Is lots of waiting for loading normal when making music with computers?

[d-s-m]

So whenever I wanna make some music I turn my pc on, which takes 30 seconds to a minute to load Windows from hibernate.

Then I load up Ableton which takes anything from 1-3 minutes to load.

Then I load up my template or previous projects which takes anything from 1-5 minutes to load.

Then when I load up other vsti's, they also seem to take a while too (vsts are fine tho).

This might not seem like much, but added up and I start to get annoyed and put off by making music with this set-up.

My pc specs are i7 8GB ram with a 1Tb hd.

Is this normal? My projects are generally heavy with fx and automation but I would expect a lot better than this tbh.

Would replacing the HD with an SSD make a big difference?

As if everything loaded up very quickly, then I would make way more music.


And I don't think there is anything wrong with this pc, as games and other (non-music) software I use run fine.

[Mushy Mushy]

Not at all.

I turn my computer on, take a sip of coffee, ponder what I'm about to do and by this stage (30 seconds) my project is on screen.
VST's take about half a second to open.

The only downtime is me understanding what the hell I'm doing.

Computer specs: a >5yr old Core2Duo laptop running Cubase 4.5 and/or Live 8.

Compare this to the hardware world where I spend hours (literally) looking for the right cable and the diagnosing why there's no sound.

[ZenPunkHippy]

I ran a quick test: from powering up a Sandy Bridge Intel i7 running Win 7 to opening Cubase, ready to write some music.

1. Power up to log in screen: 36 seconds
2. Enter password to desktop: 15 seconds
3. Open Cubase: 17 seconds
4. Load default template + create plugin: ~10 seconds

Less that 2 minutes total, assuming no problems occur. A real project template would obviously slow things down quite a bit, some plugins load faster than others.

On my Mac (which I use for music more than Windows) the times are slower, but the Mac is older and slower to boot. Both Logic 10 and Live 9 start very quickly, though.

Both machines use SSD, it makes a huge difference IMO.

Compare this to the hardware world where I spend hours (literally) looking for the right cable and the diagnosing why there's no sound.

Yes, HW is a complete PITA sometimes

Peace,
Andy.

[dsan@mail.com]

Patience Grasshoppa

This is one of the downsides to computing. Somewhere along the line we got the idea we should have instant gratification. When we don't have that we immediately start looking for the next "better".

Perhaps once we reach the level of Quantum Computing, but in the 21st century I'm afraid we are stuck with waiting for some things to happen.

However, there are some things you can do to speed up the process.

For example, how full is that 1Tb drive? The more that is on it the more time it takes to find what the software needs to run efficiently.

Have you defragged it? With bits here and there it takes more time for the software to assemble it.

Keep your drives lean and things work better.

There are many other tweaks you can also perform to make your system more efficient. Obviously the more efficient it runs the less time it takes it to do what you want.

I recommend looking around the web for the best tweaks you can make to your system to get it more efficient.

Keep in mind though, no matter how efficient a system you have, no matter how powerful a system you have, you will still have to wait some things to happen.

Patience Grasshoppa!

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[sbj]

SSD should in general make everything faster (if nothing else is wrong)

I noticed you have games installed together with your music
applications. From all I've heard this is not a good idea.

I'm not saying this is what is wrong in your case, but it could be.

Normally you want an SSD for your OS and D.A.W + plugins
and then save your songs on a second harddisk which may or may not
be a SSD.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

can't you load ableton directly from the project file. will likely shave a few seconds off, and be a few less clicks

also, an ssd is likely to make a huge difference

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I noticed you have games installed together with your music
applications. From all I've heard this is not a good idea.

as long as enough hard disk space is left (10% free space seems to be the minimum recommended), then it should make no difference what else is installed

[Sendy]

My computer takes about a minute all in all to boot up. Probably more like 40 seconds. Cubase (my DAW) takes about another 20 seconds to load. My average project, which is stuffed with VST plugins, takes another 10 seconds tops. If you ever did computing in the 80s or early 90s, you'll find this quite luxurious. Remember loading things from casette tapes? That was fun, wasn't it?

[dsan@mail.com]

My computer takes about a minute all in all to boot up. Probably more like 40 seconds. Cubase (my DAW) takes about another 20 seconds to load. My average project, which is stuffed with VST plugins, takes another 10 seconds tops. If you ever did computing in the 80s or early 90s, you'll find this quite luxurious. Remember loading things from casette tapes? That was fun, wasn't it?

HaHa.....I was going to give that "I walked ten miles to school in a blizzard with holes in my shoes" analogy too but decided it may be meaningless to the OP depending on age.

YES, I remember those days!

Glad they are gone and that's why I have Grasshoppa's patience today

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[Sendy]

Seriously though, 5 minutes to load a template, that sounds like there's something wrong with the OP's computer. I'd find that annoying even with my Grasshopper training.

[whyterabbyt]

I noticed you have games installed together with your music
applications. From all I've heard this is not a good idea.

as long as enough hard disk space is left (10% free space seems to be the minimum recommended), then it should make no difference what else is installed

I wouldnt automatically suspect the disk usage itself (though I'd hope it wasnt fragged to hell), but the fact that its got other stuff installed on it would make me look at what's actually running when it starts up. Something like, eg, Steam, doing updates on a big stack of games could certainly slow a system down while its doing so.

[Kaine]

To sum the thread up.

Defrag it.
Disable everything from start up that you can; steam / Origin update at start up which can hammer the drive so don't let them autorun at bootup.
Double check its defragged.
Still slow? Buy an SSD.
(LPT: don't defrag an SSD)

[Aloysius]

Waiting is the name of the game here too. I usually have something else to do like flossing my teeth, shaving, organising etc. That way I don't feel like it's a complete waste of time.

[d-s-m]

Ok so I just got from pressing the 'on' button on my pc to my plugin heavy template in Ableton in 1 min 20 secs which I can easily live with.

Although some of my other projects are still taking too long to load tho, one of them just took nearly 3 mins I think its certain plugins seem to be the culprit, not sure which ones atm tho.

Got defrag running now, hopefully that can shave a bit off. Failing that, looks like it's gonna be SSD time

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

I noticed you have games installed together with your music
applications. From all I've heard this is not a good idea.

as long as enough hard disk space is left (10% free space seems to be the minimum recommended), then it should make no difference what else is installed

I wouldnt automatically suspect the disk usage itself (though I'd hope it wasnt fragged to hell), but the fact that its got other stuff installed on it would make me look at what's actually running when it starts up. Something like, eg, Steam, doing updates on a big stack of games could certainly slow a system down while its doing so.

yeah, that's a point. although, this just means doing a bit of housekeeping i.e not letting resource-hungry things function automatically