How Much Ram?

[daveybasso]

im running Windows 7 64 bit.

i just upgraded from 6 gigs of ddr3 to 16 gigs of ddr 3, should i have gone to 32 gigs? or would that ever get used....

i use FL Studio, PT9 and Adobe audition 3.0

and im an effects fiend...love to use lots of em....

[JvdS]

I use a lot of vsti's as well which can eat into your ram use pretty heavily dependant on which ones you use. 24 gb has been plenty for me running some really really big sessions with tons of plugs, tracks and vsti's on W7 64 bit.

[Enlightened Hand]

Wow.

I regularly mix 20-40 (sometimes 50) track projects with 2GB RAM on a 6 year old P4 pc, with only a UAD-1 topping out at like 60%, and that's with totally ITB mixes. I don't think you would need more than 16GB to get the job done for mixing. Using effects that heavily is kind of overkill for that purpose. IMO part of the problem with a lot of people misusing effects is using way too many and thinking it works.

But I suppose the real question is what exactly will you be doing. Running a lot of soft synths in real time can eat ram. Today's really big soft synths are probably RAM hogs. In that case you might need as much as you can get away with.

[daveybasso]

Originally Posted by JvdS

I use a lot of vsti's as well which can eat into your ram use pretty heavily dependant on which ones you use. 24 gb has been plenty for me running some really really big sessions with tons of plugs, tracks and vsti's on W7 64 bit.

That's a GREAT testament to the power of UAD lol kinda makes me wanna get one =) imagine the 4 core UAD plus 32 gigs or ddr3....what a monster that would be

[daveybasso]

come to think of it.....ive never had a occasion where i ran out of ram with the 6 gigs.....so upgrading to 16 gigs should be all i need...i have run into latency issues with big sessions, but does latency improve with ram addition?

[gammalord]

Latency improvement might correlate with added RAM; however it's far from a guarantee. In many cases, the all-too-familiar pops,clicks, and drop-outs can be attributed to:

1) interface driver (i.e. ASIO)

2) the VST (or RTAS) or combination of VSTs being used

3) CPU

4) lack of RAM in either quantity or speed

5) a combination of all four.

In my experience, its the software that causes the problem. Example: Im running Cubase 5.1 32bit in Win7 64bit through a Phenom II 945 w/ 4Gb DDR2 @667MHz. I can run over 20 instances of Waves SSL Channel (on 20 total tracks) with a 128 buffer size with no problems. But, throw one instance of AmpFarm on there and the ASIO clock pegs.

Same scenario, but using ASIO4all instead of the line6 driver (KB37 interface) and latency becomes manageable again.

Also, I tend to record with most VSTs off and at the smallest (lowest latency) buffer possible - then set the buffer to the largest when Im mixing.

Long story short - your specs sound fine. Consider trying different drivers for your interface to improve performance. It worked for me. thumbsup

[daveybasso]

Originally Posted by gammalord

Latency improvement might correlate with added RAM; however it's far from a guarantee. In many cases, the all-too-familiar pops,clicks, and drop-outs can be attributed to:

1) interface driver (i.e. ASIO)

2) the VST (or RTAS) or combination of VSTs being used

3) CPU

4) lack of RAM in either quantity or speed

5) a combination of all four.

In my experience, its the software that causes the problem. Example: Im running Cubase 5.1 32bit in Win7 64bit through a Phenom II 945 w/ 4Gb DDR2 @667MHz. I can run over 20 instances of Waves SSL Channel (on 20 total tracks) with a 128 buffer size with no problems. But, throw one instance of AmpFarm on there and the ASIO clock pegs.

Same scenario, but using ASIO4all instead of the line6 driver (KB37 interface) and latency becomes manageable again.

Also, I tend to record with most VSTs off and at the smallest (lowest latency) buffer possible - then set the buffer to the largest when Im mixing.

Long story short - your specs sound fine. Consider trying different drivers for your interface to improve performance. It worked for me. thumbsup

My Specs Are ----> AMD Phenome II 965 black edition ( 4 core)
16 gigs of Patriot Viper Ram 12800 DDR3 1600Mhz
2 TB WD Black Harddrives
W7 64-bit running Fl Studio, PT9 and Adobe Audition 3.0
Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 audio interface with latest drivers <----hopefully this is a quality interface with quality asio drivers....so far so good it seems

[JvdS]

Originally Posted by daveybasso

That's a GREAT testament to the power of UAD lol kinda makes me wanna get one =) imagine the 4 core UAD plus 32 gigs or ddr3....what a monster that would be

In my case that is with 2 X UAD Quad going as well :-) Yes, I'm able to run some incredibly big sessions.

[Enlightened Hand]

Originally Posted by daveybasso

That's a GREAT testament to the power of UAD lol kinda makes me wanna get one =) imagine the 4 core UAD plus 32 gigs or ddr3....what a monster that would be

True a UAD2 quad goes quite far and that with a lot of ram and a fast, multi core CPU would be quite impressive. But my point was that even on an old PC, with native plugs and a simple UAD-1 I get a LOT done. It's more about not using too many effects. I mean if you think about it how often would you REALLY need to max out on effects? If you had a totally analog studio you wouldn't have nearly the amount of effects that you'd have with any of today's sequencer programs and you still wouldn't be using every single piece in the rack all of the time. So realistically speaking there's no need to go overboard with effects just because you can.

[daveybasso]

so does anyone think that the focusrite scarlett 8i6's asio is decent? or should i ditch that for a better interface with better asio?

