Processing power

j-sh · Post by **j-sh** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:03 am

what up all,
ive only got about 500mb ram

and my current set up is reason rewired through ableton

so at the moment if I try and use massive or albino i literally get to a point where i cant listen to the finished track without my comp grinding to a halt.

any one got any tips on using my processing power more efficiently?

miss_molinari · Post by **miss_molinari** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:17 am

other than constantly bouncing your channels or raising your latency....

...with 500mb ram though how serious are you? i think an investment is in order..

lowpass · Post by **lowpass** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:25 am

miss_molinari wrote:other than constantly bouncing your channels or raising your latency....

...with 500mb ram though how serious are you? i think an investment is in order..

I only have that amount of ram and its hard but it can be done if you sort your computer out.

1. optimize your windows graphics (will look like shit but boosts your speed)
2. virus scan, malware scan, evil stuff scan (get that crap off your computer)
3. close internet explorer, msn, any other programs (if my computers clean I'll take the virus protection off as well)

4.if i'm doing a cpu intensive bassline I'll create a simple drum loop in another file and write the bassline in there, then when its finished bounce it out to the original file.

New track I'm working on is using 25-30 channels atm, I've done a fair amount of resampling on it but there are still quite a few fx running too

hope that helped

scooterjack · Post by **scooterjack** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:35 am

RAM is super cheap, buy some.

actually all decent pc hardware is pretty cheap; I just built a solid production pc for about 300$

just something to think about

altered state · Post by **altered state** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:11 pm

ScooterJack is right, RAM costs nothing these days unless you want the highend DDR3, but i highly doubt your computer cant support DDR3 if you dont know what that means.

Normally DDR2 is cheap as chips - can get a gig stick for like £20

rynke · Post by **rynke** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:32 pm

500 MB? what is this 2001?

is that SD or DDR?

Process some of that power into your legs and walk down and buy a new computer

j-sh · Post by **j-sh** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:06 pm

oh yeah of course. HOW DID I NOT THINK OF THAT. I dont have enough RAM - get some more SO SIMPLE

do you honestly think if that was an option i wouldnt have done it already?

breakbait · Post by **breakbait** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:47 pm

Soft synths take up your CPU not the RAM, so you need a faster processor.

scooterjack · Post by **scooterjack** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:25 pm

BreakBait wrote:Soft synths take up your CPU not the RAM, so you need a faster processor.

correct, but only having 512mb is throttling the combination of OS, graphics, samples, and program interfaces. When all that is combined, you need more RAM too, and it will make a difference (albeit not huge) for cheap until a system upgrade is in the budget. Went through it with my laptop a while back; went from 512mb to 2gig and while it wouldn't give me 10 more instances of things, it did make what i could do a lot smoother and quicker until i built a production only box (for uber-cheap).

to the OP,
There aren't many options, outside of upgrading, that will get you more than minor benefits besides running a stripped down OS with no non-production related processes and programs loaded/running. And that won't make a huge difference.

rynke · Post by **rynke** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:25 pm

Seriously, you must really really really be poor if you cant afford a new computer... no offence.. i'm skinned aswell, but you can get a pretty decent computer for very little money these days...

Brisance · Post by **Brisance** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:43 pm

Well some people have to pay for their food, rent, electricity, heating, water, trash, etc.

scooterjack · Post by **scooterjack** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:45 pm

Brisance wrote:Well some people have to pay for their food, rent, electricity, heating, water, trash, etc.

and those people have to deal with what they have

slothrop · Post by **slothrop** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:49 pm

People have written great tunes on limited equipment. Maybe think about
* resampling
* using less cpu intensive synths for your simpler sounds
* using samples
* bouncing / freezing stuff
* not going too heavy on channel effects until you come to mixdown
* learning to get the most out of one synth / effect rather than chaining 15 together to get the same sound
* get rhythm, tension, melody, vibes, arrangement and all that stuff tight so it doesn't matter if you don't have a super maximum quality unison layered monster sound for the bassline. I mean, technically Anti War Dub or Highland Spring could probably have been put together on a pocket calculator, but they still get respect for being incredible tunes...

Brisance · Post by **Brisance** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:52 pm

ScooterJack wrote:and those people have to deal with what they have

The thread is about dealing with what you have, innit?

scooterjack · Post by **scooterjack** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:03 am

Brisance wrote:
ScooterJack wrote:and those people have to deal with what they have
The thread is about dealing with what you have, innit?

more of, what you don't have.. and can't really get without paying for it.

do you have any tips, or are you just here to whine?

Brisance · Post by **Brisance** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:15 am

Tips? Well always try to use a lighter alternative, to what you are using, everytime you pop out massive, think, if you really need it or if the same sound can be created with a lighter synth.

Also, Helix.

non_typical · Post by **non_typical** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:01 am

You can always see if you can cut down on effects by bussing them and routing channels from an aux send instead of having multiple instances of the same plug in. Depending on the mix of course, but you can save a good percentage of computer pain.

Processing power

Processing power

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