WARPING = DISK OVERLOAD?

dinojag · Post by **dinojag** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 2:28 pm

Just starting to get my head around LIVE (version 4.0.4) & would like to now give it a run on a remix project. My original mix was done in Logic Audio. I bounced 26 audio files from the Logic mix & imported into Live (most of which are stereo). All tracks lined up & played without a problem. So far so good!

BUT… then I set the warp markers for each track… NOW I’m getting frequent disk overload as the tracks play!

This results in momentary muting of the sound. Does warping consume that much of the systems resources?

This concerns me as I haven’t even begun work on the remix yet!

I’m running Windows XP, using a Toshiba Satellite P20 (3.4GHz) with 1GB of RAM. The Audio files live on my external Western Digital (160GB, 7200RPM) firewire drive.

How can I optimize recourses to best work the track? Anyone else having to deal with this issue?

Appreciate any input you may be able to offer.

With Thanks
djlv

Sintec · Post by **Sintec** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 8:27 am

Yeah I've had similar problems when trying to remix some older tracks in Ableton. Have you tried editing out any silent parts on tracks? I presume that all 26 tracks aren't playing constantly. You may be able to improve the quality by removing silent sections from each part.
Also try loading some samples into RAM as this will lower the stress on the hard drive, presuming this is where you are streaming your wavs from.

The problem here isn't that your PC is to slow or doesn't have enough power just that the hard disk can't read that much data. Note the red D flashing in the top tool bar to show hard disk overload. Personally I've found the best solution to be to cut all your wavs down to loops before loading into Ableton. Load some of the more frequently used ones into RAM, to save pressure on the hard disk, and then begin remixing.

dinojag · Post by **dinojag** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:50 am

Hey thanks Sintec ... at least I know I'm not alone!

You've contributed some great advice. As you guessed, all the tracks were bounced at equal length to simplify loading & syncing of tracks in LIVE. So yes, there are many tracks that only contain a few bars of actaual audio data. I haven't tried cutting down the individual files yet but that sounds like a logical start. Are you just cutting the files or are you also rendering after cutting?

With regards to loading samples into RAM... all were initially streaming straight off the drive so I haven't tapped into that yet... thought I'd see how much I could achieve with other tweaking first. What's the best use of RAM in the LIVE. Use RAM on the smaller files that are looped more often or on the longer samples?

Appreciate your input. I'll let you know how I get on.

With Thanks
djlv

iskandar · Post by **iskandar** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:15 pm

running that many tracks from an external drive will prob create bottlenecks resulting in dropouts,

load the tracks into RAM which are constantly used.

djlv · Post by **djlv** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:41 am

Ok I'm pleased to report that cutting the silence out of the tracks does the trick! By the time I'd edited the first 16 tracks ALL disc overload issues were completely resolved

It also improved CPU performance. When I first tried running all 26 full-length tracks my CPU was running at an average of 8-10% with constant disk overload occuring. After editing all 26 tracks my CPU is working at an average of 3-5% with no disc overloads

This is very encouraging as all tracks are still steaming off the external drive so I still have the RAM option up my sleeve as I get into working up the mix.

Thanks for the tips!

djlv