How much ram do YOU recomend for recording?

L

limetree

New member
I have 2 gigs, yet cant record more than a handful of tracks without incessant crackles and pops that im sure is resulting from cpu load. im planning on maxing out my ram capacity but thats only 4 gigs...will it be enough? The pops and shit dont show up on the recordings once they're mixed down to a wav, but its annoying as shit to hear while working on a song.
 
ram is cheap.
you may as well upgrade it, but remember that if you're running a lot of plugins it MAY not help.

pops&crackles may also mean your drive isnt keeping up.
are you running audio files and sample libraries from secondary dedicated drives? (you should)

you could also be running you asio buffers TOO low (not neccesary for mixing, only tracking)
try raising up you latency buffers for playback.

lots of things can cause these problems....
 
TimOBrien said:
ram is cheap.
you may as well upgrade it, but remember that if you're running a lot of plugins it MAY not help.

pops&crackles may also mean your drive isnt keeping up.
are you running audio files and sample libraries from secondary dedicated drives? (you should)

you could also be running you asio buffers TOO low (not neccesary for mixing, only tracking)
try raising up you latency buffers for playback.

lots of things can cause these problems....
Click to expand...

I dont have an external hard drive, if thats what you mean by secondary. Hopefully I can afford one soon. As far as buffers go, mine is maxed out at the
moment. I know alotta things could cause my computer to do these pops and such during playback, but I've noticed the more room i make on my computer, the more applications and such that I close out of, and generally the more i do to speed up my computer and decrease the cpu load, the less i encounter these pops and crackles, so i figure that means more ram is the right solution for right now. If you have other ideas, please dont hesitate to share, the day I dont have to worry about this stuff is the day I'm a happy man lol
 
if your cpu usage is maxing out, more ram isn't likely to help.

What are your system specs.

Can you monitor ram usage rather than cpu usage? see what's free and what's not.

I'd recommend making sure your system is as efficient as it can be, before upgrading anything.


I ran 4gb ram @ 1066 for a long time, then upgraded to 8gb cos it's cheap like tim said. why not right??

Didn't make a damn bit of difference to anything tho,lol. I pretty much always have at least 5gb of ram free :P
 
This is neither here nor there but I'm still running an old 500MHz PIII (98SE) with 512 MEGs of RAM and I've never had an issue with my set up.
 
I'm not sure of a way to mintor ram usage besides mintoring cpu usage, does anyone know?

And I'm sure the amount of ram I have would be fine, 512 would be fine, if I didnt have a shit ton of stuff in my computer, and as getting rid of all this stuff isnt an option right now, getting more ram to handle it all seems the right solution.
 
There are a ton of freeware ram/cpu monitors - the task manager should also show you ram and CPU usage.

How many tracks are you recording and what speed is your CPU?

This sounds like a config issue - not a RAM issue - What OS is this?
 
Not sure what speed my cpu is....how would I find that out? I'm very computer illiterate as you can tell.

I'm running Vista 32. thats right, Vista :/
 
Start > My Computer > (right-click) properties

I think Vista might be using up most of your 2 gigs... So ram might just be your problem - luckily its cheap nowdays.

but first - what is your hardware setup and how many tracks are you recording?
 
arcadeko said:
Start > My Computer > (right-click) properties

I think Vista might be using up most of your 2 gigs... So ram might just be your problem - luckily its cheap nowdays.

but first - what is your hardware setup and how many tracks are you recording?
Click to expand...

I'm using a presonus firebox interface, and I can't record more than a handful of tracks with a few plugins before it starts the incessant popping
 
Have you made sure everything else is off? Like virus software, windows defender, any background applications that auto start like quicktime and acrobat.

Also - if you do not need the plug-ins during recording disable them until you mix - or if you want some reverb or something try creating an effects channel and routing the tracks through it instead of putting an effect track on every channel.

