DAW skipping - Effects causing problems...

TheBigRedDog

Hey guys, I need a bit of help!

I'm running Adobe Audition on a Dell Vostro laptop. Specs are good but I'm still getting skipping and breaks in recording if I have too much goin on in the mix.

The Laptop:
2.5 GHz Core2 Duo processor,
3.5 Gb RAM,
Windows XP SP3

The interface is line 6's TonePort ux8 USB.
The program is Adobe Audition 3.

My main problem is skipping in playback and recording when I'm running a relatively small amount of effects. It can usually handle verbs and parametric EQ's but multiband compressors etc. and some VSTs completely mess it up. While this skipping happens, the zooming functions usually become very slow and quite often freeze for 20-30 seconds also.

My own thoughts are that the laptop's motherboard/processor isn't capable of running 8channels I/O. However, regardless of whether I'm running 2 in and 2 out or the full 8 I/O, it still happens.

Also, that the processors and RAM available to the DAW isn't being read quick enough to run multiple effects on tracks. This could be the fault of the motherboard or the DAW itself. I'm not really that convinced with Audition.

My computer is running relatively well itself. I had to reinstall windows XP recently because of a GUI problem but otherwise it's fine. I have a load of other programs on it and unfortunately I need them on it for college etc. When I'm running the problematic tracks, the processor and RAM usage wouldn't even be 40%.

Any tips?? I'm not considering upgrading at the moment because I don't have the budget for it but if it must be, it must be...:(

jiltloop

I'm no expert but it could be something to do with your buffer setting maybe? Experiment with different settings.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

better of recording all dry ,
and usb interfaces seem to suffer from this alot on laptops .

madtheory

You could probably do with more RAM. And try to set up one reverb and use a send/ return, rather than inserting one on every channel. Classic procesor hog.

old gregg

mayhap a dumb question for me to ask but are you making sure things like networking/wi-fi, anti virus, other TSRs (are they even still called that) are disabled while doing music work?

I'd have a similar spec'd lappy and the only time these days I get grief like this is when I forget to turn off wi-fi before firing up my DAW. Things like Madtheory's suggestion - reverbs on send/return would also be a big one for me.

dasdog

TheBigRedDog wrote: »

Hey guys, I need a bit of help!

I'm running Adobe Audition on a Dell Vostro laptop. Specs are good but I'm still getting skipping and breaks in recording if I have too much goin on in the mix.

The Laptop:
2.5 GHz Core2 Duo processor,
3.5 Gb RAM,
Windows XP SP3

The interface is line 6's TonePort ux8 USB.
The program is Adobe Audition 3.

My main problem is skipping in playback and recording when I'm running a relatively small amount of effects. It can usually handle verbs and parametric EQ's but multiband compressors etc. and some VSTs completely mess it up. While this skipping happens, the zooming functions usually become very slow and quite often freeze for 20-30 seconds also.

My own thoughts are that the laptop's motherboard/processor isn't capable of running 8channels I/O. However, regardless of whether I'm running 2 in and 2 out or the full 8 I/O, it still happens.

Also, that the processors and RAM available to the DAW isn't being read quick enough to run multiple effects on tracks. This could be the fault of the motherboard or the DAW itself. I'm not really that convinced with Audition.

My computer is running relatively well itself. I had to reinstall windows XP recently because of a GUI problem but otherwise it's fine. I have a load of other programs on it and unfortunately I need them on it for college etc. When I'm running the problematic tracks, the processor and RAM usage wouldn't even be 40%.

Any tips?? I'm not considering upgrading at the moment because I don't have the budget for it but if it must be, it must be...:(

I'm not familiar with Adobe Audition 3 but are you using native drivers or ASIO? Tweaking buffers size is trial work at the best of times but I'd look there also. If your not using certain services/software you should disable/uninstall as has been suggested. Also if you had to re-install for a GUI problem (?) are you sure your machine didn't get infected? You've run full anti-malware/virus scans?

I assume thats a 32-bit version of XP you have. There is no point in getting more RAM as that version of XP can only see up to 3.25G's so you have more than you can currently use at the moment anyway.

TheBigRedDog

Thanks for the replies!

I forgot to mention that I've checked the buffer sizes and it seems to happen regardless of the size.

I'm using XP 32bit so no more RAM can fit! Even at that though, the usage wasn't even near full capacity when these problems arose.

Yeh I have all non essential programs terminated usually but I sometimes forget. I haven't noticed a difference!

I'm using the ASIO driver. The option that comes up is "ASIO Toneport ux8".

Yeh, I try to bus things and run grouped effects but I use a lot of plugin compressors etc. so I find they need to be pretty specific to individual tracks.

I'll try tonight to mess around with all your tips together and see what I come up with. Keep the suggestions coming please!!

krd

I'm not going to tell you how to do this precisely. But go to your taskmanager - then to the performance monitor - in the memory section it will show you what programs are running in the background - most you don't need and they choke the computer. You'll have to look up each one - but usually most do nothing, ever - just choke the machine. Remove the unnecessary ones the machine will speed up and have less problems handling effects etc.

shayleon

perhaps your latency is set too low?
cheers.