Can't playback two tracks!

[tedwards0118]

I just installed DP4.6 and recorded two tracks and my computer chokes when I try to play them back!

A stereo drum track and a stereo bass track. No inserts, no effects. The tracks are audio on a seperate internal WD 60GB drive 7200RPM with nothing else on it.

Mac dual 1.8, OSX.3.9, 1.5GB, 2 disc drives 7200RPM, 828 MKII and DP4.6.

Recorded at 24/96

HW Buffers = 512
Disk Read/Write size = 150 KB
Buffe Size per voice = 600 K samples

I played with different buffer sizes and changed the studio size and no luck. I get about 45 seconds into a 3 minute song and computer resources can't keep up!

Am I doing something wrong? how many tracks at 24/96 should a computer system like this be able to play back?

Thanks,

Terry

[croyal]

Try

1. Upping the Hardware buffer to 1024.

2. Make sure no other apps are running in background- including all the usuals-- Software update, sleep settings etc.

3. Play back a portion of the sequence with fewer tracks as a test to see where the machine tops out.

4. Since these are 2 stereo tracks- set your studio to have at least 3 stereo voices and assign each track to a specific voice- NOT simply to automatic voice allocation. Also reduce the number of mono tracks and buses allocated to the project.

5. Defrag te drive. If there are many edits within a track (or they are fragmented on the drive) it can cause the hiccups as the drive scrambles to retrieve the data fast enough.

6. Turn off any audio inputs that DP may be "listening" to from your interface.

If the machine always chokes at the same place (45 seconds) then there is some other process that starts - or ends- at 45 seconds.

In the past certain drives choked when used for A/V because they couldn't handle sustained use for longer periods- hence some folks use 10,000 and 15,000 RPM A/V drives for 24/96+ work. Off the shelf CompUSA/Best Buy stuff doesn't always work for high end stuff.

See-

http://www.unicornation.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002321

Chris

[tedwards0118]

Thanks, Chris.

I tried upping the HW Buffer to 1024. No good. I bounced the stereo tracks down to two mono tracks and disabled play on the tereo tracks - still no luck.

Starting to sound like my disc drive just won't hack it. I thought I should be able to at least get 4 - 6 tracks at 96kHZ with this system.

I don't think more memory is going to help either.

Terry

[pcm]

I think your problem is corruption of some kind. I'd reinstall DP. Also, the usual other stujff - repair permissions, etc.

[sdfalk]

There must be something else going on.
I'm able to playback 8 tracks of 96 khz audio with a few fx
at a high buffer setting and the meter's not even half way.

[tedwards0118]

OK, I rebooted everything for the third time and added a guitar track while monitoring the bounced bass/drum track.

Played back the guitar and bass track with EQs and reverb.

Computer meter is about 1/4.
Playback meter is about 1/2.

it didn't choke though! Everything at 24/96.

I'm hoping this was an intermittent gremlin and won't come back. I hate technical problems getting in the way of trying to be creative - sheesh!!

Thanks for the replies.

Terry