"PLAYBACK" (not CPU) JACKED!!!!

[mellotron]

Hello, I am having trouble playing back songs that are getting up into the 30-40 track range???

I'm working on a dual 1.8 GHz PPC G5 Mac with 4 G's of ram running 24 bit 96KHz using DP 5.12 with a modded 896HD.

I am using a UAD card and minimal native plugs so my CPU is low, but when it gets toward the end of a song or section where there are a lot of tracks at once, the "PLAYBACK" meter in "Audio Performance" maxes out, turns red and the audio drops out.

I've deleted unused files, de-fragged, run several different disc utilities programs... I'm completely stuck?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Cheers,

RR

[James Steele]

I don't know what to tell you, other than I never use 96k so that might be what's contributing to this-- using that high sample rate. I work in 24bit, 44.1k 99% of the time.

[mellotron]

Of course if I was doing a lower rate I would most likely not be having this problem, but it's too late to turn back now... the songs are almost done. Also, it seems like a lot of people are doing 96k on power pc's??? What effects PLAYBACK... the amount of tracks, processing, memory? Thanks, RR

[mellotron]

There has to be more information than "don't record at 96k"... anybody know about Macs? Thanks RR

[Phil O]

Have you tried optimizing your studio settings? Play with buffer size, work quanta, prime seconds (all that stuff). Remove unnecessary buses and tracks from your settings. You know, all that stuff we usually forget about until things get tight.

Phil

[mellotron]

Thanks Phil... good suggestions. Where do I go to get info on how those things should be set up? I've also been rendering heavily edited tracks, but it's only mildly helping.

[James Steele]

There has to be more information than "don't record at 96k"... anybody know about Macs? Thanks RR

That WASN'T EXACTLY what I was trying to say. I was trying to think of a reason why you are experiencing an issue that I have never run into. I was actually trying to be helpful. I'll avoid that in the future.

[therealbigd]

another one nobody's thought of, how fast is your hard drive? for that many tracks it might help to have quite a fast one, especially at that speed:

24x96=2304
2304x35=80640
80640/1000=80.64Mbits per second in files alone, not including the rest of whats going on.

you can change the sample rates now, you could either bounce them individually or export them (if DP has that facility... logic does).
bypassing the plugins and faders and exporting at 24/44.1 and then importing them in place of the bigger files may help.

[mellotron]

There has to be more information than "don't record at 96k"... anybody know about Macs? Thanks RR

That WASN'T EXACTLY what I was trying to say. I was trying to think of a reason why you are experiencing an issue that I have never run into. I was actually trying to be helpful. I'll avoid that in the future.

no offense and thanks for pointing out 96k etc... I just figured that was obvious and I'm looking for a solution, not to start over. These songs have run ok recently and I'm worried there is something not right about my set up or worse my computer so I'm looking for deeper know-how. Thanks though for your reply.

[mellotron]

another one nobody's thought of, how fast is your hard drive? for that many tracks it might help to have quite a fast one, especially at that speed:

24x96=2304
2304x35=80640
80640/1000=80.64Mbits per second in files alone, not including the rest of whats going on.

you can change the sample rates now, you could either bounce them individually or export them (if DP has that facility... logic does).
bypassing the plugins and faders and exporting at 24/44.1 and then importing them in place of the bigger files may help.

Thanks... I'm using Oxford drives that are made for music and macs. Converting to a lower rate is my last resort, but I'm hoping to stretch it a little further instead since I'm so close to being done.
I know what jacks CPU and how to get around it... I wish I knew how to squeeze more through the "PLAYBACK" tube???

[Phil O]

Thanks Phil... good suggestions. Where do I go to get info on how those things should be set up? I've also been rendering heavily edited tracks, but it's only mildly helping.

I have no idea how these things "should" be set up, but I'll tell you how I did it. I set up a torture test - just kept adding tracks with lots of plug-ins until the performance meter got close to pegging. (or added tracks to record for the record meter.) Then I started adjusting parameters one at a time to see what the result would be. As I approached a setting's optimum value, I added tracks as necessary to keep things near the red. Trial and error was my basic technique, making big adjustments at first then smaller adjustments as I approached optimums.

Phil

[mesaken]

Its a long shot, but maybe updating to 5.13 would help.