HELP! needed concerning Home studio (Computer Hardware related)

    Quote from Redoubt9000

    RAM will only become a major factor if you find yourself running a large number of samplers that eat up resources. I've never noticed an improvement beyond avoiding crashing when loading projects too large from my RAM capacity. Even with the consideration of more samplers in the future, I would have to tell you that 8gb is enough (read: I have no idea what libraries you intend to use, or how you'll use them :P I often hit my ceiling of 12gb but most often because of the nature of the project!)


    The OP mentions running orchestral instruments; I have LA Scoring Strings, CineBrass Core and Pro and quite a few percussion libraries as well as Hollywood Winds and the like. Just running a full LASS orchestration will EASILY max out 8 GB RAM, before you've even started on the other stuff!


    Cheers,
    Sam

    I'm just making it clear that I can't in good conscience recommend he upgrades his RAM, or any of his hardware without knowing what he intends to use. He could decide in turn to run any of the resource intensive libraries available, and he may just as well use a more lean library based on his needs. I'm new to the community so perhaps you're more acquainted with what gear he may use :D


    I'm cerintaly in the same boat as you, as I often hit my ceiling on RAM, despite this I've no reason to bother spending the money on more RAM, simply because in the case of samplers, there are workarounds. He's on a different platform too so I don't know what the market is concerning parts.


    If we're just throwing suggestions, I'd be more inclined to suggest he just get a new system. Especially given that in the OP, I wasn't privy to the minutia of his plan other than the fact that he wants to use orchestral software in the future. I find he's gonna need more than just additional RAM if he's getting his feet wet with libraries that pack a punch!


    If I remember correctly, about two cpus ago, I had a similar spec as he did and it proved to be inadequate while tracking in most cases. My last cpu was a quadcore but had a higher core frequency and proved to do just fine. I upgraded to an 8-core for other tasks such as render times and video, but seen no great improvement when it came to the DAW, apart from just being able to run more samplers with ease.

    Yeah, fair enough, I guess I was sticking my oar in a bit prematurely, haha!
    I totally agree with you, actually, and also share your experiences with CPUs and audio versus video.


    Cheers,
    Sam

    Quote from sambrox

    Yeah, fair enough, I guess I was sticking my oar in a bit prematurely, haha!
    I totally agree with you, actually, and also share your experiences with CPUs and audio versus video.


    Cheers,
    Sam


    X( Reading back on my post, it almost sounds like I'm trying to start a pissing contest, doh!


    Hope no offense was given. Maybe the OP may consider a windows platform... hehehe... We could make this into a PC build thread then lol 8o

    Quote from db9091

    The SSD will be the MAIN change in speed, not RAM. You will thank me after doing this and give your computer a few more years of usage.


    The computer will work at speed of its slowest part - which in these days is Hard Drive with rotating/moving parts. Medium real (not advertised) access time for hard disks is 15 miliseconds, for SSD it is 0.1ms.


    SSD can access files over 100x faster than HDD. You even don't know, but your system is working hard with many small files many times - add to it your activities, and bottlenecks are easy to arise.


    I bought my first SSD when the performance was not that much better that HDD, and capacity/price ratio was sick. But later SSDs were cheaper, faster... Now I own 256GB SSD, but in terms of speed and smoothness of work I wouldn't like to see even 5TB HDD, thank you.


    Now, changing from even "medium" SSD to medium "HDD" would be like selling Kemper and getting 5 PODs HD.

    I typically will Render (Reaper), Bounce (LPX) whatever you want to call it, the FX in place so that I'm not taxing CPU or RAM usage with Synth.


    If I use Ominsphere or Superior Drummer I create the audio track then mute, turn FX off, and if possible hide the original tracks so they aren't using crunching power anymore or visually cluttering things up. I can go back if I need to later to fix something (change a note, take out some overdone drum parts, alter drummer, etc)


    Same with any other sythn being generation within the computer. At some point if I'm really happy with the results, I'll copy and recreate the project with just those stud .wav files so when I mix I only have the essential available.


