Cubase - Hard Drive Problems ???

[Richvee]

I am running a PIII 650 with 256MB ram with cubase vst/24 software and am having trouble when i run more than 16 tracks (16 bit). In the performance bar the cpu is fine but it says my hard drive is not fast enough although it's running at 7200rpm. Is this normal or should i be able to run more tracks.
My hard drive is a quantum 20 gig ide. I have a asus p3bf motherboard.

- yes i am using asio drivers. i am using the 2408

[Edited by Richvee on 10-14-2000 at 11:06]

 

[sonusman]

Well, 24 bit files at the same sampling rate are almost twice as big as 16 bit files (on a stereo .wav file, the difference for 1 min of audio is 10MB for 16 bit, and about 18MB for 24 bit.

Do the math. You are running the equivalent of about maybe 26 or 27 tracks of 16 bit audio. What more could you expect from a single hard drive? (this is assuming that you are recording 24 bit files or course. Am I wrong?)

If more tracks is what you are after, consider setting up a RAID O system with your hard drives. Figuratively, this would double your hard drive throughput capacity for only the price of the controller card and another drive. Plus, you also would double your storage capacity, which is something you will need if you are going to be using a whole bunch of 24 bit audio tracks on your projects.

Good luck.

Ed

 

[MrBoogie]

You should be able to get more than 16 tracks of 16 bit audio with your setup....heck I was able to do that with a K6-2/500. Do you regularly run scandisk and defrag? Are you sure everything is set up properly?

Could you give more specifics about your hard drive...ide or scsi; size; etc....? Actually, any specific info you have on your hardware might be helpful....like what motherboard you're using.

 

[lukgier]

hi
with my k6 450 and 128 of ram and 13 gigs udma66 i am able to run 34 track and with no effects and about 24 with referb some eq and chorus.
do you use asio drivers? it is a must! to have more tracks
lukgier

 

[Bones]

UDMA settings

ok, Spider made this call in another thread but it's the most obvious reason I can think of.

In control panel/system/hard drives/properies is the DMA option ticked.

It should be!

Otherwise there might be a conflict with your video card or another PCI device.

Try backing off the hardware acceleration one notch in
Control Panel/system/ performance TAB/graphics.

Some 3D video cards are very hungry for processor and RAM power. As a quick test to see if this is the issue (you should be getting more at 16bit than you are).

right click on your desktop /active desktop/customise desk.../settings/advanced/Adapter/Change/Next/Display list.../Show all hardware.../ (choose the standard display type [PCI or VGA depending on your vid card] it's the very top one)

OK out of there, windows might say that this isn't the right driver but we know that, we want to disable the extra functions on the card to see if they're slowing do0wn your audio. Reboot and then run your most demanding song, add a coupe of wav files and see if it's any better. If it is there's ya gremlin.

Go for a card with no 3d acceleration at all, less chance of it hogging resouces.

hope it helps dude

Bones