Is adding RAM worth it?

DLuv · Post by **DLuv** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 6:29 pm

This is from a friend:
I currently produce audio on my TiBook (550, 512MB, OS 9.2) and would like to increase the RAM to speed things up a little and give me a few more tracks to work with. However, I presently have 2 x 256 MB sticks in it, and cannot afford to upgrade both to 512 MB (thus 1 Gig) - so I am thinking of getting just one (1) 512 MB card.

Is this worth the price? Will I notice much difference in processing power with the upgrade to 768 MB from 512 MB? And does it matter anymore that the RAM is not mirrored in both slots? I rember when I had my desktop G4 (older) that I had to have matching sets of RAM sticks and hence 768 was not available as a choice.

Opinions?

I run Ableton Live and Reason primarily, but often work in ProTools when I need accuracy. My audio runs thorugh a M-Audio 410 Firewire box. Also, please note I run OS 9.2.

kabuki · Post by **kabuki** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 6:40 pm

I had 768 in my TiBook running OS 10. Live streams audio, so it is irrelevant in terms of RAM (unless you are performing, and load the clips into RAM). The REASON end of things loads ALL audio into RAM and will DEFINITELY benefit.

It depends on how much you use RAM audion (Reason or Live clips in RAM). Live will still be as slow in performance as far as Effects and Track numbers go.

My opinion is it won't hurt, so you might as well.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 9:05 pm

adding ram would help you in 2 main areas...

if you use alot of VST FX or VST Instruments.

and if you are getting the "disk overload" alert in the top left of the Ableton screen.

If you are getting the disk overload, chances are you've got the stock 4200rpm drive, and more Ram would help by using your Ram to play back audio clips instead of the hard drive, an external firewire 7200rpm hard drive would also help to remedy that problem.

So i say if you have any need for more Hard Disk storage - get an external firewire drive and kill two birds with one stone.

If you dont get the disk overload alert, and if you run out of CPU (not ram) because of VST FX/Instruments - then you dont need any ram. Open Activity Monitor - System Memory while Live is open, Work in Live as you normally would and if your Free Ram + Inactive Ram = more than 100MB, you dont need any more Ram. If its less than 100MB, your system would benefit from having more ram, OSX utilizes as much ram as it can for applications

there are some optimizations you can do as well to keep the cpu meter down.

turn off the audio input in audio preferences, adjust your output latency a few milliseconds, utilize Apple's own AU FX (i found the AU HiPass is extremely effecient compared to Live's EQ3, same goes for AU Reverb), Buss your FX to Returns, few people need more than 2 reverbs - its pretty uneffecient to put an effect like Reverb in multiple channels instead of using the sends of those channels to 1 or 2 types of reverbs. for simple EQing, use the EQ4 instead of the EQ3.

search this forum for more optimization techniques.

cheers

DLuv · Post by **DLuv** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 5:01 pm

Well in my case, I'm running LIVE with a 1GZ Ti G4 PB and only 512 ram, Mac OS 10.2 - about to be 10.3.

I do not use an external firewire harddrive and if I add reverb to about 5 tracks and have more than 8 tracks, my play staggers.

I wonder if I should get 1GB of RAM or a firewire drive or both? I heard Panther handles LIVE better so I guess that'll help.

montrealbreaks · Post by **montrealbreaks** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 4:06 am

DLuv wrote:Well in my case, I'm running LIVE with a 1GZ Ti G4 PB and only 512 ram, Mac OS 10.2 - about to be 10.3.

I do not use an external firewire harddrive and if I add reverb to about 5 tracks and have more than 8 tracks, my play staggers.

I wonder if I should get 1GB of RAM or a firewire drive or both? I heard Panther handles LIVE better so I guess that'll help.

Do you REALLY need five reverbs?

That's what send effects are for - one reverb for multiple channels...

Just a thought... But RAM will help that out somewhat - but don't expect the world. Reverb performance is almost strictly CPU driven, or so I hear.

