Windows 7 DAW Optimizations?

[max290]

Greetings,

I would like to know if there are a set of specific services, and configurations that one should deactivate or tweak to get the most out of windows 7 for music production. I have experience doing this in XP but would like to know what people have found useful in the new OS.

Thanks,

Max290
_________________
:: cubase 5.1.1 ::
:: MOTU 828 MKIII :: Akai MPC 2000xl ::
:: CME MIDI Keyboard ::Korg NanoKONTROL ::
:: PYRO PCI 64R2 (64bit) FW Card:: various VSTs::

[sturgeon]

You could try these for starters;

http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm

s.
_________________
Cubase 5.1.1 (x86 and x 64), Intel i7 920 Asus P6T QPI 6.4GT/s 12 GB 1600 MHz Corsair Triple Channel RAM 2 x SATA300 HD, EMU 1616m PCIe. Zalman 600W Heatpipe PSU ATI 4350 Passive GPU. Opteron 180 (dual core) 2GB RAM 7200rpm system disk, 7200rpm audio/data disk. Both systems Win7 x 64 / XP SP3 multi boot.

[rnms]

I don't advocate farting about with the operating system much, people do all this tweaking and then come on here complaining that Cubase doesn't work and rant on about Steinberg being a bunch of c**ts, do this at your peril.
_________________
Core2 quad q660, 4gig ram,dual boot with 32 bit and 64 bit version of Windows 7 home premium .
P4 2.8 ghz, Gigabyte GA- 81E2004P, 1.5 gig ram,XP Home, SP3.
HP NX-6110 laptop with XP Home SP3, 1.5 gig ram.
MOTU 8Pre,Tascam FW-1804, EMU 12-12 m, Cubase studio 5.5.0, Sequel 2,Wavelab Essential 6

[aroma]

windows defender, windows backup and windows search. Saves you a load of CPU and clicks.

And also is straight forward to understand what they do and cubase doesnt use them 100%
_________________
Cubase 5.1.1 (32 bit), Intel Q6600, Gigabyte ep45-dq6/P45 chipset, 4 Gig DDR2/800/CL4, Nvidia 8400GS, Windows7 64bit, IDE/SATA(AHCI) drives, Steinberg MR816x(onboard TI firewire with w7 legacy driver), 2xUAD PCIe, 2xPoCo MKII, 1xFocusrite Liquid Mix.

[coachz]

[rnms]

[thrinithan]

[coachz]

[rnms]

[sturgeon]

[darrena]

There's a setting - can't recall where I found it - that has a slider where you can choose how far you want to optimize for performance versus appearance. I always pull it all the way to perf and it makes win7's ui look almost exactly like the old windows NT. I imagine there are other changes. Just feels like the 'right' choice even though I don't have any data to back it up.
_________________
[[da]
Core2Quad Q6600 2.40GHz, 6GB RAM, Win7 x64 C5.5.0 x64
Hardware: ProFire 2626; FastTrack Ultra
Software: Cubase 5, Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, NI Komplete 6, Sound Forge 10, bunch o' FX

[sturgeon]

[coachz]

thanks, i just set my nvidia geforce 9800 GT to
3d Settings / Adjust image settings with preview / use my preference emphasizing / performance
set physx configuration / disabled
_________________
my setup and tips

[coachz]

Besides disabling services per blackviper, here's a few of mine:

http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#control panel / sound and audio devices

playback Adat3(7+ set default (HDSP 9652 23 + 24)
recording spdif
sounds sound scheme, no sounds, uncheck play windows startup sound
communications do nothing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# set plugins location in Windows 7
\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VST
reset VSTPluginsPath to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\Cubase 5\VSTPlugins"

# Background Services
Processor scheduling should be set to background services and not Programs.
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings >
Advanced Tab > Background Services

# swap file
put on drive that is not os or audio writing drive like samples drive
set to 1.5x ram 4gb ram = 6.139 gb swap fixed size, not system managed.


