SSD or Motherboard+Processor

WaveLab
1

I had a look around in the forums couldn’t see anything.

I was wondering at the minute i am running Windows 7 64bit with Cubase 764bit, Quadcore 2.83ghz and 8gm ram and 1tb internal and 500gb external.

When i load up Kontakt 5 and use 11-12 instruments i tend to get jittering and clipping as if my processor can’t handle this, what is an alternative for improve performance:

a few people have said to move samples to an SSD (which i would need a bigger enough one for Komplete Ulitmate).

Or buy more ram

or Motherboard and better processor.

Which one is recommended for price wise
and recommended for future performance?

Kind Regards
Rick

2

first whats with the external drive? should only be for back ups…

the right drives would look like this

OS drive
Audio record to drive
samples drive (all internal)
NI is not really heavy hitting at all so an SSD would not be a big improvement
upgrading your system to the right drive config would be as would a processor upgrade
i have no clue what you have now what you wrote tells me almost nothing.
i think you have a Q9550 which is very old at this point.

3

Thank you for responding. I’m very new to this technical stuff, i just like to plug and play lol!

To try to give you some more information:

OS, Cubase 7 and VSTS are on my C drive along with samples and everything else.

All projects for Cubase are on the D Drive, which includes Recording.

The external drive is for backup purposes, generally to store Pictures and Music and Exports.

So if i put my project files on the same drive performance would improve?

My processor Intel Quadcore 2.83ghz & GB Ram, what other info would you need?

Kind Regards
Rick

4

Your machine sounds adequate, have you checked the basics like latency? There are a lot of reasons why you can get jitters. Maybe you need to check out how to set up your machine as a daw performance wise. Steinberg have advice on their site somewhere.

5

My latency on my M-Audio Fasttrack Pro is 128 giving me 5ms of midi response.

6
7

Try a 256 or 384 setting. Do the audio problems go away?

Neil.

8

Hi Neil,

It made a little difference but if i was too open another instrument in Kontakt it would completely oeak again, any other solutions?

This is an image:

9

Hi,

Trying going to 512 samples. Latency should be around 10ms or so.
Do you definitely have the M-Audio drivers working, and not some Windows ASIO driver??

Neil.

10

Also, if you have the sample-rate set up very high on your sound card, this will place a massive hit on your CPU.

11

Hi Neil,

I certainly do, my Sample Rate is at 44.1 and Sample Depth at 24.

So should i change them to 48 and 16bit?

I changed the Bit rate and still no significant changes, i added one more VST to the project and it just peaked.

12

Hi Rick,

So you have the latest M-Audio drivers, and Cubase is selected to use them in “Device Setup”?

44.1kHz and 24bit is fine. Reducing the bit-depth to 16-bit will ease things quite a bit and mean you are recording at CD-quality, nothing more.

Do you have Cubase set-up to use the multi-core aspect of your CPU and not just one-core, also in “Device Setup”?

Are you using the samples directly from the external drive. If so, that will be the issue, as the USB interface won’t handle it. You need to copy the files to your main internal HD to get rid of the glitches.

Hope that helps.

Neil.

13

Yep!! :slight_smile:

14

https://www.steinberg.net/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/optimizing-windows-for-daws.html

15

I do have 2 Harddrives and when it comes to having 3 (a third for samples) i rarely use “Non VST” samples unless i need too as i can tweak them enough within the VST it’s self.

"HDD #1 - O/S & Programs, including Cubase etc.

HDD #2 All Cubase song projects saved here, audio etc."

That’s my layout at the moment.

I can’t understand how adding more HD space would help? All i’d be adding was the Sample drums from my C:/ Drive to the this new HD.

Neil,

Have the latest drivers yes.

I reduced the Bit and Khz but no significant change, To test it out i added a organ and it then started to peak again. cubase is using Multi Core yes. I thought ~“Multi Core” was only in device setup?

The Samples are on my D:/ drive not on my USB drive they are internal like everything else.

Zero Zero

I’ve tried this also still hasn’t changed anything significantly.

16

I would not leave Cubase running at 16 bit - no need. My money is on Kontakt playing up there are other threads about this. Do you get the same stutters with other apps/tracks? Have you checked the VST performance plugin in (devices menu) to see if its CPU or Asio related? USe this with Kontakt and without

17

Zero Zero

I think you may be right, i haven’t experienced this since having Komplete 8 Ultimate, so with Kontakt being the issue the only solution realistically in the sense of time would be to upgrade my motherboard and processor right?

18

If you want to upgrade then do so, but not just for kontakt as you may well run into the same issues anyway, why not check out the kontakt forum or even this forum - as the thread I posted above, there may be others