Testing my computer

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ColdAsh

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Im trying to get an idea of how powerful my computer is and how much i'll be able to do with it. Unfortunately i dont have any material over 8 tracks so far so i tried doing a lot of copying tracks and putting lots of EQs and FX on them. I also did a bit of more than one (some times 3 or 4) or the same effect on the one track. Is this going to give me a very accurate idea of how powerful my computer is? If i have 32 different tracks with the same plug-ins spread out over the tracks would this use more processing power?
 
I think it depends on how the app is coded, but it seems logical that if you had a duplicate track, the app would have to load that audio file into memory two times in order to play it back properly. I'm not well versed in application threading, but I think there would be a new thread for each track, responsible for playback, and I don't think you can have two threads using the same memory space. I really don't know as much about threading as I should (I'm a VB programmer).

If you want to see how powerful your computer is, there are several cpu and system benchmarks you can download. SiSoft Sandra has a suite of benchmarking tests as well as results from other systems so you can compare your results.
 
Could you give me a link to their site. Ive got a feeling logic does use the same track but this shouldnt have any effect on showing what my computer is capible as far as plug ins go should it?
 
Your using Logic Audio ? Which version ?
What are your system specs ?
Using a ton of plug ins will in fact show you were your limit is.
However, using the same track copied wont help much for max. track count.
 
I figured it wouldn’t give me an idea of track count.
Here's my system:
P4 1.8 GHz 478 pin
Must admit i dont know exactly MB i have but its one built for P4 and i think its an Intel
512MB RDRAMM
40GB 5400 Segate Drive (OS and Games)
20GB 7200 Segate Drive (Audio)
Promise ATA 100 controller card
SoundBlaster Live card
Delta 66 Card
19-inch monitor (not that it has anything to do with performance)
Windows 98 and XP (im using 98 for logic but haven’t got around to putting it on XP yet)
Logic Gold v4.5 (haven’t got around to downloading the upgrade to 4.8.1, slack ain’t i ;) )
Here’s what i got with my performance test set up
24 Fat Eqs, 12 Compressors (logic compressor), 14 Gold verbs, 6 Silver Eqs, 4 Choruses
All this used up a little under a third of my system reasources according to logic.
 
there is a little program called DskBench that will give you an estimate of how many tracks your disk is capable of with different HD buffer size settings... give out a CPU load too. the track count will probably too high for reality if I remember correct because other factors in your system will "choke" it before the count gets that high...

It gives me track counts in the 130+ on certain buffer settings... but the largest project I've ever had was 24tracks so I really don't know how accurate it is... maybe someone else knows.

anyways heres the link:
http://www.sesa.es/us/dskbench/dskbench.htm
 
OK I did a test on my system...

I copied the same wav from one track to another and using this method around the 90 track mark my CPU meter red about 65% and disk meter was fluctuating between 1% and 2%... so I stopped there.... obviously with copied tracks the hard disk isn't gonna come in...

so I recorded some tracks... all different files... at 10 tracks my CPU was about 6% and disk was about 25% at 20 tracks CPU was still 6% and disk was about 50%... thats where I stopped assuming the trend would continue and my hard drive would give out at around the 40 track mark long before the CPU... which is good cause that extra 94% would normally go for plugins...

I have a 1.2Ghz Athlon T-Bird... and a WD 40gig ATA100 drive...

so looks like that DskBench utility was way off for individual tracks but pretty close for copied tracks... so how it works I am not sure
 
The thing with copied tracks in logic (and possibly other sequencers) is that it plays the same wave file. Even if u use silencer or chop ect it up i still think it uses the same file. So although u may see 90 track the computers it olny opening very few.
Anyone think my CPU usage sounds about right though?
Would i be likely to be able to get 32 tracks with my hard drive? (im gonna use DskBench tomorrow when i get a chance). BTW do i place it on the hard drive i wanna check?
 
Were all those plug ins through a bus or inserted seperatly on each track. If seperate, I would say you're in pretty good shape.
I use Logic gold 4.8 but I can only get a maximum allowed track count of 24. Im waiting for my Platinum 5.0 upgrade to come in. It is supposed to be optimized for XP. I dont know if gold will even run on XP. I rarely use more than 16 tracks on any given song and I cant even visualize 32 tracks. And even then after having 5 tracks of percussion I usually do a bounce to disk with plugins active down to a stereo mix of it to conserve space and resources.
But again, sounds like your system is doing a fine job of handling it. And just a note, I discovered better perfomance having two 7200rpm drives instead of a 54 and 72.

Logic Rocks !!!
 
Record a CD on as many tracks at once as you can. Then do it again until you start to max out. That way each track is it's own audio file. The length of the files will make a difference also (I think) because it will determine how much of the file can be buffered in the RAM. I would record 2-3minutes on each file to simulate more real world conditions.
 
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