# video for nvidia geforce 9800 gt
3d Settings / Adjust image settings with preview / use my preference emphasizing / performance
set physx configuration / disabled

# Visual Effects for best performance
Advanced tab: Press Settings tab under Performance Visual Effects tab: set to Adjust for Best Performance.
Special note: to maintain sync on my rme 9562 check:
Enable Desktop composition
Smooth edges of screen fonts (enable clear type)
Use visual styles on windows and buttons

# System protection
Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Advanced system settings ->
System Protection -> Protection Settings Configure -> Turn off System Protection (make backups)

# Remote Assistance
Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Advanced system settings ->
Remote - Disable Remote Assistence

# Disable audio drive write caching
Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Advanced system settings -> Hardware ->
Device Manager -> Select Audio Drive -> Right Click -> Properties -> Policies -> Disable Write Caching

# Indexing
Control Panel -> Performance Information and Tools -> Adjust Indexing Options ->
Modify -> click on bottom entries and deselect all checkboxes

# Power settings
Control Panel -> System and Security -> System -> Performance Information and Tools ->
Adjust power settings -> Change plan settings -> Set everything to Never (don't save power)
Change Advanced Power Settings and manually go through each one.

# Messages
Control Panel -> System and Security -> Action Center ->
Change Action Center Settings -> Turn off all messages

# Notifications
Control Panel -> System and Security -> Action Center ->
Change User Account Control Settings -> Never notify

# Disable unused hardware
Control Panel -> Hardware and Sond -> Device Manager ->
Disable all devices you don't use (ie. integrated SoundCards and such)

# Disable defrag schedule
Start -> type 'defrag' and select Disk Defragmenter -> Configure Schedule -> Deselect 'Run on a schedule'


# Disable Windows Defender
Click the “Start Orb” and type in defender into the text box.
Select Windows Defender from the items that appear in the window above.
Select Tools from the main Windows Defender screen. Select Options from the Settings section.
From the left navigation pane, select Administrator.
Now remove the check mark from the box labeled Use this program. Click the Save button in the bottom right corner.
Click Yes when prompted to make the change. And now Windows Defender is turned off
If you check the Services section of the Task Manager you’ll see that Windows Defender has been stopped.

#Disable Screen Saver
Click on the Screen Saver tab, Set Screensaver to None, Press the Power button near the bottom

#Disable Fast User Switching
run gpedit.msc
Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Logon
To Disable Fast User Switching:

Set Hide entry points for Fast User Switching to Enabled. By enabling the policy, Administrators can hide the Switch user button in the Logon UI, the Start menu and the Task Manager.
To Enable Fast User Switching:

Set Hide entry points for Fast User Switching to Not configured for enabling Fast User Switching.

#Disable Automatic Updates
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Windows Update\Change settings \ Never check for updates

#Disable Error Reporting
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced TAB > Error Reporting > Click the Disable Error Reporting box (Tick the "But Notify Me When Critical Errors Occur" if you prefer)


#Run Disk Cleanup
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Performance Information and Tools \ Open disk cleanup

#Disable offline files
Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Sync Center \ Manage offline files \ disable

#Disable Autoplay
* Type gpedit.msc in the Start Search box and then press ENTER to open the Group Policy Editor.
* Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components > click Autoplay Policies.
* In the RHS Details pane, double-click Turn off Autoplay to open the Properties box.
* Click Enabled, and then select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay on box to disable Autorun on all drives.
* Restart.

#Disable Disc Indexing
Indexing Service is a service that extracts the information from a set of documents and organizes it in a way that makes it quick and easy to access that information through the Windows XP Search function, the Indexing Service query form, or a Web browser.

* Open My Computer. Right-click your hard drive icon and select Properties.
* At the bottom of the window you'll see "Allow indexing service to index this disk for faster searches"
uncheck this and click ok. A new window will pop up and select Apply to all folders and subfolders.

#Disable background applications - Background applications start up when your computer starts up and can use up unneccesary resources. To prevent these from starting up go to Start » Run and type "msconfig" in the run box. Click on the "startup tab" and disable (uncheck) programs such as "taskmon", "load power profile", "real player", "office startup", "winamp agent" and so on. Keep programs like "scan registry", "system tray" and programs relating to interfacing with your audio card (such as console software to control its features).


