Website for optimizing computer performance for Audio

[Dopamine]

<< Mac OS can be optimized, disabling unneeded system library items :WhiteBox - Diablotin 1.3 >>

I'm all about having a clean, stripped system. What sort of things did you delete and did you have a noticiable improvement?

[tribeofenki]

Originally Posted by Dopamine

What sort of things did you delete and did you have a noticiable improvement?

No deletion, just some part of the system, if not needed, is not loaded, leaving the Mac to run lighter. Same as Windoze, with the running services.

[composer]

Originally Posted by dylansmale

Few...glad I record on a mac and not a PC. lol

True - I use both and probably have one of the few copies of GIGASTUDIO for MAC before Tascam canned the project (all of Giga).

Anyway, I remember about a year or so ago, I was playing on the PC a bit more and remembered it crashed and remember thinking.... geee, I remember doing this on a daily basis. Sure, in OSX things can crash, but in XP anyway, you would get a BSOD almost daily, especially if you really pushed it. I think SP1 fixed a lot of issues in Vista but my audio devices, for real, didn't get VISTA support for almost one year and was using a hack n tosh, so, I decided to buy a macbook pro and never looked back.

To each his own - but still think CUBASE is better than logic, so far, I mean, really, why can't you ROUTE instruments in LOGIC? Open a drum program and have it trigger another device? Only cubase seems to have that one right. Thinking about buying a slimmed down version of cubase for the mac.

What say you? (re: buying Cubase for OSX?) and what version?
Haven't looked at it since SX/Nuendo.

[djhuggy]

There is a program floating around called dashboardkiller, that will...kill your dashboard. I'm sure you can find it using google. If not, hit me up.

[George Necola]

Originally Posted by djhuggy

There is a program floating around called dashboardkiller, that will...kill your dashboard. I'm sure you can find it using google. If not, hit me up.

that one?

Download DashboardKiller for Mac - Switch Dashboard on/off. MacUpdate Mac Miscellaneous Software Downloads

[djhuggy]

Yes Sir. Bingo! I use it on my Mac Book Pro when using any software for music. You just have to run it one time and presto...no more dashboard.

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by djhuggy

There is a program floating around called dashboardkiller, that will...kill your dashboard. I'm sure you can find it using google. If not, hit me up.

I don't really think there's a reason to kill your dashboard.

Once opened it will use a bit of ressources until you log out, so simply don't activate it during a session.

Macs are generally happier if you don't treat them like a Windows system. No need to tinker with a dashboard killer or other 3rd party tinkertools.

Can anyone list ways to kill the dashboard or other useless background applications (iTunes, etc).

For the dashboard, see above. For iTunes Helper, open System Preferences and select Accounts. Remove iTunes Helper under Startup Items (press the minus sign). It's really insignificant though and you're removing functionality.

[Lagerfeldt]

Originally Posted by Dopamine

The tips on the DUC specifically say to format "Mac OS Extended Journaled". Are your saying to not follow this advice for the audio drive and re-format it MAc OS Extended?

Always follow Digidesigns latest advice (they've changed stance on this twice). I'm talking Logic Pro or other audio applications.

>> Don't activate Widgets (Dashboard). Once activated it'll use resources in the background until you log out or restart your Mac. >>

-Will having just a few (calandar, yellowpages,) realy reduce performance?

Yes, not a lot though.

In Mac pref's: Should I select "Put HD's to sleep whenever possible"? (Someone said it extends the life of HD's, but I would like confirmation.)

I recommend not putting hard disks or screens to sleep.

What the best setting in PT for CPU usage? Should it be maximum

Yes.

[EricBradley]

Originally Posted by Lagerfeldt

I don't really think there's a reason to kill your dashboard.

Once opened it will use a bit of ressources until you log out, so simply don't activate it during a session.

