System Optimization for Music Production

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BudgetBeast

New member
Hello Fellow Recorders,
I have just purchased a Lenovo Z580 Ideapad laptop that I intend to optimize for music production. I have a check list I found after looking online for how the configuration process SHOULD work. but I would like to throw out this list to the forum to
gets its feedback on which parts of the list and which don't. also what I should NOT disable in Device Manager and generally
what would be a huge no-no with regards to optimization. Here is what I have read that I should do so far:

1.) download all the ASIO drivers I will need
2.) perform a BIOS update to match my system
3.) disable wifi drivers
4.) disable ACPI/power management drivers
5.) disable graphics/video card drivers
6.) do hot fix for known windows 7 error

is this list correct? or is there something wrong with it?

the laptop has a pretty stellar graphics/video card in it, and i'm wondering if there is a way around it so it doesn't mess with recording. is it true that better graphics cards get in the way of recording/producing?

any and all help or additions are appreciated. i know a LITTLE bit about computers, but i'm sure there's a lot more knowledge on this forum than what's in my little goofy-shaped head. so if something stands out to you or needs to be filled in, please please feel free to say something. thanks so much in advance, and i look forward to your replies.

BudgetBeast
 
I am no recording expert but I am an IT guy by trade. Graphics card should not interfere with how the audio is recorded. I know there are a couple special issues that came up with some drivers but I wouldn't mess with my video driver unless I had to. From what I'm finding online it was certain Nvidia and certain ATI issues. Your laptop has the Intel HD 4000 I believe so I would try it out first.

The rest of it seems pretty normal. I will say though that I haven't done any of that and I have 0 problems with latency or pops/clicks/etc.

Quad core I-5 with 12gb of ram and a solid state hard drive. Some limitations I see for your laptop could be memory and hard drive speed. If I found the right model yours has 6 or 8gb of ram and only a 5400 RPM hard drive. Which is the slowest hard drive made (also uses less power and is quieter which is one reason they use them).

I would probably do some of those. Power settings. bios update, remove any programs you don't need running from startup (new computers come with about 12 useless programs that start on boot). Then I would try it out and see if I was having any problems, if I was I would make more changes.

Just my $0.02 though
 
I wouldn't worry about the graphics card. Not sure where you heard it causes problems. In my experience, it has never been an issue.

Recording audio does not need a lot of processing power and a very modest computer can handle the load of the average home recording type. Using sample based softsynths and VSTi's can chew up a lot of cpu power, though. Still, I used to run a P4 with 2 gb of ram to do 24 tracks and one VSTi and it never hiccupped.

Polarity is spot on with hard drive speed. It will affect how many tracks you can run.

I wouldn't bother with the ACPI stuff, either. Never heard of that being a problem.
 
For Windows 7 or Vista,

Do not mess with your graphics driver. It is however important to check this;

Go to Control Panel, find SYSTEM, click on that,click on Advanced System settings, click on Performance Settings, Click on Settings, you will see a tab called "Visual Settings" You will see a check list of commands for your graphics. If you think your graphics card is loading down your system you can remove some commands that may interfere. My system does benefit from removing some of those high end graphics commands that arent needed for looking at a DAW screen.

Before you mess with any of that(by selecting Customize") make sure you have selected "adjust for best performance" over "best appearence. This will automatically remove some of those hi-end commands.

ALSO,
If you dont know this already, on the tab in the same window that says "Advanced" make sure you have selected "background" Audio is actually handled by Windows as a background task.
 
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Install your interface drivers and DAW software, do some recording, then see if there's a problem.
That's my honest advice.

I guess you've misunderstood about the graphics thing.
People often talk about disabling unnecessary graphics options IE. fancy visual bells and whistles, animations, etc.
They don't disable the graphics card.
 
Definitely do NOT disable the graphics card driver.

Do this:

Before you do anything else, run System Restore and set up a restore point in case you mess up.

Right click on "My Computer" and click on "Properties." Select "Advanced System Settings." Select the "Advanced" tab. Click on the "Settings" box under "Performance." Under "Visual Effects" click the "Adjust for best performance" radio button. Click "Apply."

In Control Panel, select Power Options. Under "Select a power plan" you should have a variety of options -- it will vary depending on your computer. Select whichever radio button is for High Performance or similar (you may have to click on the "Show additional plans" to reveal it). Do NOT select Power Saver. Click on "Change plan settings." Click "Change advanced power settings." Under Hard disk/Turn of hard disk after change the setting to 0. Under USB settings/USB selective suspend setting, set to Disabled. Click Apply.

