Hey guys,
 
i'm struggling with something really basic i guess.
 
Recently i have got myself a lot of new VST's and some of them (e. g. Tyrell N6) seem to use up a lot of CPU and therefore crash all the time, sometimes even Sonar X1 crashes :/
 
So i checked for things to do to solve this and found two options: increase the RAM of the laptop (i got 4GB built in of which strangely only 2.9GB are used..) or get a better soundcard (which seems to be really a problem with a laptop).
 
So concerning the soundcard issue i found the following:

• i tried ASIO but it didn't help so much and also sound is not working for all other utilities of my pc while i am using Sonar and therefore i would have to close Sonar before i could listen again to music on the internet for example which is annoying
• i found a video explaining how to sort of allocate more RAM by taking it away from harddrive memory (??) and giving it to the RAM (??? sorry i'm not an expert..) but people who have tried it say it makes your computer crash once and for all so i avoided that
• you could also use a usb stick as additional RAM but that didn't work for me as well
• and now i was about to try to get the 1.1 GB of unused RAM (4 GB - 2.9 GB available) working but decided to ask if that would make any difference for solving my problem which i described above

So has any of you guys had to deal with the same issue?
Have you ever gotten yourselves a better soundcard??
 
Would be sooo glad if anyone could help me out
thanks a lot in advance and cheers (and happy new year as well!!)

We can't help you with only the information given. A laptop and 4gb of ram is only that. What soundcard? Laptop specs?

alright my system properties are the following (if that helps any?)
 
Intel Core i5 2340M CPU @ 2.4GHz
RAM 4.00 (2.92 GB in use)
Windows 7 Professional, 32-Bit
 
and i would tell you what soundcard i'm using but i don't know where i can look that up :/

Given your OS, the answer is easy...a better audio interface. 32bit Windows cannot use more than 4GB of RAM.

oh.. so for a better audio interface i would have to buy a new laptop, a 64bit windows for that matter?
 

Given the choice between adding more RAM or adding an audio interface to your existing solution, adding RAM would do nothing. Adding an external interface can give you a more reliable better performing DAW using your existing hardware. Even if you purchased a new laptop, you would probably want to buy an external audio interface designed for DAW use.

Taking the load off of your CPU by picking up an audio interface, might make things work well enough on your current system to buy you time until you can upgrade your computer to a 64-bit machine with lots of memory.

And, you would carry the new interface forward to the new computer, so it would certainly not be money down the drain.
 
I used to run Sonar and also gig with a 32-bit XP Pro laptop, and it only was really possible due to having an audio interface.
 
So, I concur on suggesting the audio interface is the way to go, given your situation.  DO make sure they have drivers for Windows 7 and Windows 8 (including 8.1), so that your future system is able to run properly.  Some of the cheaper audio interfaces are cheap because they quit supporting them - no drivers = gnashing of teeth at some point down the road, so do your homework.
 
A decent audio interface can start at around $150 on up to many hundreds, depending on inputs/outputs/converters/pre-amps and the vendor.
 
Bob Bone

N

WhiteSheet
oh.. so for a better audio interface i would have to buy a new laptop, a 64bit windows for that matter?

No. To make adding RAM meaningful, you would need 64-bit Windows. You already have all the RAM 32-bit Windows can address. Even if you had 128GB of RAM, 32-bit Windows would only "see" about 4GB of it. It wouldn't know the other RAM existed.
 
But here are a few other tips.
 
ASIO and Windows system audio: Many interfaces have drivers for both ASIO and Windows driver models like MME, WDM, or WASAPI. In the Windows control panel, you can tell Windows to use the MME/WDM/WASAPI driver, while Sonar uses the interface's ASIO drivers.
 
Using the hard drive as RAM: Hard drives are much slower than RAM, so this will slow down performance. Windows will use the hard drive automatically as additional RAM when it runs out of system RAM, but your computer will feel a lot slower.
 
USB stick as additional RAM: This speeds up your Windows system, but won't do a lot for your virtual instruments. However, I've had success with streaming samples from USB sticks for sampling-based instruments. I've even stored entire projects on USB sticks and playback from the stick. However, recording lots of tracks to USB sticks can be a problem. USB sticks can read data fast, but not write data equally fast.
 
If you bought your laptop from an Office Supply store or Best Buy or whatever, it probably came with a bunch of "bloatware" (like trial versions of Norton Anti-Virus, applications that are "supposed" to make using your computer simpler, etc.) and these load into RAM at boot-up. You can disable a lot of these using Windows' msconfig.exe routine (do a search, you'll find plenty of info on disabling unneeded startup programs). This can reclaim a substantial amount of RAM.
However, if the problem is that the instruments are using too much CPU, then the most practical solution is to "freeze" a synth track as soon as it's recorded. This converts the instrument sound to an audio track, which uses much less CPU power. Your computer will likely be able to run at least one VST instrument at a time. You can always "thaw" a part if you need to go back and edit it.
 

A 32 bit OS can have a max of 4gb ram. A half a gigabyte is reserverd for PCI space leaving you with 3.5 gb ram. Also, if your laptop's video card does not have dedicated memory, some of the system ram will be reserved for the video card. Typically, this can be set to 256, 512, or 1024 mbs, depending on the hardware.

However, here is something that I have not seen mentioned, is that a 32 bit application can access a maximum of 2gb ram regardless of how much memory you have available. This includes 32 bit apps running on 64 bit operating systems.If the 32 bit application is marked with a special flag known as "LARGEADDRESSAWARE", only then can it access more than 2gb (up to the 4gb limit) on a 64bit operating system.

In the end, you will be better served by a quality audio interface.

WhiteSheet
oh.. so for a better audio interface i would have to buy a new laptop, a 64bit windows for that matter?
 

No it's a separate pieced of hardware. The Roland Quad Capture is an example, but there are many others. Google "audio interface". For the most part you'll find devices that plug into USB or Firewire ports.  
 

 
Robert