User manual

22
Setting up your system
Optimizing audio performance
Optimizing audio performance
This section gives you some hints and tips on how to get the most out of your Cubase
system, performance-wise. Some of this text refers to hardware properties and can be
used as a guide when upgrading your system. This text is very brief. Look for details
and current information on the Cubase web site.
Two aspects of performance
There are two distinct aspects of performance with respect to Cubase.
Tracks and effects
Simply put: the faster your computer, the more tracks, effects and EQ you will be able
to play. Exactly what constitutes a “fast computer” is almost a science in itself, but
some hints are given below.
Short response times (latency)
Another aspect of performance is response time. The term “latency” refers to the
“buffering”, i.
e. the temporary storing, of small chunks of audio data during various
steps of the recording and playback process on a computer. The more and larger
those chunks, the higher the latency.
High latency is most irritating when playing VST instruments and when monitoring
through the computer, i.
e. when listening to a live audio source via the Cubase
MixConsole and effects. However, very long latency times (several hundred
milliseconds) can also affect other processes like mixing, e.
g. when the effect of a
fader movement is heard only after a noticeable delay.
While Direct Monitoring and other techniques reduce the problems associated with
very long latency times, a system that responds fast will always be more convenient to
work with.
• Depending on your audio hardware, it may be possible to “trim” your latency times,
usually by lowering the size and the number of buffers.
For details, refer to the audio hardware documentation, or, if you are using a
DirectX driver under Windows, the dialog help.
System factors that affect performance
RAM
Generally speaking, the more RAM is installed in your computer, the better.
This limitation is imposed by the operating system, and it is independent of the amount
of RAM that you may have installed in your computer.
Some program functions may “eat up” all the available memory, e. g. recording, the
use of effect plug-ins, and the pre-loading of samples (see also
“RAM requirements
for recording” on page 114 and “Smart plug-in processing” on page 228).
Always keep in mind the RAM limitation of your operating system when setting up your
projects.
!
On computers running a Windows 32-bit operating system, a running application can
address a maximum of 2
GB of RAM. On a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X,
this limit is 4
GB.The 64-bit versions of Windows and Mac OS X are able to assign
considerably more than 4
GB of RAM to a running 64-bit application.
!
When a function has used up all the memory made available by the operating system,
the computer will crash.