    IF I had problem with CPU/RAM at that time, I start creating submixes (all drums onto one track, all synths baked to it's own stereo track panned) etc. But with the SSD I haven't run into stalled programs yet, just some clipping audio at the worst for large heavy FX laden programs that are easily remedied by the above mentioned tips.


    One advantage of mixing parts down before the final mix is it makes choices MUCH easier in the final mix later because a lot of your work is already done.

    Up your ram - check!
    SSD for main program - check!
    I run an external 7200 drive (well...it's actually also in my mac mini - dual drive setup) for my loops, etc. I have it partitioned in two. One side runs my loops, the other side I record on.
    My mac is a mac mini - late 2012 quad core with 16 Gig ram.


    Thus far I've run upwards of 20 tracks with a couple of plugins on many of those tracks.


    Not even a hiccup thus far. I don;t know why apple stopped the quad core for the newer Mac Mini's. Ridiculous.


    Saw this on Vguitarforums last week :)

    Never heard of that forum. Just checked it out. The security is a PIA, but I think I found the info you mentioned.


    Yeah, I wanted to do this more than a year ago but the cost of SSD was too much. About 6 months ago the cost had dropped considerably so I jumped on this solution and it's working really good for now.

    Your sound card is likely to be the main bottleneck in your system. Sure an SSD will make your SSD boot faster and RAM can enable it to lift heavier loads, but in this case, it seems that there is a bottleneck in throughput within your machine:
    1) Are you using the latest drivers?
    2) Have you set up the interface properly?
    3) Is your DAW stable? As in, have you set up preferences the right way?
    4) Are you using 64 bit plugs in a 32 bit environment or vice versa? (My top pick)

    Quote from nightlight

    Your sound card is likely to be the main bottleneck in your system.


    OP is using a USB audio-interface which means it sends and receives the number of USB-audio-streams it is designed for. No more, no less. If there's a bottleneck there it would have to be the USB-controller which is very unlikely. Bad or outdated drivers may be an issue, but OSX is generally running class-conformant USB which means that brand-specific drivers for standard-devices such as audio are very rare (unlike the windows-mess with endless and often conflicting brand-proprietary drivers).


    The more tracks you add the more need there is for buffering, and applications for synthesized sound (drums, keys etc) can eat a lot of memory. I would first try more RAM, next look to up the storage I/O-bandwidth.

    Second to the buffering settings, should lower rates introduce stutter and artifacts - my guess would be the cpu. OP mentioned nothing concerning RAM getting maxed out on anything. Sorry, but a pc DAW doesn't necessarily demand much power. Assuming his interface isn't robust in its onboard DSP, his cpu is the most likely bottleneck. I just don't believe more RAM or even an ssd is going to resolve his issue.

    My penny's worth
    1. SSD great for system drive, fast booting, fast application launch, also good for sample drive for the same reasons, reading is where it rules.
    2. Always always always record to a separate drive to your system drive, this will give you max performance from your system and your DAW, internal / firewire / thunderbolt, and 7200 rpm is a must, this will give you best performance and maximum track count.
    3. Max out your RAM, especially if you are using lots of drum samples.
    4. If you use the low latency monitoring feature on you interface, may just be a mix know between input and DAW output, and make sure the track you are recording too is muted so you don't hear the latency, only the mixed audio you are feeding in. If you do this you can set the latency as high as you like. You can hear your guitar live through the interface and the DAW tracks as well, the DAW will sort out lining the audio you are recording with the rest of the tracks.
    5. Probably most important, learn your interface and whatever software (mixer) that comes with it. You will be amazed what you can achieve on quite average systems once you truly master your interface.


    I hope that helps, just my opinion though.


    Shane
    http://www.alienigloo.com


    Great advice - like your band btw - sounds like the Boo Radleys

    Been a while since I was here on the board.
    But for all those who helped me out with optimizing my workspace, a little bow of appreciation, you haven't got the slightest idea of how much you guys helped me with your insights.
    As a matter of fact it took me back to the big love I felt while writing music.
    I play way more, I experiment more,...
    Bought the Spl crimson, added an ssd... and it's almost flawless to record now.


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