Sonar - CPU Usage going too high

[nonie]

Just finished my new beat today and when I was mixing it in Sonar the CPU Usage at the bottom was ranging from 75%-83% which I don't think is good cuz when I played the song I got this crackle pop sound only when I listened to it in Sonar though. Is there any way to prevent the CPU Usage from going so high cuz right now I'm running 1 GB of RAM?

EDIT - My bad about the title, it's supposed to be Sonar.

 

[Fade]

From my experience, it means that you have too much stuff running all at once. Either you have lots of programs open, or your beat has too many FX and stuff like that. What do you have?

 

[nonie]

Must be my effects cuz I don't put up any other programs when I'm beat making besides my Patchmix haha. If it's my effects, how would I lower the CPU usage?

 

[M!nd_Ctrl]

Does the CPU usage jump when you start Sonar or when you load the song your talking about? Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del and look at the performance tab. If it's runs high only when you load the song, then it's the effects/plugins and you'll have to use less of 'em. If the CPU usage stays the same when you start Sonar, you can also look at the processes tab to see what's using the CPU. What are your specs?

 

[nonie]

Nah, it happens when I'm messing around with the song and when I play it with all the effects on the tracks, that's when the CPU Usage in Sonar goes up.

Pentium 4 2.40 GHz
1 GB of RAM

 

[Fade]

Did you bypass all the FX and play around with the beat then? How does it look at that point? I'm also assuming you have lots of audio running, right? It wouldn't be this bad with just MIDI tracks.

 

[M!nd_Ctrl]

I don't know if this is a great answer, but it is a workaround. I don't think it gives much flexibility with effects though:

http://www.cakewalk.com/tips/techtipmay01.asp

It looks like cakewalk says your problem is the processor, but honestly, it's probably not worth it to upgrade.

Ctrl

 

[nonie]

Did you bypass all the FX and play around with the beat then? How does it look at that point? I'm also assuming you have lots of audio running, right? It wouldn't be this bad with just MIDI tracks.

Thing is that I had to record my MIDI tracks to Audio tracks so I did have a lot of audio tracks while I was mixing. I'll have to get back to you about the bypassing later, but could it be that I have effects on each seperate track like a compressor and EQ for each track?

Someone on another board told me that I had to raise my buffer size to fix it, not sure if it works though. I'm gonna have to see tomorrow.

 

[M!nd_Ctrl]

This link talks about the buffer and CPU in application #9:

http://www.cakewalk.com/Tips/April03_AndertonPt4-reason.asp

That would explain the crackle pop sound.

Ctrl

 

[Fade]

Yeah that's it. Audio plus FX on everything. You can also check http://www.cakewalknet.com, they have lots of useful stuff as well.

 

[nonie]

Alright, thanks. I'm gona check out those links right now.