RAM or processor?

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artCROSS

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I have a powerbook G4 1.33ghz laptop. I'm running Cubase on it. It used to run fine, but now i have about 30 tracks with effects on each and whenever i play, every 2 seconds, the audio drops out for a few seconds...it's come to the point where I can't even mix now. This may be a stupid question, but to solve this, would I need to upgrade the RAM or is my processor too slow? Thanks!
 
You probably need both, but the processor is what's holding you back
 
whoops, didn't mean to leave that out. I have a 256mb. I just got the computer in August.
 
You may find the speed of your HDD to be part of the problem. Lord knows I am.
 
Three things that effect this are the CPU, RAM, and the speed of your harddrive. If you are just trying to play back 30 individual tracks it could be the harddrive. If you are trying to record 1 or 2 tracks with effects while playing back 30 it could be both the ram and the CPU as well. One way you could try to work around this is to mix down your recorded tracks to a stero track (keeping your individual tracks intact) and see what happens. If this fixes the dropout then I would strongly suggest that the problem was your harddrive. However, I think the first thing, I would do, would be to increase your ram to at least 512 MB, more if you can afford it. You also didn't say what operating system you are running, but I imagine that you probably are maxing out your ram with your OS and Cubase. All three of this items, CPU, RAM, and hardrive affect the audio performance with the harddrive, in the past, being the slowest of the three.

M-Audio did have a program that you could download for free that would test your system and tell you what your max for recording and playback could be using their audio cards, the results would still be pretty accurate even for other sound cards. If you can get a copy of this program that is compatible with your system it would tell you what your current system could handle and eliminate the guess work.

Ozlee
 
My setup was slower and crashed a lot with 256MB. I now think 512 is the minimum.
 
=( I'm gonna be stuck at 256 for a while... cant see myself getting a new computer any time soon. Too much audio gear to buy first. But I only run into problems with lots of power-hungry effects, and that's something I can both live without, and work around. There's usually a better way to mix if I get to that point. =)
 
thanks for the replies.
I'm running OSX Panther. The problem dimishes once i deactivate the reverb. If it is the HD, I don't think it's (easily) possible to replace the one in the laptop...any external ones that could handle it? I'm already using both my usb2.0 ports (printer and mouse/keyboard) and a firewire400 port (interface), but I still have the firewire800 still open.
 
If you go with an external harddrive you have many options that would increase performance. An external, firwire/USB 2.0 combination for added flexibility, 7200 RPM (minimum) with 8MB cache would improve performance if you are not already using a similar one. When it comes to size some people think using several smaller 60/80 GB drives is better and some would prefer one large GB which for a beginer would probably be the best choice. Multiple drives have master/slave issues as well as being able to write to multiple drives at the same time, this configuration is probably the best for working with the largest number of tracks at one time. If you plan on doing this, buy all of the fastest RAM your MB will support first,and buy quality name brand ram. All ram is not necessarly the same. If you go with the external HDD you will most likely have to install your OS and Cubase on it as well. This way there may not be a master/slave issue as there would be if both HDD were attached to the same MB via the same connection. Each OS and Bios has their own specfic requirments or configuration and if you take this a step at a time you will learn as you go and setting up multiple HDD should not be a problem.

One other thing that can cause a system to become unstable and do weird things is heat build up. Fans also create noise and in some home studios this could be a problem. Inspite of this I recomend using all of the cooling you can. The system could run faster and be more stable the cooler it gets, and having had my share of heat related problems and seeing first hand what it can cause. I strongly recomend this.

Ozlee
 
If the problem diminishes after bypassing the reverb ..... It's your CPU that is the primary cause of the bottle-neck. All of the DSP (effects processing) is handled by the CPU.
Really, when track counts get that high all the components can play a part in the stability.
Seeing as how it may not be feasible to upgrade the processor of your Powerbook, you should seriously look into increasing the RAM to as much as you can afford and/or you system supports.
Also, a second hard drive as the working directory for the projects audio data is not only a good idea, but can become a necessity when dealing with high track counts. Asking the single hard drive, of a laptop no less, to handle the OS, programs and the audio streaming is quite a bit. Situations like that can easily cause dropouts. That poor little drive is trying to playback 30+ tracks while the OS and programs are also doing reads and writes to the drive. Not good my friend. Get a FireWire drive. FireWire 800 is backward compatible with FW 400, so you just need the proper cable ... 9 pin to 6 pin.
Contrary to the previous poster in regard to installing the OS and programs onto the external drive .... Not necessary, as a matter of fact ... thats the last thing you would want to do. The whole point of having a second hard drive is to separate the audio data streaming from the OS and programs access of a drive. All you would need to do is set the external drive as the projects working directory and of course move all of your existing project folders over to it, setting Cubase to access the files from the new location.

On a side note ... If Cubase's VST performance monitor isn't showing that the CPU is getting maxed out, you should do quite well by upgrading the RAM and getting an external hard drive. If the CPU is reaching max, you may need to bounce some tracks down or look into less CPU intensive effects.

HTH

-Ken
 
can you replace the processor in a powerbook? I didn't think that was even an option.

H2H
 
crankz1,

My thinking was that if the notebook had a 5400 rpm HDD and he bought a large (for the sake of discussion) 10,000 rpm that his system peformance would improve. Also I did say "he might want to install" his OS and Cubase. I figured that in setting up all of this that there was enough to think about and he really needed to research some of this inorder to make it work.

I agree with you about using it as a working directory. It was the potential mismatch in HDD speed that caused me to suggest loading the OS and Cubase on the external HDD.

Ozlee
 
Ozlee,
Point well taken.
Seeing as how his internal drive is capable, at this point, of near 30 tracks and OS operation, I think it's suffice to say that the internal drive is perfectly suited for just having to handle the OS and Programs.
Grated system performance can benefit from a faster HDD, but if one is to add a second drive for the audio data, you wouldn't really want to put the burden of sharing throughput with the OS and programs on that drive as well. Then we are back to square one, only with a faster drive.

By the way, I had no intention of my post sounding as if I was bashing your recommendations. I simply wanted to stress the point of using a second drive for audio only. :)
 
crankz1,

No problems here. :cool: I just wanted to give my reasoning for the suggestion. I just hope artcross has enough information to point him in the right direction.

Ozlee :)
 
thanks guys, you've helped a lot. the VST performance meter goes up to halfway when the project is open, with nothing playing. once i hit the play button, forget it, that red max light just blinks forever. i tried bouncing some tracks around, but still have the problem. i may go out and get some RAM, but maybe i should invest in a harddrive first. are there any FW800 drives out?
 
Get the RAM. I believe the hard drive's not the problem.
 
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