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A guy at the Microsound/Glitch music tribe at tribe.net just posted this really excellent guide to optimizing a PC computer for music. It's one of the best and most comprehensive articles I've seen on the subject and it might be cool to add to the thread if people have other good HotRodding tips. How about a similar thread for the Mac side of the equation? Certainly simple things like using one hard drive for audio only and one for OS and apps is a good thing for Macs. There is so much computer live looping going on right now with a half a dozen live looping apps in the wings about to be released for both PC and Mac that I thought this wasn't too terribly offtopic. Forgive me if you think it is. ************ Tweaks for Optimizing your PC for Audio in Windows Just because you buy a computer with the latest specs, doesn't mean you'll get the best performing PC, especially when it comes to audio. There are certain configurations and settings that can make your PC optimal for audio work. PLEASE NOTE: The following tips are only suggestions that I have tried on my PC. They are not requirements. Just because they work for me, doesn't automatically mean they will work for you. I will not be held responsible for any damage they may cause if you do something incorrectly. Try these suggestions at your own risk. TWO DRIVES ARE BETTER The first thing I did to boost my PC's performance was to add a second hard drive just for audio data. So now my C drive contains Windows and all my software, and my D drive contains only the audio data from my projects. This allows my audio software to access the audio data much more quickly. Of course I also had to 'tell' my software where to find the data. In Cakewalk's Sonar, this meant moving my WaveData folder to the second hard drive. And then in Sonar, choosing Options > Audio > Advanced, and entering the new folder location in the Data Directory parameter. For Steinberg's Cubase, you would need to move your Audio Files Folder. To find out the name of the current folder, in Cubase choose Options > Audio Setup > Audio Files Folder. Take note of the folder, and then move it to the new drive using Windows Explorer. In Cubase, choose Options > Audio Setup > Audio Files Folder again, and this time select the new folder location. AUDIO DRIVE FORMATTING When configuring the second hard drive, I made sure to set up the drive using the FAT 32 file system, which (to me) seems faster than NTFS (although I haven't done extensive testing). Please refer to the Windows Help on how to set up your drive using FAT 32. I also used a special formatting command that would create bigger hard drive data clusters. Larger clusters allow the data to be read and written faster. Here's how I formatted the drive: 1) In Windows, choose Start > Programs > MS-DOS Prompt. (WinXP users choose All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt) 2) At the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, I entered FORMAT D:/Z:64 and pressed Enter on my computer keyboard. (WinXP users should enter FORMAT D:/A:64) I just followed the prompts after that and Windows formatted my drive accordingly. TURN AUTO RUN OFF Windows likes to scan the CD drive continuously to see if a CD has been inserted, allowing programs to run automatically. This can possibly cause disruptions in audio recording and playback. I disabled it as follows: 1) Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. 2) Click the Device Manager tab. 3) Double-click on the CDROM listing. 4) Double-click on your CD-ROM drive shown in the list under CDROM. 5) Click the Settings tab. 6) Deactivate the Auto Insert Notification option and click OK. 7) Repeat for all CD drives you have in your system. For WinXP users, the procedure is different: 1) Choose Start > My Computer. 2) Right-click on your CD-ROM drive and choose Properties. 3) Click on the AutoPlay tab. 4) Choose a file type from the drop-down list. 5) Activate the Select An Action To Perform option. 6) Choose Take No Action. 7) Repeat steps 4 through 6 for each file type in the drop-down list. TYPICAL ROLE OF THIS PC (WinXP users can skip this one) I'm not sure if any significant performance increase is provided by this Windows change, but I've made the change on my system none-the-less. Supposedly, by 'telling' Windows how your PC will be used determines the priority of hard drive access. So by specifying your PC as a Network Server, Windows will give hard drive access a higher priority. Here's how to do it: 1) Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. 2) Click on the Performance tab and then on the File System button. 3) Click on the Hard Disk tab. 4) Choose Network Server for the Typical Role Of This Computer parameter. 5) Click OK. LIMIT VIRTUAL MEMORY Windows uses a swap file on your hard drive when it doesn't have enough physical memory to run its operations. Usually, the size of the swap file is changed on-the-fly, which can cause excess disk access (a definite no-no on an audio PC). So to specify an exact size for the swap file (thus stopping the on-the-fly resizing and providing better audio performance), do the following: 1) (WinXP users choose Start first) Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. 