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LAPTOP STORIES: Got a rig working well? Well I do. Sort of.
(Cross posted to alt.steinberg.cubase)
I'm looking to upgrade my current system, but it IS working, which is more than you can say about most of the posts in the newsgroups. So I'm hoping some folks with smooth running setups can let me know what they are, and how they got that way. And maybe this will help the next person down the line..... My rig: Dell Inspiron 8200 Hammerfall multi-face PCMCIA Hitachi 48 gig 5400 rpm HD Edirol PCR-A30 usb controller/interface Cubase SX2 Logic Audio 5.5 Plogue Bidule .71 VST patchbay software Wuschel's ASIO4All driver 60 GB 7200 rpm external usb drive NI Komplete bundle dual-boot winXP sp1--clean music OS All very state-of-the-art as of about 2 years ago. I am using this laptop both in the studio, and on gigs. So far I have hit the following stumbling blocks: 1. The external drive cannot be recorded to with the hammerfall interface. There is static attributed by Hammerfall to the lousy IRQ handling on the Dell and apparently most other laptops. Anybody got this working?? What laptop?? I do know that the firewire and PCMCIA busses share an IRQ. For now, I record everything to the internal drive, and move it to the external for playback, when required. 2. The Edirol can be used for audio or midi, but not both at once. It freezes up, even at high latency settings, with any kind of midi data, if it is the selected ASIO interface. Don't send it any midi, it's happy running audio. I've tested this under SX, Logic, and Bidule as well as running Kontakt, Reaktor and B4 standalone. They all sieze up when I play more than a few notes of MIDI. Edirol says it's, you guessed it, the lousy IRQ handling that is to blame. They say VAIOs are better for this. I can't find any info to back this up. Lucky Wuschell came along! I am using this driver live, under Plogue, and it's working great. Too much latency to use as an FX processor but fine for VSTIs (I find actual combined in/out to be over 20 ms, despite the control panel insisting it's 5 ms each way.) But the mini jacks on the side of the Dell won't last much longer, and it's about out of warranty. So, contrary to some of what I've read in forums here and elsewhere, this rig actually works. I have recorded 16 tracks of live audio all night long without problems (into Logic, but I imagine SX would do as well. At least at 16 bit.) I have mixes running 20+ stereo tracks with quite a lot of FX, although I often do have to commit effects as I get closer to mix. And I control Kontakt, Reaktor, B4 and Pro53 live on gigs in bars 5 nights a week. That said, there are still some annoying hangups unresolved.... and I'm going to have to buy a new machine before long.... anybody got a better story?? Thanks! e moon temiqui music |
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wrote in message ... All very state-of-the-art as of about 2 years ago. I am using this laptop both in the studio, and on gigs. So far I have hit the following stumbling blocks: 1. The external drive cannot be recorded to with the hammerfall interface. There is static attributed by Hammerfall to the lousy IRQ handling on the Dell and apparently most other laptops. Are you sure it's the Dell... or is it XP ? 2. The Edirol can be used for audio or midi, but not both at once. Edirol says it's, you guessed it, the lousy IRQ handling that is to blame. Are you sure it's the Dell, or is it XP ? |
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Well, if it was XP, NOBODY would have it working, right? Wouldn't we
know about that? I guess that's what I'm trying to find out. |
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wrote in message oups.com... Well, if it was XP, NOBODY would have it working, right? Wouldn't we know about that? I guess that's what I'm trying to find out. I'm being about 30% fecitious because I hesitate to trust XP, one of the primary reasons being no control over IRQ usage, and the high numbers of always-running background processes. I don't know why your MIDI needs to be ASIO... maybe someone will clear that up during the day tomorrow. -- David Morgan (MAMS) http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com Morgan Audio Media Service Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901 _______________________________________ http://www.artisan-recordingstudio.com |
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On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:23:42 GMT, "David Morgan \(MAMS\)"
wrote: wrote in message oups.com... Well, if it was XP, NOBODY would have it working, right? Wouldn't we know about that? I guess that's what I'm trying to find out. I'm being about 30% fecitious because I hesitate to trust XP, one of the primary reasons being no control over IRQ usage, and the high numbers of always-running background processes. I don't know why your MIDI needs to be ASIO... maybe someone will clear that up during the day tomorrow. If you're worried about all those background tasks, just run ENDITALL after you start up, and they are all gone - or as many of them as you want. d Pearce Consulting http://www.pearce.uk.com |
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"Don Pearce" wrote in message ... On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 08:23:42 GMT, "David Morgan \(MAMS\)" wrote: wrote in message oups.com... Well, if it was XP, NOBODY would have it working, right? Wouldn't we know about that? I guess that's what I'm trying to find out. I'm being about 30% fecitious because I hesitate to trust XP, one of the primary reasons being no control over IRQ usage, and the high numbers of always-running background processes. I don't know why your MIDI needs to be ASIO... maybe someone will clear that up during the day tomorrow. If you're worried about all those background tasks, just run ENDITALL after you start up, and they are all gone - or as many of them as you want. d Pearce Consulting http://www.pearce.uk.com Not to draw temiqui's discussion off course, but is "Enditall" a part of the XP Pro OS ? DM |
