Hello all. I have a question that I'm afraid I may already know the answer to, and I dont like it... I'm doing a mixdown of a song my band is recording, and there are quite a few tracks, with many effects. Whenever possible, individual tracks are routed to a Bus with effects on the bus (and not on the individual tracks) Even so, when i'm mixing down, I get CPU usage of 48% and its causing the dreaded dropouts. Short of eliminating effects, or freezing/bouncing tracks, would adding more RAM to the machine help with this issue? I'm running Home Studio 6 under Windows XP, with 2 gigs of ram. I'm thinking no, it wouldnt help, only a faser processor would... but I dont know. Any advice would be appreciated.
Since you're mixing, and not recording, have you increased the latency/buffers? When I record I have my ASIO latency set as low as possible, this is often sufficient for mixing too... but when there are many synths and/or many tracks, many effects, etc. I have raised latency as high as 100+ in order to work. Latency really means nothing unless you are recording from outside source, or working with realtime video. Give that a try? N.B. "If five is good, then 20 is better" in my experience does NOT apply here. Some soundcard drivers can introduce new problems if latency is too high. Go only as high as you need to get the job done is what I recommend. Good luck! -- Sue Morton "moonpie" <> wrote in message news:... > > Hello all. > > I have a question that I'm afraid I may already know the answer to, > and I dont like it... > > I'm doing a mixdown of a song my band is recording, and there are > quite a few tracks, with many effects. Whenever possible, individual > tracks are routed to a Bus with effects on the bus (and not on the > individual tracks) > > Even so, when i'm mixing down, I get CPU usage of 48% and its causing > the dreaded dropouts. Short of eliminating effects, or > freezing/bouncing tracks, would adding more RAM to the machine help > with this issue? I'm running Home Studio 6 under Windows XP, with 2 > gigs of ram. > > I'm thinking no, it wouldnt help, only a faser processor would... but > I dont know. > > Any advice would be appreciated. >
On 6/14/2010 9:00 AM, Sue Morton wrote: > Since you're mixing, and not recording, have you increased the > latency/buffers? When I record I have my ASIO latency set as low as > possible, this is often sufficient for mixing too... but when there are > many synths and/or many tracks, many effects, etc. I have raised latency > as high as 100+ in order to work. Latency really means nothing unless > you are recording from outside source, or working with realtime video. Right. The only oddity you'll experience is a delay between stopping playback (hitting the spacebar?) and actual cessation of sound. Or tweaks to an effect before it becomes audible. But even at 100+ ms the delay is not unpleasant. Also agree that you don't want to make it too long. But something in the 100 - 130 ms range can alleviate a lot of stress on the CPU while still providing modest playback performance.
On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:37:43 -0500, "Gary R. Hook" <> wrote: >On 6/14/2010 9:00 AM, Sue Morton wrote: >> Since you're mixing, and not recording, have you increased the >> latency/buffers? When I record I have my ASIO latency set as low as >> possible, this is often sufficient for mixing too... but when there are >> many synths and/or many tracks, many effects, etc. I have raised latency >> as high as 100+ in order to work. Latency really means nothing unless >> you are recording from outside source, or working with realtime video. > >Right. The only oddity you'll experience is a delay between stopping >playback (hitting the spacebar?) and actual cessation of sound. Or >tweaks to an effect before it becomes audible. But even at 100+ ms the >delay is not unpleasant. > >Also agree that you don't want to make it too long. But something in >the 100 - 130 ms range can alleviate a lot of stress on the CPU while >still providing modest playback performance. I'll try that, great idea. Never considered that. Its a work in progress, like most i suppose... mix some, then somebody says, well, you should really add an electric 12 string to double this part... So then I have to add another track, and then turn off all the effects on everything, just to be able to record another track without it dropping out.,.. very weird, but if thats how it is, then ok one thing i've noticed, i often get a hard droput near the very end, at the same spot every time. I've noticed it "hangs up" when it gets to a spot where the audio on two tracks ends suddenly, the rest of the tracks keep going. Its like the play bar gets to the spot where those two tracks run out of audio, and it just stops. Is it possible that a sudden end to audio information could cause a hiccup like that?
