As I'm nearing prime time readiness for my new computer I've been doing extended tracking tests. At first I was getting a drop out at 16 tracks of 88/24 after about 35 minutes. After some minor tweaks I got it to record for over an hour and fifteen minutes before I stopped it. Once I exceeded the one hour mark I started looking at the disk load in the performance meter. I was seeing loads in the high 40 percent range with a RAID5 audio disk. I increased the Record I/O buffer value to 1024 and got things down to sub 20%. I have no need for input monitoring because I work with a mixer for tracking so if this effects latency I am not worried. Are these values of sub 20% disk loading on par with other well performing systems?

Cheers.



GA-Z77X-UP5 TH mobo | i7 3770k | 16 gigs RAM | Win7/64 | Audio Drive RAID5 2TB via Intel Z77 chipset | Data (picture cache) standard SATA drive | OS drive 256 gig SSD | Apogee AD16x -> Tascam DM3200 -> IF-FWDM-mk2 via Apple FW to Thunderbolt adapter - not ready for primetime yet

Knowing nothing about your system/soundcard that <20% disc usage sounds really fine to me. It's a lot of data with that high sampling rate. I'm interested to hear comments from the heavy users. My rig can't be used for comparison :o) :o)

You don't mention whether you are running USB, firewire, or PCI-E.


In any event, running 16 x 24/88 at 20% disk traffic is pretty good if you end up with zero drop outs.



best regards,
mike

  

The disk buffers won't affect input monitoring, they just govern the ability to read and write to disk in the most efficient manner.

Id just hit "Pause" and "Save" at every little break along the way where ya get a chance to

Sounds like your system is doing good to me

I'm not very good at being habitual about posting specs.

GA-Z77X-UP5 TH mobo
i7 3770k proc
16 gigs RAM
Win7/64
Audio Drive RAID5 2TB via onboard Intel controller in the Z77 chipset.
Other Data (picture cache) standard SATA drive.
OS drive 256 gig SSD
Audio interface Apogee AD16x -> Tascam DM3200 with a IF-FWDM-mk2 connected via a FW to Thunderbolt adapter.


I'm okay with the 20-30% range of disk load. One thing I noticed while working with X1 and X2 in the 32 bit versions is that sometimes the click track would have an unusually quiet beat every so often, sort of like it was glitching. It didn't seem to be late or early, just not as loud and then back to normal for awhile. I could see this difference reflected in the meters on the board. It would happen every several times a minute and was pretty random. When I tested this in X2a 64bit I didn't notice any change in click volume.


The session I'm using to test is a template using plugins that I would typically have setup for tracking drums, bass, guitars and vocals. It's not a full mix but there is eq/comp plugs via PC or other plugins on channels and some reverb/delay available via busses. If I disable all the plugins I don't think there was any glitching with the click. The deal with the click isn't a show stopper but I'd rather not have that happening and didn't have it before on a much spec'd system.



GA-Z77X-UP5 TH mobo | i7 3770k | 16 gigs RAM | Win7/64 | Audio Drive RAID5 2TB via Intel Z77 chipset | Data (picture cache) standard SATA drive | OS drive 256 gig SSD | Apogee AD16x -> Tascam DM3200 -> IF-FWDM-mk2 via Apple FW to Thunderbolt adapter - not ready for primetime yet

wmb


I'm not very good at being habitual about posting specs.

GA-Z77X-UP5 TH mobo
i7 3770k proc
16 gigs RAM
Win7/64
Audio Drive RAID5 2TB via onboard Intel controller in the Z77 chipset.
Other Data (picture cache) standard SATA drive.
OS drive 256 gig SSD
Audio interface Apogee AD16x -> Tascam DM3200 with a IF-FWDM-mk2 connected via a FW to Thunderbolt adapter.


I'm okay with the 20-30% range of disk load. One thing I noticed while working with X1 and X2 in the 32 bit versions is that sometimes the click track would have an unusually quiet beat every so often, sort of like it was glitching. It didn't seem to be late or early, just not as loud and then back to normal for awhile. I could see this difference reflected in the meters on the board. It would happen every several times a minute and was pretty random. When I tested this in X2a 64bit I didn't notice any change in click volume.


The session I'm using to test is a template using plugins that I would typically have setup for tracking drums, bass, guitars and vocals. It's not a full mix but there is eq/comp plugs via PC or other plugins on channels and some reverb/delay available via busses. If I disable all the plugins I don't think there was any glitching with the click. The deal with the click isn't a show stopper but I'd rather not have that happening and didn't have it before on a much spec'd system.

then put them in your sig like everyone else.
i hope this didnt come out like an insult.
i was just trying to help you out here :)

+1 Charlie  

Good time to cut and paste them there while ya have it already wrote out

Benchmark the speed of your RAID array.
You may find that the write speed isn't as fast as the read speed.
When tracking at high sample rates, the write speed is critical.

Keep in mind that if your HD can sustain 100 solid 24Bit/44.1k tracks of audio, you cut that in half when doubling the sample rate to 88.2k.
As a point of reference, a single/fast conventional 1TB HD should be able to record/playback 48 solid 24Bit/96k tracks of audio.

while rec ording, hit the fx button that diables all fx.  you dont need tjem if youre not using input monitoring.