#Switch Off Desktop Background Image ( i use a background anyways and don't turn it off )
Right Click Desktop > Properties > Desktop Tab > Background None

#Disable Remote Desktop (I enable this for my convenience)
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Remote > Untick "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer"

#Disable Internet Synchronise Time (it updates once a week or so, so i leave it on)
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Date and Time > Internet Time > Untick "Automatically synchronize with an internet time server"
_________________
my setup and tips

[coachz]

looks like i have a problem http://img85.imageshack.us/i/41230024.png/
_________________
my setup and tips

[darrena]

Ok, I don't know anything about defrred process calls. but I didn't even run the tool because my system runs great. Not a glitch. I wouldn't read too much into these sorts of things unless you are hearing real issues when you're in Cubase.

I recall reading something in the NY Times magazine... a teaching doctor was taking a bunch of residents on rounds and asked the group "can you define a perfectly healthy patient?" One of the residents raised his hand and said "that would be a paitient that hasn't been completely worked up."
_________________
[[da]
Core2Quad Q6600 2.40GHz, 6GB RAM, Win7 x64 C5.5.0 x64
Hardware: ProFire 2626; FastTrack Ultra
Software: Cubase 5, Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, NI Komplete 6, Sound Forge 10, bunch o' FX

[coachz]

hahaha I have a lot of glitches but it appears that it is the nvidia driver, using just the windows 7 9800 gt driver doesn't display any spikes. Still testing but this could be a simple fix.
_________________
my setup and tips

[sturgeon]

I had even worse trouble with an nvidia driver. Downloaded and installed the latest - result - Cubase locked up solid every time I tried to quit! Reverted to the standard W7 version and problems resolved (?) Have read that W7 and nvidia drivers can be difficult to match. Makes me wonder if there is a pci latency issue somewhere. (ATI Radeon GPU worth a go?)

Feels like I've stepped back 10 years or so. The last thing I expected from a new OS was graphics related audio glitches!

Maybe a new PC is the answer, although there seem to be plenty of i7 users with problems out there!
_________________
Cubase 5.1.1 (x86 and x 64), Intel i7 920 Asus P6T QPI 6.4GT/s 12 GB 1600 MHz Corsair Triple Channel RAM 2 x SATA300 HD, EMU 1616m PCIe. Zalman 600W Heatpipe PSU ATI 4350 Passive GPU. Opteron 180 (dual core) 2GB RAM 7200rpm system disk, 7200rpm audio/data disk. Both systems Win7 x 64 / XP SP3 multi boot.

[coachz]

you are right. the last thing i expected was video problems, what crap out there and we are all beta testing it. lets make some music finally !
_________________
my setup and tips

[darrena]

Heh, ok I broke down and ran the DPC latency checker and everything looks fine all green and very low latency, which i guess undermines my "if it ain't broke, don't look for something that's broke" post later.
_________________
[[da]
Core2Quad Q6600 2.40GHz, 6GB RAM, Win7 x64 C5.5.0 x64
Hardware: ProFire 2626; FastTrack Ultra
Software: Cubase 5, Omnisphere, Stylus RMX, NI Komplete 6, Sound Forge 10, bunch o' FX

[Tp3]

"Optimizations" is a thing of the past.

The thing is - you have a weak system (P4). period.

I have done countless of optimizations and at this point all I can say is :

"Don't touch anything" (almost - I'll outline it in a moment)

Modern computers (2.5 years ago till today) are FAR too powerful for the AVERAGE producer (and I'm not talking about CPU crunching tasks but AVERAGE ones).

As such, there's NO NEED for "Optimizations" and in some cases they can HARM for then benefit you. why ? because DAW and plugins developers write code
for DEFAULT windows systems. when you go and modify your system behavior, it CAN interfere with DAW and plugin behavior. I say CAN because everything CAN
run smoothly. but also can NOT. do you what to take the chance ?

As far as services go, Martin Walker (from Sound on Sound magazine) have gone to the trouble of checking this somewhat of a "myth".
He found that on his system, there were NO processing gain and only a MARGINAL memory footprint (=smaller). against this you endanger yourself with a system
that MIGHT behave improperly and MIGHT process things the "wrong" way.

The ONLY "Optimizations" I'd do (and DID) are basic stuff from Music-XP site (now payware was free ). background tasks...disabling printers... and so forth...

