the Mac G5 and Cubase SX 3

[deggy]

I'm just curious about how many vsti's people are able to run at low latencies in Cubase SX3 on a Mac G5 (and please mention if freezing tracks seriously helps the strain on your cpu or if this feature is really over-hyped. I'm currently using SX1 on a PC but I'm thinking of upgrading my whole setup).

Thanks for your help

[dreammaka]

I don't know, I never counted the number of VSTi.

I never overloaded my G5(2x2) except using Virsyn Cube and Camelon5k.

most of the time I render tracks to audiofile so I can use more
CPU.

and last time I opened up about 20 vsti but didn't used them all at the
same time.

I know it doesn't help but G5 is quite powerful.
you won't see cpu overload in my cases.

but If you are only interested in POWER, get a dual opteron system.
I saw many post that dual opteron is more powerful than dual G5.
I think that's true.

I use G5 because I like OSX.

[Rusty Shackleford]

it's been a while since I used Cubase, but on my 1.6 GHz g5, i would normally get anywhere from 8-12 vst's complete with compression, reverb, delay, eq distortion etc on most every channel in SX1 at 512 samples buffer size. Not tried SX3 on the g5, but freezing tracks in Logic helps substantially. I can have a convolution reverb on every track with freezing(not that i'd need to of course...).

There's an issue in cubase on os x where screen redraws are slower than on the pc when cpu usage is high. This is apparently due to a call that cubase uses to the OS that isn't optimized or something, and is due to be fixed in 10.4 i've heard. That said, I've heard good things about sx3 on the g5, and my friend swears by it.

(But once you're going for a g5, get Logic Pro )

[Alan]

please mention if freezing tracks seriously helps the strain on your cpu or if this feature is really over-hyped.

I use freeze in Sonar on a PC and it renders the track to audio then unplugs it from the engine,so it's not hype and it can be unfrozen with a click for tweaking.Sonar's freeze also releases memory but I'm not sure if Cubase does,you'll have to ask others on that specifically.Freeze is not hype and is your friend.

[jdg]

let me tell you how shitty cubase SX runs on mac vs PC.

i have to run at 1024 samples for anything usable. its crazy.

its a known problem.

logic, i can run it as low as 64samples, the CPU meter doesn't even budge, but in SX3... anything below 256samples, is unusable with more then one VSTi

this is on my dual 1.8G5

drives me nuts a bit.. but for composing and stuff 1024samples is fine, but when i need to track in realtime or etc.. i just get pissed and open logic.

stienborg knows this is a prob and hint that 10.4 will help alot (according to the FUD at cubase.net)