In Control Panel, select Indexing Options. Click on the Modify button. Uncheck all the buttons in Change Selected Locations.

Download Decrappifier and run it. Remove all the demo software and other crapware that comes on a new computer.

Download Autoruns from Microsoft. Install it on your desktop. Right click on it and select Run as Administrator. Select the Logon tab. Uncheck everything that is unnecessary (without knowing your specific setup I can't tell you what these are). Select the Explorer tab. Under the ContextMenuHandlers, uncheck everything that is unnecessary.

Reboot the machine.

It should now be optimized for maximum performance.

You might also want to consider replacing the internal hard drive with an SSD and expanding the memory to 16 Gb (if you can -- I don't know the Lenovo).

If it has USB 3.0 ports, get a USB 3.0 external drive and use that for storing tracks and mixes. A RAID system, rather than a single external drive, will offer better security against loss and faster performance.
 
I have also read on a Steinberg forum thread, that with W7, it is actually better to leave Aero running, as it uses the graphics card memory. If you disable it, it uses system RAM. I actually use a custom setting anyway, but something to think about. Whether it is actually correct info, who knows...
 
ok everybody. so I haven't done anything to the Z series laptop yet, but I did DL both Thesycon's DPC Latency checker tool as well as Resplendence Software's LatencyMon tool.
both of which I DL'ed because of several youtube videos and google search results that all seemed to agree they were both very useful and that I should get them.

the DPC latency checker showed less than 200 microseconds for the first 2 minutes but then shot up to over 1000 microseconds after that. in another 2 minutes, the dpc latency
skyrocketed to 155,000+ microseconds, and I saw several yellow and red spikes as well the indicator message that showed that my system might have trouble with audio under the
current settings.

so then I ran LatencyMon, which said the wifi and ACPI/power management were both issues causing the problem. which makes sense since I didn't make any optimizations to the system before running either software tool.

how accurate is the information from both Thesycon's DPC Latency checker and Resplendence Software's LatencyMon?

And are there any other optimizations I should consider making besides replacing my HDD for an SSD and getting an external drive for loss prevention?

your help so far is VERY much appreciated!!!

Please write back when you have a chance.

BudgetBeast

ps- polarity, what out of the box make/model/OS are you running that gives you zero latency?
 
Have you actually tested this computer recording yet? It sounds like you're just trying to fix a problem before you even know if there is one.

Do some recording and see how it runs.
 
yeah, I'm trying to anticipate as many problems as I can before I dive in and record anything. I think I'll make whatever optimizations I can and just jump in for now, though.

and then give everybody an update.

hope all's well.

budgetbeast
 
Oh yeah! Optimizing your DAW PC is a must-do! OS's aren't optimized for anything right out of the box, but are by design a one-size-fits-all proposition... and that doesn't work for serious recording. Frankly if you want a smooth running DAW go back to Windows XP SP2 and optimize that! Vista was a nightmare, and though Win 7 is better, it still doesn't compare to XP for multimedia production. There are two pages of adjustments you should be making in Win 7, starting with installation... and at least a good page of tweaks for XP.

One problem is that so much hardware is tweaked and pitched to gamers, and gaming PC's do not necessarily make the best multimedia PC's... so yes your graphics could be taking a disproportionate amount of resources. It's a legitimate place to look when optimizing a PC for audio.

Your thinking is good in trying to anticipate issues before they become issues, but you've only scratched the surface of DAW optimization.

And as far as restore points... get rid of all that crap! Disable it! The reason people can't get by with a P4 or even PIII system anymore is because of crap like that. Same with your Windows firewall and active virus protection. Disable all that crap too. Your DAW shouldn't even be on a network while recording/editing.
 
Beck said:
And as far as restore points... get rid of all that crap! Disable it! The reason people can't get by with a P4 or even PIII system anymore is because of crap like that.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but that's dead wrong. Restore points are nothing more than data saved to the hard drive. Just be virtue of existing they place no load whatsoever on the CPU or memory. Moreover, OS files can become corrupt, even if a system is completely malware free. Without a restore point, your only option is re-install the OS. This is very bad advice.
 
Yup, I'll second the notion of keeping Restore Points activated. That function has saved my butt numerous times both with personal and business computers.
 
Beck said:
One problem is that so much hardware is tweaked and pitched to gamers, and gaming PC's do not necessarily make the best multimedia PC's... so yes your graphics could be taking a disproportionate amount of resources. It's a legitimate place to look when optimizing a PC for audio.
Click to expand...

What exactly would you do?
 
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