Help! DP running VERY VERY VERY slow

amerecordingstudio · Post by **amerecordingstudio** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:21 am

Okay, here's the situation: I work in a studio with 2 engineers (myself, and 1 other), we have 2 G5s (one dual 1.8 w 1.5gb RAM, and one dual 2.0 w/ 1.25Gb RAM) So when i need to work on something (say, comping vocals), i take his file, bring it to my computer, re-organize it the way i like it (i like to use takes, as where he is still used to having a seperate track for each take), and then when i'm done, i duplicate the chunk, delete the extra tracks in that chunk, and import the tracks (takes and all) into his file on his computer. Now, that's all well and good, but recently, we've been running into problems where DP files are getting SOOOO bogged down it's rediculous. performing an edge edit would take 30 sec to compute and opening and closing these files takes like 2-3 mins. It's CRAZY. Now these are relatively small files. They've got beds, vocals, acoustic guitar overdubs, and loops (stylus RMX + MIDI files). Hardly any plug-ins whatsoever, and any unused tracks have the voices disabled.

Here's what i've tried already: I've delete the extra takes in his file, i've deleted the imported chunks after merging them to the primary chunk, i've flushed the undo history.

Anything else you can recommend?

I can send a file to someone if you have MSN, just PM me if you think you can help.

Thanks

James

dmshep · Post by **dmshep** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:28 am

Perhaps an obvious thing, but have you been flushing the undo history and removing unused soundbites?

amerecordingstudio · Post by **amerecordingstudio** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 9:44 am

I've been flushing the undo history, as stated, but not been removing unussed soundbites. I just tried that now, and it looks like it might have been the problem... the only thing is that i don't want to be deleting the soundbites from the original takes... but if i leave all the takes in, it should keep those bites, right?

Fibes · Post by **Fibes** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:18 pm

Try loading into a fresh project.

This helps immensely with older version stuff too.

chamelion · Post by **chamelion** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:01 pm

Whenever I strike one of those kinds of problems where DP seems to go into a tailspin, and none of the usual fixes works (relaunch, reboot, permissions etc), my first weapon of choice is to make a copy of the project, and then delete all unused soundbites. If that doesn't fix it, opening a new project and importing has almost always worked. Another trick that's helped in the past is to quit DP and open and close a few other projects. Often that seems to shake the bugs out and restore order.

When all else fails, hug your teddy:)

Geoff

dmshep · Post by **dmshep** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:03 pm

amerecordingstudio wrote:I've been flushing the undo history, as stated, but not been removing unussed soundbites. I just tried that now, and it looks like it might have been the problem... the only thing is that i don't want to be deleting the soundbites from the original takes... but if i leave all the takes in, it should keep those bites, right?

When you delete unused soundbites, it does not delete any audio file for referenced by a soundbite currently placed in any sequence. It only deletes unused references to those audio files (ie - unused soundbites). When there are no more soundbites referencing a particular audio file in your sequences, it will delete the audio file, but only after a series of double-checks.

It took me a while to trust it too, but as you've seen, a bloated soundbite list will slow you down!

amerecordingstudio · Post by **amerecordingstudio** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:41 am

If that doesn't fix it, opening a new project and importing has almost always worked.

By importing, do you mean importing each audio file, or could you import via chunks? Beacuse wouldn't chunks just re-import all of kthe soundbites again? And then, if you import each audio file, unless you've merged, you'll lose all your editing... that's never good

Thanks for all your help guys. I guess we'll just have to do it a few times before we get comfortable with it.

Fibes · Post by **Fibes** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:47 am

amerecordingstudio wrote:
If that doesn't fix it, opening a new project and importing has almost always worked.
By importing, do you mean importing each audio file, or could you import via chunks? Beacuse wouldn't chunks just re-import all of kthe soundbites again? And then, if you import each audio file, unless you've merged, you'll lose all your editing... that's never good

Thanks for all your help guys. I guess we'll just have to do it a few times before we get comfortable with it.

Chunks.

Only load soundbites from selected chunk.

Don't question it until you've tried loading a chunk into a new project. You are getting good advice from a lot of the folks on here, stuff that's been covered a million times. Their patience is greater than mine but i suspect RTFM manual coming up soon.

TheHopiWay · Post by **TheHopiWay** » Tue Dec 06, 2005 7:00 am

If you're concerned about the delete function;
Save a copy under a new name, select unused soundbites, select remove from list then flush the undo history.