU meter registers about 25% on average...The Disk meter peaks between 5% & 7%...And the project plays flawlessly...Am I doing something wrong?

BTW, I'm still using a computer (COMPAQ Presario SR1350NX) that was purchased off-the-shelf several years ago (but I have tweaked it considerably to meet my expectations)...

CJ ..that particular piece of info was helpful..thanks.. What setting would you recommend for the buffers.?

I think that sometimes depends on what Audio hardware you are using, for example another client of mine can't reliably run two Delta 1010's below 512 Input and Output buffers and is using 60-80 24 bit Mono tracks. Some Hardware is more forgiving in the driver department. I can safelty run 256 Record and Playback buffers with my RME and 200 Mono 24 bit Audio tracks and this machine is on the internet and office duty too. If your drive is fragmented your Drive usage will increase proportionally. Sometimes depending on your Disk caching settings the first time you playback the Track might be higher than subsequent passes due to disk caching.

How much RAM do you have? Are you sure that you aren't seeing Windows jumping into your hard drive for paging (swap file)?

I don't see your computer specs anywhere (except the 160G 7200rpm hard drive and you just said you have 3G RAM). what CPU do you have? what soundcard do you have and which driver mode are you using? what is your latency set to? what about your video card? are you using your motherboard's onboard video card?

ALSO - you stated in your original post that you have another hard disk for video. do you have a video capture card or a TV tuner on your computer? these have been known to cause problems with sonar. if so, you may need to create a separate boot profile which disables the TV tuner/video capture card.

what kind of cable? usb or firewire would probably be OK, but if you have a PCI card inside your comptuer, then no, that's not going to work.

then, no, that won't work. the problems I'm talking about are driver conflicts between the audio card and the video capture/tv tuner card, so you'll either have to disable the card in windows or remove the card physically.

I'm not sure that will solve your problem, either, but it's a possibility.