Please help! What is wrong with my computer?

[Alexrkstr]

Using Sonar 6

I have 4 guitar tracks and
- Strat
- Strat
- Tele
- LesPaul
3 MIDI tracks (all are the Roland Synth)
- Bass
- Strings
- TR808

And that is all! And my CPU is at 70% I cannot add any effects whatsover, or any more VST instruments or it will DROPOUT.

P4
1.8 Ghz
756 RAM
120 GB HD

Is this normal???

[Kevin Deschwazi]

You have a fairly weedy processor by today's standards and not much RAM but it should be able to cope with that track count.

What soundcard are you using, what drivers?
How are your latency settings (buffer size etc)?
Do you have any other apps in the background hogging cpu resource?

[Dogman]

Also, make sure nothing else is running....background apps could be zapping needed power.

[Hard2Hear]

That Roland Grooveagent that comes with Sonar is not very efficient at all. On a system that skinny, I could see 3 instances using alot of cpu. Like Kavin said above, your card (and which drivers you are using with it) and latency are a huge part of the equation too.

[Alexrkstr]

Well... here is the rest:

- M-Audio MobilePre
- ASIO driver
- 81 (lowest) latency

I am not running any additional programs, also have the computer set up to maximize the program that it is running.

I mean, I am above their min req specs and can't get more than 7 tracks in???? No effects, nothing.

2 things:
1) My max RAM is 1GB - would 256 make that BIG of a difference???
2) My temporary solution is bouncing the midi to audio - but I shouldnt need to do this but until the end! Keep in mind I am not using any effects at all, AT ALL.

maybe if I run Sonar 4 it will work well... sigh*

Not to mention trying to use any of the other synths... I can barely play anything on the PSYN or the pentagon...

Suggestions?

[brzilian]

Time for a new computer. I'm guessing your system is at least 4 years old with a 1.8Ghz P4. I was using a 2.26 Ghz P4 back in 2002...

If you have a sub 2.0Ghz P4, that probably means its the first version with the slower bus speeds.

Simply adding RAM will do nothing for you.

[Hard2Hear]

Are you on XP? You can try increasing the latency until its just where you can barely stand working with it. Also, be sure youre using the latest M-Audio drivers and have those selected and not the generic multimedia asio driver selected. Outside of that just tweaking out your system the most you can to make it more effecient. That will depend on what all you ue your computer for.

[Alexrkstr]

Yes XP, I don't understand why their website says minimum requierements and then you run the softare on something in between recommended and minimum and kaput!

I'll try the latency.

[j-boy]

Have you used the "freeze" function for your MIDI tracks? I'm betting this works...

[brzilian]

Originally Posted by Alexrkstr

Yes XP, I don't understand why their website says minimum requierements and then you run the softare on something in between recommended and minimum and kaput!

I'll try the latency.

C'mon now. Don't be that naive. You honestly don't think marketing people bend the truth to make a few extra $$??

I work in Product Develpment/Marketing. It happens all the time.

Yes, it will run on your system, but Cakewalk never said anything about running smoothly.