bob0172 Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Im trying to work at 96/88khz because it sounds better to my ears. But with only 1 ultrabeat and a few light pluggies my cpu is totaly sucked dry. So somehow cpu load isnt twice as high with twice the sample rate,,, but disproportional high. Can anyone manage to produce music at 88/96 khz with acceptable cpu-load levels on a macbook (not pro)??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Mal Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Can you give us a clue as to your processor, amount of RAM, hard drive speed (internal), the drive you record to, etc.? No way to speak intelligently unless we know that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malgfunk Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 You are right IMO 96KHz sounds great and alot of projects major projects are recorded @96khz. What are the specs on your host computer? Audio hardware? , and what is you current buffer size set to? Is you project on your internal SATA driveor FW-800? My justification for moving to 96khz for new projects is that I've upgraded to an Apogee Symphony with with DA-16X and Rosetta 200 and Neve 8816 Summing for OTB mixdown to a Tascam DV-RA1000HD running at 44.1KHz/24-bit. "NO SRC". Bouncing down from 96KHz to 44.1KHz in Logic yields mediocre results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Mal Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 I do see you are talking about a Macbook, so I can guess what the specs are- and you have a max of 2 Gb's of RAM I reckon. There are a lot of things you can do. The first will be to make sure you are recording to a second drive- not the one inside your laptop that Logic and your OS are on. Make it Firewire, 800 if you can, 400 though I think is the best you can do with your computer. That should be fine, I just threw Firewire 800 out there as the best option. Do not use USB. Make sure you have the most RAM whatever that number is. Defrag your system drive once in a while, it can't hurt, and can help with things like Logic- OSX keeps it pretty together on its own but help it out. You also have the ability to freeze tracks- this is accomplished by taking a temporary recording of a track, more or less, and in that way you can lessen your CPU load. Imagine if every time you play a track through the CPU has to all the calculations of Space Designer... you don't have to make it do that, if nothing new is happening. You can thaw the track later for the final mix, when you are ready to make final decisions. Which brings me to this: Logic is one of the coolest apps around in the sense that it can use the processing of another computer (a Mac, anyway) to help it with the intensity of the final mixdown. They call it "nodes" and you can pick which effects you want the other computer to process and thus lessen what your main CPU is having to do.... I've yet to use it, but it was one of the things that made me think Logic is the way to go. It's sort of their response to having a separate processor entirely (Pro Tools HD) or adding another inside for effects (UAD cards, etc.). If you know you are going to be doing large mixdowns, then looking into buying something like a used Mac Mini could be a great solution for you. And you still can use your Macbook for mobile recording, possibly. You may be familiar with all this! I don't mean to offend, but s#!+, man, you didn't tell me many specifics to your situation, there, did you? Anyway, good luck, happy recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phrase Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Larry Mal ... Hi ... I'm doing the 'learning curve' with my MacBook-Pro 2.4GHZ/160G-HD @7200 with 4G's of Ram ... with FW 800 port to a 1000 G, G-Tech. external HD @7200... Larry when I create a new project and 'save as' ... to the external HD I did not know that the external drive could be used to actually do the real time digital recording. I thought that was restricted to the drive with LogicPro8 on it. The external HD just save the data. If you have the time could you educate me on this ... Thanks ... phrase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Mal Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Happy to help if I can- hopefully one of the real experts will pop up with some technical details you can feel more secure about. As I understand it, though, and what I do is when I start a new project and later hit record, it will prompt me as to where to record to. You can then pick whatever drive you like, I always use my second internal SATA drive, which is said to be the best solution. The next best is Firewire 800, which you have, next best after that is Firewire 400. USB 2.0 is a lowly best alternative to recording to the system drive, which won't kill the world or anything, and can still obviously be done for light use. The reason is simple: when a computer is looking for something on a hard drive and trying to write to it, well, even though a modern hard drive can go at 7200 RPM (10,000 in some cases, even better will be when flash memory like in the Mac Air really come into its own) it still physically taxes the system. And a slower drive, like in most laptops (not yours, though) will only be 5400 RPM, which is still slower. And as in most electronic things, slower is worse. It's worth remembering that Gigahertz refers to the amount of calculations a computer can make in a given time. I'm reaching the end of what I can talk about intelligently, but I hope this was of some help. Others will no doubt jump in with good thoughts as well- peace and love, L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phrase Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Larr Mal thanks for responding ... if I quote correctly your setup with more than one internal HD ... responds ... "when I start a new project and later hit record, it will prompt me as to where to record to ...". Your system configuration asks where to record to ... but on my MacBook the computer response is a dialog box entitled Save>Save as>Where>... Include Assets>Advanced Options. Maybe my config. only allows me to save to an external disk while the actual CPU works at compiling within the laptop. I don't know ... I would like to be asked where to record to at which point I would choose the external drive. ... Thanks for your help ... phrase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Mal Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Hey vato- I'm cloning my drive right now so it's a bad time to boot up Logic. But give me until tomorrow and I'll start a project and take a picture of where I decide what drive to go to. See you then, L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el-bo Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 phrase that save dialog on opening a project is the logic 8 way of directing your files if you chose a name, then navigate to an external drive in the 'where' box, your project including all audio,bounces, freeze files, and backups....the audio folder will be created immediately alongside the project..the other folders (bounce etc) will be created as and when you use them you can also include more assets within this folder...this is useful if you are gonna be working in another studio that doesn't have the same sample libraries as you, for example.....you can take the project file onto another 'puter and access your samples, if you include them......if, however you don't see this happening, you'd do better to save the space...you can always include other assets from the project later on, should you wish SO by doing the above, your internal drive will be free to keep