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Re: Tips for HotRodding your Looping PC
On Aug 12, 2005, at 11:24, loop.pool wrote:
>
> 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.
I agree! Good posting, Rick! It was aimed at desktop machines, but
many tweaks are the same for lappies. My main audio computing
experience is from Win98 and Windows XP PCs and I did all that stuff.
I also used the software Partition Magic to set up two identical
(cloned) audio optimized systems (plus one third clone on DVD media
for hardware backup). When starting the machine there is a little
application called Boot Magic (comes bundled with PM) that lets you
pick the system that you want to boot from. Now this is NOT the same
thing as the Windows XP built-in "dual boot".
Typically I had three or four systems installed on drive C. Each one
in its own partition and when booted the other two (or three) systems
became invisible for the active system. Drive D was used for audio
files and sample library. As I said, two of the systems were
identical clones of an audio optimized Windows XP, the third was for
office working and using the internet. The last system partition was
for installing and trying new applications. On a Windows PC its a no-
no to instal more software than you need for your work (It will slow
down the system. Got better with XP, but still an issue).
The idea of keeping two identical audio optimized partitions was that
if I had a severe Windows problem I would not have to ask people to
wait while I fixed it - I could simply reboot the machine from the
cloned audio system and keep up whatever we were into. This was made
possible by keeping all audio working projects on the D drive, the
only place on the machine that is shared by all system partitions.
> How about a similar thread for the Mac side of the equation?
Amazingly thin! OS X is a rewrite of Unix and as such aimed at
keeping the machine going practically by itself. When I got a Mac
with OS X two years ago I was used to defragging, and even swapping
and reinstalling (took me 8 minutes on PC with Ghost), on a regularly
basis. This is not the way to run a OS X system, I learned. The only
thing you really have to be careful with is to always repair
permissions before and after installing new software. You can also
leave the machine on overnight now and then, because then OS X will
run The Cron Scripts (yeah, sounds like a thriller ;-) which is an
old Unix self maintaining procedure.
> Certainly simple things
> like using one hard drive for audio only and one for OS and apps is
> a good thing
> for Macs.
I've learned that this may not be as important as with Windows XP.
But one thing of major importance is to run OS X with lots of free
disc space. The reason it so rarely does fragment the drives is that
OS X is a never resting cleaning worker. It keeps moving and
restoring files all the time to continually optimize the system in
the background. Something I was initially skeptical to, but fact is I
still have to see an issue with my macs. Today it's two years since I
started using a dual G5 on a daily (as well as many night shifts)
basis. A powerbook I have been using for 15 months. Both are doing
their job splendidly, never any problem at all.
For PowerBooks there have been published a couple of "Audio
optimizing tweaks" on the net. I tried them but found no performance
gain at all. So, like most OS X users, I now run them macs pretty
much as they come out of the box. Things I have found important for
the PowerBook is to maximize the RAM to 2 GB, to allow audio software
to put the samples (the live loops) in the RAM instead of shuffling
it up and down the hard drive. Plenty of free drive space is of
course important for a mac lappy as well. But that's it, I think.
Greetings from Sweden
Per Boysen
www.looproom.com (international)
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
---> iTunes Music Store (digital)
www.cdbaby.com/perboysen