I noticed you wrote “my superior 2.0”, have you updated it to 2.3.2.0?
It is usually a good idea to keep everything up to date.
I don’t use Stillwell plugins but do use Waves and Slate without any issues.
Mauri.
Hi Mauri,
Yes, I do have the latest installment of Superior drummer, as well as the latest on Cubase 7.
Try disabling the first thread at start up prior to loading a project then re-enable it afterwards, this was the only thing that ever really improved my CPU load
Sorry I dont mean thread I mean core - via the task manager
I’m using a 2.3 quad core i7 in a Mac Mini on OSX 10.8.5 and my SD2.0 kit is 4GB, plus I run a ton plugs, and I have no problems at all. My ASIO meter only exceeds 40% if I drop the latency to 64 or lower.
Have you increased the latency? I usually run at 256. For my system there is no perceivable latency on 256 and lower, so may as well give the system a break and keep it at 256, eh?
Wow only 4GB… and still everything works for you?.. that’s impressive. 
I eat 4GB RAM for breakfast. 
RAM comes to play when you start adding stuff like huge sample libraries, Kontakt, Omnisphere etc…
I would recommend 16GB RAM minimum for real work…
Best Regards
Freddie
RAM has very little impact over the ASIO meter overall. System performance is another thing.
ASIO meter is more = CPU, disk speed, motherboard, QuickPath Interconnect- bus speeds and Audio-interface- driver and Audio interface bus speeds and chip.
Best Regards
Freddie
Interesting. Thank you all a ton for your input.
Brock, my buffer size is 256 as of now, and it behaves as you would expect, where increasing it lowers the ASIO meter.
Keith,
I’m not sure how to disable a core and then re-enable it, but I’ll re-search.
I’m just amazed at what other people can run with similar systems. I’ve been loosing serious sleep over this haha.
Freddie, you mentioned audio interface. I use my AxeFx II as the audio interface via USB, but I actually disabled it as a test and ran the DAW through the computer speakers and the ASIO meter did not change. 
I don’t know about AxeFX II? I’m not familiar with it.
Perhaps its your computer that is the bottle neck?
Best Regards
Freddie
Well… That would be a real bummer. Even if that were the case, I’d like to find out what is the bottle neck (CPU speed, Core Audio, direvers, etc.) so that we can fix it or if we can’t fix it, so I know what to look for years down the road when I replace my current machine.
If you don’t know about the axe fx… definitely check out this page.
Did you dis-able ASIO Guard?
Your Activity Monitor is showing Cubase using 150% of CPU (that equates with running three out of your four cores flat out), so it seems likely there is some heavy plugin(s) hogging the power. Turn each one off in turn and see what happens to the CPU load.
As folks have said, increasing RAM doesn’t increase CPU power, though it will often make a MAc run smoother.
The number of audio tracks is largely irrelevant, even a very modest machine can run a ton of tracks. It’s the plug-ins and VSTi’s that cause the glitches.
Increase your buffer to 1024. Unless you need to play a VSTi live, that’s the only reason to run a low buffer. Macs hate low buffer settings.
Some sound card drivers are awful. I never heard of your sound card, so I don’t know. (edit to say, checked out the link, looks like a mean guitar Fx unit, may not be a wonderful sound card. I don’t know.)
If it’s a mastering plug-in causing the problem, my 2p advice is don’t try to mix and master at the same time. I can just about do this for roughish mixes after 30+years doing it, but it’s much easier and better to separate the two jobs.
And yes, I gather ASIO guard can be problematic, though I haven’t seen that.
Hope some of this helps.
Hi again!
Yes ASIO guard can be benefits on old computer and performance gain but on newer computers you can actually loose performance instead of gain anything if you have it activated.
6-18ms… from…512 buffer up to 1024buffer settings (18ms) can be good idea if you have problems with audio. I wouldn’t recommend to go under 6ms. 9ms work just fine.
You can still play on softwares instruments without any real latency on example 1024 buffer.
Not use low audio latency you should have especially in mind on MAC computers. MAC has overall problems with low latency and audio applications.
Just a friendly inputs and thoughts!
Best Regards
Freddie
Don’t forget that latency values can be changed at any time. If you are obsessed with “tightness” and you can’t record at higher than a 64 buffer, by all means, use the lowest setting your audio interface allows (and just because yours theoretically can go down to 32, it doesn’t mean you actually have to use it.)
The thing is, when you’re mixing, you definitely don’t need 64 --let alone 32–, so you can considerably relax the buffer and avoid lots of potential problems, especially if you work with lots of tracks.
[quote="Freddie H]
Wow only 4GB… and still everything works for you?.. that’s impressive.
I eat 4GB RAM for breakfast.
RAM comes to play when you start adding stuff like huge sample libraries, Kontakt, Omnisphere etc…
I would recommend 16GB RAM minimum for real work…
Best Regards
Freddie[/quote]
You misread my post. My SD2.0 kit is 4GB. My system has 16GB. And it works splendidly!
My 3.49hHz intel core i7 with 16GB RAM doesn’t really work wonders too. My project setups are pretty much like yours - Superior, guitars, bass and some synths, Slate stuff.
to record drum parts i need 128samples buffer, not more. Large half-mixed project will crackle the hell out with 128 on me. My workaround is:
- Lotsa headroom on master (i’ll explain why)
- Proper gain staging with all inserts on all instruments (i’ll ex[plain why)
- During mixing i have some simple plug-ins on master that just model what i’ll be doing later - just stock multi band, some eq with a little hi shelf, simple brickwall limiter. In the end i will change these to hungry stuff like FG-X, which surely does better than the stock limiter, but just to have the idea of how it’ll sound squashed - stock plug-ins is absolutely ok. It even makes you work harder))
- If i need to replay some part, i press -constrain delay compensation-, and all the compressors, limiters etc. go off. And if my gain-staging was good and i have enough headroom on master - i hear everything in balance. Everything is uncompressed, unsaturated, but it’s all there - comfortable enough to play. When i’m done i turn delay compensation off - and i’m back to mixing in a second.
- And when i’m totally done with playing parts, i switch to 512 or 1024 samples buffer - and i’m a happy user again.
[quote=“Brock”]
You misread my post. My SD2.0 kit is 4GB. My system has 16GB. And it works splendidly!
[/quote][/quote][/quote]
Sorry my mistake.
Best Regards
Freddie
I did not see if you had answered this question. Asio-Guard can cause all the kinds of problems that you are describing - it is probably best unticked. + have you ticked the Multiprocessing box?
Hey guys, thank you all for all your responses.
I played around with all the settings today and as some of you ahve already mentioned, it looks like I just need to adjust my workflow. Superior and Ozone are the most demanding plugins. I can track guitars just fine at a buffer of 256 and then bumping it all the way up during mixing. This allows me to run my entire chain with no issues. SInce the screenshot, I’ve added acouple more tracks with effects plus a synth, and everythng is running smoothly. I did disable ASIO guard and it seems to have brought stability to the session.
So, I will coninue with this new workflow in mind and it should be ok.
Again, thank you all for the responses. A few little adjustments have made quite the difference.
Carlos.
Great 