[Nikola Radosevic]

I'm experiencing problems with sound when i set up many channels with many plugins. Sometimes it runs ok when I'm playing a project from begging to the end, but when I set a loop to work on a part of a project, it gives me glitches and make it almost impossible to work. I use asio drivers, and I set up the latency the highest possible(to get less glitches). I know that rendering to audio can help. But, my question is what can I do to reduce glitches in terms of buying new cpu, new soundcard or wthatever...
I have Intel dual core e8400 cpu, 4 GB of ram DDR2, and Alesis IO2 Express audio interface.

So my question is should I buy next new cpu, or new soundcard?

Also I have a really good pair of headphones Sennheiser HD650(cause the acoustics of my room are terrible, so I can't work on monitors). Will better soundcard make a diference in sound quality? And do you have any advice which soundcard to get?

Thanks in advance

This post has been edited by Nikola Radosevic: 03 February 2012 - 04:28 AM

[Bluffmunkey]

Your CPU is pretty old so that's the most likely candidate, although perhaps there are things you could do to help.

Do you use lots of plugins as inserts that you could maybe use on sends instead? For example instead of running 15 reverbs as inserts, use just 3 on sends.

[Nikola Radosevic]

Bluffmunkey, on 03 February 2012 - 08:45 AM, said:

Your CPU is pretty old so that's the most likely candidate, although perhaps there are things you could do to help.

Do you use lots of plugins as inserts that you could maybe use on sends instead? For example instead of running 15 reverbs as inserts, use just 3 on sends.

Hey, thx for help. I do use reverbs on sends, it's just I have more than 3 cause I usually want to have one reverb for my percs, one for hats, one for fx, one for pads...etc cause I want to tweak them differently. I also have some reverbs on inserts on individual channels that I automate when I'm making certain transitions. The problem is I generally use a lot of plugins. I put a limiter on every channel, I like to work with my mastering plugins already on the master, even though I know it's not highly recommended(still some producers do it), cause I want to know what sound I'm getting in the end, and cause sometimes when I produce without mastering plugins on, the dynamics gets completely screwd up after compression/limiting, so I must do the mixing all over again.

Anyway, you say that if I buy new better cpu I won't have problems with glitches anymore? And that I don't need to change a sound card, even though alesis IO2 Express is a very cheap crap sound card? I thought that better sound card = better driver, better drivers = less glitches?

[Bluffmunkey]

Well without knowing your exact setup it's difficult to say with 100% accuracy what the issue is, but I'm just suspecting the CPU as it's an older dual core model.

One thing i'd say is there's no real reason to run a limiter on every channel, and some of them can be fairly CPU intensive especially if they use a 'look ahead' algorithm. Maybe experiment with taking all the limiters off a particular project and see if it makes a big difference? That's also true of mastering plugins on the master.

A soundcard can make a difference to CPU usage, although are your glitches due to high CPU usage? What does the CPU meter show? I don't think the Alesis iO2 is particularly brilliant, but if you're only using it to mix ITB then it should suffice. At best a new soundcard may give you 10-20% better CPU use (i'm guessing) where an updated computer could see a 100-200% improvement (again a guess, depending on what you spend).

[Nikola Radosevic]

I forgot to mention I'm using Ableton. I'm not using any hardware synths, or compressor or anything, just software(which I guess is a bad thing for the cpu usage). My cpu meter shows high cpu usage, sometimes 100%(that's when I get glitches). What bugs me is that when I load a project with lots of plugins my cpu usage is sometimes around 50% even though I'm not doing anything at that moment, project is paused...

Removing all the limiters, and all the mastering plugins did help a little, but I really don't like to work with mastering plugins off...

I guess I'll buy a new cpu soon, but with that here comes the new mb, and the new ram....damn I won't get away with less than 500€. I guess a decent sound card would be cheaper.

This post has been edited by Nikola Radosevic: 03 February 2012 - 09:38 AM

[Bluffmunkey]

I honestly wouldn't rely on a different interface making a significant difference. The only interface I've ever owned that made a difference was a Steinberg MR816x that made about 10% difference but that was €600. You might as well spend that sort of money on a new PC and get maybe 100-200% improvement.

I think a new CPU is the only real solution for you, especially the way you like to work.

[KonstantinNrj]

lol what i have to do with intel seleron, 1 gb ddr1, so sound card and genius sp1 5 watt speakers? im so hopeless. have no cash

[T_K]

Nikola Radosevic, on 03 February 2012 - 09:37 AM, said:

I forgot to mention I'm using Ableton. I'm not using any hardware synths, or compressor or anything, just software(which I guess is a bad thing for the cpu usage). My cpu meter shows high cpu usage, sometimes 100%(that's when I get glitches). What bugs me is that when I load a project with lots of plugins my cpu usage is sometimes around 50% even though I'm not doing anything at that moment, project is paused...

Removing all the limiters, and all the mastering plugins did help a little, but I really don't like to work with mastering plugins off...

I guess I'll buy a new cpu soon, but with that here comes the new mb, and the new ram....damn I won't get away with less than 500€. I guess a decent sound card would be cheaper.

You could probably find a used Q6600 for around $100, and Q9550 go for around $150-200. Both of those would work in your current setup. FWIW, ASIO buys me about 12% overhead. I just tested it with the Ableton test track, 125 tracks maxed the CPU (no instances of >100% usage) without using the sound card, turning it back on brought average usage down to 88-89%.

This post has been edited by T_K: 04 February 2012 - 04:23 AM

[Luke Warren]

Bluffmunkey, on 03 February 2012 - 11:21 AM, said:

I honestly wouldn't rely on a different interface making a significant difference. The only interface I've ever owned that made a difference was a Steinberg MR816x that made about 10% difference but that was €600. You might as well spend that sort of money on a new PC and get maybe 100-200% improvement.

I think a new CPU is the only real solution for you, especially the way you like to work.

I second this... spend money on a new cpu. It's guaranteed to improve the performance.

We had this discussion on another post a few weeks back, and in my experience the only time I have ever noticed a decrease in cpu usage utilising an external sound card was using an apogee duet. And it was only around 8-10%.

At the end of the day the cpu is doing the bulk of the work, so thats where your going to find the biggest performance improvements.