ASIO Performance optimization

Cubase
1

Can anyone offer any help with optimizing my ASIO settings, it’s starting to annoy me now, as I cannot find a good balance between latency of recording latency and ASIO load. I use a Focusrite Saffire ,settings are

2.5ms FIrewire buffer latency and 15ms ASIO latency.

The ASIO performance meter is at about 50-60% (peaking) and I am getting audio drop outs and crackles, yet the CPU never raises above 20% in Task Manager.

The project has a fair few plugins loaded, is my only real option to freeze tracks ?

2

Complete computer specs?

3

Yeah sorry,

i’m running

AMD Phenom 2 x6 1090T (3.2ghz) 8 Gig RAM DDR3 2x500gig WD Caviar 7200’s (not RAID) graphics card is a 250GTS 512mb, but don’t think thats relavent.

And it’s the Saffire from Focusrite at the above settings.

Thanks, if you can help :smiley:

4

OS?

5

Oops, Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.

Drivers for the firewire interface are the lastest ones too.

6

What firewire chipset is the device connected to? If not Texas Instruments, that would be a probable reason. If it is TI, check for IRQ sharing.

7

I assume it’s not TI as no manufacturer is mentioned in Device Manager.

8

Wouldn’t be listed in device mangler, you’d need to contact the mfg. or look online at their site to see what your system specs are.

9

ok so with that aside, in terms of improving the amount of ASIO performance needed, would increasing the buffer size allow for more plugins etc to run ? ASIO performance in Cuabse is around 60% and i’m getting crackles, yet my CPU load is around 20-30% tops over all 6 cores.

Looking into the options Cubase has I guess I could increase the buffer size up a bit , and if I am getting latency between microphone - > headphones + playback, I can use Cubase’s option to set a staggered time for recording purposes ?

10

ASIO performance is a measure of the throughput of your soundcard and has nothing to do with CPU usage. Your symptoms point to a non-TI firewire chipset, which is why I ask the question. Your specs should run pretty intense projects. What does the project contain that has the dropouts?

11

Nothing out of the ordinary tbh. But there are a lot of plugins in it already.

On average how many plugins per project would be a good number ? 40 ? 50 ?

12

Depends on the plugs. There are DAW benchmarks online that would provide a more definative answer than I.

13

ok, well thanks anyway, I’ll have a look around see what I can find. I just find it wierd that the ASIO performance meter is maxing at 60% yet i’m getting the red light indicating it’s overloading occasionally.

14

Seems you don’t really want help. It would have taken two minutes to find out the brand of firewire chipset online. :unamused:

15

I do want the help, it is a TI chipset.