Problem w/ n-track

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DKMurphPr

New member
I recently purchased a Zoom MRS-4. Recorded tracks can be converted to .wav files via smartcard reader.

The effects on the zoom are not bad, but not great either, so I downloaded the most recent version of n-track to try it out.

N-track seems like a really good program, but I encountered a problem. Importing a .wav file worked fine, and it plays fine, but when I added an effect, playback was interrupted at several points.

Currently using a Gateway Solo laptop, Pentium II 333 Mhz with 128mb ram, Windows 98.

What minimum specs might I need to avoid this playback problem? I'm about ready to upgrade to a new computer anyway, might as well make sure I get something sufficient to use n-track.

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
Your RAM is probably what's killing you. Run system monitor to see how much memory you've used up when you have n-track open with the WAV file inserted. I bet you've already used it all up before you even start to apply the effects. Your machine is fast enough to just playback one track

Check what background programs you have running and do a search around here for optimizing your machine for audio.

A lot of talk lately in computer recording forum about min specs, read thorugh some of those threads. Any computer you buy new is most likely going to be faster than 1 GHz and have at least 256 mb of RAM. I would go for 512 mb or greater, RAM is cheap and it makes a difference. That will all be fine for what you want to do.

Pete
 
Thanks for the help. I was thinking 256mb ram would be sufficient, but 512 probably makes more sense. Also, I'll probably go with a desktop rather than a laptop.
 
DK,

Yup, RAM's definitely needed for processing audio and video. You can't be too rich or have too much RAM....

Laptops are also designed to do mundane things like spreadsheets and word processing. Their busses and processors are ususally crippled to give even less performance than you would think to extend battery life. 'Ya gotta have a very high-end laptop to be happy processing audio or video.

I've posted this before, but with N-Track on my PII-450Mhz Win98SE Gateway desktop with 2 drives and 384Mb of RAM, I can easily get 16 24-bit tracks or over 30 16-bit tracks..... N-Track is very efficient on even older PCs, so most any desktop you get will do the job.
 
Actually, I went back to implement some of JohnWaynesTeeth's suggestions, and discovered that the real problem is that with the demo version of n-track, some effects cause a muting every 10 seconds. Doh!! 42 bucks will solve that problem.
 
DKMurphPr said:
Actually, I went back to implement some of JohnWaynesTeeth's suggestions, and discovered that the real problem is that with the demo version of n-track, some effects cause a muting every 10 seconds.
Click to expand...

Ha! That's what we get for trying to sound like experts and we forget about the simple stuff. I'm glad you figured it out, and the $42 is definately worth it.

But.... the $42 doesn't buy all the effects. Just the multitrack program and the basic n-track effects (not the FASoft ones) which aren't that great IMHO . Search around this site for free VST plugins, I think somebody else has previously posted some good sites.

2 that I love - freeverb and PeakComp (a nice compressor). Unfortunately I don't have addresses for those off hand, I'll look it up.

Pete
 
I think your problem is memory too. But, it will be better if you try a faster CPU too. I am talking about this, because at first sight you will solve your problem simply adding more memory, but in the future, when you add more and more tracks to your song the problems probably will back, because your CPU will fail to process everything at the same time.
I think your idea about move to a desktop is pretty cool. I am using a AMD Athlon XP 1600+ assembled over a Asus A7A motherboard and 512 MB ram, running Windows XP. It´s very fine. I am playing 16 tracks or more, some of them with up to three or four effects at the same time. Try this.
If you need a inexpensive and very good sound card, try the Genius Value 5.1.

Cheers!
 
JohnWaynesTeeth said:


But.... the $42 doesn't buy all the effects. Just the multitrack program and the basic n-track effects (not the FASoft ones) which aren't that great IMHO . Search around this site for free VST plugins, I think somebody else has previously posted some good sites.

2 that I love - freeverb and PeakComp (a nice compressor). Unfortunately I don't have addresses for those off hand, I'll look it up.

Pete
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips, I'll check them out.
 
Thanks for your suggestions.

I will definitely be replacing the laptop soon. It's about 4 or 5 years old now, which is like 75 in human years, or 120 in Keith Richard years.

I'll go with a desktop and make sure I have sufficient memory and CPU speed.
 
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