In news: the killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > Is it possible that a sudden end to audio information could cause a > hiccup like that? I've seen that with Sonar before, and ended up adding recorded silence to the end of the song, then bouncing the audible and silent clips into one single clip. Sonar's audio engine is pretty finicky, and easy to cause pops, clicks, and even dropouts. -- Remove YourHeadFromYourAss to Reply by email ________ __ / ____/ /__ ____ ____ / /_ ____ / / __/ / _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \ / /_/ / / __/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / \____/_/\___/_/ /_/_/ /_/_.___/\____/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Glennbo http://www.soundclick.com/glennbo Non-Linear Sound http://www.soundclick.com/jambits Hear My Music http://www.soundclick.com/ThePseudonyms
"Glennbo" <> wrote in message news:Xns9D976D1F95CADBrownShoesDontMakeIt@85.214.73.210... > In news: the killer robot moonpie > <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship > cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > > > Is it possible that a sudden end to audio information could cause a > > hiccup like that? > > I've seen that with Sonar before, and ended up adding recorded silence to > the end of the song, then bouncing the audible and silent clips into one > single clip. Sonar's audio engine is pretty finicky, and easy to cause > pops, clicks, and even dropouts. Yup. Reaper 3.60 is up<g> Poly
The killer robot "polymod" <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... >> > Is it possible that a sudden end to audio information could cause >> > a hiccup like that? >> >> I've seen that with Sonar before, and ended up adding recorded >> silence to the end of the song, then bouncing the audible and silent >> clips into one single clip. Sonar's audio engine is pretty finicky, >> and easy to cause pops, clicks, and even dropouts. > > Yup. > Reaper 3.60 is up<g> I downloaded and installed it this weekend. Even started a new song with a mamoth midi instrument I created using Ticky Clav, Sample Tank with an acoustic guitar, an Arp string ensemble, and a Roland Juno synth model. It's a cool sound in that the clav and acoustic guitar are panned off of each other and decay away to nothing, while the strings and synth are lower volume, also panned off of each other, but sustain forever. It's got a plucky and etherial sound that made me wander off to Mahavishnu territory halfway through the song. No dropouts, pops or clicks. -- Remove YourHeadFromYourAss to Reply by email ________ __ / ____/ /__ ____ ____ / /_ ____ / / __/ / _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \ / /_/ / / __/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / \____/_/\___/_/ /_/_/ /_/_.___/\____/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Glennbo http://www.soundclick.com/glennbo Non-Linear Sound http://www.soundclick.com/jambits Hear My Music http://www.soundclick.com/ThePseudonyms
On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:04:33 -0400, "polymod" <> wrote: > >"Glennbo" <> wrote in message >news:Xns9D976D1F95CADBrownShoesDontMakeIt@85.214.73.210... >> In news: the killer robot >moonpie >> <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship >> cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... >> >> > Is it possible that a sudden end to audio information could cause a >> > hiccup like that? >> >> I've seen that with Sonar before, and ended up adding recorded silence to >> the end of the song, then bouncing the audible and silent clips into one >> single clip. Sonar's audio engine is pretty finicky, and easy to cause >> pops, clicks, and even dropouts. > >Yup. >Reaper 3.60 is up<g> > >Poly > you read my mind. Friend of mine is using Reaper and loves it, could probably go over to his house and get some lessons. Is the audio engine in Reaper less particular? How easy is it to learn the interface? more importantly, how easy is it to take a big SONAR project and put it to Reaper?