Are you using the studioOne software that came with the firebox? You might just want to give Reaper a shot (free to try) and also make sure you have the most current driver for the firebox -

Check you ram situation in TaskManager when you are runnign your DAW there should be a lot of idle ram (right click your task bar for task manager)
 
My laptop has 2g RAM which was top notch in the day (3years ago) I Had to load Pro Tools onto it for a location recording and it found it a little difficult to keep up. I would say if you can, buy the extra 2g RAM, but then the processor might hold back. . . Do a little research into giving your computer a 'deep clean', I have a friend went through my computer, it was amazing to see how many things are on there that you have no idea about but kill the power. 2 hours of him doing that and my laptop was at least 50% more responsive.
 
Track Rat said:
This is neither here nor there but I'm still running an old 500MHz PIII (98SE) with 512 MEGs of RAM and I've never had an issue with my set up.
Click to expand...

Niiiiice. I have an old relic like that too; I found it in dumpster and adopted it. I just use it for cheesy old games that I grew up with.
 
Track Rat said:
This is neither here nor there but I'm still running an old 500MHz PIII (98SE) with 512 MEGs of RAM and I've never had an issue with my set up.
Click to expand...


That's the one with the clay disk that writes in cuneiform, right?
 
It was cool before electricity. I gonna cry like a baby when ever it dies. It's been the most stable computer I've ever worked with.
 
arcadeko said:
a ton of freeware
Click to expand...

That's your problem right there! :D

Seriously though, you want to disable and uninstall as much of the bloatware as you can on a recording machine.

Vista takes about 1G of ram just to run the core OS, so an upgrade would probably help. If your software is configured right, and your other hardware can keep up, 4G of RAM should be more than adequate. The 2 computers I use for music are an XP box with 4G and a Win7 laptop with 3!
 
Thanks for the replies. I dont know what studio one is, I run cubase 5. I'll try using send effects rather than so many plug ins, see if that helps.
 
TimOBrien said:
ram is cheap.
you may as well upgrade it, but remember that if you're running a lot of plugins it MAY not help.

pops&crackles may also mean your drive isnt keeping up.
are you running audio files and sample libraries from secondary dedicated drives? (you should)

you could also be running you asio buffers TOO low (not neccesary for mixing, only tracking)
try raising up you latency buffers for playback.

lots of things can cause these problems....
Click to expand...

Exactly! Go for as much as your budget will allow. I started with 8 gb. Then after a few months and a few projects done I ordered another pair and now have 16. My computer runs smooth and I NEVER even worry about any plugins in my projects because I know my computer can handle it.
 
Try and figure out where your bottle neck is before you buy anything. While "Add more RAM" is the usual answer to everything at the big box stores, it may be of no use to you at all

As others have mentioned buying more RAM will help you if 1) RAM is actually the bottle neck causing pops and clicks 2) you are not already maxed out on how much RAM is supported by your motherboard
So basically if you have 2 GB of RAM and your system needs 1.5GB adding more RAM will make no difference to pops and clicks, if you have 2GB and your system needs 3GB then adding more RAM would help some and could stop the problem if RAM bottle necks are the only cause of pops and clicks

From what you describe RAM does not sound like it is the issue. Before considering spending a cent on RAM (even though DDR2 RAM is cheaper than it used to be) I would find someone who can help you with
1) OS optimization (turn off all unnecessary background processes and services)
2) System clean up (get rid of all unnecessary freeware/bloatware) and optimize system registry
3) removal of, or instructions how to turn off antivirus software when you record
4) ensure you are using the ASIO drivers that came with your interface at appropriate latency settings
5) running DPC latency checker to highlight any remaining audio streaming bottle neck culprits
6) Defrag and clean up your Hard disk to put everything in its most efficient/fast location
7) Analysis of RAM needs and RAM available

Doing items 1 thru 6 will be a good thing whether you need RAM or not

And to answer the original question, I'd recommend having a little more RAM than your System needs to run all of your applications/VSTi/VST etc etc. As to what number that is it will be entirely dependent on what you choose to run
 
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