3phase · Post by **3phase** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 10:47 am

DLuv wrote:This is from a friend:
I currently produce audio on my TiBook (550, 512MB, OS 9.2) and would like to increase the RAM to speed things up a little and give me a few more tracks to work with. However, I presently have 2 x 256 MB sticks in it, and cannot afford to upgrade both to 512 MB (thus 1 Gig) - so I am thinking of getting just one (1) 512 MB card.

Is this worth the price? Will I notice much difference in processing power with the upgrade to 768 MB from 512 MB? And does it matter anymore that the RAM is not mirrored in both slots? I rember when I had my desktop G4 (older) that I had to have matching sets of RAM sticks and hence 768 was not available as a choice.

Opinions?

First : the 550 is not the fastest G4 laptop for audio. So more ram and good konfiguration make it easier to work with but it wont be the massive speedbump. Just more komfortable.

Second: more ram helps especially when you rum multiple applications under OS 9. It dont helps with plugins and tracks...this is done in the ram amount for the individual program

third : increasing the programs ram amount might not allways make things faster... it seems that too much of it can slow things down... this applies especially to Logic. Usually increasing helps...just dont overdo it.

4th: You can mix ram konfiguration... But in some konfigurations problems can apear. Ram related problems are sometimes not easy to track. Safest thing is to upgrade in matching pairs of ramchips...
And there are sometimes simms on the market that dont really go well with apple. Its allways better to buy thirdparty ram from shops that deal with applecomputers... However ..I had a mixed 768 MB config on my Ti500 without any problems...It can go well

5th: You probably know that certain extensions in OS9 seriously effect audioactivities.. Fax Stf for example... But also unecessary systemservices can slow down audio performance. With the extension manager you can check different konfigurations...this can give something like 10% more headroom

gsbe · Post by **gsbe** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 7:38 pm

AdamJay wrote: for simple EQing, use the EQ4 instead of the EQ3.

Intersting. I haven't seen this mentioned before. Why would this be?

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Fri Aug 20, 2004 8:30 pm

gsbe wrote:
AdamJay wrote: for simple EQing, use the EQ4 instead of the EQ3.
Intersting. I haven't seen this mentioned before. Why would this be?

its less cpu intensive. EQ3 acts more as a filter, and takes up usually twice as much CPU as an EQ4.

if you want EQ4 to act as a 3 band eq, simply remove 1 band, and arrange it as a 3 band eq.

i've been doing this since Live 1, before the EQ3 came (in Live 3), i see the EQ3 more as a multifunction lowpass and hipass filter.

gsbe · Post by **gsbe** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 12:30 pm

This post used to contain a terrific deal on PC2700 SODIMM 1GB chips. Now it is merely a waste of space.

DLuv · Post by **DLuv** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 2:49 pm

yeah it is but - i take PC133

Thanks for looking that up though man.

madlab · Post by **madlab** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 8:29 am

For wht it's worth, if you buy more RAM, you can test it with an app called Rember.

Henrik · Post by **Henrik** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 11:38 am

I did it!!! - sold my PC and ordered a new Ibook! So now while I wait for it to arrive, I try to decide how much extra ram to add? Is 768 meg (in total) enough or will the extra money for 1,25 gig be well spent.

I plan to use either Logic or ProTools and rewire Live and/or Reason thru it. I will use Reason as sketchpad when I'm out and the rest of the programs when I'm home (with an external HD plugged in.

So will the extra ram benefit Reason and Logic for example?

Henrik

A DJ · Post by **A DJ** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 12:18 pm

AdamJay wrote:
If you are getting the disk overload, chances are you've got the stock 4200rpm drive, and more Ram would help by using your Ram to play back audio clips instead of the hard drive, an external firewire 7200rpm hard drive would also help to remedy that problem.

So i say if you have any need for more Hard Disk storage - get an external firewire drive and kill two birds with one stone.

I

Hey Adam,

I am running Live from a very slow HD 4200/4800 i think

i get hick ups while moving a fader.....not in sound ...just visual hickups...like my HD cant handle Live?

running Live from the firewire HD is that an option?

Is adding RAM worth it?

Is adding RAM worth it?

Re: Is adding RAM worth it?

EQ4 vs. EQ3 to save CPU cycles

Re: EQ4 vs. EQ3 to save CPU cycles

re: is adding RAM worth it?