Seem To Have Reached My Hardware Limit

[IWood]

That was fast. My HW and SW config. can be found in my signature line.

Basically, I've got six tracks of audio, with 3, 2, 1, 4, 3, and 2 DP plug-ins on them, respectively.

Things were going well for awhile. I had three additional scratch vocal tracks, and when I added another, it went all crackly and stuttery with the dreaded Overloaded CPU warning. So I killed the scratch tracks, and moved the project to my Glyph drive (Duh--it was on the mini's drive all this time, because I wasn't paying attention).

But: no luck. Dropped samples and static in the audio, even with just the six tracks.

So now it's time to actually fine tune my setup, I suppose. I'm new at DP and at Mac, so if anyone can point me to a good "tuning" tutorial that's relevant and suitable for noobishness, I'd appreciate it. I also need do's and don'ts for FW setup with an ext. drive and an 828 MKII, if anyone's got any tips...

Muchas gracias.

IW

[Frodo]

Tiger was better at dealing with audio than Panther was, and I believe it was 10.4.5 where things started to get a lot more stable and efficient. Also, DP 4.61 was a big improvement over 4.5, as I recall.

You might want to check through the "Do's and Don'ts" and "Tips Sheet" threads for optimizing the Mac for DAW work.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9503

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6480

Among the most commonly recommended tips are:

1. Trash the iSightAudio plugin
2. Disable Widgets
3. Turn off all automated functions, such as Software Update, Screen Savers, and internet connections that connect or disconnect automatically, etc..
4. Keep your Trash empty
5. Use Background Processing in DP with care
6. Limit your Undo History and/or Flush it regularly
7. Don't store files on your desktop
8. Defrag audio drives containing soundbites
9. Don't record to your System drive
10. Don't run more than one or two devices on your firewire bus-- a firewire host card is otherwise recommended
11. Don't "chain" lots firewire devices for streaming-- meaning, plugging in one fw device nto the back of another and another and another
12. Check from time to time to be sure that other apps aren't running idly, like SimpleText, QuickTime, etc. --- It's very easy to click on the Dock and start up an app without knowing it.

There are lots of other pointers and tips in at the links above.

[IWood]

Perfect, thanks! Also:

...DP 4.61 was a big improvement over 4.5, as I recall.

Heh. I'd like to get 4.61' already looked into it this morning. But I bought the Competitive Upgrade of 4.5...which, apparently, doesn't have a serial number anywhere in the manuals, like "normal" 4.5. I dimly remember mailing the card in awhile back, but MOTU's site doesn't have me registered for DP (or for my 828 MKII, for that matter). The S/N doesn't show up on the "About DP" splash screen, so until MOTU customer svc. gets back to me, I have to wait, I guess...

[emulatorloo]

You should be able to get quite a few more audio tracks out of that machine.

Besides what Frodo said, from another thread, something I wrote about optimizing a G4 machine:

Some things that helped me:

-- Download and install the DP 5.11 update if you haven't already. It is much more efficient on my G4 than any version of DP on OS X. . .Subjectively I felt like I gained about 20% to 40% "headroom" in CPU usage over DP 4.5.

-- Turn off the dashboard before using DP Get a utility called Dash_Off from versiontracker.com It turns off the 10.4 dashboard -- you would be surprised at how much RAM and CPU cycles dashboard eats, even when it is not open.

-- Get a utility called "Process Wizard" from versiontracker -- this freeware allows you to adjust the priority OS X gives to different applications -- so you can boost the CPU power Digital Performer is using.

-- Use the Aux Bus for reverb etc when possible Do you REALLY need a reverb on every track? Probably not. Why not put a single reverb on an aux buss and send different amounts of your tracks to it.

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Since you are still on G4 also take a look at this article about optimizing OS X for Daw work:

Tracking the Big Cats
http://emusician.com/gencomput/emusic_t ... _big_cats/

See especially the section "NEW CATS IN OLD CAGES" about older macs.

