Optimizing your PC for audio. Idiots guide.

https://youtu.be/P7awctTsK34


Excellent video.

Not sure I agree about background task setting being changed.
He misses out disabling tasks in task scheduler, disabling certain windows services and intel speedstep issues.

But still pretty good.

I would recommend doing this with any OS there is no doubt performance will be improved, often dramatically. Windows 8 is hardly any different from windows 7 other than it is much better at balancing the cpu cores.

ampfixer
I think the only concerns we have these days is ensuring that power management is set for performance and avoiding the use of "green" drives for audio. It's way better than it used to be.

I agree, with the possible addition of disabling wireless cards.

I figure some people simply haven't seen the video....
 
* Updating BIOS can improve a PC's speed no end as it's the base of everything.
* Updating drivers/firmware/windows update improves reliability and performance (he should have told people to backup though).
* Disabling power management on USB in device manager can improve reliability.
* Setting the power settings in control panel to max makes absolute sense.
* Disabling Wifi during recording is a good idea
* Running latencymon is a really good idea to see if you PC's performance is up to scratch.
* Optimizing your ASIO buffers is a good idea.
 
Apart from one point (see my original post) all the "tweaks" are pretty much essential in the video...
 
Not covered in video...
 
* Antivirus should be optimized (as stated in previous post).
* Some Windows Services can reduce performance such as Windows search as it searches the hard drive.
* Task scheduler running during a recording can screw with things. The obvious example is running a defrag in the middle of a recording but there are other processes.
* Speedstep issues (might be OS specific but not in my case).
* A manual loopback test is generally a nice idea.
 
Pretty much none of these issues are not exclusive to a particular OS. None of them are not worth doing or are particularly complicated.

Good video, thanks for posting Dr. Just a reminder Speed step, at least in Windows 8 and 8.1, is EIST is your bios. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep 

YouDontHasToCallMeJohnson
Changing to Background tasks is contra-indicated for Sonar. The CW dudes told us this many years ago.

 

Beepster
This is why I would really REALLY like (and have requested) Cake to release a proper, simple to understand optimization guide specifically for Sonar and that they hire someone like Mr Roseberry as a consultant for it (and perhaps have Mr Anderton host/produce it if it is in video form).
 
I ever so want all these nagging optimization questions laid to rest. I know my system needs it and the old guides are woefully outdated AND did not jibe with certain things Sonar specifically needs.
 
In fact I think this could/should be an annual/bi-annual release for subscribed members. Now THAT would be a good impetus to stay up to date.
 
Aye?

The video above works for all DAW's. There are two videos in fact. If Cakewalk does a video it won't be much different than this. See #9 for what it excludes so perhaps a more comprehensive video would be welcome.
 
I agree though none of this covers Cakewalk specific optimizations specifically inside the app itself, there aren't that many though, again none of this is covered so I get your point here as well.
 
The one thing people should take away from this is optimizing your PC is NOT rocket science nor just the realm of "experts". Anybody can do it.

... and YouDontHasToCallMeJohnson is corrected, as I stated in OP that's the only bit in the video you should take with a pinch of salt, the rest is meat and potatoes optimization.