Latency

I'll try that.

Swap used, ATM 25MB but data read spikes above 20 GB. And I'm not doing anything. What does that mean?
 
Not a lot. They're not real-time information.
It's better to check real time changes under load.

I'm not really certain how to interpret real time HDD IO info, but data read/data written is over time.
If you copied over a 2gb file, you'd see both figures go up by 2gb.

As for the page file, clearly it's not relevant to here/now because you have 4gb ram unused.
The page file would only ever kick in if you ran out of RAM so, again...check under load.


You said something about preferences getting corrupted earlier. Did you mean permissions?
Permissions are generally repaired at the end of any system or major install. Sometimes it's not a bad idea to repair them, although I'm not sure how I'd link that to performance issues.
If you're not on El Capitan you can go to Utilities/Disk Utility, select your system disk and hit 'repair permissions'. No reason not to, I suppose. :)
 
Recorded three tracks of harmonies over a backing track. CPU % idle 75-85. Memory inactive 4+ GB. Swap used 25MB. VM 240GB.
 
I did repair the permissions yesterday, just in case.

Preferences are in Library/Preferences. When researching on slow macs, this often comes up in tips.
 
CelesteMac said:
Recorded three tracks of harmonies over a backing track. CPU % idle 75-85. Memory inactive 4+ GB. Swap used 25MB. VM 240GB.
Click to expand...

Ok, so that swap file is most likely nothing to do with audio.
I guess maybe you don't restart often (which isn't bad) and at some point you maxed out your ram doing something else?
The only time I got close on my MBP was when doing video work and gaming simultaneously.
Do you do video or game?

Largely irrelevant now anyway. Your audio work isn't taxing the CPU or the ram and your HDD is in good shape....

So, what else could have changed?
 
I restart a couple of times of week typically. So I probably did max the ram. I do play a game, Runescape. (Kind of my guilty pleasure since I'm not much of a TV watcher.) So I close that client when I'm using GB. Stream video. I use Adobe CS5 but not for video. Firefox, iTunes, Ms Office. That's the typical usage.

Trying to think what I could have been doing that was different. Just the usual yesterday. Probably just an accumulation of the usual stuff. I doubt it had been more than 2 days since last restart.
 
That makes sense, I suppose. The page file use is going to be during gaming or video editing - not audio related.
Not really sure what to tell you, man. :( sry.

I guess you could download and try reaper just to see if you have the same issue there, although the playing field isn't level because you'll be able to adjust buffer settings in reaper.

Still, Garageband is very basic. Not a solution to your issue, as such, but maybe moving to something more professional is a good long game?
 
I did some research on Focusrite's claims of zero-latency on the Saffire interfaces while applying real-time effects to the monitor mix, and what I found might be of interest to others. I was wondering how they do it. Firewire speed? Turns out the Saffire line has on-board digital effects processing (DSP) that allows you to add your preferred plug-ins to your headphone mix without going through the DAW. So the buffer size and round-trip latency ms issues are moot, and you don't need to rely on DAW features for a workaround (such as muting the vocal track and sending a pre-fader signal to an aux track).

Considering that the Saffire Pro 14 (8/14) is only $20 more than the Scarlett 2i4, I'm not sure why anyone would prefer the 2i4 for home recording. Unless maybe for sheer simplicity since the Scarletts don't have a software interface.

Or you could just monitor dry, lol.
 
Hey,
thanks for detailing that.
Yeah, a lot of manufacturers use built in DSP for that reason.
Really, though, in this day and age I can't see a big need for it, unless maybe when you're tracking 16+ channels or something? I don't know.

As I mentioned earlier, I do have some plugs which introduce too much latency to be useful during tracking, but I have plenty of plugs which are fine too.
Latency on my setup is really never something I have to deal with or worry about.
 
Steenamaroo said:
As I mentioned earlier, I do have some plugs which introduce too much latency to be useful during tracking, but I have plenty of plugs which are fine too.
Latency on my setup is really never something I have to deal with or worry about.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. Do you use Pro Tools?
 
I do, but there's nothing magic about it. Any DAW with buffer size settings (which is really any 'proper' DAW) will let you work with barely noticeable latency.
 
I see. That will be a goal for me to get that taken care of by the end of the year. Lynda.com has good Pro Tools training and it's cheap.
 
Cool.
To be brutally honest, I wouldn't recommend Protools to people unless they have some specific reason or need for it.
It's very expensive and there are alternatives for much less money. The ilok thing is PITA for some people too.
Look at Reaper first and see how you go. :)
 
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