The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > Is the audio engine in Reaper less particular? It's one of, if not the baddest audio engine on the planet. > How easy is it to learn the interface? It's got a bit of a learning curve. Was totally worth it IMO. > more importantly, how easy is it to take a big SONAR project and put > it to Reaper? Audio tracks can easily be moved en masse using Reaper's "ReaRoute", which is a virtual ASIO audio cable. Midi tracks can also be moved in that same shot using Reaper's ability to act as a ReWire device. -- Remove YourHeadFromYourAss to Reply by email ________ __ / ____/ /__ ____ ____ / /_ ____ / / __/ / _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \ / /_/ / / __/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / \____/_/\___/_/ /_/_/ /_/_.___/\____/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Glennbo http://www.soundclick.com/glennbo Non-Linear Sound http://www.soundclick.com/jambits Hear My Music http://www.soundclick.com/ThePseudonyms
Just a guess, but with regards to sonar suddenly stalling at the end of the 2 audio tracks, I'm wondering whether it might be that you need to check the, "play effect tails after stopping" in options/audio/advanced Either check it or uncheck? Probably the former. Steve "moonpie" <> wrote in message news:... > On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:37:43 -0500, "Gary R. Hook" > <> wrote: > >>On 6/14/2010 9:00 AM, Sue Morton wrote: >>> Since you're mixing, and not recording, have you increased the >>> latency/buffers? When I record I have my ASIO latency set as low as >>> possible, this is often sufficient for mixing too... but when there are >>> many synths and/or many tracks, many effects, etc. I have raised latency >>> as high as 100+ in order to work. Latency really means nothing unless >>> you are recording from outside source, or working with realtime video. >> >>Right. The only oddity you'll experience is a delay between stopping >>playback (hitting the spacebar?) and actual cessation of sound. Or >>tweaks to an effect before it becomes audible. But even at 100+ ms the >>delay is not unpleasant. >> >>Also agree that you don't want to make it too long. But something in >>the 100 - 130 ms range can alleviate a lot of stress on the CPU while >>still providing modest playback performance. > > > I'll try that, great idea. Never considered that. Its a work in > progress, like most i suppose... mix some, then somebody says, well, > you should really add an electric 12 string to double this part... So > then I have to add another track, and then turn off all the effects on > everything, just to be able to record another track without it > dropping out.,.. very weird, but if thats how it is, then ok > > one thing i've noticed, i often get a hard droput near the very end, > at the same spot every time. I've noticed it "hangs up" when it gets > to a spot where the audio on two tracks ends suddenly, the rest of the > tracks keep going. Its like the play bar gets to the spot where those > two tracks run out of audio, and it just stops. > > Is it possible that a sudden end to audio information could cause a > hiccup like that? > --- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---
On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:03:59 +0000 (UTC), Glennbo <> wrote: >The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls >of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > >> Is the audio engine in Reaper less particular? > >It's one of, if not the baddest audio engine on the planet. > >> How easy is it to learn the interface? > >It's got a bit of a learning curve. Was totally worth it IMO. > >> more importantly, how easy is it to take a big SONAR project and put >> it to Reaper? > >Audio tracks can easily be moved en masse using Reaper's "ReaRoute", >which is a virtual ASIO audio cable. Midi tracks can also be moved in >that same shot using Reaper's ability to act as a ReWire device. i use 'lectronic drums with a midi brain, that sends a midi signal to sonar, and then i insert EZ drummer as a soft synth to it. I assume Reaper can do this too, but doesnt hurt to ask... can it?
On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:47:00 +0100, "Steve Ardcorr" <> wrote: >Just a guess, but with regards to sonar suddenly stalling at the end >of the 2 audio tracks, I'm wondering whether it might be that you need >to check the, "play effect tails after stopping" in options/audio/advanced >Either check it or uncheck? Probably the former. >Steve > thats a good idea too, thanks!
The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... >>Audio tracks can easily be moved en masse using Reaper's "ReaRoute", >>which is a virtual ASIO audio cable. Midi tracks can also be moved in >>that same shot using Reaper's ability to act as a ReWire device. > > > i use 'lectronic drums with a midi brain, that sends a midi signal to > sonar, and then i insert EZ drummer as a soft synth to it. My drum kit. http://members.cox.net/glennbo/PadDrums.jpg and http://members.cox.net/glennbopix/ReaperDrums.jpg > I assume Reaper can do this too, but doesnt hurt to ask... can it? At 1ms latency on my system. -- Remove YourHeadFromYourAss to Reply by email ________ __ / ____/ /__ ____ ____ / /_ ____ / / __/ / _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \ / /_/ / / __/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / \____/_/\___/_/ /_/_/ /_/_.___/\____/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Glennbo http://www.soundclick.com/glennbo Non-Linear Sound http://www.soundclick.com/jambits Hear My Music http://www.soundclick.com/ThePseudonyms
On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:42:41 +0000 (UTC), Glennbo <> wrote: >The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls >of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > >>>Audio tracks can easily be moved en masse using Reaper's "ReaRoute", >>>which is a virtual ASIO audio cable. Midi tracks can also be moved in >>>that same shot using Reaper's ability to act as a ReWire device. >> >> >> i use 'lectronic drums with a midi brain, that sends a midi signal to >> sonar, and then i insert EZ drummer as a soft synth to it. > >My drum kit. > >http://members.cox.net/glennbo/PadDrums.jpg and >http://members.cox.net/glennbopix/ReaperDrums.jpg it says "Superior Drums". I guess those are ToonTrack, not some sort of native Reaper drum thing? So you posted those pics to say, YES, it does it exactly the same way as sonar? > >> I assume Reaper can do this too, but doesnt hurt to ask... can it? > >At 1ms latency on my system. uh.... is that better or worse than sonar? Ha! you guys are about a billion miles ahead of me in all this.
