CPU usage in Sonar, ie: DXI's and Plugins

[tcdave]

I would like to know what I can do to keep Sonar's CPU usage to a minimum. I want to keep from the "audio dropout" as much as possible. I use mainly DXI synths.

I know I should use one plugin in the AUX and send the different instruments to it instead of using several plugins in each track, like reverb. This uses alot of CPU.

So, what about other programs that are running in the background???

Should I cnt-alt-del and "end task" on some of them to free up the CPU???

What are some other ways to keep from the dreaded "audio dropout"???

thanks
tcdave

PS- by the way, I have a AMD Athlon 1.4 ghz w/ASUS 200 bus speed, 256 mb ram and ATI radeon video w/dual 19" monitors.

[Evildick]

IMO the best way is to prevent programs loading at startup which doesn't allow them any way to get into memory without you opening manually.

In Win98, it's easy. Type msconfig at the run prompt and select what you want to load.

In Win2k, you can get a similar msconfig prog free. Just do a google search and it should be there.

http://www.techadvice.com/win2000/m/msconfig_w2k.htm

http://windows.about.com/library/tips/bltip475.htm

I believe WinXP has msconfig, but I've never used XP so I don't know. The biggest thing to kill is Anti-Virus software. Anything that you don't use to record, I wouldn't load. Just to be on the safe side.

The only problem with using the three finger salute to end programs is that some won't return the RAM back to the system meaning that although the program is no longer running, the RAM that it was previously using is not available. This is a large reason for BSOD I believe.

Dick

[neirbo]

Here's a few more things to try:

1) Go into your video card settings and turing down (or off) hardware acceleration, and use 16 bit color.

2) Increasing latency in Sonar will also free up CPU time, but might not be worth it if you need to hear what you are playing with no delay.

3) If you have lots of tracks, you can bounce some of them down to a single audio track and archive the original tracks in case you want to go back and remix later.

[brzilian]

Originally posted by neirbo
Here's a few more things to try:

1) Go into your video card settings and turing down (or off) hardware acceleration...

That will only make things worse! Hardware acceleration takes stress off the CPU because certain API calls and routines are handled by the video card directly rather than depending on the PCI/AGP bus and processor to perform those tasks.