Win7 - Making separate user account for recording sessions?

Michael Mason
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Originally Posted by brand0nized
I use my laptop in my home studio as also my basic needs laptop, and I find that some optimizations get in the way of my regular use, and some times video editing.

Is it beneficial to create a second user account with optimized settings for recording, or would it slow down my computer?
There are multiple posts in this section regarding this type of stuff, but I'll go into it:

There are a few different ways I've read about, tried a few myself.

1. 2 hdd (or more) setup - best way to go. 1 hdd for your os and applications, second for everything else. Keeps your stuff organized, keeps your OS uncluttered for optimal performance. First hdd preferably solid state. Weekly defrags of your os hdd, at least monthly of your second drive.


Just my tuppence worth but I'm sure I read that you should never de-frag a solid state drive.
Maybe that's changed in the 12 months since I put my system together.
 
Doctor Varney said:
I, too, recommend clearing a desktop system for use ONLY with the DAW. No networking, thus no need for antivirus (other than for checking incoming files from other machines) and strip out all the inessentials. I have had good success with 1GB RAM on a dual core Intel machine running Windows XP Home. Anything else is a bonus. Laptops in my experience, limit the internal hardware you can potentially use and are more useful kept as portable systems. Thus it's best to keep the laptop stocked with your most used software. My 'DAW' machine, as it's called just sits there doing nothing other than processing audio.
Click to expand...

Windows XP or 7 both allow temporary turning off of extraneous Services, and a boot with a selective choosing of programs that execute at start up, and also the disabling/enabling of hardware components not needed during recording sessions. The problem is that this is one GIGANTIC pain in the rear end. I have been a computer programmer for the past 38 years, and when I evaluated this situation for my recording needs, I decided to build something that would allow me to dynamically manage essentially a dual-state solution to having to do a lot of the above one thing at a time.

What I came up with is actually a pretty simple concept - I would write a couple of really simple utility programs that when executed would use 'profiles' - lists - of Services and Startup Items that would when directed to do so would disable or enable virtually ALL of the Services and Startup Items that I had placed into the 'Profiles'. In other words, I would build lists of Services and Start Items, and my utility programs would internally disable/enable Services and remove/restore Start Items (programs that run at Startup), using Windows function calls to do the work.

The above resulted in my building 2 such utility programs, one for managing Services, and the other for managing Startup programs.

These programs have worked EXTREMELY WELL for me, and free up GIANT chunks of memory during audio processing sessions (recording, mixing, mastering, etc), while quickly then restoring my original software environment for the rest of the day.

These are REALLY simple little utility programs and I have and will continue to FREELY provide executable versions of these 2 programs to ANYONE who wants to try out and keep for their own use. If anyone wants to contact me regarding these 2 programs, please email me at robert_e_bone@yahoo.com and I will cheerfully reply with the 2 programs attached, along with descriptions of them and information on their use.

On a technical note, the 'Profiles' these programs create and save on your computer are in standard XML format, and can be viewed and/or edited using any XML editor (my programs have internal editing functions - I just wanted to let folks look at how I accomplish the Service and Start Item management by using an easily view-able and standard format).

I DO NOT charge for the use of these programs, and while there are no mechanisms preventing the free distribution of the programs, it is best for folks to ask me directly for the programs, as then I can use an email distribution list from the folks who sent me their email addresses to send out emails with updates whenever I create them, such as possibly for Windows 8, or if I add or enhance some functionality within the programs.

Anyways, these work for me, and if anyone else wants to freely use these for their own private and/or commercial use, simply contact me via email and I will send the programs as well as answer any questions and of course address any issues that anyone finds.

One last note - the programs SAVE the original state of each Service or Start Item at the point of creation and saving of a given 'Profile', and they restore each item per the saved original states of the profile entries.

Sorry for the lengthy text - I just want to make sure I have explained things as best I could.

Bob Bone
 
Friday said:
Michael Mason
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Originally Posted by brand0nized
I use my laptop in my home studio as also my basic needs laptop, and I find that some optimizations get in the way of my regular use, and some times video editing.

Is it beneficial to create a second user account with optimized settings for recording, or would it slow down my computer?
There are multiple posts in this section regarding this type of stuff, but I'll go into it:

There are a few different ways I've read about, tried a few myself.

1. 2 hdd (or more) setup - best way to go. 1 hdd for your os and applications, second for everything else. Keeps your stuff organized, keeps your OS uncluttered for optimal performance. First hdd preferably solid state. Weekly defrags of your os hdd, at least monthly of your second drive.


Just my tuppence worth but I'm sure I read that you should never de-frag a solid state drive.
Maybe that's changed in the 12 months since I put my system together.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct. For an SSD, you do not want to defrag. For an HDD you do, and that advice was more tailored to the more common spinning HDD. For a SSD it can degrade the life of the drive. You do however, want to get an SSD that supports the TRIM command. When you delete a file, its not really being deleted, it's just being told that block can be overwritten. The constant overwriting of data degrades the lifespan of the SSD. TRIM basically tells the SSD it can remove that info when you delete a file.

Thanks for pointing that out. Guess I need to do some more research!
 
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If you're using a PC look into "hardware profiles". You can start your computer with selected hardware (like the WiFi) disabled.
 
I am curious why overwriting of data would cause degradation of an SSD? How would that differ from a HDD? Or even a flash drive? Is a SSD not basically the same concept as a flash drive? The obvious spinning and movement across an HDD makes sense that that could get overworked, quickly, but what would deteriorate from rewrite of data on a SSD? I am just curious, as I have absolutely know knowledge about how it works as a data storage device.

I am really looking to upgrade to SSD's and would like to know more about them. Sure I could Google, but I feel more comfortable hearing real life stories from users that use them for recording.
 
jimmys69 said:
I am curious why overwriting of data would cause degradation of an SSD? How would that differ from a HDD? Or even a flash drive? Is a SSD not basically the same concept as a flash drive? The obvious spinning and movement across an HDD makes sense that that could get overworked, quickly, but what would deteriorate from rewrite of data on a SSD? I am just curious, as I have absolutely know knowledge about how it works as a data storage device.

I am really looking to upgrade to SSD's and would like to know more about them. Sure I could Google, but I feel more comfortable hearing real life stories from users that use them for recording.
Click to expand...

It's the way they're built, from what I understand. As I said earlier, when you delete a file, the OS tells the drive that info can be overwritten. When you perform a format, you're not really deleting anything, you're writing zeros over the info. The TRIM command effectively "defrags" an SSD to tell it which information needs to be kept and what can be removed, without rewriting the drive like a normal defrag does.

An SSD has a limited lifespan, i.e. can only be written a certain amount of times, which is why you'd want to use it as your OS drive and use your HDD as your work drive.

I'd have to do some more research on it. I haven't gotten the chance to play with one yet... still looking for a decent price for a certified Apple guy to do it (around here, it's like $400), but I don't think it's really a huge issue. Think about any USB stick you've had... How long has it lasted?

I think I explained it in a round about way in my previous post. Maybe Friday has some better info? It sounds like he has one set up?
 
Good point, though I, or some other clumsy drummer, usually steps on a USB stick before it fails. lol!

I see the point of speed as an OS drive. And if re-writing is an issue, then it itself, would not be as a read only device. I am really curious how much better the performance is in the real world. I would love if my export times were not as slow as they are now with 7200HDD OS drive, and the same for my external audio drive. With large projects, it is almost realtime export times. I have nothing else running other than Cubase as far as I know, on W7. It just doesn't seem like it should take as long as it does. I wonder if SSD OS would improve this performance?
 
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