Laptop Specs for Music Production

Configure and optimize you computer for Audio.
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I have been using FL Studio for a while now then switched to Ableton then back to FL and I noticed regardless of what DAW I use I get a lot of freezing and crackling from the audio as I get further into my project. My laptop has:

i7 2670qm @2.2ghz
8gb of ram
2gb graphics card
ASIO4ALL as my sound driver

I noticed in FL there is a lot of ram unused but the CPU spikes to 99% causing freezing once I really get into the production every few seconds but the task manager says only 30% of the CPU is being used. I tried deleting unused plugins and shedding all the weight I could but I just can't seem to get the CPU meter to go down. This happens in both FL AND Ableton :( Is there any way to fix this or is my laptop simply unable to keep up?

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I use a 7 year old Core2Duo laptop with 4GB and that is absolutely fine.
The problem therefore is not your PC.

Can you freeze/render channels?
"I was wondering if you'd like to try Magic Mushrooms"
"Oooh I dont know. Sounds a bit scary"
"It's not scary. You just lose a sense of who you are and all that sh!t"

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I am able to bounce WAVs of each of my channels but for some reason the WAVs always feel a lot duller than my original sound. Even with the correct setting on the export window on FL :/ So I normally tried to stay away from the WAVs, Perhaps I'm bouncing incorrectly or forgetting something?

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Rayman25021995 wrote:I am able to bounce WAVs of each of my channels but for some reason the WAVs always feel a lot duller than my original sound. Even with the correct setting on the export window on FL :/ So I normally tried to stay away from the WAVs, Perhaps I'm bouncing incorrectly or forgetting something?
They shouldn't.
Dare I ask if you've RTFM?
"I was wondering if you'd like to try Magic Mushrooms"
"Oooh I dont know. Sounds a bit scary"
"It's not scary. You just lose a sense of who you are and all that sh!t"

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I should have mentioned I am an pretty huge amateur :/ But yeah I'll go see what the manual says. Cheers

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It may also help you Rayman to take a look at your buffer settings of your audio card, within the DAW.

Incorrect settings will cause those pops, cracks, sizzles and high CPU usage (as well as other things of course).

You do not mention which sound card you use. Depending on which, it is my experience to use the ASIO settings of the card opposed to ASIO4ALL. YMMV.

Since you admit your amateur status it may be possible you don't have your laptop optimized for audio work.

One good source of optimization techniques can be found here:
http://www.presonus.com/community/Learn ... Production

From your specs I suspect it is not your laptop causing you problems. It is likely how you have things set-up.

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan
My DAW System:
W7, i5, x64, 8Gb Ram, Edirol FA-101

Post

Rayman25021995 wrote:I am able to bounce WAVs of each of my channels but for some reason the WAVs always feel a lot duller than my original sound. Even with the correct setting on the export window on FL :/ So I normally tried to stay away from the WAVs, Perhaps I'm bouncing incorrectly or forgetting something?
This may be because of how you are monitoring and what you are rendering to WAV.

I mean, if you are listening to the master channel, with all the fx, etc., on it, but rendering a track without those fx, your render will not be what you are listening to.

Make sense?

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan
My DAW System:
W7, i5, x64, 8Gb Ram, Edirol FA-101

Post

dsan@mail.com wrote:It may also help you Rayman to take a look at your buffer settings of your audio card, within the DAW.

Incorrect settings will cause those pops, cracks, sizzles and high CPU usage (as well as other things of course).

You do not mention which sound card you use. Depending on which, it is my experience to use the ASIO settings of the card opposed to ASIO4ALL. YMMV.

Since you admit your amateur status it may be possible you don't have your laptop optimized for audio work.

One good source of optimization techniques can be found here:
http://www.presonus.com/community/Learn ... Production

From your specs I suspect it is not your laptop causing you problems. It is likely how you have things set-up.

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan

I am using a IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
Intel(R) Display Audio
according to Belarc advisor but Im not sure to be honest.
I tried setting the ASIO setting to 2048 samples and that helped with the crackling at first but it came back later for a while so i'm gonna work on the freezing and rendering tracks part too. :) I'll have a look at the computer set up link too thank you :D

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dsan@mail.com wrote:
Rayman25021995 wrote:I am able to bounce WAVs of each of my channels but for some reason the WAVs always feel a lot duller than my original sound. Even with the correct setting on the export window on FL :/ So I normally tried to stay away from the WAVs, Perhaps I'm bouncing incorrectly or forgetting something?
This may be because of how you are monitoring and what you are rendering to WAV.

I mean, if you are listening to the master channel, with all the fx, etc., on it, but rendering a track without those fx, your render will not be what you are listening to.

Make sense?

HTH

Happy Musiking!
dsan

I always make a point to make sure my master channel is empty before rendering to way but I still haven't had much luck and always note dull change to the sound albeit small :/

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:borg:

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I don't think you follow my meaning Rayman.

Try this; sometimes you can be monitoring (listening) to the master track and think, WOW, that really sounds great. I think I'm gonna drop that to a WAV file.

Not realizing, you render your audio but not from the Master Track, rather, oh, let's say, a send track, and then you get a different sound when you listen to the render.

This is because when you monitor the Master Track you are hearing everything that is being sent to that track.

Normally, your DAW will default all tracks to go to the Master Track, depending of course on how you have set things up.

So, this Master Track represents all the audio from all the sources routed to it, combined.

If your render is not of the Master Track, but of any other track, that track becomes the source for your wave file.

Ultimately you may be hearing the results of just that track in your render.

Next time you render to a WAV file pay close attention to which track or tracks are being made into that WAV.

My bet is that you are not rendering the Master Track if when you listen to your wav file it doesn't sound like what you created and heard in your DAW.

Mushy Mushy is absolutely correct - "it shouldn't" sound different.

Sorry, I won't be able to help you with the sound devices you list. Know nothing about them, but it appears you do not have a dedicated sound card.

I recommend affording one as soon as you can. This will help move you forward in your musical endeavors.

HTH and Good Luck :tu:

Happy Musiking!
dsan
My DAW System:
W7, i5, x64, 8Gb Ram, Edirol FA-101

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:hihi:

Every newbie should get that - at least one! :D

Happy Musiking!
dsan
My DAW System:
W7, i5, x64, 8Gb Ram, Edirol FA-101

Post

dsan@mail.com wrote:

:hihi:

Every newbie should get that - at least one! :D

Happy Musiking!
dsan
I'd want at least 2 so i could use them as VEP slaves
:borg:

Post

Rayman25021995 wrote: I noticed in FL there is a lot of ram unused but the CPU spikes to 99% causing freezing once I really get into the production every few seconds but the task manager says only 30% of the CPU is being used.
Let this run and report what it says.

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

Post

No_Use wrote:
Rayman25021995 wrote: I noticed in FL there is a lot of ram unused but the CPU spikes to 99% causing freezing once I really get into the production every few seconds but the task manager says only 30% of the CPU is being used.
Let this run and report what it says.

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
Here's the results.
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