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Tips for HotRodding your Looping PC



A guy at the Microsound/Glitch music tribe at tribe.net
just posted this really excellent guide to optimizing a PC computer for
music.   It's one of the best and most comprehensive articles I've seen
on the subject and it might be cool to add to the thread if people have
other good HotRodding tips.

How about a similar thread for the Mac side of the equation?  Certainly 
simple things
like using one hard drive for audio only and one for OS and apps is a good 
thing
for Macs.

There is so much computer live looping going on right now with a half a 
dozen
live looping apps in the wings about to be released for both PC and Mac
that I thought this wasn't too terribly offtopic.  Forgive me if you think 
it is.

************
Tweaks for Optimizing your PC for Audio in Windows
Just because you buy a computer with the latest specs, doesn't mean you'll 
get the best performing PC, especially when it comes to audio. There are 
certain configurations and settings that can make your PC optimal for 
audio 
work.

PLEASE NOTE: The following tips are only suggestions that I have tried on 
my 
PC. They are not requirements. Just because they work for me, doesn't 
automatically mean they will work for you. I will not be held responsible 
for any damage they may cause if you do something incorrectly. Try these 
suggestions at your own risk.

TWO DRIVES ARE BETTER
The first thing I did to boost my PC's performance was to add a second 
hard 
drive just for audio data. So now my C drive contains Windows and all my 
software, and my D drive contains only the audio data from my projects. 
This 
allows my audio software to access the audio data much more quickly.

Of course I also had to 'tell' my software where to find the data. In 
Cakewalk's Sonar, this meant moving my WaveData folder to the second hard 
drive. And then in Sonar, choosing Options > Audio > Advanced, and 
entering 
the new folder location in the Data Directory parameter. For Steinberg's 
Cubase, you would need to move your Audio Files Folder. To find out the 
name 
of the current folder, in Cubase choose Options > Audio Setup > Audio 
Files 
Folder. Take note of the folder, and then move it to the new drive using 
Windows Explorer. In Cubase, choose Options > Audio Setup > Audio Files 
Folder again, and this time select the new folder location.

AUDIO DRIVE FORMATTING
When configuring the second hard drive, I made sure to set up the drive 
using the FAT 32 file system, which (to me) seems faster than NTFS 
(although 
I haven't done extensive testing). Please refer to the Windows Help on how 
to set up your drive using FAT 32.

I also used a special formatting command that would create bigger hard 
drive 
data clusters. Larger clusters allow the data to be read and written 
faster. 
Here's how I formatted the drive:

1) In Windows, choose Start > Programs > MS-DOS Prompt. (WinXP users 
choose 
All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt)
2) At the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, I entered FORMAT D:/Z:64 and pressed Enter 
on 
my computer keyboard. (WinXP users should enter FORMAT D:/A:64)

I just followed the prompts after that and Windows formatted my drive 
accordingly.

TURN AUTO RUN OFF
Windows likes to scan the CD drive continuously to see if a CD has been 
inserted, allowing programs to run automatically. This can possibly cause 
disruptions in audio recording and playback. I disabled it as follows:

1) Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties.
2) Click the Device Manager tab.
3) Double-click on the CDROM listing.
4) Double-click on your CD-ROM drive shown in the list under CDROM.
5) Click the Settings tab.
6) Deactivate the Auto Insert Notification option and click OK.
7) Repeat for all CD drives you have in your system.

For WinXP users, the procedure is different:

1) Choose Start > My Computer.
2) Right-click on your CD-ROM drive and choose Properties.
3) Click on the AutoPlay tab.
4) Choose a file type from the drop-down list.
5) Activate the Select An Action To Perform option.
6) Choose Take No Action.
7) Repeat steps 4 through 6 for each file type in the drop-down list.

TYPICAL ROLE OF THIS PC
(WinXP users can skip this one) I'm not sure if any significant 
performance 
increase is provided by this Windows change, but I've made the change on 
my 
system none-the-less. Supposedly, by 'telling' Windows how your PC will be 
used determines the priority of hard drive access. So by specifying your 
PC 
as a Network Server, Windows will give hard drive access a higher 
priority. 
Here's how to do it:

1) Right-click My Computer and choose Properties.
2) Click on the Performance tab and then on the File System button.
3) Click on the Hard Disk tab.
4) Choose Network Server for the Typical Role Of This Computer parameter.
5) Click OK.

