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Music production and dual core CPU's
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| DJ_Sea |
well i just found out the reason why live 5 likes to hog all my CPU and slow my computer right down (and often make playback very choppy) its because im running a dual core processor. and live is only using half of its capacity.
i knew that ive been running a dual core since i bought it, but only recently found out (by reading an article in computer music mag) that its the cause of some of my production problems.
so just a warning to you guys out there, ableton live 5 and reason 2.5 dont have dual core support. this causes the programs to only use one core and max out at 50% cpu usage. however the props will be releasing a patch in the near future that will enable dual core support for reason, and ableton will be releasing a new version/update that will enable it in their case too. at least thats what CM says.
discuss :) |
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| TranscendentalP |
interesting
I run FL Studio 6 and havent run into any problems yet... and I run many synths at once while doing it... running a Athlon 64 x2 4200+ with 1 gig of ram and emu 0404 soundcard btw. |
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| DJ_Sea |
AMD's are normally more efficient at musical number crunching, when compared to a P4.
i normally run live 5 rewired with reason with at least 7 VSTi's and a total of over 30 effects units. not including the effects units and instruments in reason... and all this is running on what is equivalent to a 1.4 ghz processor. and it crackles and chops up alot. (but not unlistenable)
It doesn't really have much of an effect on my productivity, but it does mean that to listen to some heavy parts i often have to bounce MIDI tracks to audio. which can be time consuming.
(i run a dual core 2.8 ghz P4, with 1 gig of ram and an M-audio 2496 soundcard) |
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| tranceinjection |
I don’t have dual core cpu and I only have a Athlon 64 3800+ and it plays computer games and music with ease.
Its normally drivers that produce the problems with computers and audio, does it play choppy with all music software, or do you have problems running normal software? |
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| DJ_Sea |
Yeah, i use the asio drivers. does make a difference, but i can tell its the CPU due to this...
as you can see one core is at almost max capacity while the other is sitting pretty much idle. also, note the CPU usage on Live 5 in the top right. it says its 70% whereas on the task manager it only say 49% thats because live is only taking into account one CPU core. |
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| djsphere |
| i run reason 3.0 with a 2400+ Athlon MP and 512 MB RAM i get 100% CPU load preaty fast. |
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| DjGeMiNi529 |
| does fl studio 5 have any problems with dual core cause im planning on buying a new comp with duel core and it would be kinda a waste if it would have problems |
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| Ryan0751 |
A dual-core CPU is to the operating system a "two CPU system", even though both "CPU's" are on the same chip or die.
This has always been the crux with multi-CPU systems. In order for an application to really benefit from the second (or third or fourth or tenth) CPU, they need to be written as "multithreaded" applications.
In laymens terms this means that for different "things" that the program is doing (perhaps running multiple VST's), each is run as a separate "thread of execution". The application has to be coded in this way for it to work, which does require quite a bit more work then a single-threaded application.
The OS's responsibility is to evenly spread out those threads amongst the available processors. It's very difficult to take a single thread and split it amongst two CPU's, as the overhead to manage this negates the speed benefit.
You WILL still benefit when running multiple applications at a time, as even though they might not be multi-threaded the OS should handle sharing them amongst the CPU's.
Note that you DO need an OS which supports multi-CPU's! Earlier versions of windows (pre-NT/2000) did not even initialize any processor than the first. I believe you need Windows XP Professional for these systems as well. |
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| Nemesis44 |
As Ryan0751 stated, the majority of applications that we use as producers aren't actually written for Dualcore so we don't actually make use of it.
Also been reading in the music press that at this moment in time it's better to hold off as by all accounts it would be a waste of money and a reduction in current performance.
I believe the latest edition of CM has an article on it.
Cheers
Nem |
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| tranceinjection |
Go to start and right click my computer and go down to properties advanced and you will see that it says performance at the top and a box called settings click on that.
Click on adjust for best performance and it will turn lots of crap off that is just wasting cpu cycles.
You don’t need fancy crap when you’re making music you need performance, that’s what I did to mine and it runs a lot better.
Also check on what programs are running in the background that you don’t need and you can close down temp while you’re making music.
It’s always best to fit faster hard drives like a 7200rpm drive instead of the old 5200 rpm, sata hard drives are really fast and that’s what I use.
Also invest in some more memory if you’re only using 512 megs as the operating software likes to eat a big chunk of it.
One gig or more really helps out and can stop the hard drive being used as a temporary storage, always get more memory if you can.
It’s what I’ve done to make my computer run a lot faster, you might already know this but to other that don’t I hope this is useful.
Computer music has some great advice on configuring your pc for music, I hope you get your computer sorted.
I have an Athlon 64 3800+ and its only running at 32 bit and I cannot wait till I get the 64 bit software, I just hope fruity and other programs run a lot better.
When some dual core software comes out the dual core will be amazing, especially for music software and games.
Take care |
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| DJ_Sea |
| quote: | | Originally posted by Nemesis44 I believe the latest edition of CM has an article on it. |
indeed it does. a very good one at that.
its not really a problem. im not looking for a way to fix it, as i can make music just fine. just wanted to let you guys know to be careful when choosing a new computer.
as for the guy who wanted to buy a dual core. id either wait until FL released a dual core patch/version or buy a single core CPU with just as much horsepower.
P.S. should i post scans up of the CM article? |
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| timmyboy2 |
| can you use one CPU for the os (XP) and the other one just for Cubase? |
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