HELP......I'm a rookie !!!! Optimizing my mini

[RHDRAMA]

Bare with me everyone.....because I'm a rookie and know little about home recording (other than my last multi tracker complete with killer tape deck) and I barely know how to use this forum..(it's my 1st post)...but I have a serious desire to learn.

Just purchased an entire bundle complete with the newest Mac mini, and M-Audio vocal studio. First upgrade I made was to max out the RAM on the Mac to 8GB. I was already able to take a test run with PT and get the mix onto a CD. Nothing exciting really.....just me experimenting with everything and getting a feel for it. Anyway, I know I have a lot of ground to cover with learning this thing, and I'll also have my Maschine in a matter of days to give me more to learn, but my first issue is optimization.

Not only am I a rookie to CPU based recording......and have never used any version of PT....sadly, I'm also a a newbie to Mac. I know you're all probably heading for the hills right now, but please don't shut me out.

So I'm hoping that someone could give me some direction on the best things to do to optimize this little Mac for use with PT SE. I've probably watched every "Tutorial" video out there and to be honest, they're not much help. I'm planning on this Mac being a dedicated computer for music and nothing else.

My first error that I encountered was during playback of yet another test project. "A CPU overload has occurred. If this happens often, try increasing the H/W buffer size........" I'm certain you've heard the rest on this forum somewhere. Anyway, I know playback uses quite a bit of system resources, but I thought that's what I was maxing out the RAM for....again I'm new at this.

Anyway, when you're all through laughing your asses off, if you could give this rookie some help....it would be seriously appreciated.

Thanks....

[caruso7r]

To get you started, click Here.

[RHDRAMA]

Hey thanks for the help......lots of great info there. Much appreciated.

[Avid Product Design]

Drivers for all SE bundled interfaces containing a fix for DAE error 720 are now available. If you are experiencing this issue, please download and install the latest driver for your device from:

http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support&tab=driver