guigz2000
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...

 
You know, that's exactly what I've been doing, and it has worked well. Usually it is a bit of a pain, since in the mixing process it means unfreezing and refreezing often, but since I usually begin and end a mix with drums in one way or another, freezing the 8 - 13 tracks of those usually does the trick.
 
With that said, I have encountered a situation when freezing tracks actually amplified this problem! I've never figured out what was up with that. I'd posted here about it and got all sorts of different possible answers, but not a one of them made too much sense. I do recall that one person suggested that freezing a track writes everything to the hard drive (just like a track mixdown basically), but that means transfer of more data to and from the drive so can, in some cases, depending on what is causing the hang-ups, make things worse when dealing only with audio tracks. Frankly, I'm not sure I fully understand that line of thinking, but just thought I'd mention it here.

guigz2000

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.

Hey fellas. Sorry about not answering this one. So many helpful people on this one that I've missed a few responses!
 
I have PLENTY of HD space. Right now I have about 280 GB on my main drive and about 150 GB on a backup drive (not to mention another 30 GB on a partition).
 
So I'm curious, because I've heard different stories on this: Are you saying that saving a project to my second drive (the "backup") and loading it from there can help? I am actually doing that in some cases anyway, but not sure I've noticed any difference and, like I said, have gotten mixed opinions on the separate drive use theory anyway.

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

That would have to be a definitive "no!" lol  Any instructions on that are welcomed, but I'm no guru and would hate to go from staggering to wheelchair.

Having projects on a separate internal physical drive is one of the biggest performance boosts you can do.

Sir Les
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.

 
Sir Les, I don't think going into my bios each time I want to disable modules in ProChannels would be even remotely practical. In fact, it would be downright impossible. You must mean something else?

scook
Having projects on a separate internal physical drive is one of the biggest performance boosts you can do.

Wow. Ok, so you're saying I just load and save to my separate drive (it is USB connected--will that provide the same benefit too?) and that should help in general to boost performance?

An external USB2 (I have no experience with USB3) drive will not provide the same advantage. Also this assumes you are not using SSDs becuase the primary advantage to a multi-HD setup is more arms and platters, the physical stuff that makes HDs work. The reason a USB2 drive will not provide much help is the performance of the USB2 connection.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...WE HAVE A WINNER!
 
While this doesn't exactly solve the underlying problem of needing more giddy-up in my system, bandso's suggestion about turning off unused ProChannel modules turns out to be the most likely, and quick, way to resolve my problem.
 
There I was just now, working on a new mix (this one 43 tracks), when I noticed something peculiar. All of my ProChannels were turned off. I had just started this mix the other day, but thought I'd gotten a few things up and runnin'. Maybe I did and just haven't gotten back around to those tracks yet. Anyway...I digress...
 
I proceeded to go through and check the ProChannels and turn on those I needed and, suddenly, at the click of one button, when I got to a certain point in this process, the very beginning of the stutter playback began to show itself. I turned off that last "on" click of a channel, and Viola'!, smooth as silk again. There was literally that ONE point when the problem showed, albeit only slightly, which was exactly with the on/off of another channel!
 
So, we know that is exactly the first and most important thing I can do to ensure non-necessary use of system resources.
 
Thanks bandso for bringing up what should have been the most immediate and obvious thing to consider anyway!! lol   

That just adds fuel to the fire for this thread.

AND A LOSER!
 
Just for the record, because this was addressed and I noted some issues in the past with it, I further went on to freeze ALL the project tracks, figuring I'd go back and unfreeze one at a time to test things in that regard as well. Playback became impossible, at any audio preference settings.
 
I truly do NOT understand this anomaly, but can attest that freezing audio tracks is not necessarily a benefit to project performance and, in fact, can be quite a hindrance. Maybe someone can explain that little nugget to me.