CPU usage

[sykobilly65]

Hello, i'm running win xp, p4 3.0, 1.5 gig RAM & 160 HD, AP 2496 pci card, i'm running Reason Adapted & PTMP at the same time. i'm using Reason for drums only (Rewire). so here's what i got, 1 stereo drum track, 4 mono guitars, 1 mono bass & 1 stereo bus running D-Verb on 5 tracks. i'm using Waves Rennesance EQ & compressor on each audio track. I have a stereo master fader also w/ no plugins on that & my CPU meter is at about 50%. Does anybody have any ideas on how i can lower my CPU usage? the waves plugins are eating my lunch!! Thanx in advance for any advice. 1 person told me i need to get a fire wire interface & that would help, i don't see how, but then again i'm new at this stuff.

[spkguitar]

A couple things: It doesn't have to be a firewire drive unless you are using a laptop, which you obviously aren't since you're using the AP2496.
It is highly recommended (should be required) that you use a separate drive for your audio sessions (internal or firewire). This is covered on the Compatibility page

You could also be (most probably are) experiencing "denormalization" with the D-Verb. Read These pages (all 3) for details. Quick solution; insert a dither plugin before the D-Verb.

Your problem is probably a combination of these issues.

[sykobilly65]

Thanx for the quick response. i knew it said in the manual to avoid recording to system drives because of the track count & plugins thing, sombody else said it wouldn't make that much difference, but i think they were running Ableton Live only. maybe i shoould just stick to the book & listen to you guys running this i'm running 6.8 and i'm curious if there's any information anywhere the tells the percent of increased efficiency on a single processor w/ an external hard drive. i read the link you posted for me & all i saw was stuff about PTMP7 on dual processors. it would be very helpful to see some information on this before i invest in an external HD. please don't think i don't trust you guys, but another "sombody else" was tellin me MORE RAM< MORE RAM!!! so i go this morning & add another gig, no difference. like i said, i just bought the Waves musicians bundle & those plugins are eating me up, but i wanna say thanx again for your info & anything else you can pass along is very appreciated.

[spkguitar]

Like I mentioned, since you're using a desktop machine, it doesn't have to be an external drive, it can be internal (actually, for desktops, internal would be better) But with Pro Tools, you should be using a dedicated physical hard drive for all the sessions, either internal or external.

RAM will do nothing for you unless you're using samplers/softsynths.

The reason why I make these recommendations is not because it says to do it in the book, or on the compatibility page; it's because I have lived through the problems and sorted it all out. I once (long, long ago) was recording to my system drive and having troubles just like you - getting a dedicated drive for audio and configuring everything properly solved my problem.