AMD k6-II user in trouble...

[lalo]

Hi there!

First of all, i want to say that this and the other forums have been an invaluable source of knowledge and help. But i'm only human, so here i am:
My PC:
- AMD K-6 II / 400 Mhz
- HD 20 gig. Quantum Fireball (C: drive)
- HD 2 gig (D: drive, only backup)
- Sound Balster Live! Value
- CD rom 24x
- Video 8megs. on motherboard
- Cakewalk Pro Audio 9.0
Until yesterday i had 96 megs. of RAM, and i was getting around 6 tracks w/inserts (compression, delay, chorus) and some 4 midi tracks. I thought this was because my lack of RAM, but today i installed another 128Mg. So now i have 216 (224-8megs for video), and i am still getting the same!!
WHY!WHY!WHY!!!! the CPU meter is around 80-95% (w/inserts) and the disk meter is 10-25%. I've done some testing and found that i can run like 20 audio tracks without any effect, 10 with EQ on all inserts, and 5 or 4 with compresion, eq, and an aux reverb. My virtual memory is fixed (at twice my RAM).
So what is wrong? Ihave read that some people using the same processor are getting at least twice the number of tracks with inserts that i am getting. Could this be because im using the same drive for everything? Would i be better using the 2 gig (slower) drive for system and software and the 20 gig drive for audio only?
Can you help me figure this out??


THANKS

LALO

 

[djc]

No. of tracks

The number of tracks you can play back has more to do with your hard drive speed, than anything else. I have a AMD K62 450 MHZ
with 256 RAM, but my audio files are on a seperate 40 GIG ATA 100 Western Digital hard drive. The Echo reporter program tells me I can play back somewhere around 50 tracks, although I haven't tried even close to that many. I'm not familiar with your hard drive. Is it IDE? If I was you I would buy one of these cheap IDE ATA 66 or ATA 100 drives. I think you will see an improvement.

Regards, DJC

 

[djc]

OH, I forgot to mention this, but your motherboard must support ATA 66, or ATA 100 hard drives, for this to work. You can buy plug-in cards that support ATA, like the Promise ATA controller. I bought one, but found out it didn't work well with cakewalk.

I hope this has been helpful.

Regards, DJC

 

[crosstudio]

up until 2 months ago, i had an amd k6-3 450mhz. your problem will be helped by getting a seperate hard drive for your audio, but it sounds like your principle issue is CPU power. the fact that you get so many tracks when you aren't processing means that your hard disk is up to the task. when you start piling on the effects, you run out of steam. that's the CPU not the HD.

i just upgraded to the amd athlon thunderbird 1.2ghz and now i don't have to apply my fx to my tracks.

 

[stuffdogginc]

The easiest way to continue workin effectively with your setup (I have a similar one) is to mixdown to an empty track and archive the old ones.