Is it normal for CPU to be running up t0 20% on 4 tracks with 5 fx???

[weatherbill]

I have done everything the sonar web page told me to do and disabled everything possible, but I still don't see why my cpu is running so high when others are able to run many more tracks and fx at once.
I have a P4 elpaso 82845 chip set
1.5 ghz, 20 gig hd, with a 40 gighd, 256 ram, win xp with sonar, with aardvark q-10 pre-release driver.
it also has interupted several times and has a screen that pops up with the info on it, but I don't know how to get that info to cakewalk to anylise it. Anyone out there have answers or are having or once had this problem????

 

[heinz]

What fx are you running? Some are more cpu efficient than others, some are a complete train wreck.

 

[weatherbill]

here are the fx I'm running

i'm running chorus on 2 vox tracks, running chorus on a guitar track, running compressor and reverb on a drum machine audio track. I think this is alot of processing, isn;t it?

Wonder if I need to get an external multi fx unit and get sound I want before it goes into the sonar storage. I bet it would be allot less processing on my cpu, a???

 

[timothydog]

I would say you have a problem.

I have a P3-700 with 384 mb ram.

I run 5 live synth pro's, about 8-9 different Waves Eq's, a couple L1-maximizers and a couple compressors with 8 or 9 audio tracks all at the same time and my cpu usage is between 50-60%

At the rate you are going, your computer would die if you tried that. Maybe you have a driver issue or a problem with Windows XP?

 

[neirbo]

20% CPU usage does seem pretty high given you have a fast processor. You can try increasing your latency (under Options/Audio I think, I don't have Cakewalk in front of me). I found that when I lowered latency too much, my CPU usage would increase.

Another possibility is that Aardvark XP pre-realease driver. I haven't heard muchabout it except that Aardvark is taking forever to put it out. Maybe it is a driver bug?

There is also the possibility that everything is OK and you are using CPU-hungry effects. Again, given your 1.5 Ghz CPU, I don't think this is the case, but it is possible. Some effects, especially reverbs, can be hogs. I like using the auxillary busses for many effects to reduce drain on the CPU. Just pop the effect into AUX 1 or AUX2, click the green button on each track and set the send level you want. You can add etra AUX sends too, Cakewalk just provides two by default.

LEt us know how that XP driver is working out. I have a Q10 and still running 98, but would love to upgrade to XP if the driver is actually working now.

 

[busted kitty]

How are you liking you Q10? I love mine!

Yes, it sounds like there is definately something wrong here. Are you sure you've diabled everything (montior resolution, graphics capabilities, screen savers, networking capabilities?)

This is definately not an effects issue. Ive used more that this on my 900Mhz with 256 of ram and had no problems. I did have a problem with latency which was fixed by setting down close to "safe." I've since boosted RAM to 640MB, just to make things run a bit more smoothly.