optimizing Win9x with Logic Audio, etc

[John Cooper]

here's Emagic's canned reply how to minimize those pesky Asio overload errors. a lot of stuff in here is useful for non-logic users as well (general win9x tweaks).

-john

--
Here are some suggestions for setting up Logic in Windows.

First, make sure that you have the latest version of Logic installed which
is available at:

http://www.emagic.de/english/support/do ... pdate.html

1) Reduce the color depth on the system to 256 if you are using a PCI
video card. If your video card is AGP, then set the Color Depth no higher
than 16 bit.
2) In the System Properties>Performance>Graphics window, reduce the
"Hardware Acceleration" setting.
3) In the System Properties>Performance>File System window, set the
typical role of the computer to either "Desktop System" or "Network
Server" Also, set the 'Read Ahead Optimization" to "None".
4) If the problem persists, try switching from the current video driver
to the generic VGA driver provided by Windows. This will look awful, but
I'd like you to test the audio performance with this. If it improves,
then we will know that your video driver is the problem. You can then
check with the manufacturer about an updated driver, or perhaps some
hidden software switches to help.
5) Switch off "Auto Insert Notification" for your CD drive.
6) In the "System.ini" file, limit the swap file size by inserting the
following lines under [vcache]

MinFileCache=8192
MaxFileCache=8192

Another thing you can try is press ctrl/alt/del and end task everything
except Explorer and Systray.

Try trashing the Logic preferences file. Quit Logic. Go to your hard drive
and open the Windows folder. In here is a file called logic32.prf. Move
this file to the desktop. Open Logic. Once you are in Logic go to Audio
Hardware and Drivers and initialize the appropriate hardware. Logic will
automatically create a new, default preference file once you quit Logic.
Any key commands you have assigned will be gone. You can import key
commands from your old prefs file by choosing import key commands from the
options menu of the key commands window. Select the prefs file on your
desktop and click Open.

If you can't open Logic, try launching with the Alt key. To do this, launch
Logic and as soon as you release the mouse button, press and hold Alt. Say
no to any prompts to launch audio drivers.

If you are using an autoload song file then you should try opening an
untitled song. This is done through Logic. Go to the File menu. Press and
hold Ctrl and select New. See if the problem still occurs in the untitled
song.

You should check your device manager and disable any hardware you are not
using. You can also check you Win.ini by going to Start > Run > and type in
sysedit. Then, click on the Win.INI window. Scroll to the bottom and look
for the section that begins with [Logic]. Check all midi ins and outs and
change all midi ports that you are not using to =0 instead of =1.

If all else fails, you should probably backup any data you wish to save,
format the hard drive, reinstall Windows and then install Logic. If this
works then add your audio hardware and midi interface.

[subhuman]

John,

Nice post

The best way to avoid ASIO overflows is to not do anything else on your computer while playing back lots of audio tracks. Keep Logic in focus and avoid task switching, especially during playback.

I couldn't ever use my computer with less than 32 bit color, nor without hardware acceleration turned up (imagine how slow the CreamwareOSs would be THEN!) So although this may help discover the root of some people's problem, it isn't (for me) a long term solution.

Interestingly enough the vcache setting seems rather odd (I always avoid telling people to directly edit .INI files, so another way to change this is Winkey+Pause, Performance, Virtual Memory, Let me Specify), and I'm not sure how limiting it to only 8 megs would effect the rest of your computer! (see <a href=http://planetz.ghostwheel.com/phpBB/vie ... um=3&4>tip 1 here</a>).

But unfortunately doing a clean install of Windows and Pulsar/Logic etc sometimes seems to be the only cure, especially if you install horrible "OS corrupting" programs like ICQ, AOL etc.

Thanks for the tips.

[gdvine]

I think you are confused. The [vcache] setting is for the virtual <i>cache</i>, not virtual memory. This is a special setting which affects media streams from the hard drive, I believe.

[subhuman]

Yup, sometimes I'm wrong

However, since I'm mostly using WinME (heavily tweaked), this setting isn't so important. You do learn something new every day though, thanks for pointing this out, here's a link for further reading on the subject:

http://www.putergeek.com/vcache/index.shtml

[paulrmartin]

In the Optimising Win9x and Logic , this is one of the recommendations:

"6) In the "System.ini" file, limit the swap file size by inserting the following lines under [vcache]
MinFileCache=8192
MaxFileCache=8192"

In the Pulsar manual it says that if you have 128Mb of RAM I should put these values to 32768. I have 256 Mb of RAM so I put the value at 65536.
Is this wrong?
Paul

[subhuman]

You'll want to keep them smaller actually, so that Windows doesn't use too much of your RAM for this particular task.

The SWAP file, however, should be related to your RAM. See the "Swap File" link at the bottom of my Windows 2000/XP thread in Tips & Tricks for more info on the swap file (if you care).

[paulrmartin]

Of course I care.

[paulrmartin]

Ok, Sub. I set my Swap file to 512 as I have 256 Mb of RAM.
Please confirm that this is the correct setting.
Paul

[at0m]

Here's my definite RAM/CPU tuning tip:

Run 'sysmon', monitor your free ram for a while, during most different tasks.

Check how much resourses you use. If you have plenty of RAM left, you can raise:
-Cubase: max tracks, ram/track, cluster size. This can smoothen performance of Cubase handling audio a lot.
-Win: my vcache is 192MB. That is a buffer for my harddisks. So when I explore folders that I've already seen and that have not been changed, no disk read will be necessary. Much more will stay in the memory, less will be transferred.

Monitor both CPU and DSP power. Maybe you could use Cubase's EQ's instead of Pulsar's to save DSP power? Or the other way round?

It's quite interesting to do some performance monitoring, you will get a good idea of what's going on inside your computer

atomic.