DAW performance tweaks.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:06 pm

I'm probably the last guy to figure this one out, but in case anyone has problems with Cubase/Nuendo (or possibly other DAW apps) performance, I just figured out a cool trick to make Nuendo run really smooth, even with a load of VSTs going- start the application normally, then right-click on the taskbar, select 'Task Manager', and switch to 'Processes' tab. Find the running process, right click on it.
-If you have a multi-core CPU, select 'Set Affinity', and uncheck all cores except the last one (In a dual core, CPU1). Right click on it again, and select 'Set Priority', change it to 'Realtime'
-If you don't have a multi-core CPU, select 'Set Priority' and select 'Above Normal' You don't want anything running on realtime priority on a single core! It will most likely freeze your system.

Anyone have any other neat tricks to make this recording stuff go smoother? I'm on Vista now (BOO) and can't find the regular tweaks that I had in XP (like setting the CPU and memory performace for background processes, etc)

PlainSongs · Post by **PlainSongs** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:01 pm

No, you were not the last guy to figure this out... Thanks for posting it! Can you maybe elaborate a bit on the other tweaks you used in XP?

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:32 pm

PlainSongs wrote:No, you were not the last guy to figure this out... Thanks for posting it! Can you maybe elaborate a bit on the other tweaks you used in XP?

Well, the first thing I did on XP for DAW performance was:

Right click 'My Computer', select 'Properties'>'Advanced' tab>'Settings' under the 'Performance' heading>'Advanced' (again... why does Microsoft insist on making these tweaks so hard to find?)>'Processor Scheduling', select 'Background Services' Leave the memory setting as is.

This makes Windows give CPU priority to hardware services such as PCI, USB and Firewire, where your audio interface lives. (among other things)

Lo and behold, I found the setting in Vista! Sort of the same path to take, except you have to click 'Advanced System Settings' in the left side menu.

Another simple one:
If you have a PCI audio card, set PCI latency in your bios (if the settings option is there) to 64 clocks or higher (this may make other PCI devices sluggish, so it's best to mess with this if the audio card is the only PCI device) This makes the audio card, once it gains bus master, not release it for 64 clock cycles, so it can do a lot more than if it releases every 32 or 16 or whatever. Also, try moving the audio card to the closest physical slot to the CPU. YMMV on either of these. I'm just passing on information I've gathered, and as I haven't used a PCI audio card in ages, I really don't know if this makes a difference.

If you have USB audio, a no-brainer is to not have any other USB devices attached. Same for Firewire.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:41 pm

Mark, are you saying that this trick will help against computer freeze up from using too many VST at once with Cubase? Because this is a big problem for me, so I've started exporting a track with my desired FX, etc, then starting a new project. It takes a lot of time.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:07 pm

I had a huge reply typed up, then accidentally hit ctrl+r trying to remember what the 'run' hotkey is. (It's Windows key+r)

To paraphrase what I had written:

a) Get Cubase SX3 or Nuendo3 (Bittorrent is good for this)
b) my mentioned tweaks will probably help you
c) right click the taskbar, click 'Task Manager', click 'Processes tab, make sure 'Show processes for all users" is checked... is there more than ~40 processes running? Do some Windows cleaning:
c.1) type Windows+r, a run box will pop up. Type 'msconfig'
c.2) On the 'Startup' tab, uncheck anything that isn't *absolutely* essential to your system (use google to see what you need to have running- just type the filename into the search box)
c.3) My consulting rates are as follows: initial consulatation- free. anything after that- $49.95/hour

c.4) I will be flexible on rates if you manage to set me up with a hot girl.

Billy's Little Trip · Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:19 pm

Dude, no wonder you don't have time to make music. You are obsessed with the nuts and bolts of how to make music possible on the computer for schmucks like me.

I'll try this on my next song. Don't expect any thanks or donations, I'll probably be too involved in my next big hit to care.