DAW Systems (Digital Audio/MIDI Worktation)

[Aphelion]

Open thread to discuss Audio/MIDI recording software, including two track editors used for mastering, plugins, monitoring systems...etc.

Ap

 

[Aphelion]

I'll start this off with a recent (10 minutes ago) observation regarding Win-7's performance with real time applications.

I'm Using Cubase in conjunction with an M-Audio Audiophile 24/96 and/or an older RME 24/96 8-in/Out card, both cards are internal PCI.

While playing back eight tracks of 24-bit, 44.1 audio I could make the system glitch by grabbing the Cubase track re-size slider and moving it around quickly. The audio tracks would fill the window so I could only see one or two tracks or shrink until I could see the 8 tracks plus 20 other empty ones.

On a whim I opened the audio configuration window and reduced the internal latency that the mixing engine uses, I then reduced the audio card's I/O buffer from 256 to 128. Normally (in WinXP) this puts more strain on Cubase and the computer in general, as there's less time to process native DSP effects and mix the audio.

The opposite turned out to be true, Cubase's CPU meter showed minimal usage and was steady, I could move windows around and resize tracks, even ran a couple of other audio programs.
Running IE8 and playing a you tube video glitched slightly but only while the video was loading.

I'd be curious to know if anyone else running a MIDI audio sequencer has noticed similar behavior.

Ap

 

[maceman]

Hi Ap,

I've been using different versios of Cubase 20 years now, first with Atari and only MIDI. Almost ten years with audio too. No need for multi-track recording, because drums have to record in studio anyway

Only problem I've noticed has been latency. I finally found out 2 years ago that the best sound card with Cubase is Emu, they work together like a dream. I have a 5 years old laptop (XP) and no problem with mixing or effects.
I have to disconnect it from internet and turn off the firewall and anti virus though...

 

[fireberd]

I'm not seeing those problems, but then I'm using Sonar 8.5.3 Producer version. I've got an Edirol MIDI keyboard that I use with the built in MIDI Synths in Sonar. My audio interface is a firewire connected (I have a T.I. Firewire chip) Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 unit. This does have some (small) latency issues but that's the only thing. The Sonar is the 64 bit version and the Saffire Pro 40 has Win 7 64 bit drivers.

 

[Aphelion]

I'm not seeing those problems, but then I'm using Sonar 8.5.3 Producer version. I've got an Edirol MIDI keyboard that I use with the built in MIDI Synths in Sonar. My audio interface is a firewire connected (I have a T.I. Firewire chip) Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 unit. This does have some (small) latency issues but that's the only thing. The Sonar is the 64 bit version and the Saffire Pro 40 has Win 7 64 bit drivers.

Thanks for the reply, you too maceman,

Come to find out my older version of Cubase has trouble with Multi-Processing. If MP is on, I have to reset the audio engine by changing the I/O buffer size, then it seems to work fine. My recent version of Cubase does not exhibit these problems, it's just that 90% of the stuff I have recorded was created on an older version of Cubase SX.

At least I have a workaround until I can get everything transferred over.

Ap