The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... >>My drum kit. >> >>http://members.cox.net/glennbo/PadDrums.jpg and >>http://members.cox.net/glennbopix/ReaperDrums.jpg > > it says "Superior Drums". I guess those are ToonTrack, not some sort > of native Reaper drum thing? So you posted those pics to say, YES, it > does it exactly the same way as sonar? Yeah, that's Superior Dummer 2 which is EZ-Drummer's big brother, and like you I use a pad kit to play Superior when I'm recording. >>> I assume Reaper can do this too, but doesnt hurt to ask... can it? >> >>At 1ms latency on my system. > > > uh.... is that better or worse than sonar? > > Ha! you guys are about a billion miles ahead of me in all this. 1ms is ultra fast, and makes it so no lag is felt. I was able to hit 1.5ms latency with Sonar, but at the cost of dealing with flakey stuff happening. -- Remove YourHeadFromYourAss to Reply by email ________ __ / ____/ /__ ____ ____ / /_ ____ / / __/ / _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \ / /_/ / / __/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / \____/_/\___/_/ /_/_/ /_/_.___/\____/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Glennbo http://www.soundclick.com/glennbo Non-Linear Sound http://www.soundclick.com/jambits Hear My Music http://www.soundclick.com/ThePseudonyms
On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:31:17 +0000 (UTC), Glennbo <> wrote: >The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls of >the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > >>>My drum kit. >>> >>>http://members.cox.net/glennbo/PadDrums.jpg and >>>http://members.cox.net/glennbopix/ReaperDrums.jpg >> >> it says "Superior Drums". I guess those are ToonTrack, not some sort >> of native Reaper drum thing? So you posted those pics to say, YES, it >> does it exactly the same way as sonar? > >Yeah, that's Superior Dummer 2 which is EZ-Drummer's big brother, and like >you I use a pad kit to play Superior when I'm recording. > >>>> I assume Reaper can do this too, but doesnt hurt to ask... can it? >>> >>>At 1ms latency on my system. >> >> >> uh.... is that better or worse than sonar? >> >> Ha! you guys are about a billion miles ahead of me in all this. > >1ms is ultra fast, and makes it so no lag is felt. I was able to hit 1.5ms >latency with Sonar, but at the cost of dealing with flakey stuff happening. ok thanks. is there anything that you can do in sonar, that you really cant do in reaper? how about reaper tutorials? are they easy to find?
The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > is there anything that you can do in sonar, that you really cant do in > reaper? Not anything that I ever did in Sonar, but I use both Sonar and Reaper mostly to record performances of me or others actually playing a part, so more often than not, I'm simply hitting record and then playing something. There are numerous tricks that Reaper can do that Sonar cannot do though. You can side-chain *any* automatable plugin in Reaper, as it allows you to use the changing levels on one track tweak FX parameters on a completely different track. It also will let you either stack multiple softsynths on one track, or you can have one midi track drive softsynths on multiple other tracks. The latter can easily be laced up using drag-n-drop routing, which is in fact, exactly what I used on a song I'm currently working on. http://members.cox.net/glennbopix/Drag-n-DropRouting.avi > how about reaper tutorials? are they easy to find? There are some up on youtube.com, and their forum can answer most if not all questions you might have on how to accomplish things. -- Remove YourHeadFromYourAss to Reply by email ________ __ / ____/ /__ ____ ____ / /_ ____ / / __/ / _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \ / /_/ / / __/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / \____/_/\___/_/ /_/_/ /_/_.___/\____/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Glennbo http://www.soundclick.com/glennbo Non-Linear Sound http://www.soundclick.com/jambits Hear My Music http://www.soundclick.com/ThePseudonyms
On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:28:17 +0000 (UTC), Glennbo <> wrote: >The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls of >the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > >> is there anything that you can do in sonar, that you really cant do in >> reaper? > >Not anything that I ever did in Sonar, but I use both Sonar and Reaper >mostly to record performances of me or others actually playing a part, so >more often than not, I'm simply hitting record and then playing something. >There are numerous tricks that Reaper can do that Sonar cannot do though. >You can side-chain *any* automatable plugin in Reaper, as it allows you to >use the changing levels on one track tweak FX parameters on a completely >different track. It also will let you either stack multiple softsynths on >one track, or you can have one midi track drive softsynths on multiple >other tracks. The latter can easily be laced up using drag-n-drop routing, >which is in fact, exactly what I used on a song I'm currently working on. > >http://members.cox.net/glennbopix/Drag-n-DropRouting.avi > >> how about reaper tutorials? are they easy to find? > >There are some up on youtube.com, and their forum can answer most if not >all questions you might have on how to accomplish things. thank you, you're very helpful. I might try it, after i get two songs finished in sonar, i might play around with reaper.., i dont think changing horses in midstream is too good of an idea right now are you on the reaper forum?
