MULTI DAW!

[Hexfix93]

Ok, i've had it, after messing with cubase on the pc with mixed results. The conclusion i have come to is that you need a dedicated midi machine, and a dedicated audio machine...

one problem i have is that when i import a drum loop into cubase and try and sync it to my mpc, it never sounds tight enough, even with all the delay compensation etc..

I am using my pc as a sampler inside cubase, and its my audio recorder to boot. And when the load gets heavy, with lots of audio tracks and vstis, the midi starts to suffer and flux when there is disc access and stuff like this...

i just don't think its good to try and max out a daw. If you use a daw as multi track recorder, i imagine you get better results..

the thing is, i think i should buy a mac, and run logic for the midi side of things, and run cubase on my pc for the audio side of things.. Space issues suck. setting up two computers in the same room with ergonomics is a bitch.. Not to mention i have no idea how to slave cubase to logic. Is this possible?

like have logic doing midi, and controlling vsti softsynths on my pc, and have it sync up perfect and the pc playing back audio in sync with logic doing all the midi and cubase doing all the audio?

anyone else do this?

[DrDeltaM]

It wouldn't get tighter at all... Syncing between those machines (over Midi) is slow.

Maybe you should invest in a faster computer?

[Hexfix93]

I own a 2.4mhz p4...

i cant see getting a fast machine fixing this.. maybe a dual g5 on a mac? is that the key?

[DrDeltaM]

Originally Posted by Hexfix93

I own a 2.4mhz p4...

i cant see getting a fast machine fixing this.. maybe a dual g5 on a mac? is that the key?

Cuz you said that midi gets sloppy when the load gets heavy due to lotsa audio tracks and VSTi's.
More CPU power helps in the VSTi department. Faster (or dual) HD (maybe even in a raid configuration) helps for more audio tracks. Lotsa Ram never hurts.

Both a fast PC as well as a fast Mac are more then capable. I'm running a dual G5 with Logic and am very happy with the performance.

[Ziggy!!]

Im not sure where your problems are cause exactly... but i have a 3.2ghz P4 machine with 2gig of ram and i can run extensive Nuendo Sessions that are rewired with Gigastudio 3 and Reason 2.5. It runs great! though i try not to use more software than needed (i'll render to audiofiles a Gigastudio session or stuff in reason when im down with it).

Midi is slow... i dont know if running 2 seperate machines will actually fix the problems. Perhaps its something hardware related? like a shared IRC port or something to do with your Audio or Midi interface??

I'd check out all the possible problem causes first though...

How much ram have you got?

Dedicated harddrives? one for programs, one for audio sessions, one for samples?

is your computer connected to the internet? its pretty much impossible to keep those damn spyware bastards off your computer... they can greatly effect performance...

[Hexfix93]

Hrm. maybe that is my problem.. i need more ram only got 756 or whatever..

i get the glitches when the audio is buffering off the disk when i am playing back 50 audio tracks and changing the tempo and time streching... maybe i am pushing it. i still dont get why my drum loops dont jive with my mpc that is hardware via midi.. maybe i need to setup latency or something... grr...

i have an amt8, and every since ever i have wanted to run logic with it cause it has that ultra tight timing code in it. cubase doesnt have that with my amt8.... logic midi timing is so tight... cubase is kinda loose... always has been since the pc. the atari cubase midi was so much better.

and yeah i had to disable the internal motherboard usb because it shared irqs, i bought a usb card and installed it in a slot that didnt share irqs with anything. that fixed the major problems. but not the subtle ones i am talking about here.

cubase just never feels or sounds tight on midi..

amt8 on mac os x is supposed to be mega tight.... i wa told that htte time stamping took place even outside of logic cause since apple bought emagic, the amt and unitor stuff does time stamping at the os level... so the ultra tight midi would work in cubase on the mac with an amt8 as well.

[manning1]

hex.
with 50 tracks thats pretty good. might not even be your pc.
could be the midi device your syncing to outside the pc.

assuming youve done all the usual pc tweaks, before spending lots of money i would find a friend with a faster pc and see if a faster pc solves the problem.
or see if you can get a loaner faster pc (maybe rent one from a dealer - some dealers will do this) and load up your hardest session.
i assume your using two drives on your pc - one for win and one for your tracks
on their own channels.

[Hexfix93]

Well i have 4 drives. And yeah i got it tweaked... i worked so hard to get this pc to work. pcs are so lame on the hardware level to get good performance... That is why i want a mac deep down inside, the usb crap i went through, having to buy usb pci card. all that was a major head ache, and i still had to mess with teh bios hardcore to get it to work...

BAH to pcs!

The motherboards get lamer and lamer, more on board crap sharing a million irqs.. so lame..

[manning1]

hex.
dont know if this might help as a stop gap. but are you using hard drives with 8 mb caches ? how much cache is in your hard drives ?
large caches are certainly a plus. maybe try a 8 mb cache hard drive if you dont have one ?
frankly every platform/software has its plusses and minuses.
you need only read the forums on the net to see that.
maybe - as others have said , if a memory upgrade and/or a faster hard drive upgrade doesnt help , maybe a processor upgrade is in order.
one of the problems is - if your using vsti type synths - these can be quite processor intensive and taxing on any processor.
particularly running multiple instances, as many folks are finding out.
to be frank lower power processors are just not up to it.
in my own case i'm able to run lots of audio tracks on lower processors because i dont use vsti synths. i use outboard midi modules. thus reducing the processor load.

[crypticglobe]

I have a Dual Xeon 2.8Ghz system I built myself (you can get much faster these days).

I use a Steinberg Midex 8 for midi device. I do some VERY intense large track count productions/mixes. Even at high CPU loads everything stays SUPA tight! I run both Nuendo 3.0 and Cubase SX 3.0.

Actually though... with the new freeze features in Nuendo/Cubase... any virtual instruments you are using can be VERY easily written to audio files.

At any rate, you might want to check out your hardware and your PC configuration. I use RME HDSP MADI, or RME Fireface 800, 3 UAD-1 cards, and MIDEX 8, and I have never had any audio/midi timing issues... and I am **** about that.