How many tracks can you run??

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powderfinger

powderfinger

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How much power does your machine have and how many tracks can it run w/o skips and drop outs???? Right now I'm running 16 tracks on a 768 RAM and 1.8 Ghz...on my latest project, I've been running into some problems with 16 tracks and quite frankly I'm surprised that it's because of CPU power........could it be?? the track is about 4 min long with track lengths varying..........any ideas???
 
Also......

What would a reasonable latency setting for that computer speed??
 
how many effects are you using....that would be more the CPU hog than track count.......

without effects i can get 24 tracks EASY on a 500mhz Celeron.....
 
thanks gidge...........

i think i found the main cluprit of the cpu hogging...........renaissance waves reverb.........sounds great but apparently is a HUGE hog.........i made two copies of tracks and kept one dry and muted it and pre-processed the other with the effect so it has it set and doesn't have to real time process......looks like this works........it's kind of a pain in the ass, but i guess it's my only option

...........anyone else had this problem with waves reverb??
 
reverbs in general are CPU munchers, and most arent even worth it cuz they sound so crappy. There seem to be three different reverb algo's out there, and almost everyopne is just running a modded version of one of those three. Even sadder, the three models are based on a ( by omputer standards) ANCIENT DSP book written by a guy NOT working in the music field.

You may have to render your reverbs to a track. Limiting options, but sometimes its the only way to go. I like accoustic mirror if Im gonna use a native reverb and that thing munches CPU like no tomorrow.

Check and see if it REALLY is a track count issue, make sure its not the fx that are doing it, like gidge said.

If it IS a track count issue, you probably need to look at your hard drive(s)

I got a modest system, and it will record 24 tracks of 24 bit 96kHz, while playing 24 tracks of 24 bit 96kHz. I couldnt do that till it had a special hard disk
 
powderfinger said:
thanks gidge...........

i think i found the main cluprit of the cpu hogging...........renaissance waves reverb.........sounds great but apparently is a HUGE hog.........i made two copies of tracks and kept one dry and muted it and pre-processed the other with the effect so it has it set and doesn't have to real time process......looks like this works........it's kind of a pain in the ass, but i guess it's my only option

...........anyone else had this problem with waves reverb??
Click to expand...

hell ya....those dudes can peg a CPU meter with just 2 or 3 of them going.....(well at least on my crappy system).....
 
It depends on what you mean by "no dropouts". Some dropouts are tolerable...if my system is seriously being taxed I do expect to hear dropouts when I move windows around and mess with stuff. To me, untolerable dropouts are those that occur when you're just letting the system playback.

That said, my largest project so far was 25 tracks of 24/44.1 using two waves trueverb plugs (older version, which IMO is better), three or four L1 limiters, a couple C1 compressors, several odds and ends including an n-track echo, an n-track verb, and a resonant filter (prosoniq northpole)...lots of automation, in fact almost constant automation on several tracks.

My system is a Celeron 850Mhz on an old BE6 motherboard, 256MB RAM, a couple maxtor 7200's, a delta1010, and yada yada.

That particular project totally whooped up on my system, but I could still mix. When it gets to that point I am very careful with what I'm doing and when I do it. I turn off a lot of visual effects and try to mix using the bare minimum.

Oh, and I've never once had a dropout while recording.

Slackmaster 2000
 
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