The author was using DP4 at the time although he does not say that:

I started with my own system, which is a Titanium PowerBook G4/667 MHz, with 512 MB of RAM. I had been getting periodic CPU spikes, audio dropouts, and warning messages when running even moderately-sized projects. (Incidentally, those included projects that ran fine in OS 9.) The optimization procedures described here have boosted my DAW's performance considerably. Large projects that typically took a minute and a half to load now take 30 seconds. Whereas 15 tracks used to spike my CPU and cause occasional error messages, I can now run more than 50 tracks of 24-bit, 96 kHz audio with the CPU running a bit more than 50 percent.

--

P.S. you have a serial number, cust service will let you know. Then go register on the website. (ON EDIT -- or maybe not if you Competive Upgraded from Audiodesk -- at anyrate they will help you -- MOTU customer service is WONDERFUL.)

--

[IWood]

Tiger was better at dealing with audio than Panther was, and I believe it was 10.4.5 where things started to get a lot more stable and efficient.

Is 10.4.5 something I'll get via Software Update?

Thanks for the assist!

IW

[emulatorloo]

Is 10.4.5 something I'll get via Software Update?

IMHO don't rely on software update for those system updates. Some folks (including me) believe those installs can be flaky.

Instead go to the apple support site and download the "Combo Update" for the sys update you want to get.

www.apple.com/support

--
ON EDIT found it for you:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ ... combo.html

[IWood]

-- Download and install the DP 5.11 update if you haven't already. It is much more efficient on my G4 than any version of DP on OS X. . .Subjectively I felt like I gained about 20% to 40% "headroom" in CPU usage over DP 4.5.

Excellent. Thanks for the further info...I love the intertubes!

So I get to go from 4.5 to 5.11? I was going to feel lucky if I got 4.61; I bought 4.5 so long ago, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get anything...

[Frodo]

Perfect, thanks! Also:

...DP 4.61 was a big improvement over 4.5, as I recall.

Heh. I'd like to get 4.61' already looked into it this morning. But I bought the Competitive Upgrade of 4.5...which, apparently, doesn't have a serial number anywhere in the manuals, like "normal" 4.5. I dimly remember mailing the card in awhile back, but MOTU's site doesn't have me registered for DP (or for my 828 MKII, for that matter). The S/N doesn't show up on the "About DP" splash screen, so until MOTU customer svc. gets back to me, I have to wait, I guess...

Not really. Upgrades don't come with new serial numbers-- just new activation key codes (inside the back cover of the manual). Your same original serial still applies. You can enter that on your account page-- or contact MOTU if you don't have a copy of your registration number. You can also enter your 828 info online (if the little sticker is still attached to the unit). Again, MOTU has been pretty good with helping users get things registered.

[emulatorloo]

So I get to go from 4.5 to 5.11?

Sorry not for free -- sorry if I was unclear I did copy and paste that from an old thread -- 4.5 to 5 was a paid upgrade

[IWood]

ON EDIT found it for you:

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/ ... combo.html

I'm on 10.3.9. Sez there that the sys requirement is "Mac OS X versions 10.4 - 10.4.3."

An issue?

[emulatorloo]

I'm on 10.3.9. Sez there that the sys requirement is "Mac OS X versions 10.4 - 10.4.3."

Did not see you were on 10.3 -- yes, you need 10.4 to install 10.4.5

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[IWood]

Did not see you were on 10.3 -- yes, you need 10.4 to install 10.4.5

Is that a purchased thing? I didn't see it on the site, so I'm assuming it is...

[emulatorloo]

Did not see you were on 10.3 -- yes, you need 10.4 to install 10.4.5

Is that a purchased thing? I didn't see it on the site, so I'm assuming it is...

yes --

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Just to clarify

DP 4.61 works great on 10.3.x

DP 5.1x requires 10.4.x

--
Maybe you should sit where you are at system-wise and DP wise (getting the free DP 4.61 download of course).

Be sure to check out Frodo's suggestions and the ones I listed too -- and that Big Cats article.

Again you ought to be able to squeeze out a few more audiotracks.

--

[muzishun]

These are all great suggestions. I'm not familiar with your particular system, but one pretty simple fix that newbies seem to miss is buffer size.

In DP: Setup/Configure Audio System/Configure Hardware Driver

As your project gets more complex, you should raise the buffer size. You will sacrifice latency for more power, but if properly managed it can get you pretty far.

hth

[Frodo]

If I recall, ethernet slowed down older machines. Disconnecting the ethernet cable during sessions can add an extra boost.