cakewalk speed vs ntrack?

[Rocket Boy]

are some audio programs inherently less stressfull on your copmuter then others? i mean, ntrack seems to slow down my computer... i also can get Sonar 2, but havent used it because I liked the ease of use with Ntrack...

what im asking is would it put alot less strain on my computer if i used Sonar instead of Ntrack, or would it probably no make any difference? or is it maybe even slower with Sonar?

[moskus]

It would help alot if you posted your system specs and OS...

[TimOBrien]

I can easily use N-Track on my PII-450Mhz. Don't even think I'd want to try booting Sonar on that machine (if it's even possible.) In most cases, its the plug-ins you use that will kill a machine; with no plugs I've run as many as 30 mono 16bit/44.1kHz tracks on my old P2 system.

N-Track is a >great< choice for older, slower systems that wont run anything else, especially if you use a 2.x version.

Perhaps you have something wrong with your PC.....

[Rocket Boy]

640 megs of ram
1000mhz Pentium
2 40 gig hard drives


running 9 tracks with plug ins(1/2 on most, a couple with 0) seems to get me to the 50-60% range. i've deactivated alot of my win xp services and defragment regularly, but it still does that.

[Rocket Boy]

could this have something to do with my crappy soundblaster?

[Rocket Boy]

i took off all my plug ins and it went to like 20%

[moskus]

And not only does the plugins matter, but what kind and brand of plugins matter too.

But there's a few things you can do. For example plugins that you want to apply to more than one track like reverb (not EQ or compression), use the Aux-busses! That's what they're there for.

[TimOBrien]

^Exactly!!

And you can also use the "Print-To-Tape" method that they used to use with real analog tape machines:

Solo your track with the plug settings you want to use. Do a mixdown to a new audio file and then bring it back into N. Mute the old track but keep it around for any further changes.

This is what the new "Freeze" feature is in Logic and other high-end packages... except you're doing the work and not spending the extra cash for the feature!

(Processed tracks are SOOO much easier on your PC than running plugs!)

[Rocket Boy]

wow, thanks alot! that really helps :-)

[moskus]

Originally posted by TimOBrien
This is what the new "Freeze" feature is in Logic and other high-end packages... except you're doing the work and not spending the extra cash for the feature!

That's why we're looking forward for Cakewalk to implement that in Sonar. So we don't have to do the work, and it will be free of course since it will be an update...

[mbuster]

We already have that in Sonar, right? Apply Effects?

[moskus]

Originally posted by mbuster
We already have that in Sonar, right? Apply Effects?

Yeah, but when you have 24 tracks it's a lot of work to do it yourself....

[Teacher]

Originally posted by mbuster
We already have that in Sonar, right? Apply Effects?

but in S/W like samplitude and logic the unprocessed tracked is archived automatically for you instead of you doing yourself like you would in cakewalk...makes the work flow a lil more fluid IMO

[mbuster]

ahhhhh.

[Teacher]

i forgot to add....you can freeze and unfreeze at will w/o having to import or whatever