Digi002 and CPU Horsepower - What's Wrong?

[fmckinnon]

Hi Folks -

I am not getting anywhere CLOSE to the simultaneous track/plugin count with ProTools 5.3.2 and Digi002 that others get. I'm very Mac-savvy, and have been using ProTools for a while (had the same issues w/ my Digi001). Want to provide details for a current session where I keep getting the "CPU is running out of horsepower" message - see if there are any suggestions ...

COMPUTER:
Apple Dual 1Ghz G4 w/ 768MB of RAM
Using separate Internal 40GB IDE drive (good drive, fast RPM, fits within specs - using external Firewire Drive does not help/hurt - ALSO, according to Norton SpeedDisk, disk is NOT fragmented, nor is the disk w/ the OS)

EXTENSION SET: Basic OS 9.2.2 extension set w/ Digi extensions enabled plus a handful of internet-related plugins (TCP, Ethernet, MS Internet Library extensions for Internet Explorer and Outlook Express)

SOFTWARE:
ProTools LE 5.3.2 with latest DAE patch

HW BUFFER SETTING: 128 samples
CPU: 85%

DAE: Level 2 (Default)

*****
SESSION INFO:
24bit, 48K session

MIDI AND AUX TRACKS:
3 Midi Tracks
3 Stereo Aux Inputs (for monitoring MIDI keyboard modules)
1 Aux Input (SPDIF input from Lexicon MPX 550)
1 Aux Input (with Renessaince Reverb PLUGIN)
1 Aux Input with SAMPLETANK RTAS PLUGIN

AUDIO TRACKS:
1) VOCAL (w/ Digi Compressor, Ren. ReQ6, Auto-Tune 3 RTAS)
2) BGV (w/ Auto-Tune 3 RTAS)
3) BGV (w/ Auto-Tune 3 RTAS)
4) BGV
5) BGV
6) BGV

MASTER FADER (with Digidesign MAXIM plugin)

That's it ... what's wrong w/ this picture???? I realize that I'm not using dual processors w/ ProTools, but I should be able to get more than this, shouldn't I??

Thanks in advance,
Fred F. McKinnon
Highest Praise Productions, Inc.

[Burton]

Originally posted by fmckinnon:
Hi Folks -
... what's wrong w/ this picture???? I realize that I'm not using dual processors w/ ProTools, but I should be able to get more than this, shouldn't I??

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Apparently not....

Seriously tho, the Autotune, Sampletank, and Ren Verb plugs are monsters as far as CPU cycles. You should bounce the autotuned vocals to new playlists and then remove those plugs.

32 tracks would be realistic with tons of OTHER plugs... like more compression and eq. Pitch modulation and verbs suck a lot of CPU...

[dkrz]

Fmckinnon,

Upgrade to PT6 and OSX if you can. That will allow you to take full advantage of the second processor. Right now, your only using one with PT5.x.

Under PT6-OSX, you can set the processor limit to 99%. One entire processor is dedicated solely to PT processing and the other takes care of the system and screen redraws(which simply never slows down no matter what I've got going on in the session).

Remember, even though you have a duel 1ghz machine, PT5 still just thinks you've got one processor.

Those plugs you've mentioned in your post are total resource hogs BTW.

For the time being, you might want to check and see if your memory cache setting is set at the proper 512k in the memory control panel. Other suggestions would be; Increase memory allocation to both DAE and PT respectively; Set DAE buffer to 4 or 8 and increase hardware buffer settings to 512 or 1028.

dk

[fmckinnon]

Upgrade to PT6 and OSX if you can. That will allow you to take full advantage of the second processor. Right now, your only using one with PT5.x.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Hi - upgrading to PT6 is not an option right now, as PT6 isn't yet available for Digi002.

Still eagerly awaiting that upgrade!
FMcKinnon

[Chris Coleman]

With your Dual Ghz machine, in OS 9 you'll most likely want to either disable the second processor OR download Digi's extension to semi-disable the second processor (available on the downloads section, I believe)

[Joe Kelly]

I agree autotune will most likely rob your cpu power. what you should do is print the autotune for each track you need it on(using audiosuit) This way you can you can remove it from running in real time. Hope this helps.

[DigiTechSupt]

Hello,

As track and plug-in count goes up you will need to increase the HW buffer setting to allow the CPU to keep up.. If you are done tracking raise the HW buffer to 1024 and give it a try.

Mike

[fmckinnon]

Thanks ALL -

I'd posted this in a few places (including Sweetwater.Com forums) and all have said the same thing - increase HW Buffer Size ...

THANKS!

[fmckinnon]

You have to be kidding me! Im not going to start another MAC vs PC thing here, but come on! A G4 of that caliber and price should be able to do 2 or 3 times what fmckinnon is getting, there must be something wrong with the way its setup! There has to be, or the whole MAC vs PC thing is even bigger than i thought...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Vonbleak - the issues I posted seem to be resolved by changing my HW Buffer size - I had it set on the absolute smallest setting ... increasing the HW Buffer made all the difference in the world ... so, before we start comparing Mac to PC (not that it hasn't already been done a million times!), we'd have to make sure that our HW Buffer size was the same ....

FMCKINNON