First post, and a few Win10 optimization tricks

[MKB1]

Hi all, first post here, but I've been using Mixcraft since version 4. Just upgraded to 8 Pro Studio, and went through some lengthy optimization to use it with a Dell M6600 laptop workstation (i7 3gHz processor, 8g RAM, 500g SSD). I'm using several audio interfaces; a Line 6 HX Stomp, a Behringer UMC22, and an old M Audio FireWire 410). Wanted to post some tips as the optimization thread is closed.

First, Mixcraft 7 worked well on this computer, which had Win7 on it. Mixcraft 8 was mostly unusable though, very unstable. I upgraded the computer to Win10 which mostly eliminated the instability, but ran even slower, enough to still be unusable. I performed the usual optimizations and driver upgrades, which helped some, but not enough.

The biggest improvement came with locking out the automatic processor speed adjustment with the i7. The processor has the ability to have its speed slowed down by either the OS or a driver to save power, and various tools showed the processor was locked at 0.6gHz. The Dell bios has a setting to turn the throttling off, and that locked it at 3gHz, and the performance vastly improved.

Another improvement was for some reason Mixcraft was set to run with a single processor (a selection in the Preferences\Sound tab) after reloading. I turned that off, and it made an even larger improvement.

A third improvement was to go into Device Manager and disable all unused sound devices.

Yet another improvement was to go into Asio4All and disable the sound card input when no input was needed.

All the above made for a vast improvement in operation, and Mixcraft 8 will now run the complicated demo song I Can't Go On This Way with a 10ms latency. I'm very happy with the results. The next thing to try will be a Expresscard USB 3.0 adapter, as I'm not sure my USBs are operating at 3.0 speeds.

Hope this is a help to someone.

[jlouvar]

Hello and welcome to the Mixcraft forum.

https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/ ... Windows-10

Also be sure to checkout the MX8 manual along with the tips, video links and etc posted on the top of this forum and elsewhere.