DP 5 Issues Live on a Powerbook

schop · Post by **schop** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:53 pm

I was using a Powerbook G4 1.6 with 512 of ram last week for live shows. The project had 14 chunks, each an individual song. Each chunk ran around 8 stereo tracks. Maybe four plugs (eqs, a compressor, and a verb). No VIs or V-racks.

Things worked great, but towards the end of the week, DP would freak out. It would suddenly slow down! We'd lose half a beat to an entire beat. The entire band would have to slow down and kind of, reset. I'd look over and make sure we were hitting beat one with the computer. This happened probably four times on two different days, three different shows, and all at different times, different chunks.

Is this normal? I would expect for audio to drop out or something if the computer started to choke, but actually losing time seems unacceptable performance.

I will gladly admit that it was risky to work with just 512 of ram. My question is, is it acceptable for files to actually slow down for a beat or two?

I was using 7 outputs through a 828 mk2.

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:00 pm

I have a G4 Powerbook 1.5 Ghz and 2GB RAM, running through an 828 MK II.

I haven't noticed any issues like you're having. I'd first make sure you're running with buffers set to 1024. And second, yes, I'd max out the RAM. 512 MB is not even advisable for a G5 Dual Core, much less a G4 Powerbook.