Here's a little widget that gives you full control to disable dashboard once you've activated it.
I use it all the time:

[tribeofenki]

A general statement: jornalised disk is a recent way of helps protect the integrity of the Mac OS (and Linux) Extended file systems against power outages or hardware component failures, reducing the need for repairs.

Mac OS Journaling for the Extended (HFS Plus) file system enhances computer availability and fault resilience, which is especially noteworthy for servers. It also helps to maximize the uptime of servers and connected storage devices by expediting repairs to the affected volumes when the system restarts.


When you enable journaling on a disk, a continuous record of changes to files on the disk is maintained in the journal. If your computer stops because of a power failure or some other issue, the journal is used to restore the disk to a known-good state when the server restarts.

Mac OS X: About file system journaling


So... As long as you save sessions on external disks, this kind of formatting feature is useless into a DAW, unless it is a server, if some resources are shared into a LAN, it is useful indeed.

[helmetheart]

I've read through this thread quite extensively but I can't find anything that seems to really improve the issues. I basically run a 2.4 duel core, 4GB RAM iMac with Pro-Tools 7.4 and a 003 interface.

In conjunction with this I run Abelton Live 7, Reason 4 and also have NI Komplete 5 as well as a host of other plug-ins. I obviously don't run all of these at the same time and try to limit my VST and RTAS usage within reason. Usually a half dozen Smack! (or similar there of) compressors and a dozen or so EQ's but as soon as I add an application such as Guitar Rig or Massive the computer fritzes and requires rebooting.

I understand the usage of some VST's is quite high but still my computer is most definitely not a weak computer and I have tweaked so many settings.

Is there anything I could have possibly overlooked?

I really don't want to have to move to a Mac tower right now, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[monomer]

Originally Posted by gmixstudios

so going back to my question with the PCIlatency should i leave the RME as it is and set the others to 032? please and thank you

The PCI latency thing is about how long a device can use the PCI bus before it can be interrupted by other devices.

For devices that have to transfer a lot of data (as in video or lots of audio) this should be set higher than normal.
I'm not too sure what the best setting is tho.
It does sound logical to have the audio device set to a higher value so it can transfer more data at once without being interrupted.

I'd stick with the default value tho.

[CapnMarvel]

I wanted to express thanks to the keepers of this thread as I made good use of the information here and in the links to fix some dropouts on my new XP-based Core 2 Duo laptop (running Audition) this weekend, and it worked like a charm. Things are humming now and I'm getting work done. Thanks!!

[Timur Born]

Originally Posted by kaze

i found this for vista...

Audio Forums

i don't think anything has been posted for vista yet...

Fortunately there has not been posted anything for Vista, because most of them "optimization" guides contain utter nonsense and are outright wrong, including the one you linked to, sorry.

Generally on a modern PC there is only one tweak that you may consider: Turning off Superfetch to save upto 100 mb RAM and keep the HD from constantly loading data into the cache (noise and head-movement).

Aero can be problematic if your DAW is not Vista aware (like Ableton Live), because it uses the same priority as audio and midi threads. Turning your DAW's priority to "Realtime" most often is the better solution though (the best would be for the DAW to use MMCSS like Sonar does).

Regardless of whether you are using XP or Vista most of the time you want to use "Background" processing only when you are using more than one audio application at a time. When you are running a single audio application as foreground process then you usually want to use "Programs". Audio and midi drivers are threads that are part of the foreground audio application process. Usually these use a fixed priority of 15 and thus ain't affected by this setting anyway. Usually only the main/GUI thread of a DAW is affected. This is a "try it yourself" setting, that most of the times makes no difference anyway.

By default Vista's scheduler is set to do a HD defrag run every Wednesday night 1 am as far as I remember. This shouldn't be a problem even when you are doing a session at that time, but it's good to know about if anything problematic turns up. You can delete that schedule easily anyway.