Buy yourself an i7 (or even an i5) and you wont ever bother yourself again with this "Optimizations" rubbish...
_________________
Intel Q9550 C2Q 2.83Ghz ; Zalman 9500A ; Asus P5B Deluxe ; Nvidia 9600 GSO 512mb ; 4GB Corsair DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15 ( 18 ) ; WinXP Home SP3 ; RME HDSP 9632 (w latest driver) ; Dell 2407 (1920x1200) + Samsung 971P (1280x1024)

[rnms]

I wonder what optimizations the Steinberg developers use when programming this software, I'll have a guess at none, I agree with Tp3
_________________
Core2 quad q660, 4gig ram,dual boot with 32 bit and 64 bit version of Windows 7 home premium .
P4 2.8 ghz, Gigabyte GA- 81E2004P, 1.5 gig ram,XP Home, SP3.
HP NX-6110 laptop with XP Home SP3, 1.5 gig ram.
MOTU 8Pre,Tascam FW-1804, EMU 12-12 m, Cubase studio 5.5.0, Sequel 2,Wavelab Essential 6

[S-EH]

even Background Processing isn't needed with ASIO drivers
and multicore processors I belive most are this day's

regards S-EH
_________________
PC & Mac, WaveLab 6.1.1, Cubase 5.5.0, 4.5.2, RME Fireface 800, Digi 96/8 PAD, UAD-1, Plextor Premium, PX-810 SA and Sony DRU-500A etc

[sturgeon]

Ok Tp3, so how do you explain this,

I have a new i7-920 PC with plenty of ram and Camtasia studio. When I capture audio along with my video, all is fine until I do anything that is tasking the CPU at all (I have 8 cores so speed is not an issue), then the audio pops and cracks at the beginning of most words. If I just capture without doing anything on the screen, perfect audio.

which is a sample quote (just a random sample from the thousands of audio related problems on i7/W7 systems that can be found when you Google the topic) from an AV forum. I got 2,230,000 results when I searched, so I'm not alone in this.

The point of optimisation is to make things work on your specific system. Unless you have an Identical system to that which the coder used to create Cubase, you are sooner or later likely to run into a driver issue. In my case a few graphic oriented tweaks and a change of graphics card driver transformed my W7 partition. My XP partition will run day and night at 24/96 in 5.1 surround, without glitches. AMD Opterons are server processors - designed to handle heavy loads for long periods of time. While an i7 system would be nice (and may well be my next upgrade) my current system is now capable of running W7 x64 and Cubase 5.1.1 x64 without audio glitches, solely due to my optimisations.

Thanks for your concern.
_________________
Cubase 5.1.1 (x86 and x 64), Intel i7 920 Asus P6T QPI 6.4GT/s 12 GB 1600 MHz Corsair Triple Channel RAM 2 x SATA300 HD, EMU 1616m PCIe. Zalman 600W Heatpipe PSU ATI 4350 Passive GPU. Opteron 180 (dual core) 2GB RAM 7200rpm system disk, 7200rpm audio/data disk. Both systems Win7 x 64 / XP SP3 multi boot.

[rnms]

If you are using the standard Win 7 video driver you haven't made any optimizations, you are using the operating system as it is designed.
_________________
Core2 quad q660, 4gig ram,dual boot with 32 bit and 64 bit version of Windows 7 home premium .
P4 2.8 ghz, Gigabyte GA- 81E2004P, 1.5 gig ram,XP Home, SP3.
HP NX-6110 laptop with XP Home SP3, 1.5 gig ram.
MOTU 8Pre,Tascam FW-1804, EMU 12-12 m, Cubase studio 5.5.0, Sequel 2,Wavelab Essential 6

[coachz]

while i hope that Windows 7 is much better in terms of not needing optimizations, there are some fundamental things that appear legitimate for optimizing.

Some that make sense to me are turning off things that run on schedules, pop messages and notifications, having a fixed swap file size so windows is not spending time resizing it or managing it, disabling write caching on audio streaming drives, disabling indexing, disabling windows defender since i already have anti-virus/spyware software and turning off memory hungry startup apps like adobe speed acccelerator.

Things like that do take resources and every little bit counts. I think we have many OS versions to go before we can say our computers are so powerful that they don't need them. Plus apps just seem to get bigger with each faster computer.

