Buffer and other settings.

[kitana_one]

OK,.. I'm running XP with PTLE 5.3.2 for a DIGI002.

It's an 2GHz Athlon Machine with an 80GB HD and 512 2100 RAM.

I've recently gotten some new plugs and I've started to get down to about 10GB of free space on my HD. So now I'm having problems pulling the audio from disk fast enough and it's dropping out completely during playback and also during bounces. My settings were at 1024(? I think that's the number) Samples and at the Level 8 Buffer. I started to get less drop outs by dropping it down to the most minimal settings possible,.. but I was only able to run a few sessions before it started back up again. My machine used to glide like a hot knife through butter,.. even after installing the new plugs. I know that I'm probably using more plugs since I've gotten used to them now tho.

I figured the new plugs are obviously more RAM intensive and the recent lack of HD space is killing me. I have my cpu optimized for running audio apps and I have never connected it to the Inet or installed any cracked software,.. so I know that's not the issue and it's probably just as simple as running out of HD space and RAM.

So,.. I ordered a new Seagate 160gb HD w/8mb cache and also another stick of 512mb 2100 Corsair RAM. Figuring that should do the trick.

I plan on transferring my PT files over to the new HD. But once I do that,.. what are the optimum settings to get the smoothest performance out of my PC when running PT?

I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to PC issues. I've been working in studios for 10 years,.. but the IT thing really isn't my bag.

So if someone could explain the HD buffer and Samples thing to me it would be much appreciated,.. any other related advice is welcome as well.

Thanx in advance!!!

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Set the hardware buffer back to default (level 2). Changing this will cause a lot of hard disk errors. You should only have to play woth the I/O buffers and CPU Usage. I know this can be very frustrating, because PTLE is not consistent about CPU usage. I've had sessions that redlined the CPU usage meter over and over again. Then, after several switching back and forth of the I/O buffers and CPU, suddenly the whole system became efficient and would remain so as long as I had PTLE open. I could almosty double the plugins without a hitch. This is the flackiest behaviour of PTLE I've encountered to date, but I state this as fact.
Your alternative is to do some submixing to lower plugin count, consolidation, or bouncing to lower automation usage. PTLE is simply hitting the capabilities of the processing path. And it is not a stable archetecture and does not work the same session after session. Sometimes you have to beat it into submission.
One hint... If you are using D-Verb in your session, put a 16 bit dither or 16 bit pow-r dither before it.

[kitana_one]

Nah,.. I'm sticking to TrueVerb,.. since I've gotten it I haven't looked back.

I'll try resetting it to level 2.

What is it that these settings actually do? and how do I set them accordingly?

I don't use much automation if possible,.. I usually process the audio or bouncedown volume movements. I don't automate plugs either.

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Nah,.. I'm sticking to TrueVerb,.. since I've gotten it I haven't looked back.

I'll try resetting it to level 2.

What is it that these settings actually do? and how do I set them accordingly?

I don't use much automation if possible,.. I usually process the audio or bouncedown volume movements. I don't automate plugs either.

I have never put D-Verb in a final take either.
Buffers are about chunks of data being stored prior to committing them to disk or memory.
The smaller the buffers are, the more work the processor has to do to act on them. In the case of the hardware buffer, these are reserved disk spaces. Each requires a certain amount of memory, processing bandwidth and disk writes. I/O buffers are important for latency. If you are monitoring a live performance as you are singing or playing, latency is a real problem. You really don't want to hear an echo when you are performing. The value for latency (I/O Buffers) is in 'samples'. There are 44100 samples sent to PT for every second of recording (a 44.1khz session). 64 sample latency is noticable (~1-1/2 milliseconds) but 128 (~3 millisecond) sample latency is unbearable for many. Latency is much less important if you are mixing because everything is delayed the same amount and all you can see is that the scrollbar is ahead of what you are hearing. You can double check my calculations by changing the timeline to samples and highlight 64 samples on a track in the edit window. Then you will see how long the delay is based on your I/O buffer setting. Now arn't you glad you asked