Performance hit in PT 7.4

[Petander]

Bump. Rant from a pro tunesmith to come:



So, I just write songs but every now and then my tracks are being used in the final product, made on "real PT" in real studios. Just Like my Atari Falcon / Cubase audio tracks were used at that time around 15 years ago or so. I like to finish my stuff. I transfered Roland HD portastudio multitracker stuff from my place to pro PT as well, many times.



( Now, those "DAW:S" were fun to work on despite all the hassle that was involved. I had to make this little introduction so my point may get through a little better. I´m not alone on this. )




I wonder what this PTLE 7.4 update does in terms of people "updating" their DAW:s?



I no longer think of getting a Quad or Octo, it looks like by staying on PTLE7.1 my two year old, reliable and fast clocked Dualcore can do nearly the same on 7.1 as a Quad does on 7.4.




PTLE 7.4 is a teaser. Now it´s cool to "make beats" on Pro Tools, right?




Now, don´t get me wrong, 7.4 has worked very well for me. I have worked long days for a couple of weeks now, PTLE 7.4 runs smooth, is very responsive, all my plugs work. EA is very nice if you need it. I have pushed 7.4 to the max all the time and it won´t crash... unless I try to open large sessions made on an earlier PTLE version. I think I rebooted once last week, all new stuff on 7.4. Today I realised that many of my old sessions won´t even open in 7.4, they were already maxed on this computer, at least close.


Of course I noticed the need for larger buffers but it was somehow tolerable, I had no 002R here now and MBox2 buffer is huge anyway but I can live with it when overdubbing or mixing.



So, no 7.4 reliability issues here , the opposite. I like 7.4 and it really runs for days in a row here, just like any 7xx has done on this setup. My computer just became hopelessly obsolete. I understand this is part of the game but somehow this jump looks too big. At first it didn´t look that bad... but to get back to old sessions... oh man. A no go for me on 7.4.



No problems though. I use removable system drives and Ghost anyway , easy to use an earlier PTLE I like. But my 003 purchase just got delayed and I think I´m not the only one.



If EA is doing all this downgrading, how about a master switch, sort of? Beat maker kids ( no pun ) use EA for sure but we old farts like to record audio that is being performed well in the first place. I sure would like to try EA on some of my finished, large 7.3 whatever sessions but as you see, as we all know... they won´t even open on this resource hog.


Well, end of the rant here. I don´t really know why I posted this, probably the bad taste in my mouth.

[Shan]

Looks like we have a fix for the greyed out processor selection with multi-core AMD's.

Since I moved back to 7.3.1, I wont be able to check this out until the weekend. Santa came early.

Shane

[spkguitar]

Confirmed!

Processor selection is fixed


And we got our color opacity settings back!

[Petander]

Excellent.

[sunburst79]

Excellent!

Hats off to Digi and the timing is a gift!

I'm happy for all the AMD users.

[filosofem]

Thanks sunburst!






filosofem

[Petander]

It looks like I can use smaller buffers now.


With this cs2 update my dualcore wants a "larger" buffer first , when opening a large recent 7.4 session. After I visit 1024 or so, I can settle down with 128 in many cases. It used to be at least 256 in these recent 7.4 sessions of mine, usually 512 which is a pain for overdubs.


I have only used Mbox2 with this update by now and Mbox2 generally needs larger buffers than a 002R which I also use.



Looks good, thanks. Maybe dualcore´s aren´t that obsolete after all.

[RonB]

It looks like I can use smaller buffers now.


With this cs2 update my dualcore wants a "larger" buffer first , when opening a large recent 7.4 session. After I visit 1024 or so, I can settle down with 128 in many cases. It used to be at least 256 in these recent 7.4 sessions of mine, usually 512 which is a pain for overdubs.


I have only used Mbox2 with this update by now and Mbox2 generally needs larger buffers than a 002R which I also use.



Looks good, thanks. Maybe dualcore´s aren´t that obsolete after all.

You might want to check into upgrading your cpu to a AMD 64 X2 4800 socket939. You can find them on ebay OEM.
Easy swap of the chips no flashing the bios needed. If you've never done this before you can find the instructions with pictures at the AMD website.
I did from a 3800 X2 like yours and everything is working great ,other than the dreaded intermittent white noise busrts after ugrading to 7.4
If you do I recommend using ArticSilver 5 thermal compound to protect your cpu.


Peace

[Petander]

You might want to check into upgrading your cpu to a AMD 64 X2 4800 socket939. You can find them on ebay OEM.
Easy swap of the chips no flashing the bios needed. If you've never done this before you can find the instructions with pictures at the AMD website.
I did from a 3800 X2 like yours and everything is working great ,other than the dreaded intermittent white noise busrts after ugrading to 7.4
If you do I recommend using ArticSilver 5 thermal compound to protect your cpu.


Peace

Thanks a lot but my system is ridiculously stable, has been for two years ever since I built this one. I´ve been running this CPU OC:d from 2G ( nominal for a 3800) to 2,5G all this time with the boxed fan. 2,5 is the standard 4800 clock I suppose and no matter how good overclocker 4800 is, I wouldn´t gain much in this case.


It will be an "octopussycore" for me when I need more oomph. This recent system of mine will be a spare in our recording place, with no tweaks or changes. PTLE can run for weeks without closing - not to mention booting- on this one, I work almost every day on this and I never shut down or close PTLE or the computer. Not unless I do a ghost and an update like today.


But thanks anyway.