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wrote in message oups.com... (Cross posted to alt.steinberg.cubase) I'm looking to upgrade my current system, but it IS working, which is more than you can say about most of the posts in the newsgroups. So I'm hoping some folks with smooth running setups can let me know what they are, and how they got that way. I'm running a MOTU 896 with a Sony VAIO laptop in which I've just installed an 80GB 5400rpm drive. I use Sonic Foundry Vegas 4.0 to capture multitrack sessions in the field. It works well. I chose Vegas for recording because it writes directly to the output .wav files, rather than a big temp file, so that when session is complete, saving is virtually instant, not a 40-minute process of writing out 16GB of data to new files, as is the case with Adobe Audition and others I've tried. The MOTU sounds great. I bring a kit of eight large-diaphragm condenser mics and stands with boom attachments. Standard procedure is to open a template appropriate to the session, most often, an 8-channel 24/96 recording setup. Tracks are labeled the same as mics and cables, so I know in the production phase what each track is by name. Setup works amazingly well. I'm looking to experiment with getting the MOTU running off battery power for more portability in special event situations. -- Best Regards, Mark A. Weiss, P.E. www.mwcomms.com - |
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David,
try: http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm I think you'll find info regarding most of the background services running on your machine here! I've disabled everything non-vital and it really makes a difference! Best regards, Evangelos % Evangelos Himonides IoE, University of London tel: +44 2076126599 fax: +44 2076126741 "Allas to those who never sing but die with all their music in them..." Oliver Wendell Holmes % |
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Off the topic David, but go to www.blackviper.com and read the Services page. You can successfully turn off
about 80% of what runs on XP. My System Performance ( under Task Manager in XP) without anything running uses only 52MB's of ram. My system is efficient. I run XP Pro with 2 x Delta 1010's, Nuendo, Waves, UAD-1, NI Softs ( B4, Guitar Rig, Battery & Kontakt) and Spectrasonics Trilogy. I don't have crashes, problems, lockups or the like. I don't have problems with the IRQ assignment, because of the way XP manages them. And I often push the envelope on track and effect assignments, bussing routes, and mixes. I also run the Studio computers off line, with only audio software, and very little else. I have a multiple hardware profiles setup so that I can choose a profile that activates the Network card to perform online updates, and a second one that is DAW oriented only. I don't think XP is a problem for audio. I do think that Hardware combinations being so fluid in the DAW world is. PapaNate "David Morgan (MAMS)" wrote: wrote in message oups.com... Well, if it was XP, NOBODY would have it working, right? Wouldn't we know about that? I guess that's what I'm trying to find out. I'm being about 30% fecitious because I hesitate to trust XP, one of the primary reasons being no control over IRQ usage, and the high numbers of always-running background processes. I don't know why your MIDI needs to be ASIO... maybe someone will clear that up during the day tomorrow. -- David Morgan (MAMS) http://www.m-a-m-s DOT com Morgan Audio Media Service Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901 _______________________________________ http://www.artisan-recordingstudio.com |
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Not to draw temiqui's discussion off course, but is "Enditall" a part
of the XP Pro OS ? No it's not. It's a freeware app. You can do the same thing yourself by using *Services.MSC* which is included in XP, to turn off services you don't want. From CompuDocs "EndItAll allows you to easily shut down all non essential programs running on your computer to facilitate software installation, burning CDs or running your ScanDisk & Defrag programs without interruption. It works well on 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0 Workstation and most installations of 2000 Pro. You should download the file and then reboot your machine before you install EndItAll." |
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"PapaNate" wrote in message ... Off the topic David, but go to www.blackviper.com and read the Services page. You can successfully turn off about 80% of what runs on XP. My System Performance ( under Task Manager in XP) without anything running uses only 52MB's of ram. My system is efficient. I'll vouch for that page... I used that info, plus a couple of tips I got from individuals to tweak my DAW (not a laptop, though, but still running WXP), and it works very well. Neil Henderson |
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Blackviper.com is whom I cited in a previous post in this thread as the most useful
for services. I have also found PCAudio Labs to have a very clear list of services you can turn off without issues. As for turning services off, I went by the Black Viper *BareBones* suggestions, and created *multiple service confirgurations* in my profiles ( which BlackViper suggest you do anyway). The only tweak I had to do was turn back on the services that allowed my DVD writer to work. That way at a moments notice I could switch profiles to make different services work, if say I wanted to go on the internet briefly. Mike Rivers wrote: The trick is to know which ones are indeed non-essential. I believe it was on blackviper.com that I found a reasonable glossary that identified most of the ones I found on my system, but it wasn't always clear whether something was essential or not. I guess the way to do it is to turn one thing off, put a sticker on the monitor as to what you did, then use your computer for a month. If you don't run into any problems, leave it off and turn something else off. If you do find a problem, turn it back on and see if the problem goes away. It might - or it might be something else you'll have to hunt down. |
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Blackviper.com is whom I cited in a previous post in this thread as the most useful
