I thought buying a computer with the newest intel processor(13th generation) and having 64 gb of ram would make my audio work be flawless. it turns out I was wrong!
I thought it would be enough for audio, since for now I am not working so much on video editing.
I have a new project now I’m working on, it is 4 minutes and a half long, and yes, the project is very very busy but still, it’s just 4.5 minutes of work.
do you really have to buy the newest mac to have a smooth running Daw?
is it true that Cubase uses a lot of ram in comparison to other daws? would having more memory help my projects run smoothly?
I mean, I know it runs faster than the older computer I had(that had an old I5 processor with only 16 gb of ram) but, if I need to literally freeze half of my project’s channels to have it playing smoothly, what did I earn by upgrading to this computer? it’s even so much noisier than the old computer.
I could freeze all the channels too in the computer I had before this one, and then I could work without the project getting totally stuck, what did I gain by buying a very expensive computer such as this?
would a m2 mac computer run my project smoothly?
is it a problem with Cubase that consumes too much memory and cpu power? or maybe a bug in my project?
I use tons of channels, plugins, and dop editing.
it’s not that I intend to buy a mac in the near future, but I wonder if a mac would perform a lot better than this I9 pc.
What makes you think that?
If it’s an i3 it’s too slow for heavy DAW work.
That depends… if a lot of sample based instruments are running, it could.
What brand is the computer?
We can give more tips if we get more information about the system, the used instruments and plugins.
There is much possible impact on performance with actual systems.
No.
No.
Probably not. Are you maxing out your RAM?
There are many things that can cause a noisy computer. Case, fans, CPU cooler, etc. Since you don’t mention any details about your old system compared to the new, people would only be guessing as to why this might be happening.
What exactly do you mean by “the project getting totally stuck”? I have heard many terms used to describe a malfunctioning Cubase project, but “stuck” is a new one to me.
That’s difficult to say, since you don’t mention any details whatsoever about what your project actually consists of.
Again … hard to say with absolutely no details about what your project contains.
Would you mind elaborating? How many are “tons”? Which types of tracks (“channels”?)? What plugins?
And last, but certainly not least … what is your ASIO audio device (interface)???
How long the project is doesn’t really matter much until you start getting into timelines longer than an hour.
I bump this thread, of course reacting to every comment sent here.
I needed some time to gather all the information. was also very busy with the actual project I was referring to.
thanks everyone for the comments!
I have an I9 processor…
if my computer can’t handle a lot of sample based instruments, then what computer can?
if not even a mac, then how could I make longer songs?
I don’t know how to answer the question “what brand is the computer?”, I could provide detailes about the computer
it’s a desktop Pc with an Antec headcase, 13th generation Intel I9, 64 GB of ram, a Kingston 4 Tb Ssd(i’m not sure about the specific model, but it has the max speed of writing and reading that is available), and a normal Intel graphics card that came with the computer, the Operating system is Windows 11. I use Cubase 12.
are there any more relevant details I could give?
I had to backup the project and delete the freeze folder in the new project in order to check in the vst plug-in manager in how many instances each plugin was used, since the plug-in manager doesn’t consider effects and instruments that are freezed.
