Heyas,

It's not a new way of working. It's the way people have been getting around track limitations since the Beatles (and before actually). :-) Much of their stuff was done on a 4 track!

In the digital world there is no quality loss. 0100101 live is the same as 0100101 from disk, so know yourself out.

As for your performace it sounds a little low. there are many notes around the place about improving system performance, but a couple of basic ones are:-

Increase your ASIO buffer to 1024 or greater. Higher latency, but less CPU load. Also ensure that your system is set for "background services" . To do this right click on my computer, pick properties, then advanced then settings (Under performance), then advanced again and set background services. If you have enough RAM turn off virtual memory too.

I use a product called FX Freeze in Acid Pro 5 and Cubase SL. It allows the user to render and unrender VST instruments and effects to and from audio. FX Freeze is a pretty good utility for applications that do not offer a preprogrammed freeze function, which is not included in the first versions of Cubase SX and SL.

Ted

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how much processing are you doing to each VSTi? if you're using eq/compression/reverb/delay on each track then yea, you're obviously gonna be pushing your cpu pretty hard.

go to your start panel and use the "Run..." app to run "services.msc" (you have to type this in).

Once there, there are a TON of services running by default in XP that are completely unneccesary that can be turned off to free up a pretty significant amount of processor usage.

For a list of what's what in this list of services, check http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

I will upload a sample of my service configuration to show what's not necessary for an audio based system (DISCLAIMER: this configuration may cause some of your non audio program problems, use my configuration at your own risk!)

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quote:

Originally posted by MessiahProject Hi guys and gals, I am running an Athlon 2.4G processor and 768M of DDR Ram with Cubase SX, but it seems when I have more than say 6 Vsti's open while writing, my processor or memory just cant handle it and it gets all jerky reducing my ability to add more atmosphere etc.Well, it suddenly dawned on me that maybe I could export everything I have done as an audio mixdown, re import it and then start a fresh. My question is this - is this a natural way of working, and if so, do I lose any sound quality and will my track still sound as if it is ONE mix or will it sound layered (if you know what I mean?), or have I stumbled across a new way of working for people with PC's that arent so powerful. MP

try adjusting the voices on the vst

optimizing windows XP (like the above link lists) definitely helps. when i got my new PC, i did this after i'd already done a track, and i immediately felt the my computer running faster and smoother.