Computer Specs for your Cubase

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alexrkstr
  • Start date Start date
A

Alexrkstr

Member
I think my computer will die the next time I run Cubase... I have 9 tracks and LOTS of inserts for the tracks but it can't handle it... it gets stuck, loops, cracks... omg a nightmare...

I have a P4, 1.7with 768 RAM....Running Cubase SX 2.2 What do I have to upgrade to? Do you have any suggestions on saving memory bc ALL my channels have the SAME reverb effect but bc it's an insert it probably processes one at a time?

Thanks for your help!
 
Ideally you shouldn't have reverb as an insert. You should have it setup as send effect and send various amounts of tracks to it. If you need more than one type of reverb (say one short, room reverb, and another longer one), still you should have it setup on it's own Send. There really is no need to have reverb as an insert on every track.

I used to have an AMD 1900+ which isn't that much faster than what you have right now, and I could easily run around 24 tracks of audio and a bunch of VSTis and VST effects before having issues.

One thing you can do, is jack up the latency on the soundcard. This would only be an annoyance when you're trying to play a VSTi (say during recording) from a MIDI controller, but during mixing this shouldn't be an issue. There are times when I just jack it up to around 24ms, and I'm back to mixing w/o any issues.

So, I suggest before you open Cubase, jack up the latency on your card as far as it will go, then open Cubase, and get rid of all your reverbs from the inserts.
 
Your problem might be that you have a lot of crap running in the background of your computer. Do a search on optimizing your comp and you might find some usefull suggestions on getting your current system up to speed. There are plenty of basic tweaks that go a long way.

I am running a an AMD 64 processor with 512mb of ram and don't have any problems. I am using a laptop with an external HD.
 
Ummm, yeah, you should be able to get a helll of alot more than nine tracks with that computer.

And yes, they are being processed one at a time, causing a big drag on the cpu.

Any particular reason you are using them all as inserts?
 
i run a p4 2.4 with i gig ram and a layla 24/96.... my last couple projects were around 12 tracks @ 24/96 with many efx-- ie. compression,reverb,eq.. with no problem..
so ???

are your tracks really long? (+60 minutes)>?

have you uploaded the latest drivers (soundcard/s, OS, DX, etc..)?

do you have enough HD space for swap files and such...?

have you turned off all non-essential progs while using cubase?

???
gl
 
Well....

Thanks for your quick replies. You guys are right I should use reverb as sends...

But besides that I am not running anything else in my computer than Cubase and the VST's when I am recording/playback...

About the drivers... i will post another problem I get on a differnt thread.

I will try sending the tracks and using send instead of inserts and see what happens.

Thanks again
 
I did what you guys said... worked great until I added the 11th track... then it did it again?

Could it be my audio card driver? how do I get rid of caching, cacheing?

Sigh*....

Thanks
 
What are the performance meters doing? Is the disk caching meter spiking, or is the CPU meter spiking?

If it's the disk caching meter, you probably need a second hard drive. What do you have now?

If it's the CPU performance meter, either you are using too many plugs, have too much going on in the background, or yes you may want to consider an upgrade. It's probably better to try and cut back on the inserts though and it's definately far less expensive.

If it's neither of those, it is probably the sound card. What do you have for a soundcard?
 
Are these only audio tracks? What kind of FX are you running? If you're running soft instruments what are you running? Some soft synths are notorious for being CPU hogs, in which case you'll need to become close friends with bouncing :D

Another thought, what's the latency on your soundcard? I mean, what have you set it to? The larger the latency, the less strain there will be on the CPU. So, if you're not playing soft synths from a MIDI controller, increase it.

Are you sure you're using ASIO drivers? What's your soundcard? Check on the manufacturer's site to see if there are any driver updates.

Finally, it is possible to bring the CPU down to its knees, even with one track of audio, unless you're running some mega system :o. It depends on how many, and what kinds of plugins you're running. In which case, like I said, bouncing will be your friend.
 
The first vertical bar in the performance meter is 80% high... the right one is at 0%.

Only compressors on voice (2 tracks), sends on all channels to Reverb. no MIDI.

MobilePre M-Audio Soundcard. yes I am using my ASIO settings.

The thing is that the song is not even playing and the level is WAY up there....

What do you guys think?
 
Yes! it is my !%^#^!$!^%@%***!! soundcard. I just uninstalled it and the meter is at 0% everything working great (except for the fact I CANNOT LISTEN TO ANYTHING!) so...

Should I buy another soundcard... I downloaded the latest driver and it's the same one as I have now. I will keep playing with this but I guess my next post will be "Recommend a good soundcard".

Thanks
 
So... I reinstalled the M-Audio MobilePre driver. It was working great for a while (approx 50%) and all of a sudden it rockets to 100% and it does it again.

Please help.
 
You may have to check with the 2.2 manual, but in SX3 the left meter is the CPU performance meter. You got too many plugs going at once.

I'll have to mull this over for a bit. I'll try and post later.
 
Yeah, it is the CPU Performance Meter. I don't understand though. even when the song is not running the level is at 90%.

How do I deal with this? Is it a computer problem or a soundcard problem?
 
The CPU performance meter will usually stay at some level, even if the sequence isn't playing. This is usually dependent on the number of plugins that are loaded, so that's not surprising. If you had some softsynths, then yeah, the CPU would spike more during playback, depending on the softsynth and the number of voices playing at once. Other then that, you usually won't notice much of a difference whether the sequence is playing or not.

You never answered my question: What's the latency on your soundcard set to?

Another thing that just occured to me... it's possible that one of the plugins that you're using is suffering from the P4 denormal issues. Delays and reverbs are usually the worst offenders.
 
Alexrkstr said:
Yeah, it is the CPU Performance Meter. I don't understand though. even when the song is not running the level is at 90%.
Click to expand...
90% while not running!!! :confused: :confused: :confused:
Wow, you really got me now. :confused: :confused:

I was going to say to try bouncing the other tracks to 2 tracks, but I don't even know where to start with why you'd have 90% usage while the computer isn't running.

Except---

If you have too much running in the background, you would have these problems.

Have you had the sound card for a while and are just now having trouble with it? Or did you just get the card?

Also keep in mind that USB interfaces like the MobilePre relies on the CPU quite a bit. An interface that uses FireWire instead of USB would be better at taking the strain off the CPU, but I suspect you have other things going on and you'd only see marginal improvement with a FireWire device, but I could be wrong.

What's going on when it rockets up to 100%? Is there a clip starting, or a crossfade, or what? There is usually something a little different at that point. Does is rocket at the same point in the song every time? Is this during record or playback?

Do you have a bunch of tracks that are just muted and not fully disabled? This can kill you.
 
noisewreck said:
Another thing that just occured to me... it's possible that one of the plugins that you're using is suffering from the P4 denormal issues. Delays and reverbs are usually the worst offenders.
Click to expand...
I was just thinking that after I hit submit :). (You posted while I was typing mine).
 
Try run,msconfig, startup programs and look wich ones u don't need
 
Try taking a look at your task manager and see what is running heavy other than Cubase.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top