LIMIT VIRTUAL MEMORY
Windows uses a swap file on your hard drive when it doesn't have enough 
physical memory to run its operations. Usually, the size of the swap file 
is 
changed on-the-fly, which can cause excess disk access (a definite no-no 
on 
an audio PC). So to specify an exact size for the swap file (thus stopping 
the on-the-fly resizing and providing better audio performance), do the 
following:

1) (WinXP users choose Start first) Right-click on My Computer and choose 
Properties.
2) Click on the Performance tab and then on the Virtual Memory button. 
(WinXP users click on the Advanced tab, then click on the Settings button 
in 
the Performance section, then click the Advanced tab, and finally click 
the 
Change button in the Virtual Memory section)
3) Choose the Let Me Specify My Own Virtual Memory Settings option. (WinXP 
users choose the Custom Size option)
4) In the Hard Disk drop-down list, choose a location for the virtual 
memory 
swap file. This should be the same drive on which you have Windows 
installed. You probably won't have to change this setting. (WinXP users 
can 
skip step 4)
5) For the Minimum and Maximum parameters enter the same value. The value 
should be anywhere from 2 to 4 times the amount of physical memory you 
have 
installed in your computer. Try going with 2 times at first. The higher 
the 
number you use the more disk space you need for the swap file. For 
example, 
if you have 128MB of memory installed in your computer, you can try a 
value 
of 256 for both the Minimum and Maximum parameters. (WinXP users enter 
values for the Initial Size and Maximum Size parameters accordingly)
6) Click OK.
7) Click Yes. (WinXP users can skip step 7)

CRACK DOWN ON FILE CACHING
(WinXP users can skip this one) In an attempt to make reading and writing 
disk drive data more efficient, Windows uses a cache to store some disk 
data 
in RAM. Unfortunately, this doesn't work well at all for audio data, and 
can 
actually cause problems. So to limit the file caching, do the following:

1) In Windows, choose Start > Run.
2) Type SYSEDIT in the Open field, and click OK to open the System 
Configuration Editor.
3) Click on the Window showing the SYSTEM.INI file.
4) Scroll down to find the section labeled [vcache].
5) Directly beneath the [vcache] heading type the following:
MaxFileCache=8192
MinFileCache=8192
6) Choose File > Exit to close the System Configuration Editor, and choose 
YES if asked to save changes.

OTHER BASIC TWEAKS
There are a few other basic Windows parameters you can adjust to make 
things 
run more smoothly. One such thing is the system sounds. You really don't 
need them, and they can be distracting when working with audio and music. 
To 
disable them, do the following (see below for WinXP):

1) Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel.
2) Double-click the Sounds applet.
3) In the Sounds Properties dialog box, choose No Sounds in the Schemes 
drop-down list.
4) Click OK.

WinXP users do the following:

1) Choose Start > Control Panel.
2) Click the Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices category.
3) Under Pick A Task, choose Change The Sound Scheme.
4) In the Sound Scheme drop-down list, choose No Sounds.
5) Click OK.

Other nuisances you don't need are the various Windows Effects and the 
Active Desktop. To disable these, do the following (see below for WinXP):

1) Right-click on the Windows Desktop and choose Properties.
2) Click on the Effects tab.
3) Deactivate all the options in this dialog box.
4) Click on the Web tab.
5) Deactivate the View My Active Desktop As A Web Page option.
6) Click OK.

WinXP users do the following:

1) Choose Start. Then right-click on My Computer and choose Properties.
2) Click the Advanced tab.
3) Click the Settings button in the Performance section.
4) Under the Visual Effects tab, choose the Adjust For Best Performance 
option.
5) Click OK.

Other tweaks you should perform are to turn off any background processes 
that are hogging resources. Here are just a few:

1- Turn off your screensaver.
2- Adjust the power settings of your monitor [Right Click on Desktop and 
select Properties and select advanced or settings tab under screen 
saver/monitor.] The Power Scheme should be Always On and all the settings 
underneath this power scheme should read 'NEVER'.
3- Turn off and/or shut down all of your virus/spyware protection programs 
and/or the Internet in general.

One additional tweak I've found helpful (excluding hardware upgrades like 
faster disk drives or additional RAM) is to ensure that the "DMA" option 
is 
checked for every disk drive on the IDE bus (including CD-ROM and CD 
writers).

Go to Control Panel/System/Device Manager/Disk Drives, and look at the 
settings for each of the IDE drives. DMA (direct memory access) enables 
the 
audio software to access the hard disk directly without going through the 
CPU. This makes a vital difference in multi-track audio recording.

Hope you all find that these tips are helpful. Please check some other 
fine 
links below as well.

If you are using Windows XP, this site is awesome for optimizing your PC 
for 
audio.
www.musicxp.net

If you're setting up a new system, this entire guide is highly 
recommended; 
go to TASCAM's web site at this address:
www.tascamgiga.com/pdf/opti...ng-xp-and-2k.pdf

If you have windows 98, I sincerely suggest upgrading just as I did a 
couple 
years back. You will certainly pull out less hair in the long run, because 
the blue screen of death will almost cease to exist.