The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... >>The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the >>controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... >> >>> is there anything that you can do in sonar, that you really cant do >>> in reaper? >> >>Not anything that I ever did in Sonar, but I use both Sonar and Reaper >>mostly to record performances of me or others actually playing a part, >>so more often than not, I'm simply hitting record and then playing >>something. There are numerous tricks that Reaper can do that Sonar >>cannot do though. You can side-chain *any* automatable plugin in >>Reaper, as it allows you to use the changing levels on one track tweak >>FX parameters on a completely different track. It also will let you >>either stack multiple softsynths on one track, or you can have one >>midi track drive softsynths on multiple other tracks. The latter can >>easily be laced up using drag-n-drop routing, which is in fact, >>exactly what I used on a song I'm currently working on. >> >>http://members.cox.net/glennbopix/Drag-n-DropRouting.avi >> >>> how about reaper tutorials? are they easy to find? >> >>There are some up on youtube.com, and their forum can answer most if >>not all questions you might have on how to accomplish things. > > > thank you, you're very helpful. > > I might try it, after i get two songs finished in sonar, i might play > around with reaper.., i dont think changing horses in midstream is too > good of an idea right now I wouldn't suggest doing anything more than playing around with Reaper at first. For me, I real quickly found it to be more resilliant to my piling on FX and running at ultra low latency, and since I was between projects, I just started my next one in Reaper to see how far I'd get. Thirty or so songs later, I'm still using it. > are you on the reaper forum? Only on occasion. I really dislike web based forums. -- Remove YourHeadFromYourAss to Reply by email ________ __ / ____/ /__ ____ ____ / /_ ____ / / __/ / _ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \/ __ \ / /_/ / / __/ / / / / / / /_/ / /_/ / \____/_/\___/_/ /_/_/ /_/_.___/\____/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Glennbo http://www.soundclick.com/glennbo Non-Linear Sound http://www.soundclick.com/jambits Hear My Music http://www.soundclick.com/ThePseudonyms
On Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:17:29 +0000 (UTC), Glennbo <> wrote: >The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the controls >of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... > >>>The killer robot moonpie <> grabbed the >>>controls of the spaceship cakewalk.audio and pressed these buttons... >>> >>>> is there anything that you can do in sonar, that you really cant do >>>> in reaper? >>> >>>Not anything that I ever did in Sonar, but I use both Sonar and Reaper >>>mostly to record performances of me or others actually playing a part, >>>so more often than not, I'm simply hitting record and then playing >>>something. There are numerous tricks that Reaper can do that Sonar >>>cannot do though. You can side-chain *any* automatable plugin in >>>Reaper, as it allows you to use the changing levels on one track tweak >>>FX parameters on a completely different track. It also will let you >>>either stack multiple softsynths on one track, or you can have one >>>midi track drive softsynths on multiple other tracks. The latter can >>>easily be laced up using drag-n-drop routing, which is in fact, >>>exactly what I used on a song I'm currently working on. >>> >>>http://members.cox.net/glennbopix/Drag-n-DropRouting.avi >>> >>>> how about reaper tutorials? are they easy to find? >>> >>>There are some up on youtube.com, and their forum can answer most if >>>not all questions you might have on how to accomplish things. >> >> >> thank you, you're very helpful. >> >> I might try it, after i get two songs finished in sonar, i might play >> around with reaper.., i dont think changing horses in midstream is too >> good of an idea right now > >I wouldn't suggest doing anything more than playing around with Reaper at >first. For me, I real quickly found it to be more resilliant to my piling >on FX and running at ultra low latency, and since I was between projects, I >just started my next one in Reaper to see how far I'd get. Thirty or so >songs later, I'm still using it. > I take it Reaper works in Windows XP as well as Windows 7?