[Lester]

every place i'v read about journaling i've never found a straight answer. if i recall, even apple says on in one faq and off in another with regards to audio. people seemed split on the issue. some say they've haven't taken any performance hit with it turned on. ymmv

[Alv]

Originally Posted by Lester

every place i'v read about journaling i've never found a straight answer. if i recall, even apple says on in one faq and off in another with regards to audio. people seemed split on the issue. some say they've haven't taken any performance hit with it turned on. ymmv

True. There are mixed signals everywhere and the recommendations have changed over time but the consistent theme seems to be whether or not you are on a network. The guy who brought it up on this thread sounds the most logical.

[tones12]

Thanks for this!

I really like the XP Super Tweaks and the Definite Guide - that have been mentioned.

Just to point out that I really recommend Tweak Guides Tweaking Companion for both XP and (heaven forbid) Vista. While the site is primarily aimed at gamers, 99% of the info is completely applicable. The extra benefits -to me at least- are pretty thorough explanations of the processes being 'tweaked' by the author (M. Ghazi), who also points points out a battery of free apps (Bootvis, Autoruns etc..) that'll change your life (no kidding) once you start using them.

My noob 2 eurocents, but I owe this site a LOT.
cheers
tones

[Barish]

Originally Posted by True North

I got a recommendation from Raketen to add the following Gearslutz thread - very cool for MACbook Pro users, give it a looksee
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music...books-pro.html

This link in the original post is incomplete. Could you please fix it?

Thanks.

B.

[25ghosts]

The following website is a GREAT source for ALL KINDS of optimization of a computer system be it Audio, Video or pictures.

I have been reading it a long time and can really really recommend it

Macintosh Performance Guide

[Red Mastering]

I'd set up my audio system with Nlite
nLite - Deployment Tool for the bootable Unattended Windows installation

I never look back
it took my some time to clear system completely,
but now after installation (which is about 12 minutes)
I got about 96Mb of used RAM for XP services
XP installation is about 1,2 MB on my HD
and runs smoothly (there are no media players, video creators etc..)

full recommendation
you can kill so many irrelevant services, programs,
XP is like sport car now

[True North]

Great Thread that I have to link to with some awesome discussion on "Turbo Mode"

C1E, C3, C6, EIST, Speedstep, Turbo Boost, Core parking

[pilot_cocoon]

are there any tweaks for Win7? or will it be the same as for XP?

[Realziment]

went trough these sites and went over my tweaks, great stuff, just wondering has anyone come across some updated versions of these relevant for xp sp3?

[travisinhell]

Originally Posted by Realziment

went trough these sites and went over my tweaks, great stuff, just wondering has anyone come across some updated versions of these relevant for xp sp3?

get dux xp and be done with it.

[Realziment]

are u talking about the guide? or some sort of program thanks.

[travisinhell]

Originally Posted by Realziment

are u talking about the guide? or some sort of program thanks.

Windows XP SP3 nLited and Audio Optimised - Cockos Confederated Forums

nlite is free software for editing the installation config for win xp. you open an xp iso in nlite, config it, and it spits out a new iso ready to burn and install. there's also vlite for vista....haven't looked over there in a while, but there's probably something for 7 also. dux xp is an xp iso with dux's nlite config applied. you could also use his config file (provided in that thread) with your own iso. i used it with win xp media center, along with some other tweaks to turn a (completely unusable for recording) hp media laptop into a capable/snappy daw. i've used both firewire and usb interfaces at their lowest latency/buffer settings with this machine and no performance problems.

[Realziment]

great appreciate it thanks man.

[jjw]

What about W7 users? Would it just be the same processes as the XP guides or is there a different approach needed?

[imgreat]

Thanks for the info!

[tribeofenki]

For all version of Windows - XP, Vista, 7, 8 whatever...
The best DAW PC has a minimal OS that can be created from scratch
with apps as nLite or vLite (former for XP, latter for Vista and 7).

Free System Tweaking & Maintenance tool for easy removal of the unwanted components in order to make Vista run faster...