Just load up 30 hi powered vsts and a dozen vstis with 50 tracks and most pcs will fall to their knees. Tools like DPC are critical to really show what is going on in the background. I hope more benchmarking / monitoring tools come out that reveal weaknesses and real loads on my system so I can know exactly how much computer i need and which things I need to upgrade like ram. It would be cool if they could also benchmark the apps to show how much fatter each version is getting. You start out with Microsoft Word 1.0 and by the time you get to Word 2007 its 50 times bigger.
_________________
my setup and tips

[wizardofice]

I just stay away from using any other programs like Word, adobe and any antivirus on my machine. I use only Cubase and a few assorted other programs with the VST and VSTi's I want. I use my office computer to read manuals or to download anything.

I did find that turning off any automatic maintenance apps and disabling the modem and any network rescources does help. As it is my system is running as well as I could ask for

Although If I had 50 tracks, a dozen VSTi's and 30 vst plugs, I would likely have a nervous breakdown trying to mix it all. My computer could likely handle most of it but I couldn't!
_________________
Custom PC with Asus MB M3A78-CM, AMD Quad 4 940 3.1Ghz, 8 G ram, 4 HDs at 750 G each, win 7, Win Vista 64 home, and Win XP home, dual monitors, Cubase 5.5, Wavelab essentials 6, Soundforge 9, CD Archetect, Ozone 4, Melodyne Plugin, Autotune evo, AVOX, Addictive Drums, HSO, Outer Limits, Vocaloid Miriam, T-racks, Amplitube 3, Sampletank 2, Focusrite Saphire pro 40, IK multimedia ARC, Frontier Alphatrack, KRK monitors, Bigknob, Emu PK6, Microkorg, Aphex C2, DBX 166, Voicetone correct, voicetone double, voicetone create, Digitech RP500, POD, 100 miles of cables and a room full of guitars.

[s_j_e]

[rgrafend]

Hi there,
apparently there are a number of really experienced guys in here. Would be great if you could have a quick look at this issue I am facing, and perhaps you have some ideas. Any
help would be highly appreciated!

My production PC is not the newest, but a fairly powerful system. Tyan S2895 mobo, 2x Opteron 285 (i.e. 4 cores), 4GB, 1x74GB RAID1, 1x400GB RAID1, both SATA3,
Firewire cards on PCIe and PCI-X, ATI X1600 graphics, Fireface 800 at PCIe, TC Connect 24D at PCI-X

- a week ago my perfectly working XP-PRO setup went belly up after doing a driver update for the X1600 (was working fine for some 3 years without a change; yes, I was stupid);
just refused to boot after the update
- I could not find the XP original disc anymore; but after I read lots of positive news about W7 I bought a W7-PRO license and did a clean install
- installed both CB5 x86 and x64
- reinstalled all of my plugins to use with CB5 x85 (took me a full day)
- all went fine, all started OK, until I loaded the first project; some 35 tracks at 96/32; 4 MIDIs (which btw NEVER went above 25% CPU load and some 50% ASIO load under XP, even at 5ms latency)
- the same project, same plugins, same latency gets to around 30% on my MacBook Pro; easy

I got extreme glitches, even holdups and could literally see in the transport panel how CB has hiccups. Runs for some 2-3 beats, stops, runs another few beats, stops again.

I started to go through the whole procedure. Even swapped my grahpics card to a newer one. No chance. Updated all drivers, read many, many forum entries, including this one.
So I also made all the tweaks as suggested by coachz. No change.

So I finally started to analyze with DPC and found something really interesting. The overall latency is just perfect, always stays below 10uS. Until Cubase starts to access the RAID group with the sample files
(i.e. pressing play).

And then all goes "red". Latencies jump to more then 6000 (!!!) uS, i,e, 60mS. This only happens with Cubase. I tested moving huge project dirs (> 20GB) between both RAID groups, never goes above 500uS (which is bad enough). So the *klonk* really hits the fan only when running Cubase. Asio performance btw always stays well below 50%.

Any ideas? Sorry for the long story.

Cheers! r


here are some pics of the DPC snapshots.
http://gallery.me.com/rgrafend#100045

[savadious]