Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Support and feedback for Acoustica's Mixcraft audio mixing software.

Moderators: Acoustica Greg, Acoustica Eric, Acoustica Dan, rsaintjohn

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Mark Bliss
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by Mark Bliss »

Not at all Tom, just an audio track, in another location on my hard drive. And that's why I found the dramatic difference in results a bit surprising. All I did was move the stem into the project folder and suddenly, smooth playback.
I cant explain it and your a bit more of an inner workings PC geek than I am I think, but my gut says it could be as simple as the hard drive not having to look in a different sector or area?
All I know for sure, big difference between stuttering and dropping out to smooth playback, just by moving the file into the project folder.

And good morning Tom, early Sunday for you?
Stay in tune, Mark

My SOUNDCLOUD Page
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outteh
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by outteh »

Yep, couldn't sleep again. Nice quiet house, nobody else up yet, having some coffee and a cig, thinking about another song I'm putting together. :lol:
Well that now makes sense, accessing the same hard drive is easier for a PC than crossing drives. By the way, did you move from a normal drive to an SSD drive? Is your main project folder on an SSD drive, or faster drive than the one you were accessing?
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aquataur
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by aquataur »

There are plenty of articles on the web.
Search for "optimizing your windows 7 daw for audio production" or "optimizing your PC for daw".

I gained much by using different physical disks for system, page file and streamed audio.
No need for big disks, use fast, silent disks and switch of caching on the audio disks.

I threw out all "home-phoners", stopped the internet security during DAW usage (don´t forget to pull the internet plug during this time). Even a not-so-new dual core PC runs flawless.

Be careful with disabling too many services, because on some instance it made the PC slower than before. Those use neglectable processor time compared to home-phoners and virus scanners, which may momentarily stall your PC. Don´t try to save at all cost. :wink:

-helmut
C# or Bb!
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aquataur
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by aquataur »

Just wanted to add, there are optimizing tools available that throw out a lot of allegedly unused services for specific applications. Beware of them. I tried them on a new machine and it made the PC considerably slower. Thank god there was an undo function.

Having that said, I don´t see, for example, why one should use functions like fast user switching if you are the only user on a machine. Also, functions like remote maintenance services might be never called for. There are also functions that allow Microsoft to collect data from your machine. Huh? That stuff can be thrown out. However, I believe that stuff like that yields much less performance gain than, say, a dedicated disk for streamed files.

The biggest bottle neck will be the antivirus scanner if it is active.

-helmut
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Brian S
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by Brian S »

The best thing to do with A/V software is make an exception within the software itself for Mixcraft and the folders Mixcraft uses. As long as the A/V scanner isn't actively tracking what Mixcraft is doing, the running process isn't really going to do much to drag your system.
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aquataur
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by aquataur »

I kindly disagree. The AV might decide to look at this and that at the most unsuitable times, which may or may not do any damage. I turn it off.

-helmut.
C# or Bb!
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outteh
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by outteh »

Good article on resource issues with DAW's

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul06/a ... n_0706.htm
gypsy101
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by gypsy101 »

all I can say is the paid full version of Avast doesn't bother MC or CPU one bit on my personal system. :wink:

all the Google,IE,auto update, & other background junk however will use up some serious resources.
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Acoustica Greg
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by Acoustica Greg »

Moved posts over here.
NewbeeNo99
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by NewbeeNo99 »

Mbliss wrote:

"Not at all Tom, just an audio track, in another location on my hard drive. And that's why I found the dramatic difference in results a bit surprising. All I did was move the stem into the project folder and suddenly, smooth playback."

Sorry for my lack of english understanding, but what excactly means "move the stem into the project folder"?

Another thing I`m uncertain of is the use of freezing tracks. Do you only freeze tracks to gain better performance while working with the project, or do you also freeze all tracks when mixing down? Does that make a difference?

My first throw number one :D . I`m a fresh newbee so I was happy to discover it was a active forum here to help me better understand mixcraft.
Humble musician from Norway, mellowed since 1979
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Mark Bliss
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by Mark Bliss »

Hello and welcome Newbee.

"Stem" is a commonly used term for a rendered ("mixed down") track or channel.
"Moving it to the project folder" means it was in a different location on my hard drive, and I copied the file into the folder that contained the Mixcraft project and all its other data.
The difference I was referring to seems to indicate a slight performance improvement if the computer isn't required to look elsewhere for the file data.

Freezing a track renders all its potential little bits and clips into one .wav file, so the computer isn't working quite so hard looking around for all the little bits and pieces to assemble it upon playback. This can reduce the load on computer resources and improve playback performance.

There is generally no need to freeze tracks when mixing down in my experience.

Hope that clears things up for you, let us know if you have further questions.
Stay in tune, Mark

My SOUNDCLOUD Page
NewbeeNo99
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by NewbeeNo99 »

Mark Bliss wrote:Hello and welcome Newbee.

let us know if you have further questions.
You bet :wink: ... Thank you for your good explanation, Mark.
Humble musician from Norway, mellowed since 1979
Soundcloud
https://soundcloud.com/moysalen-music/tracks
Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moysalen ... 799?ref=hl
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2ivsr ... 2XepJqxpbw
clavguy
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by clavguy »

aquataur wrote:I kindly disagree. The AV might decide to look at this and that at the most unsuitable times, which may or may not do any damage. I turn it off.

-helmut.
I agree
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gypsy101
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Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by gypsy101 »

NewbeeNo99 wrote:Mbliss wrote:

"Not at all Tom, just an audio track, in another location on my hard drive. And that's why I found the dramatic difference in results a bit surprising. All I did was move the stem into the project folder and suddenly, smooth playback."

Sorry for my lack of english understanding, but what excactly means "move the stem into the project folder"?

Another thing I`m uncertain of is the use of freezing tracks. Do you only freeze tracks to gain better performance while working with the project, or do you also freeze all tracks when mixing down? Does that make a difference?
no.if you have frozen tracks during mixdown you can't adjust FX or do anything but basically raise or lower the volume.
My first throw number one :D . I`m a fresh newbee so I was happy to discover it was a active forum here to help me better understand mixcraft.
.
gypsy101
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Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:00 pm
Location: near Music City,USA

Re: Optimize your PC for Mixcraft!

Post by gypsy101 »

a couple things that chew up CPU-
in Windows 7 TaskHost.exe will start eating up more CPU over time. there's a lot of threads on this on the net.

ArcSoft products running in the background on Startup. I didn't even realize they was doing that. :roll:

Avast antivirus has never affected mine w/ Mixcraft before but it seems it doesn't play well with Mixcraft 7.
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