Yeah metteus and bandso. You are both very likely correct. Seems that it is probably like the difference in Archiving and Muting. You mute a track, it still has to be ready to pop it on in a microsecond, so the system is still doing the reading processing or whatever. Archive the same track and you can't do a thing with it until playback is stopped.
 
Makes sense the same would apply to a ProChannel. I wonder though if they couldn't patch it all up so the EQ could be removed as well, or an actual "archiving" of sorts of the entire ProChannel. As long as anything lives in it, the system has to be ready for it to engage, thus system resources are at play. 

grizwalter
...running three 2 Gb modules only at that point. No change whatsoever...

Are they a matched set, i.e. are all three sticks identical?  If not then I would suggest sticking with a matched pair of 2GB sticks.  Most motherboards require RAM to be used in pairs anyway and are fussy about which combinations of slots are used.

Kev999

grizwalter
...running three 2 Gb modules only at that point. No change whatsoever...

Are they a matched set, i.e. are all three sticks identical?  If not then I would suggest sticking with a matched pair of 2GB sticks.  Most motherboards require RAM to be used in pairs anyway and are fussy about which combinations of slots are used.

Yes sir they are.

Another option available is to do your own versioning of the project to streamline it. I have done this in larger projects where I save one as a "sand box" which has junk and ideas being worked on. Then saving that with another project name I can combine/bounce tracks and remove most plugs (deleting the "original" tracks) as I continue. It is basically using the sandbox to create stems and the other for mixing/mastering. If you use this, I highly recommend using detailed names so you can easily find the pieces later if needed.

Another option is to use the Freeze button (In theory it should freeze all plugins, so Prochannel effects "should" be freezed.Haven't tested).It's better than to remove plugins since it won't affect sound. A freezed track will just be raw audio...

I also agree that the cpu may be the suspected culpret..So..reduce the IRQ calling or polling, by reducing redundant devices first in BIOS...not in control panel...As I believe if you turn things off in control panel the drivers are still loaded up for the devices not being used, which can cause conflicts with other drivers being used.?..(perhaps even a virtual IRQ is tagged and held?)
So removal of those devices by turning off the devices IN THE BIOS, removes them drivers from the driver list in WIN and they do not show up in control panel at all....(windows will poll the list continually to see if any changes occur.)...just another processes one does not want happening when recording or doing playback in DAWs.
 
Next step is to turn off apps and background services which are not necessary to run while doing recording or playback of audio.
That task is system specific...also remove things from the start up /msconfig, that boot up with win that are not necessary.
 
Making your system exclusive for the task at hand, may calm down the interference.
 
 

Also have you done any tweaking in Bios, turning off the "speed step" and "virtual tech" stuff?
 

One thing I haven't seen addressed in this thread are your hard drives.
 
How many, what size & type are you running and what % capacity is used/free on them?
 
A deficiency in this area can also be a possible source of frustration/instability/bottlenecks.

Bristol_Jonesey
One thing I haven't seen addressed in this thread are your hard drives.
 
How many, what size & type are you running and what % capacity is used/free on them?
 
A deficiency in this area can also be a possible source of frustration/instability/bottlenecks.

Yep...I asked if he has a dedicated HDD for sessions. No answer yet. His mainboard is quite old and has first gen SATA. Getting a dedicated SATA HDD (if none available) is definitely a way to enhance streaming. Try not to use the PATA (IDE) connector for sessions HDD. SATA has speedier.

Ah right. Thanks guigz.
 
Until we know the answer to this then we're all shooting in the dark.