by the way it’s really hard to work with an almost 100 % freezed project,
I can’t for example, insert silence where I want, since freezed channels cannot be changed and you cannot unfreeze the whole project just to insert silence and then freeze it all over again, if you do it manually through Cubase, most certainly you can’t, maybe If I’d move the Freeze folder again then I would be able to maneuver between an unfreezed project to a freezed one to do small changes, though it might not work, I might put back the freeze folder when I want it to be freezed again and the freeze process would not happen(I didn’t check that yet)
Anyway, these are the instrument and effect plugins I Used:
instruments:
Omnisphere - SpectraSonics - 42
HaLion Sonic - Steinberg - 31
Analog Lab V - Arturia - 20
Crispy Drums - Bang Bang Produc - 17
Battery 4 - Native Instruments -15
Groove Agent - Steinberg - 12
Padshop Steinberg - 5
Addictive Keys - XLN Audio - 5
Pianissimo - Acoustica - 3
Kontakt - Native Instruments - 3
Dexed - Digital Suburban - 1
Cfx Concert Grand - Garritan - 1
effects:
Pro-Q 3 - FabFilter - 391
Soothe 2 - Oeksound -143
KHs Pitch Shifter - KHs - 87
smartComp2 - Sonible - 83
Tape - Softube - 57
pureComp - Sonible - 55
Drip - Kyle Beats - 55
Magic Dice - BabyAudio - 41
TEOTE - Voxengo - 40
R2 - Exponential Audio - 39
Ozone 9 Dynamics - Izotope - 39
Timeless 3 - FabFilter - 37
Magic Switch - Audio Baby - 33
Pro L-2 - FabFilter - 25
Ozone 9 Vintage Limiter - Izotope - 24
Morph Filter - Steinberg - 24
Grailion 2 - Auburn Sounds - 24
smartEq3 - Sonible - 23
Expanse 3D - JMG Sound - 22
KSHMR Essentials - KSHMR - 21
Vynil - Izotope 19
Studio Eq - Steinberg 18
smartReverb - Sonible - 17
proximityEQ+ - Sonible - 17
Ghi - GVST - 17
RoomWorks SE - Steinber 15
Volcano 3 - FabFilter - 13
Pro-R - FabFilter - 12
Multi-Tap Delay - Steinberg - 12
pureVerb - Sonible - 9
Youlean Loudness Meter - Youlean 8
Dual Filter - Steinberg - 8
VLA-3A - Black Rooster Audio - 7
VLA-2A Mark II - Black Rooster Audio - 7
VLA-2A - Black Rooster Audio - 7
Stereo Enhancer - Steinberg - 7
Ozone 9 Vintage Tape - Izotope - 7
DaTube - Steinberg - 7
Saturn 2 - FabFilter - 6
Relay - Izotope 6
Ozone 9 Match Eq - Izotope - 6
KHs Reverser - KHs 6
KHs Frequency Shifter - KHs 6
MicroPitch - Eventide - 5
Dj Eq - Steinberg - 5
Ozone 9 Maximizer - Izotope - 4
TB Ferox Tape Emulator - ToneBoosters - 3
Manipulator - Polyverse Music - 3
Crystals - Eventide - 3
Ozone 9 Exciter - Izotope - 2
Tube Compressor - Steinberg - 2
Tranceformer - Steinberg - 2
Spiff - Oeksound - 2
RO-GOLD - Black Rooster Audio - 2
Rift Filter Lite - Minimal - 2 -
PingPongDelay - Steinberg - 2
MSED - Voxengo - 2
MonoToStereo - Steinberg - 2
KHS Limiter - KHs - 2
KHs Formant Filter - KHs - 2
Expander - Steinberg - 2
Excalibur - Exponential Audio - 2
Distortion - Steinberg - 2
CrushStation - Eventide - 2
BlueAsh Sc-5 - Black Rooster Audio - 2
AutoPan - Steinberg - 2
Vpre-73HE - Black Rooster Audio - 1
Vpre-73 - Black Rooster Audio - 1
Tremolo - Steinberg - 1
Spring - Eventide - 1
ShimmerVerb - Eventide - 1
RoomWorks - Steinberg - 1
PRE -V76 - Arturia - 1
KHs Tape Stop - Khs - 1
GullFoss - Soundtheory - 1
Distroyer - Steinberg - 1
Compressor - Steinberg - 1
Comp TUBA STA - Arturia - 1
Comp FET-76 - Arturia - 1
Blackhole - Eventide - 1
Bitcrusher - Steinberg - 1
Biggifier - W.A.Production - 1
Baby Comeback - Baby Audio - 1
Pro Studio Reverb - Acoustica - 1
In total - 155 Instruments and 1575 Effect plug-ins.
it’s important to note that I renered a lot of midi parts and used a lot of effects on those audio channels too. I included the effects I used on those channels in the counting.
(few channels were disabled, that leaves them out of the plug-in manager counting)
I used group tracks too(with effects on them) if it is relevant.
some Direct offline processing was used, can’t estimate how much(or don’t know how to)
the projects folder is 4.21 GB(when including the freeze files folder).
I also have a few other questions… when you freeze a channel, unload it’s VST instrument and effects - does it make it so like the channel doesn’t exist on the project? meaning, the plugins and settings it uses when freezed doesn’t affect the way my computer runs the project? or is it not exactly so?
as I stated, I have 64 GB of Ram, and yes, I am using a lot of sample based instruments(if 155 is a lot)
would buying more ram solve the problem, or will just make the computer slightly faster while handling my projects?
cause honestly, I almost freezed the entire project just so I could play my project.
that’s what my point was, I could also freeze an entire project in my old computer, then unfreeze just the channels I needed to edit, etc…
I believe still this computer handles the project(and others) much better then my old one would, but still, I thought the difference would be much larger.
how much ram should you have to run this kind of project? a lot more than 64 GB? I’m not even sure what is the limit of ram I could insert into this computer.
and now I ask again… would a powerful new-made Mac react to my project any different(especially while the project is fully not freezed)?