for services. I have also found PCAudio Labs to have a very clear list of services you can turn off without issues. As for turning services off, I went by the Black Viper *BareBones* suggestions, and created *multiple service confirgurations* in my profiles ( which BlackViper suggest you do anyway). The only tweak I had to do was turn back on the services that allowed my DVD writer to work. That way at a moments notice I could switch profiles to make different services work, if say I wanted to go on the internet briefly. Mike Rivers wrote: The trick is to know which ones are indeed non-essential. I believe it was on blackviper.com that I found a reasonable glossary that identified most of the ones I found on my system, but it wasn't always clear whether something was essential or not. I guess the way to do it is to turn one thing off, put a sticker on the monitor as to what you did, then use your computer for a month. If you don't run into any problems, leave it off and turn something else off. If you do find a problem, turn it back on and see if the problem goes away. It might - or it might be something else you'll have to hunt down. |
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wrote:
[...] I'm going to have to buy a new machine before long.... anybody got a better story?? Better? I dunno, maybe. I'm not trying to do nearly as much with my laptop rig as you are. I use an Mbox for analog I/O and mostly outboard MIDI devices off a USB MIDI interface. I run a few Sampletank instruments within Pro Tools, but not nearly the load you're carrying. Laptop is a Sony Vaio P4 with only 512MB RAM. I upgraded the internal hard drive to a 5400RPM 80G, but that's just OS, apps and file storage. I track to an external firewire drive. I have had almost no trouble, except: the Vaio occasionally seems to lose touch with the Firewire drive. Not very often, but it happens. The drive still shows up in Explorer, but the machine can't read from or write to it. A reboot solves the problem. I haven't been able to identify a pattern so I don't yet know why it happens. It's happened with two different drives in different enclosures, which tends to suggest it's the computer and not the drive that's at fault. Lately I've started using a PCMCIA Firewire card instead of the built-in Firewire port on the Vaio and so far it hasn't failed. Maybe it's just that stupid @#$%&!!! little 4-pin mini-Firewire connector on the Sony (who came up with those tiny, fragile, moronic connectors anyway? They're the data-interface equivalent of the 1/8" stereo mini jack). Overall it has mostly worked really well, aside from the odd occasion when the Firewire goes away. -- "It CAN'T be too loud... some of the red lights aren't even on yet!" - Lorin David Schultz in the control room making even bad news sound good (Remove spamblock to reply) |
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Evangelos Himonides wrote: David, try: http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...s/tasklist.htm I think you'll find info regarding most of the background services running on your machine here! Off the topic David, but go to www.blackviper.com and read the Services page. You can successfully turn off about 80% of what runs on XP. My System Performance ( under Task Manager in XP) without anything running uses only 52MB's of ram. My system is efficient. Thanks for these tips, I'll look into it. I have disabled at least a dozen services, without incident. I also keep the LAN disabled, and even the firewire, when I'm not using it. Hasn't helped with the Edirol so far. Problem with it is not dropouts, but straight up freezing, usually with stuck midi-notes. Cheers! e |
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PapaNate wrote: wrote: That said, there are still some annoying hangups unresolved.... and I'm going to have to buy a new machine before long.... anybody got a better story?? Do you want to stay with a laptop when you upgrade? Papanate Yes, I do. I am not going to haul a monitor, keyboard, mouse and tower around to gigs every night. I have enough items to forget to bring already... |
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Lorin David Schultz wrote:
wrote: [...] I'm going to have to buy a new machine before long.... anybody got a better story?? Better? I dunno, maybe. I'm not trying to do nearly as much with my laptop rig as you are. I use an Mbox for analog I/O and mostly outboard MIDI devices off a USB MIDI interface. I run a few Sampletank instruments within Pro Tools, but not nearly the load you're carrying. Laptop is a Sony Vaio P4 with only 512MB RAM. I upgraded the internal hard drive to a 5400RPM 80G, but that's just OS, apps and file storage. I track to an external firewire drive. I have had almost no trouble, except: the Vaio occasionally seems to lose touch with the Firewire drive. Not very often, but it happens. The drive still shows up in Explorer, but the machine can't read from or write to it. A reboot solves the problem. I haven't been able to identify a pattern so I don't yet know why it happens. It's happened with two different drives in different enclosures, which tends to suggest it's the computer and not the drive that's at fault. Lately I've started using a PCMCIA Firewire card instead of the built-in Firewire port on the Vaio and so far it hasn't failed. Maybe it's just that stupid @#$%&!!! little 4-pin mini-Firewire connector on the Sony (who came up with those tiny, fragile, moronic connectors anyway? They're the data-interface equivalent of the 1/8" stereo mini jack). Overall it has mostly worked really well, aside from the odd occasion when the Firewire goes away. Mac powerbooks work pretty well and are easier to administer I think. I have a old Powerbook G3 Firewire 500 for mobile recording, pretty slow by current standards, and have recorded 8-10 tracks for an hour at a time using the Metric Halo Mobile I/O to external firewire drives (Nuendo 1.6.1.), with few problems. PC Notebooks are cheaper though. Will Miho NY Music & TV Audio Guy Staff Audio / Fox News / M-AES "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits |
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