logic running well, streaming samples, loading au's etc......and your external drive will be free to concentrate on just recording audio, allowing for a better constant transfer that's critical in recording one other thing to consider is the firewire bus issue though the macbook pro's have an fw 800 and 400 port....the speed defaults to the lowest common denominator if both are used at the same time.... SO...if you have just the fw800 drive plugged in, you will get fw800 speeds if you also have an interface plugged in to the fw400 port ( as is common), the speed of the fw800 will be 'down-stepped' to that of the fw400 one way to avoid this problem is to buy an expresscard fw adaptor...this gives a seperate firewire bus, allowing for both fw800 and fw400 to run at native speed for what it's worth, i have a lacie 7200 fw800 and a focusrite interface both working off the sme bus, and have yet to run into problems....as i start adding more audio tracks to projects, i will consider an expresscard interface also hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phrase Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Thanks Larry ... forum dialog is great ... I've strayed from the original message ... "Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:18 pm Post subject: producing at 96khz on a macbook,, possible? Im trying to work at 96/88khz because it sounds better to my ears. But with only 1 ultrabeat and a few light pluggies my cpu is totaly sucked dry. So somehow cpu load isnt twice as high with twice the sample rate,,, but disproportional high. Can anyone manage to produce music at 88/96 khz with acceptable cpu-load levels on a macbook (not pro)??? ... . ... I do not know because I'm working with the MacBookPro. What I was trying to answer was whether laptops actually record to an external HD ... and if so does that reduce the load on the CPU ... it may actually increase its work ... in wonderland I stand ... ? ... Larry thank you ! bye for now ... Phrase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Mal Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Here is the picture I promised you. You can see that it is prompting me to name the project and where it will write the information to. Notice that I have my Firewire drive on, it's only a bootable backup at this point, but I include it to show you what it would look like if you were to do it with your laptop. I record to the drive that I called Macintosh Drive 2- how's that for imagination. So this process will occur whenever you start recording audio, I have a file set up on my second internal drive and record to it, and then I always know where things are. And yes, this will help the process because Logic is possibly running software instruments, and running itself, and so you main disk is spinning with the calculations it's already making. It's easier to write to another drive than the one you are already using, if the drive is fast enough and the method of writing information to it is fast enough as well. Thus the hierarchy of internal SATA, which will be the fastest connection, and then 800 theoretical mbits/second, 400 mbits/second, and then USB 2.0, which claims a higher rate of data transfer than Firewire 400. This is understood to be not the case in real life, however, and will not be considered good enough for most audio professionals. This is why the Pro Tools LE systems are Firewire in the setups that are designed for more than a couple of inputs and USB in the Mboxes, which only have a couple of inputs. I forget about the Mbox 2 Pro. And this is also why the Mboxes cap out at 48 kHz of recording samples. We'll have to wait and see about USB 3.0 and what it will do. This all being said, I can't say that you're going to be able to get twenty tracks at 96 kHz with effects and all going into a laptop just because you have a Firewire drive, but it'll help. And so will the other steps that I added above. But there is a limit to what any laptop can do under even ideal circumstances. And I can't even tell you how it'll work, because I ain't even got no laptop. But there's the theory. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Mal Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Double posted again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phrase Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Thanks el-bo ... I did not see your post (10:21) , mine at (10:28) ... el-bo does the actual hard disk recording happen on the external HD ... I understand that the project stores all related files there . ... In my mind I'm trying to keep the creator ... LP8 & and the process of creating in / on one place ( for me the laptop's internal) ... I therefore can't really imagine the speeds involved in the digital process so I hang on to non-virtual images. ... I'm in for some mind stretching. ... Larry Mal ... also ... thanks again ... ! ... till later ... phrase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
el-bo Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 yes...the audio recording takes place on the external hard disk, if you save the project to the external when you create it remember..the initial 'save as' dialog gives you the option of saving to the external...do this and an audio folder is created within the project, and all audio is on the external drive....voila the project file resides there also...but once loaded, the internal drive controls the software side of things, leaving the external to concentrate solely on the audio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeAMP Posted February 28, 2008 Share Posted February 28, 2008 Im trying to work at 96/88khz because it sounds better to my ears. Are you a bat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob0172 Posted March 1, 2008 Author Share Posted March 1, 2008 are you def?? try it, youll hear the difference,, it will shock you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phrase Posted March 1, 2008 Share Posted March 1, 2008 Hi ... Larry Mal & el-bo ... I have just reread your posts and thanks for taking the time to share your acquired knowledge. ... Larry the theory can be applied over and over again. Also which screen-snap app. do you use? ... Your presentation is impressive. ... Mr. el-bo ... sir ... Your remarks concerning FW800 being compromised in laptops is pertinent. I have the Apogee Ensemble in the FW400 port so the Ext. HD capable of FW800 speed is compromised. I read Sound On Sound mag. and will check out their on-line reviews for an express-card adaptor. ... which focusrite interface are you using ? ... I will start to read The Control Room forum also, ... where these areas may be more suitably discussed. Such as best format for ext HD for audio recording is ... ( mine being MacOS Extended(Case-Sensitive,Journaled) ... on a lighter note ... I hope dat dah batman and dah defman can forgive dis knot in dah "96khz" debate , let harmony in diversity prevail... cheers ... phrase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malgfunk Posted March 1, 2008 Share Posted March 1, 2008 Hey, back in my Protools LE days I recorded a project at 96/24 and it sounded great even through a Digi 002. However, your ears must be able to distinguish the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeAMP Posted March 1, 2008 Share Posted March 1, 2008 OK, i was being funny about the bat joke, but seriously, what is our hearing range and what is the limitations of a CD? Unless you are maybe composing for a live orch, or a film score, what is the point? Please do not get into a virtual debate about this, as i, like you, am entitled to an opinion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.