2) Click on the Performance tab and then on the Virtual Memory button. (WinXP users click on the Advanced tab, then click on the Settings button in the Performance section, then click the Advanced tab, and finally click the Change button in the Virtual Memory section) 3) Choose the Let Me Specify My Own Virtual Memory Settings option. (WinXP users choose the Custom Size option) 4) In the Hard Disk drop-down list, choose a location for the virtual memory swap file. This should be the same drive on which you have Windows installed. You probably won't have to change this setting. (WinXP users can skip step 4) 5) For the Minimum and Maximum parameters enter the same value. The value should be anywhere from 2 to 4 times the amount of physical memory you have installed in your computer. Try going with 2 times at first. The higher the number you use the more disk space you need for the swap file. For example, if you have 128MB of memory installed in your computer, you can try a value of 256 for both the Minimum and Maximum parameters. (WinXP users enter values for the Initial Size and Maximum Size parameters accordingly) 6) Click OK. 7) Click Yes. (WinXP users can skip step 7) CRACK DOWN ON FILE CACHING (WinXP users can skip this one) In an attempt to make reading and writing disk drive data more efficient, Windows uses a cache to store some disk data in RAM. Unfortunately, this doesn't work well at all for audio data, and can actually cause problems. So to limit the file caching, do the following: 1) In Windows, choose Start > Run. 2) Type SYSEDIT in the Open field, and click OK to open the System Configuration Editor. 3) Click on the Window showing the SYSTEM.INI file. 4) Scroll down to find the section labeled [vcache]. 5) Directly beneath the [vcache] heading type the following: MaxFileCache=8192 MinFileCache=8192 6) Choose File > Exit to close the System Configuration Editor, and choose YES if asked to save changes. OTHER BASIC TWEAKS There are a few other basic Windows parameters you can adjust to make things run more smoothly. One such thing is the system sounds. You really don't need them, and they can be distracting when working with audio and music. To disable them, do the following (see below for WinXP): 1) Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel. 2) Double-click the Sounds applet. 3) In the Sounds Properties dialog box, choose No Sounds in the Schemes drop-down list. 4) Click OK. WinXP users do the following: 1) Choose Start > Control Panel. 2) Click the Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices category. 3) Under Pick A Task, choose Change The Sound Scheme. 4) In the Sound Scheme drop-down list, choose No Sounds. 5) Click OK. Other nuisances you don't need are the various Windows Effects and the Active Desktop. To disable these, do the following (see below for WinXP): 1) Right-click on the Windows Desktop and choose Properties. 2) Click on the Effects tab. 3) Deactivate all the options in this dialog box. 4) Click on the Web tab. 5) Deactivate the View My Active Desktop As A Web Page option. 6) Click OK. WinXP users do the following: 1) Choose Start. Then right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. 2) Click the Advanced tab. 3) Click the Settings button in the Performance section. 4) Under the Visual Effects tab, choose the Adjust For Best Performance option. 5) Click OK. Other tweaks you should perform are to turn off any background processes that are hogging resources. Here are just a few: 1- Turn off your screensaver. 2- Adjust the power settings of your monitor [Right Click on Desktop and select Properties and select advanced or settings tab under screen saver/monitor.] The Power Scheme should be Always On and all the settings underneath this power scheme should read 'NEVER'. 3- Turn off and/or shut down all of your virus/spyware protection programs and/or the Internet in general. One additional tweak I've found helpful (excluding hardware upgrades like faster disk drives or additional RAM) is to ensure that the "DMA" option is checked for every disk drive on the IDE bus (including CD-ROM and CD writers). Go to Control Panel/System/Device Manager/Disk Drives, and look at the settings for each of the IDE drives. DMA (direct memory access) enables the audio software to access the hard disk directly without going through the CPU. This makes a vital difference in multi-track audio recording. Hope you all find that these tips are helpful. Please check some other fine links below as well. If you are using Windows XP, this site is awesome for optimizing your PC for audio. www.musicxp.net If you're setting up a new system, this entire guide is highly recommended; go to TASCAM's web site at this address: www.tascamgiga.com/pdf/opti...ng-xp-and-2k.pdf If you have windows 98, I sincerely suggest upgrading just as I did a couple years back. You will certainly pull out less hair in the long run, because the blue screen of death will almost cease to exist.