Help...Cubase problem on iMac

[Henrik]

Hello,
I recently bought an iMac, to have as an extra computer at home (as opposed to my main computer in my studio) and installed VST on it. By accident I happened to open the VST Performance meter, and saw that the red "over" light was on in the CPU meter. This was at a time where I wasn't using any functions in Cubase, all plugins were turned off, etc. I found this odd, but paid no further attention to it, as all midi functions performed flawlessly.

But now, when I for the first time wanted to record some audio (using the iMacs built-in soundcard), the computer really behaved as if the CPU was having a hard time. There were large glitches in the audio already when monitoring the sound source before recording.

I tried disabling audio, and then the red "over" light went off. But it's a 400 mhz G3 CPU so it should be able to take at least 24 audio tracks or so. Everything else in the computer works just fine. Does anybody have an idea what the problem might be?

Thanks
/Henrik

 

[toyL]

hi henrik…it must be nice to have an imac as an “extra” computer…if you just took it out of the box, it probably has a bunch of “ads” cued up—such as a broad-band demo, an introductory offer on an isp…etc…perhaps the vst measure is looking at how these ads would tax your cpu...perhaps not...the problem could be your sound-card--perhaps it needs a better aiso driver...better yet, find a way to use the "firewire" architecture which is built into your imac for the purpose of prcocessing audio/video...using this data-bus, you will be pleased.

 

[toyL]

one other thing...400mhz can process a lot of data very quickly, but, 24 tracks of "music" played back at 44.1k may be pushing it...especially if the parts per quarter note (ppqn) value/resolution is high...I forget, exactly, what a "high" value is here...I believe it is over 100...could someone remind me, please?....thanks.

 

[Henrik]

Hey Toy, and thanks for looking into this!

Well, I know I can easily play back 20 audio tracks on my 300 mhz G3 (and record 8 simultaneously), so a 400 mhz one should be able to cope with some more. Not that I need it at home. I would be happy if I could just record one or two tracks!

Well, I tried erasing basically any unnecessary stuff from the machine, and still no difference. Maybe you're right about the drivers for the internal sound card, I'll see if there are any updates to find. But I'm running OS 9.1, so everything should be fairly up to date.

Thanks again!

Cheers
/Henrik