[gammalord]

I think Focusrite is great stuff - and your system specs are obviously bacon for days - perhaps you could try downloading and running ASIO4ALL to see if you get any improvement.

I know it seems weird but drivers are frequently the gremlin in a lot of otherwise excellent systems...I have a friend who runs the motu 8ch interfaces and gets the best results with a Behringer driver...

[daveybasso]

Originally Posted by gammalord

I think Focusrite is great stuff - and your system specs are obviously bacon for days - perhaps you could try downloading and running ASIO4ALL to see if you get any improvement.

I know it seems weird but drivers are frequently the gremlin in a lot of otherwise excellent systems...I have a friend who runs the motu 8ch interfaces and gets the best results with a Behringer driver...

you mean i can use the scarlett with a driver other than the scarlett's? and besides asio 4 all?
that wont cause crashes due to the fact that im using the improper driver for the scarlett?
if thats the case do you have any suggestions besides the asio4all?

[robertshaw]

Originally Posted by gammalord

Latency improvement might correlate with added RAM;

a faster hard drive will improve latency more than ram in most cases
you will never get a pop or click with a 15k drive and a modest amount
of plugins. Atleast I haven't in the last 10 years

[daveybasso]

Originally Posted by robertshaw

a faster hard drive will improve latency more than ram in most cases
you will never get a pop or click with a 15k drive and a modest amount
of plugins. Atleast I haven't in the last 10 years

hmm...ive been thinking of a ssd drive, but ive heard way to many horror stories about peoplelosing everything with those, so im thinking if i upgrade my drive ill prolly get a raptor. i have the WD black which came highly recomended last year for music production.

[robertshaw]

Originally Posted by daveybasso

hmm...ive been thinking of a ssd drive, but ive heard way to many horror stories about peoplelosing everything with those, so im thinking if i upgrade my drive ill prolly get a raptor. i have the WD black which came highly recomended last year for music production.

I have a couple VelociRaptor they are less reliable than SSD since they run so hot. I've had 2 die
I started keeping a fan on the 2 I have now. Seems to do the trick

If you have the cash it's either SSD or SAS. The 15k 600 MBps Cheetah drives are insane.
the speed is unreal. 50% increase in performance with regards to pure track counts.

[daveybasso]

Originally Posted by robertshaw

I have a couple VelociRaptor they are less reliable than SSD since they run so hot. I've had 2 die
I started keeping a fan on the 2 I have now. Seems to do the trick

If you have the cash it's either SSD or SAS. The 15k 600 MBps Cheetah drives are insane.
the speed is unreal. 50% increase in performance with regards to pure track counts.

The Cheetah 15K. 7 drive includes Seagate PowerTrim technology, which dynamically optimizes drive power consumption at all levels of activity. <---- isnt that a bad thing though? isnt that liek the crap they put on green drives tha tmakes them totally wrong for music recording? or is that something that wont affect the performance

[robertshaw]

Originally Posted by daveybasso

The Cheetah 15K. 7 drive includes Seagate PowerTrim technology, which dynamically optimizes drive power consumption at all levels of activity. <---- isnt that a bad thing though? isnt that liek the crap they put on green drives tha tmakes them totally wrong for music recording? or is that something that wont affect the performance

I haven't noticed anything weird about it. I just know its about 2x faster than my velociraptor. I can get about 250 tracks @96/24 with a 32 buffer size 1.5ms ASIO

[daveybasso]

Originally Posted by robertshaw

I haven't noticed anything weird about it. I just know its about 2x faster than my velociraptor. I can get about 250 tracks @96/24 with a 32 buffer size 1.5ms ASIO

i researched the cheeta and came to find out that you have to buy some expensive card/interface to be able to use SAS =( what card did you buy to make yours work?

[cjogo]

Hey our DAWs never runs out of speed - factory set. Our system is a real-time embedded .....Roland proprietary designed the hardware architecture ~~ very different to a PC hardware. It has two powerful RISK microprocessors, another microprocessor for control, and one TI DSP on the board. But it also has the 2 TI DSP's on the VS8F-2 for effects. So that's 3 CPU's and 3 DSP's of dedicated computing power. Roland did a wonderful job in both design and support to this day. Probably closer to a 166 processor with 256 Ram ,,,But all three of our units are still flying along well -- the "system" can't read past 80gb HD : SCSI ready :-) Impossible to out do itself -- takes all it can -- never under powered>

02129089 TMS320VC5402 IC (CPU DSP) IC62 on MAB 1
01672867 M38881M2-069FP IC (CPU) IC107 on MAB 1
01679156 HD6417014 RF28 IC (32BIT CPU) IC1 on PRB 1
02454289 HD6417709AF133 IC (32BIT CPU) IC5 on MAB 1
02453878 AK4528VF IC (AD/DA)IC28,IC3,IC33,IC13,IC23,IC18,IC36,IC8 on JKB 8
01342978 TC160G22AF-1253 IC (CUSTOM) IC5 on PRB 1
02455712 GM71VS16163CLT-6 IC (DRAM) IC84 on MAB 1
02673812 HY57V641620HGT-P IC (DRAM) IC2,IC10 on MAB 2
02458978 XCB56364FU100 IC (DSP) IC57,IC56,IC53,IC59,IC50,IC52,IC58,IC51 on MAB 8
02454867 TC58FVB321FT-10 IC (FLASH MEMORY) IC3 on MAB 1
02568323 MBM29F400BC-90PFTN IC (FLASH MEMORY) IC2 on PRB 1
02344912 M7G1120-0104FP IC (GATE ARRAY)