Computer Resources and Effects

M

MercyfullMusic

New member
When my files are burdened with lots of effects turned on I experience alot of dropouts. Usually turning off the effect does not help free up resources. The only thing I can do is Apply Effects which of course prevents me from changing things later, so I usually make a second copy of the file. Is there a way to turn off effects and free up resources and not lose your settings?

Also what aspect of my computer would need to be increased to give me the ability to have more turned on at a time? I currently have an Intel PIII 1 ghz with 384 mb Ram running a Delta 1010 and Sonar. When I went from 256 to 384 Mb of Ram I saw no difference. That led me to believe the processor needs to be faster to handle more effects. Would I be better off buying a good PIII processor or a lower end P4 processor? Would more Ram help me? It's pretty cheap right now. I also read that a Firewire Hard Drive would make a big difference, but I don't think that would help with effects which is all calculations.

BTW I'm typically playing back about 20 - 30 tracks with some type of effect on about half of them and I'm using the Aux Busses where I can.

Thanks.
 
It's my understanding that memory is the resource most taxed by effects. HD speed has more to do with the number of tracks you can run.

However, I'm running 512 MB of memory, and some of the Waves Plugins stop me dead in the water, particularly their reverbs. At the price of memory, though, give it a shot. It's certainly cheaper than a processor upgrade.

As for saving your settings, why not save them as presets?
 
i'm gonna have to disagree with you dachay. it sounds like a faster proc is needed here. more memory will only help if you are using up all of your memory and swapping out to disk. just check how much memory you are using while sonar is running. i rarely go above 256 when i don't have a sampler or a sound font player running.

i doubt you're running low on ram unless you're runnig a ram intesive plugin like a sampler or sound font softsynth. if so, trying bouncing those tracks to audio and then get rid of the ram hungry softsynth. that will ease some pain.

also, have you set your latency slider all the way to the right? that will help a great deal if you are just mixing down audio.
 
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