I laid down All the detailes about my project, and my computer.
I would love for some tips now, thank you!
hello. thank you.
based on what do you think a mac would not be running my project more smoothly without me freezing the whole project?
(I can’t even say my computer “runs” the project without it getting freezed completely when I play it)
it’s unfortunate that you say that having more memory would not help, since I wish I could find a solution that does not involve changing my computer(which I’m not going to do anyway in the near future)
regarding your question - how would I know if I’m maximizing my ram? or, how can I do it?
if it is relevant, I did turn on settings in Cubase such as - 64 bit float, multi-processing, ASIO guard, ASIO guard level set to high, audio priority - boost, Steinberg audio power scheme is ON.
I’m not sure what detailes I could provide about my old computer, just an old(probably bought in 2013) pc with an I5 intel processor, 16 GB of ram, 1 TB KingstonSsd(just like in my new one only less space), with an older Intel graphics card(again, I don’t know if the graphic cards matter even in the slightest in audio work)
you’re right, saying “the project get totally stuck” is a weird one, I just meant that whenever I play it, or just try to move in it or do Anything, it freezes or lags. whenever I play it, if not enough channels are freezed, the project freezes(here’s that word again, in a different meaning) completely.
I answered all of your other questions in the comment above this one I believe…
my audio interface is RME Fireface Uc
Hey, thank you for your input.
my project is 4:50 minutes long now.
and already the situation is unworkable… I don’t see how going further than 5 minutes would work in any way… might be pretty hard even with extensive usage of channel freezing.
Holy crap! 
I have no further input on this topic.
I guess it’s self assembled, then.
42 Omnisphere and 87 pitch shifter instances?
I think there are conceptional problems with a 5min project that uses 1800 plugins.
I’d love to see a screen shot of the timeline… for real
Really>
What CPU do you have?
@Bon Have you considered offloading by utilizing a secondary computer running VEPro? I think any single computer would struggle with that amount of plugins.
Of the timeline? how. I can only share a video I guess
13th Gen Intel(R) Core™ i9-13900K 3.00 GHz
But… It’s not that powerful, the computer gave me such a hard time with this project untill I almost went mad… I mean, I kept on freezing channels, cause the computer couldn’t deal with whatever was going on… the project kept on freezing whenever I would play it… it drove me mad… it kept on closing every five minutes, it was too much to handle 
right before I stopped working on the mix I froze out about 60 or 70 channels, then it all kept calming down and I could work again… so glad I’m over this project… it was crazy to to work with that many channels.
also, at first this pc was cool with projects that were much smaller than this one, I mean, ones that had something like 50 channels, now, for some reason, it keeps lagging whenever I play it. and it’s a small project(considerably)!
I’m starting to think something is wrong with the pc because I tried to plug another hard drive and I might have messed something up, also I plugged it when the pc was on, so it might have caused some problems… the computer now makes weird noises whenever I work too hard… at first there were these noises that I’ve gotten used to, just high pitched noises that would stop if I lowered the sample rate, but then the other noise started happening
my uncle, who assembled the computer who is also a computer technician can’t hear any noise, he said “it’s the quietest it could get” but I can’t work with such noise… not the second one that came along… I can record with the high pitch that I used to have, but not with this one, it’s too strong
woah, using two computers? I don’t understand how that could work…
I do have an another computer but I’m not sure how you would do such a thing? the old one, I could still use it
Checkout Audiogridder
I personally don’t understand why anyone would need to use 155 vsti’s and 1575 fx plugins on a 04:30 project??!!
I really think you should evaluate your way of working and maybe take a look at one of those video’s that explain about how ‘less is more’? 
Seriously, using that much vsti’s and fx is in one project is not normal! It seems like you’re using one plugin to solve the issue from the former and the next to solve what the other one did, etc
Sorry, but I just can’t warp my head around a project of just 04:30 needing so much vsti’s and plugins! It just doesn’t make any sense to me!
Working like this you’ll bring any computer to it’s knees!
I don’t see why you guys feel the need to laugh at me when I am already telling you I have another project where it freezes when I play it in which I only used 33 vst instruments and 52 plugins
something is wrong with my computer.